The Latihan: an inner awakening

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“When you come to zero, when you come to the nothingness, at that moment there is a vibration.” *


Bapak Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo

The latihan, the central experiential practice of Subud, is an awakening of a capacity that all human beings possess: to come to a place free from those worldly influences that distract the mind and feelings, disturbing an overall sense of equanimity. In letting go, or surrendering in the latihan, it is possible to be aware of and feel the 'sound of silence'** that is the universal vibration of life.
Freed from the turbulence of day-to-day thoughts and feelings, it is possible to become aware of an inner spiritual intelligence that guides our experience in the latihan, as well as in our daily lives. And those who practise the latihan may discover their own truth and understanding, which enable them to develop their individual human potential.
Since the latihan is a process of spontaneous inner receiving it is different for everyone, and often changes with each latihan. In letting go and allowing the subtle energy within to move through us, we are better able to follow our inner guidance, which varies from physical movements and sounds, to inner sensations and understanding. It is possible, in this state of quiet acceptance, to feel a deeper connection with the whole.
In Muhammad Subuh’s words: "Clearly the only thing that separates one person from another, especially when they are not related, is the ego. If it is the soul that is working, there is no separation." ***

 

Practising the latihan

In Subud, people meet to practise the latihan in a local venue, men and women separately, with each latihan being approximately 30 minutes. There is usually a preparation period of up to three months before a person comes to their first latihan, which is known as the ‘opening’. Many people find this period useful, as it is can be a time of subtle change, creating an inner readiness to experience the latihan.

 

Meaning of the word latihan

The word latihan, short for latihan kejiwaan [Indonesian], translates literally as spiritual training. Since the experience of the latihan is unique for each person, people in Subud often have different ways of describing their own experience of the process and the impact it has on their individual lives.

 

What people say about the latihan

Here are a few words from people who practise the latihan in Subud, which illustrate the differences in personal experience of the latihan:
The latihan is the core of my life. It has led me by the hand and shown me who I really am.
Being someone with a well-trained critical mind, the latihan has helped me to know the forces behind my thoughts and emotions and enabled me to live in greater harmony with this tough world we live in.
The latihan itself has been an incredible journey encompassing every experience in life - a very powerful feeling of space, depth and joy.
For me, what sets the latihan apart from any other spiritual practice is that it's not about trying to leave a part of you behind in order to feel some kind of 'out-of-this-world' enlightenment. The beauty and intricacy of the experiences I've had during latihan come about because something (which I like to call 'God') is making every part of me - mind, body, heart and soul - come alive. In other words, I'm being trained to become my truest, fullest self, for both this world and whatever comes after.
The latihan helps me get closer to my true self, as it fine-tunes my intuition.
Over the years the latihan has become an invaluable life tool - the regular practice of tuning into my inner awareness provides an essential balance to my thinking, feeling and being. To sense inwardly, as well as outwardly, the dynamics of relationships, of my work, and my sense of self. The latihan broadens my awareness and deepens my understanding of the stuff of life.
After doing the latihan since July 1966, I have no doubts about it. I’ve learned to accept my faults, learned to laugh, have a clean calm feeling inside and my heart has been opened.
I hoped the latihan would enable me to become more 'spiritual' and wise. Oddly enough it did something different. I slowly became more practical, and also more connected with my body and emotions. I now see this as a sort of foundation level, which had been missing on my journey towards wholeness.
It's like learning to dance a new dance with life. I used to live in narrow field enclosed by walls and knock my head on the walls thinking: that's it, that's what life is about. Latihan has reopened a sense of discovery and unexplored possibilities in me. I now have discovered a door, and behind it a peaceful lake and some fields of joy. It's not all sorted for sure - there are always new walls! But I have scope for action rather then just knocking my head on the next wall... and I know there are beautiful spots on the way.
It frees you up to live – and shine your colours in the world!
My practice of the latihan has been like having access to my own personal doorway to a world where the mystery of my deepest self lies, connected to God, to other people and other beings. I make the effort to go and open the door twice a week and get something different at every visit – sometimes nothing more useful that a little peace of mind, and at other times a pure feeling of grace or contrition or awe. I try to live up to the knowledge I have gained of who my deepest self is and can be like in my regular life, and am amazed that the door has never ever been shut when I reached for it.
When I attended my first latihan, at a time of depression, I was frightened that I was going to be taken over by something out of my control. Instead I experienced a sense of joy that I recognised as being my own true self. It was truly an unexpected gift and I went home happy for the first time in months. That was 34 years ago. When things are difficult and I feel doubts, I still remember that experience as a touchstone.

* Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo, recorded on 17 January 1981 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Reference 81 JKT 2
** "... When you come to the place where you are completely free from all the material influences ... then you will feel the sound of the silence: the vibration of life which is the Adil Ilham ..."
~ Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo, recorded on 17 January 1981 in Jakarta, Indonesia. Reference 81 JKT 2
*** Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo, recorded on 31 July 1966 in Cilandak, Indonesia. Reference: 63 TJK 2

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Subud.

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Subud
People
Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo ("Bapak")
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Latihan
Institutions
World Subud Association Muhammad Subuh Foundation
Affiliates
Susila Dharma Int'l Association Subud Int'l Cultural Association Subud Enterprise Services Subud Youth Association
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Java · Kalimantan
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This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2009)

Subud (pronounced [ˈsubʊd]) is an international spiritual movement that began in Indonesia in the 1920s as a movement founded by Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo. (The name Subud was first used in the late 1940s when Subud was legally registered in Indonesia.) The basis of Subud is a spiritual exercise commonly referred to as the latihan kejiwaan, which was said by Muhammad Subuh to represent guidance from "the Power of God" or "the Great Life Force".
Muhammad Subuh saw the present age as one that demands personal evidence and proof of religious or spiritual realities, as people no longer just believe in words. He claimed that Subud is not a new teaching or religion but only that the latihan kejiwaan itself represents a kind of proof that humanity is looking for. There are now groups in about 83 countries, with a worldwide membership of about 10,000.^[1]

Contents [hide] 1 Practices 1.1 The Spiritual Training (Latihan Kejiwaan) 1.2 The Opening 1.3 Testing 1.4 Fasting 2 Rules 3 History 4 The name "Subud" 5 Symbol 6 Association 6.1 Helpers 6.2 Ibu Rahayu 6.3 Committees 6.4 Affiliates 6.5 Enterprises 7 Membership 8 Notes 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Practices

[edit] The Spiritual Training (Latihan Kejiwaan)

Main article: Latihan

The central practice of Subud is the latihan kejiwaan (literally "spiritual exercise" or "training of the spirit"^[2]) or simply 'the latihan'. This exercise is not thought about, learned or trained for; it is unique for each person and the ability to 'receive' it is passed on by being in the presence of another practicing member at the 'opening' (see below). About twice a week, Subud members go to a local center to participate in a group latihan, men and women separately.^[3] The experience takes place in a room or a hall with open space. After a period of sitting quietly, the members are typically asked to stand and relax by a 'helper' (see below), who then announces the start of the exercise.^[4][5]
In the practice of the exercise, members are advised to surrender to the Divine and follow 'what arises from within', not expecting anything in advance. One is recommended not to focus on any image or recite any mantra, not to mix other activities like meditation or use of drugs, but simply to intend to surrender to the Divine or the will of God. One is not to pay attention to others in the room, each of whom is doing his or her own latihan.^[5] During the exercise, practitioners may find that, in terms of physical and emotional expression, they involuntarily move, make sounds, walk around, dance, jump, skip, laugh, cry or whatever.^[1][4] The experience varies for different people, but the practitioner is always wholly conscious throughout and free to stop the exercise at any time.
Many Subud members believe that this experience, apparently arising from within each person, provides them with something of what they currently need in life. For some, the latihan may appear to initially involve a 'purification' which possibly permits subsequently deeper experience. Members may describe their latihan as leaving them feeling "cleansed", "centered", "at peace", or "energized".^[5] The latihan is sometimes said to work 24 hours a day, not only when one is explicitly "doing" it.^[6] Supposedly, the regular practice of the latihan will enable people to experience positive development in various aspects of their daily life and being. The official website describes: "a deepening of the natural connection with wisdom, one's higher self, the divine, or God, depending on one's preferred terminology". (see links)
Although the latihan can be practiced alone, members are advised to participate regularly, ideally twice a week, in a group latihan. When a member has enough experience to reliably sense the appropriate time to finish his or her latihan session, he or she may, in accord with broadly accepted recommendations, add perhaps one more weekly session of the latihan at home.
While the suggestions of Subud's founder are held as valuable by many members, there is no requirement to believe anything, and the latihan is open to individuals of all faiths - or none. Subud officially endorses no doctrine regarding latihan's nature or benefits.

[edit] The Opening

The 'opening' refers to a person's first latihan, which is specially arranged to pass on the 'contact', metaphorically resembling a candle flame that lights a new candle with no difference in quality of the flame. Only after the formal opening process, in most cases, is a person able to receive for himself or herself, and is then welcome to participate in the group latihan. In the opening, the person is accompanied by one or more experienced members called 'helpers', and is asked to simply stand and relax with the helpers standing nearby. A simple statement or 'opening words' is read by one of the helpers that acknowledges the person's wish to receive the contact. The helpers then begin the exercise as they would normally do. The contact is passed on to the new member without effort or intention on the part of anyone present. This is the moment of the person's first connection with the latihan kejiwaan of Subud.

