Mahmoud K. Muftić

Postwar years, 1945–1947 According to his apparent autobiography, Muftić worked at the Institute of Hygiene in Zagreb between 1945 and 1947. Ian Johnson wrote that Muftić also had ties to Amin al-Husseini. a medical doctor and anaesthesiologist from a prominent Egyptian family with an interest in hypnosis. They co-authored two articles on hypnosis: The article "Hypnosis in the psychosomatic investigation of female homosexuality" in the British Journal of Medical Hypnotism in 1957, and the article "A new induction method: electrohypnosis" in the Journal of the American Society of Psychosomatic Dentistry & Medicine in 1969. She also published in the Journal of the American Institute of Hypnosis after his death. Isaad Atia was already a doctor when the 1957 article was published; a 1973 article listed her credentials as "M.B., B.Ch., D.A." (that is, a medical doctor with a Diploma in Anaesthesia).

What happened afterward is not entirely clear, but Muftić appears to have left Schering toward the end of the 1960s, after surviving an earlier assassination attempt by Yugoslav agents in 1963, conflicts within the Muslim Brotherhood and Croatian National Resistance in the mid-1960s, and becoming the target of what has been described as a honey trap, as discussed below. while Mišur noted his contact with Bosniaks gathered around Juraj Krnjević in London.

Research

Muftić’s scientific work spanned mainstream biomedical research as well as more speculative fields. Between the early 1950s and 1970s, he published extensively on enzymology, immunopathological processes, and disease mechanisms, particularly in relation to tuberculosis, fungal infections, and drug development. and developing biochemical assays to characterize fungal and bacterial enzymes, including catalases, peptidases, and amidases. He contributed to efforts to refine microbial taxonomy through enzyme profiling, part of a broader scientific shift from morphology-based to biochemical and molecular identification. His author abbreviation in botany is "Muftic."

In the 1960s, Muftić increasingly focused on drug discovery, working on antimicrobial and antiparasitic compounds, including nitrofuran derivatives, polyenes, and abietyl-based agents. He co-authored multiple patents targeting novel treatments for tuberculosis, fungal infections, and schistosomiasis. His work reflected the Cold War-era boom in natural product chemistry and pharmaceutical innovation.

Hypnosis, metaphysics, and parapsychology Muftić maintained a sustained interest in hypnosis, psychosomatic medicine, and metaphysical phenomena. After Muftić’s death, Bryan republished some of his earlier articles on Islamic theology in his hypnosis journal, such as "The Qur'an on the Cause of the Fall of Man," originally published in The Islamic Review in 1969.

In 1957, Muftić and his wife Isaad M. Atia co-authored "Hypnosis in the psychosomatic investigation of female homosexuality," which explored how hypnotic suggestion could be used to uncover sexual tendencies, both homosexual and heterosexual, through fictional contact scenarios. They specifically studied Muslim women who were homosexual, trying to understand their sexual orientation and how it might relate to societal roles these women play. Their findings pointed to the idea that secondary social roles in their communities may influence or correlate with their sexual orientation.

In 1959, as part of his more speculative explorations, Muftić published "A Contribution to the Psychokinetic Theory of Hypnotism" in the British Journal of Medical Hypnotism, where he proposed that hypnotic phenomena might originate from psychokinetic interactions, challenging conventional psychological models. In correspondence with AMORC (Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis), Muftić described these ideas as a major departure from established theories, attributing his new perspective to his engagement with Rosicrucian studies. While living in Egypt, Muftić had become a member of AMORC’s Cairo Chapter, reflecting his developing interest in Rosicrucianism and metaphysical studies. He believed a chemical, "substance M," might be responsible, comparing its effects to mescaline intoxication and acute schizophrenia. At the time, informed consent was not yet a widely enforced standard, especially outside Western countries; Muftić noted that his patients "had no idea of the research concerned." The article also includes one of the few known photographs of Muftić, using a W-bridge oscillograph according to a modified GSR measurement method he had developed.

In 1969, Muftić and Atia introduced the concept of "electrohypnosis", a technique combining electrical stimulation with hypnotic induction, which they argued achieved deeper hypnotic states.

In his 1971 article, "Influence of subcutaneous application of trans-3-methyl-2-hexanoic acid on induction of hypnosis," Muftić explored the potential hypnotic effects of this compound. This study aligns with his earlier work at Schering AG with colleagues Kutzsche and Peissker, where he co-developed a patent for carboxylic acid esters exhibiting both antifungal and tranquilizing properties. His continued interest in the central nervous system (CNS) activity of such compounds reflects a broader scientific trend during the mid-20th century, where researchers investigated the sedative and hypnotic potential of carboxylic acid derivatives. For instance, studies have demonstrated that certain carboxylic acid metabolites can modulate GABAA receptor activity, leading to hypnotic effects.

Muftić also pursued metaphysical research on human energy fields. During the 1950s, Muftić came into contact with the British Society of Metaphysicians and its self-described founder-president, John Williamson, joining the Society and participating in its research into parapsychological phenomena. As a young man during World War II, Williamson had served as a radio instructor in the RAF, where the dangers of air warfare and the marvels of new technologies like radio and radar helped spark his lifelong curiosity about invisible forces. During the 1950s, Williamson began exploring human energy fields, building on earlier ideas first proposed by Walter John Kilner. With support from Williamson and the Society’s Metaphysical Research Group, Muftić undertook experimental research aimed at detecting the human aura electronically. Using a custom-built device called an "optron," which combined a semiconductor with an electroluminescent panel, he reported a series of successful experiments that sought to make the aura visible through technological means. His findings were seen within the Society as a major step toward substantiating earlier work by Kilner and others, and they culminated in his 1960/1961 publication Researches on the Aura Phenomena. A second edition was published in 1970, and the book was republished in 1998. Williamson mentions that Muftić had provided data in his own 1954/1957 publication Seeing the Aura, referring to Muftić as "M.S.M.(P.)," which likely stands for "Member of the Society of Metaphysicians (Practitioner)."

