Tony Mantor: Why Not Me ?
Salima Adelstein: Awakening Hearts: Education with Love and Healing
28 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to Why Not Me? Embracing Autism and Mental Health Worldwide. Hosted by Tony Mantor. Broadcasting from the heart of Music City, USA, Nashville, Tennessee. Join us as our guests share their raw, howlful stories. Some will spark laughter, others will move you to tears. These real life journeys inspire, connect, and remind you that you're never alone.
We're igniting a global movement to empower everyone to make a lasting difference by fostering deep awareness, unwavering acceptance, and profound understanding of autism and mental health. Tune in, be inspired, and join us in transforming the world one story at a time. Hi, I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to Why Not Me? Embracing Autism and Mental Health Worldwide.
Joining us today is Salima Adelstein, a renowned Sufi mystic, master healer, and spiritual guide whose life's work centers on illuminating the divine essence within every individual. She has dedicated over 35 years to mentoring seekers on their path to spiritual awakening, purification, and embodiment of God's love.
As co-president and academic dean of the University of Spiritual Healing and Sufism, She shapes transformative programs in spiritual healing and ministry. She founded the Farm of Peace, a Sufi retreat center fostering inner peace and connection. She's a co-author of A Drop in the Ocean of Love. She teaches globally, blending ancient Sufi wisdom.
with modern spirituality to inspire authentic, heart-centered living. She has a great journey to share with us today. So before we dive into our episode, we'll be back with an uninterrupted show right after a word from our sponsors. Thanks for joining us today.
Oh, thank you so much. It's really an honor. Thank you for doing this. You have a beautiful service that you're offering. Appreciate what you're doing.
Oh, thanks for your kind words. It's my pleasure to have you on. If you would, give us a little information on how you started doing what you do today.
I was an energy healer before I got involved in Sufi spiritual healing. Before that, I was actually a special needs teacher and also working in a children's hospice program. So most of my life, I've been involved in a service profession, helping people find out sort of the truth of who they are and the beauty that they carry inside.
I got involved in Sufism because I was continuing to search for how can we continue to help more people understand the beauty of who they are and the truth of their being and bring out their innate strengths and what makes them unique and beautiful and give their talents a chance to shine in the world.
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Chapter 2: Who is Salima Adelstein and what is her background?
I worked with a group of people to start what is now known as the federal law, Chapter 766, so that the children wouldn't have that kind of stigma attached and their parents wouldn't feel like, oh my God, what did I do so wrong that my child has to have this kind of stamp on them in order to just get a good education? Our students have gone on to college and
You know, I met one of them, when was it, about three or four years ago. And she just said to me, I can't believe I found you again. You made such a difference in my life. I'm married now. I have kids. I've got a good job. I love life.
Yes, that's an awesome testimony to what you've done within that school system. Are the majority of the people that you work with autistic? Or is it a variety of those with special needs?
It's all of it, yeah. It's not limited in that way, especially now at the university. You know, we have employees, for example, at our university who are on that autism spectrum. We have students who are on that. We have some students that have different kinds of mental illness. So it's really not pigeonholed in that way.
That totally makes sense. Where are you located now?
Because of COVID, we are now online. So we are global. We have students at the University of Sufism and Spiritual Healing that are from as far away as Australia. They sometimes stay up till 3 a.m. in the morning because of the time chain. But we really have students all over the world now who attend our programs.
Wow, that's great. Do you do the classes live or are they taped and then people can just look at them and go through them at their convenience?
So we do do it live three times a year for five to six days, depending on the program. We have shorter programs that meet over the weekend, and those programs are live, and then they get a recording that they can listen to again. They also get support from the other teachers in between the time periods that we have the classes at the university.
Students can come and get a master's degree if they wish, if they stay with the program for four years, or they can just take it because they have a desire to learn. For example, we offer a course in living and dying in dignity for someone who might want to work in hospice or might want to help be a birth doula. One of my students is now a birth doula, you know, helping to
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Chapter 3: What challenges does Salima face in alternative education?
So in this video series, we're teaching people how to move beyond that to find that inner truth.
Yeah, those are good words. And they have a lot of great meaning behind them.
There's a cute story I can tell you that I was sharing with somebody else earlier today.
Okay.
There's a story of the river fish and the ocean fish, the sea fish. The sea fish, bright colors, beautiful colors. And he meets the river fish, who kind of is brownish, sort of dull color fish. And the river fish looks at the sea fish and it is a little bit envious and jealous of the bright colors and how beautiful he looks.
Ocean fish says to the river fish, oh come, come into my world and I'll show you my world and all the beauty in my world and you'll get to see all the wonders of this world. So the river fish says, oh yes, I would love that and starts to follow the ocean fish towards the ocean. And as he gets closer to the ocean, what he notices is his gills start to get tight. He's having difficulty.
He feels himself starting to fade away. And the ocean fish realized, oh, the river fish, his home is in the river. That's where he thrives. It's not for him to be like me. That's what we're talking about when I talk about finding the inner truth. And when you do, it makes your outer world easier to manage.
Yeah, that's a great story. And it's got a great meaning behind it.
I used to meditate. And when I meditated, my world was beautiful when I meditated and closed my eyes. And then, like you said, I had to go out into the world and it wasn't such a great place.
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Chapter 4: How does Sufism integrate with spiritual healing?
They can contact me through the Sufi University and it's www.sufiu.org, S-U-F-I-U.org. We also have a link I'll share with you, Tony. It's a free offering of the five C's of inner truth. And you can take that on your own time whenever you have a chance. Listen to the videos. My two colleagues are on there as well.
And then do the workbook, then the exercises, and then we'll take you on the journey with us.
Yeah, that sounds great. In closing, is there anything you would like to tell people that you really think is very important that they hear and understand about what you're doing?
Sometimes when we're able to look at the world through different eyes, what can appear as difficult and as awful, we can sometimes see beyond and to see that it's helping us build something within us that's important for our own growth and our own development. and to help us create not only the best life for ourselves but make us even better people.
And the more that we can understand each other, the more we can get along with each other, the more that we can be more compassionate towards each other, the better world we'll be helping to create.
Yeah, that's true. No doubt about that. This world needs all the help that it can get right now.
You got it.
Absolutely. Well, this has been great. Great information. Great conversation. I've really enjoyed this. I really appreciate you taking the time to join us today.
I appreciate you having me on your show and look forward to sharing more with your audience as they get to experience the five C's of inner truth. Thank you so much.
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