[edit] Testing

Testing is a distinct variety of the latihan directed toward receiving guidance or insight on a particular issue. Some question or request for clarification is acknowledged, and then the exercise is performed with openness to the issue. The original word for testing used by Muhammad Subud was "terimah" which is Indonesian for "receiving". Many people who have been practicing the latihan for some time claim to be able to recognize indications or intuitions 'from their inner feeling' in response to questions that are put forward.
Such indications may take various forms, including sounds, visions, vibrations and/or spontaneous physical movements similar to, though perhaps more intense than, those experienced in the usual latihan. However, it appears that such indications often defy intellectual analysis and that the supposed guidance can be obscured or biased by the mental or emotional attitudes of those present. Testing is generally viewed as an instrument for possibly helping to clarify issues in the present, and which may lead to confusion if treated as a kind of fortune-telling. Nevertheless, many Subud members claim to find benefit from testing in terms of resolving issues. Deeper understanding may help with almost any problem, but never offers a magic formula.
Testing is normally used to help select helpers, and often committee members, throughout the World Subud Association. Pak Subuh's book "Susila Budhi Dharma" cites examples of situations in which testing may be useful, including self-training in terms of putting any benefits of the latihan into practice. (Throughout Muhammad Subuh's book "Susila Budhi Dharma", which was written in 1952, testing is always referred to as "feeling" or "receiving". The first time "testing" was called by that name was in 1957 by John G. Bennett.)

[edit] Fasting

Individual Subud members often voluntarily engage in occasional fasting as Pak Subuh recommended. Each year, some members fast at the same time as the Muslim fast of Ramadan which Pak Subuh, himself a Muslim, claimed to be suitable for non-Muslims. Others fast during Lent or simply on a regular, private basis. In this context, fasting is regarded by certain Subud members as spiritually edifying, although its practice is not expected.

[edit] Rules

Pak Subuh provided advice and guidance in his talks to provide direction to members as their latihan deepens. Although in general there are no rules in the practice of the latihan, a couple of important practices that might be called ‘rules’ are that men and women do not do latihan together, and non-members may not attend the latihan exercise without first receiving the contact referred to above, known as their opening.
Subud's founder wanted the latihan to be accessible to people of all cultures, faiths and ethnicities. Respect for the diversity of personal backgrounds and the uniqueness of each individual, along with a general absence of "thou shalt nots", are aspects of the organization that have been attractive to many members.

[edit] History

Bapak Muhammad Subuh Sumohadiwidjojo

Pak Subuh explained (in talks to Subud members given beginning in the 1940s) that during 1925 he was taking a late-night walk when he had an unexpected and unusual experience. He said he found himself enveloped in a brilliant light, and looked up to see what seemed like the sun falling directly onto his body, and he thought that he was having a heart attack. He said he went directly home, lay down on his bed, and prepared to die with the feeling that maybe it was his time, and that he could not fight it, so he surrendered himself to God.
According to the story, however, instead of dying he was moved from within to stand up and perform movements similar to his normal Muslim prayer routine. It seemed that he was not moving through his own volition; but was being guided by what he interpreted as the power of God. This same kind of experience reportedly happened to him for a few hours each night over a period of about 1000 days during which he slept little but was able to continue working full-time. He said he experienced a kind of 'inner teaching' whereby he was given to understand a variety of things spontaneously.
As these experiences proceeded, Pak Subuh explained, he gained spontaneous insight into people and situations that he did not possess before. Around 1933, as he reported, he received that if other people were physically near him while he was in a state of 'latihan', then the experience would begin in them also. While still in his early thirties, Pak Subuh's reputation as someone with spiritual insight apparently grew, and people went to him to be 'opened'. They in turn could open others, and this is how Subud eventually spread around the world.

Husein Rofé in 1955 in Hong Kong

In Jakarta, Husein Rofé, an English linguist who had been living in Indonesia since 1950, met Pak Subuh. Rofé had been searching for a spiritual path and became the first non-Indonesian to be opened. Subud moved outside of Indonesia when Rofé attended a religious congress in Japan in 1954. Subud first spread internationally into Japan, followed by Hong Kong and Cyprus. In 1957, Rofé (who was then in London) suggested that Pak Subuh visit Britain. Pak Subuh accepted the invitation and visited the home of John G. Bennett in Coombe Springs. It was at this time that many UK followers of G. I. Gurdjieff were initiated into Subud (including Bennett himself, though he later left the group). Over the next 14 months Pak Subuh visited many countries before returning to Indonesia.

[edit] The name "Subud"

The name "Subud" is an acronym that stands for three Javanese words of Sanskrit derivation, Susila Budhi Dharma.
What these words mean depends on whether referring to :

• the original Sanskrit root word meaning.
• definitions in a modern Indonesian language dictionary.
• the explanation and definition given by the founder of Subud in his talks to members.