His interest in hypnosis and metaphysical topics reflected mid-20th century openness to unconventional research. From the early Cold War period, hypnosis and other paranormal phenomena were studied by researchers under programs funded or supported by government agencies, often linked to psychological warfare and intelligence objectives.

Cold War shadow politics

Muftić’s political engagement unfolded in the margins of Cold War geopolitics, where pan-Islamist, nationalist, and anti-communist movements frequently intersected. Active in both the Muslim Brotherhood’s international networks and Croatian émigré circles, he worked to connect Islamic and nationalist causes through shared opposition to Yugoslavia and the Soviet bloc. His most audacious initiative, known as Operation Orient, aimed to secure Arab League recognition for a future Islamic Croatia led by the Croatian National Resistance (HNO) through a campaign of guerrilla diplomacy across the Middle East. The project exemplified Muftić’s broader approach: forming unconventional alliances across ideological lines in pursuit of revolutionary goals. What followed was a whirlwind of revolutionary maneuvering, secret negotiations, espionage scandals, and ideological betrayal that left Muftić increasingly isolated. Muftić was also involved with the Deutsche Muslim-Liga in West Germany. rising to General Secretary according to Branimir Jelić. By the early 1960s, the HNO was in negotiation with five or six Arab states, confirmed among them were Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Yemen. Vjekoslav Luburić described the alliance's purpose as creating interest in the Croatian cause "among the 400 million Muslims in the world," believing that armed liberation at home required first building an "outer front of resistance in the world."

The plan fell apart in mid-1964. Luburić, infuriated at the demand to step down, accused Muftić of being a British "spy" and claimed he had privately confessed to working for British intelligence. He accused Muftić of being driven by foreign agendas, especially "English oil interests" tied to al-Badr’s cause. Muftić responded by describing Luburić as a strange fellow who confused desire with reality, an irritable and unsettled man, mentally ill, "sometimes more, sometimes less," and "an infantile revolutionary." an exiled Bosniak anti-communist in Beirut who on this occasion signed himself as "commander from the Palestinian war," wrote that Mahmut Muftić during the 1947–1948 Palestine War had stolen medicine in Lebanon intended for wounded and ill soldiers, and that he spread panic and fear of the enemy, "clearly working for various intelligence agencies", and emphasized that he was "in no way related to the forger and self-proclaimed doctor Mahmut Muftić." Šefki-beg Muftić asserted that Mahmut Muftić wrote slanderous articles against Bosniaks in the Croatian press, signing them with false names such as "Major Dizdar" and "Firus the Younger." One Bosniak writer called him "a fraud [who] particularly stands out, a former ‘medical student’ who presents himself as a doctor and medical major of the Lebanese army, as well as a major in Luburić's Detachment." In another letter, "Firuz the Younger"'s articles were denounced as "always completely false and, in most cases, stupid," and described as the writings of "a dubious person" engaged in "a dishonest and suspicious campaign."

Question over doctorate According to his apparent autobiography, Muftić graduated as a medical doctor from the Zagreb Medical School in 1944, when he was around 25 years old.

Assumptions based on the absence of modern documentation can reflect a form of source skepticism rooted in presentist thinking, where the past is judged by contemporary standards of verification. Such approaches risk misrepresenting historical realities, particularly in contexts like the 1940s and 1950s, when war, displacement, and underdeveloped record-keeping often disrupted formal credentialing systems.

Death and legacy

According to Ivo Mišur, Mahmut Muftić was seriously wounded in an attack carried out by the Yugoslav Directorate for State Security (UDBA) in 1963 but survived thanks to the intervention of his wife. Around this time, Muftić became involved in an affair with the wife of an UDBA associate, whom he presented as his secretary. Another letter from Williamson said that riot mobs had broken into Muftić's laboratory in Cairo and murdered his colleague, that he fled to Germany and that "during his researches into pathological effects of radioactivity he sustained radioactive poisoning and was and still is unwell." This story was also recounted by Malcolm Hulke in The Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine and Self-Help (1978), which claimed that Muftić went to East Germany after being warned by the pharmaceutical company he worked for (Schering) to abandon his esoteric studies. These accounts should be treated with caution. They may reflect misunderstandings, at least in part, and it is possible Muftić crafted narratives that did not accurately reflect the cause of his alleged illness or his whereabouts for his esoteric associates, perhaps to shield his parallel activities as a covert operative entangled in Cold War intelligence games, to maintain separation between the different spheres he moved in, and to protect both his own security and that of others. It is unlikely that Muftić, a long-time militant anti-communist, would go to East Germany; his publications continued to list a P.O. box in Geneva as his address until at least 1970, and his trail ends in Dublin. Fatal radiation accidents are rare outside major mishandling or direct exposure, but radiation poisoning was a known Cold War assassination method, and in some cases, it could be difficult to distinguish from natural causes. UDBA actively targeted Croatian nationalists during the 1960s, including several of Muftić's associates. Egypt's security services also targeted the Muslim Brotherhood, sending assassins who attempted to kill his long-time confidant Said Ramadan in Geneva. a rumor that may have stemmed from Muslim rivals accusing him of arms dealing with Israel Muftić’s life crossed between science, revolutionary politics, and metaphysical exploration, as he tried to connect worlds that few others ever combined. In the end, he remained isolated, alienated, and caught between them, a restless exile shaped by the shadow conflicts of the Cold War. Muftić's life was explored in three episodes of the podcast series The Empire Never Ended.