Led by his innate drive to understand the truth of reality, A.H. Almaas (pen name of Hameed Ali) pursued the academic study of science through the graduate level. He completed his master’s degree in physics, but in working on his dissertation, he would often fall asleep. As doctoral students can attest, falling asleep while writing is not uncommon; for Almaas, however, it revealed his true calling, catalyzed by some significant spiritual experiences, to explore existence not through the theoretical or distant observation and experimentation of science but through inquiring into immediate personal experience.

Combining psychological theory – seminal works on object relations theory, self-psychology, and depth psychology – with a Socratic method of inquiry, Almaas began to explore the human mind with intellectual rigor, systemically studying his consciousness. Almaas delved deeply into spiritual texts and mystical literature, as well as receiving a doctorate in psychology.

As scholars and researchers know, theory can provide us with insight, but experiments allow us to test the validity of our knowledge. Guided by his spiritual experiences and his nuanced method of inquiry into consciousness and the human condition, Almaas began teaching small groups and workshops. These initial teachings lead to the development of the Diamond Approach path (https://www.diamondapproach.org/), a contemporary spiritual teaching which integrates ancient wisdom and directly accessed new spiritual insights with modern psychological knowledge.