John Herlihy

John Herlihy was born into an Irish-American family in Boston, Massachusetts. Herlihy completed studies at a Paulist seminary, but more recently worked as a lecturer in English in several Near and Far Eastern countries. He currently works in Abu Dhabi at the University of Science, Technology and Research as a special advisor to the President.

In the early 1970s, Herlihy made the acquaintance of a Kashmiri Indian whom he now fondly remembers as “the laughing Sufi.” In his book The Seeker and the Way, Herlihy explains that his conversion was a raw and unexpected awakening that pulled him back from the abyss and set for him a new direction in coming to terms with the purpose and meaning of his life. Twenty years after his conversion and with a life-long interest in writing, he began to explore through words the complex nature of his relationship with this and the “other” world. In addition to writing for such traditional journals as Sacred Web and Sophia, his publications include In Search of the Truth, Veils and Keys to Enlightenment, Modern Man at the Crossroads, and Near and Distant Horizons, all of which reflect upon the disparity between modernity and tradition and the pursuit of spirituality in today’s anti-spiritual world.

John Ahmed Herlihy has written two books for World Wisdom: Borderlands of the Spirit: Reflections on a Sacred Science of Mind and Wisdom’s Journey: Living the Spirit of Islam in the Modern World. Mr Herlihy is also the editor of The Essential René Guénon: Metaphysics, Tradition and the Crisis of Modernity.