Idries Shah lived for many years at Langton House in the English county of Kent, where he was Director of Studies at The Institute for Cultural Research. On most weekends he would host a dinner in a stone stable building there named by him ‘The Elephant’.

These gatherings brought together a remarkable range of guests: novelists, diplomats, scientists, actors, artists, and students of Shah’s own work. Equal parts social occasion and informal seminar, their discussions ranged from the humorous to the deeply philosophical.

Shah’s discourses at The Elephant were unlike any conventional talk or lecture. He rarely began with a grand pronouncement.

Instead, conversation would drift until, quite suddenly, he would tell a short story – perhaps a Nasrudin anecdote, a slice of court intrigue from the Mughal emperors, or a strange encounter from his own life or travels. The tale might seem lighthearted, even irrelevant, until, over the next half hour, its deeper point would begin to emerge through the responses, jokes, and arguments it provoked.

Sometimes Shah would use humour to defuse an overly earnest discussion, or turn a sharp question into an opportunity for the group to explore their own assumptions. At other times, he would lead the conversation into an unexpected alley – a curious historical fact, a paradox, an apparent non-sequitur – then quietly watch as the guests made connections for themselves.

Shah believed that certain ideas could only be absorbed in the right conditions – not through formal teaching, but through lived experience, shared company, and a certain mental looseness.

The Elephant was his laboratory for this.

In the months and years that follow, we shall take inspiration from the evenings at The Elephant, bringing together certain people to reflect on certain topics and themes – in a way that Shah himself did during his life.