A Sufi Went to War

In A Sufi Went to War, Shamcher Beorse outlines an extensive wartime experience that encompasses land, sea, and air. As a Sufi, Shamcher faced it all head on. He threw himself fully and wholeheartedly into the cause, whatever the risks may have been, following and relying upon his intuition and love of humanity to help create a better world for the future.

"I was 44 when World War II started, considered too old to fight. I had to browbeat my way into the armed forces. In time, with British Intelligence and escaped German officers, we made detailed plans for kidnapping Hitler and ending the war early in 1944. The British were delighted. Franklin Roosevelt, at a safer distance from the front, turned us down, "The Germans must be beaten so they know it." If we, assigned to this mission, who had thus put our lives on the line, may be permitted a word, it is this: There are times when the horrors of war must be accepted to prevent greater horrors."

Shamcher Bryn Beorse (1896-1980) was the author of many non-fiction books, novels and articles, covering topics of energy, economics, full employment, and global awareness as well as yoga and Sufism. Born in Norway, he worked and travelled in over 65 countries in his lifetime, and he eventually settled in the United States. Fluent in several languages, his comprehensive worldview included the inner meditative life as well as the accomplishment of life in the world.
Sent on a UN economic mission to Tunisia in the 1960's, he helped rebuild the Norwegian economy after WWII. Beorse also spent time in exploration, travelling to the Kumbha Mela in India, living as a beach bum in the dunes of Oceano, and going to China at the time of the revolution. A spy in WWII, he was part of the plot to kidnap Hitler. An advocate of the giro-credit economic system, he often spoke out against the stagnation of hierarchical organization.
An accomplished yogi and Sufi, Shamcher was instrumental in developing Sufi centers throughout the world, in the tradition of Inayat Khan. He devoted the last years of his life once again to promoting OTEC, Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, the source of benign solar power from the sea.