Feild studied with Bulent Rauf, a Turkish author and translator descended from a line of Sufi masters going back to the Andalusian mystic Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi (1165–1240).

A description of events at the centre is given in the books I, Wabenzi by Rafi Zabor, and Beshara and Ibn 'Arabi: A Movement of Sufi Spirituality in the Modern World.

In 1973, he resigned his role leading the Beshara Centre[6] and went to Los Angeles, Tepoztlan, Mexico, and Vancouver Island, BC, where he taught on his own.

The role of shaikh was often hereditary or government-appointed, and sometimes overseen by the eldest male descendent of Rumi in Konya, the Makam Çelebi, the senior figure in the whole Mevlevi Order, who could decide to bestow such a title directly.

In Boulder, Reshad assisted in introducing the sema ceremony – which was declared a cultural world heritage activity by UNESCO in 2004 – to America and Europe, and made it available to women for the first time in recent history, as well as to non-Muslim participants, such as students.