Murshid:

a personal memoir of life

with American Sufi Samuel L. Lewis

by Mansur Johnson

Otis B. Johnson was a young college professor of English in the 1960s when he joined the exodus of hippies to California to meet someone his friend said could take them where they wanted to go the fastest.

Where did they want to go? – They wanted to meet the divinity, obtain God-consciousness, get enlightened, find love, experience samadhi, in short– they didn’t know for sure.

What happened? – Otis B. Johnson became Mansur Johnson during a three year encounter with the world’s first Guru-Roshi-Murshid, Samuel L. Lewis.
Murshid shows in intimate detail how Samuel L. Lewis, the first Western-born Sufi teacher, Zen master, and practitioner of Indian cosmic metaphysics, accomplished his life’s purpose.

Illustrated with many previously unpublished photos of Murshid Samuel Lewis and his early students.

“Dear Reader: Prepare for a unique adventure of spiritual discovery and transformation…. you have before you a wild, bucking-bronco of a ride. Hold on!”
–from the foreward by Neil Douglas-Klotz, author of
The Sufi Book of Life and The Tent of Abraham

“Everytime I remember Sam, I end up laughing at myself. That’s pretty good work for a dead rascal-saint.”
–Ram Dass, author of Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing and Dying

“I have no fonder memory of the 60’s than the appearance of this strange-looking man, who said things that made me first laugh, then smile, then later pause in appreciation of a spiritual original, a pioneer.”
–Dr. Jacob Needleman, author of The Wisdom of Love and The American Soul

PeaceWorks Publications, 506 pages,

ISBN 0-915424-16-9 (paperback) $25

Publication date: October 18, 2006