These three meanings are somewhat different from one another. The following is a quotation from The Basis and Aim of Subud , published by Subud Publications International (SPI), as an ostensibly authorized translation of the words Pak Subuh. (It must however be noted that SPI is not an official part of the Subud Association.)
"Susila means: the good character of man in accordance with the Will of Almighty God..
"Budhi means: the force of the inner self within man.
"Dharma means: surrender, trust and sincerity towards Almighty God.
"This is the symbol of a person who has a calm and peaceful inner feeling and who is able to receive the contact with the Great Holy Life Force"
"As the spiritual training (latihan kedjiwaan) of Subud is free from the influence of the passions, desires and thinking, and is truly awakened by the Power of Almighty God, the aim of Subud is naturally toward perfection of character according to the Will of the One Who awakens it, namely: Almighty God."
"It is also necessary to explain that Subud is neither a kind of religion nor a teaching, but is a spiritual experience awakened by the Power of God leading to spiritual reality free from the influence of the passions, desires and thinking."
The core of Subud is the latihan experience. The latihan is a vivid encounter which is fresh, alive and personal. It evolves and deepens over time. It is hard to pin down in words - which have specific connotations.

[edit] Symbol

"Seven Circles" symbol of Subud

The Subud symbol was envisioned by Pak Subuh in 1959. The design consists of seven concentric circles and seven spokes, which, in traditional Javanese mysticism, represent seven levels of life forces as well as the Great Life Force that connects them. Each circle grows wider, the further out from the center, and each spoke narrows as it approaches the center. The space between the circles remains constant.
The symbol is often printed in black and white when color printing is not available. When colors are used, usually the circles and spokes are gold and the background is dark blue to black. However, the symbol is also sometimes blue on white or white on blue. The World Subud Association has registered this design, as well as the name "Subud", as a trade, service or collective membership mark in many countries.

[edit] Association

Members who wish to take on organizational responsibility in Subud can volunteer as a committee member or as a helper. Each responsibility can be performed at the local, regional, national, and international levels. Members often move from one responsibility to another, as needed.
The broadest organizational responsibility rests with the World Subud Association, which organizes a World Congress every four years and consists of the Subud World Council, Subud representatives from each country, and individual members who wish to participate, although only representatives can vote. The headquarters of the international organization moves to a different country every four years.

[edit] Helpers

Main article: Helper (Subud)

Each level of the association has members called 'helpers' whose role is to coordinate the timing of group latihan, witness the opening of new members, speak to those interested in the latihan, be available to discuss problems relating to the latihan, and sometimes attend to the latihan needs of isolated or indisposed Subud members. Helpers are usually selected from members who are willing to perform the duties, and selection generally occurs through testing. In no way does selection mean that a person is more spiritually advanced than a member who is not a helper.
Helpers exist at the local, regional (in some countries), national and international levels. Helpers' geographical status relates to the regional or national supportive duties they are expected to provide – otherwise, there are no geographical restrictions on where a helper is considered to be a helper. A local helper from London who travels to Jakarta, for example, will be seen as a helper there, and can do testing or participate in a new member's opening in the same way as any Indonesian helper.
There are normally 18 international helpers—nine men and nine women. Three men and three women are assigned to each of the three areas in Subud:

• Area I covers Zones 1 & 2 (Australasia and Asia)
• Area II covers Zones 3, 4, 5, and 6 (Europe and Africa)
• Area III covers Zones 7, 8 & 9 (the Americas)

The international helpers are members of the World Subud Council. They serve on a voluntary basis for a four year term, which runs from World Congress to World Congress. There is no distinction in rank between local, national, or international helpers. Nor is there a difference in status between helpers, committee or members. Being a helper is seen not as a talent but as a service role.

[edit] Ibu Rahayu

Ibu Siti Rahayu Wiryohudoyo is Pak Subuh's eldest daughter. She is regarded by some members as a 'spiritual guide', a phrase formerly applied to Pak Subuh. After his death, Ibu Siti Rahayu said that she had had a dream in which she met Pak Subuh, and that in the course of this dream he had designated her as his successor. In a recorded talk given by her on 5 March 2010 to a National Gathering in Semarang, Indonesia, Ibu Siti Rahayu explains how she came to be appointed 'spiritual advisor' by the Subud International Congress, although she does not say which resolution of which congress was involved.

[edit] Committees

Most Subud groups have a committee, typically including a chairperson, vice-chair, treasurer and secretary. This committee is responsible for making sure there is a place to do group latihan, communications, budgets, and supporting the mutual efforts of members at the local group. A similar structure functions at the regional (in certain countries), national, zonal and international levels.
The international executive is the International Subud Committee (ISC). Apart from ensuring communication, publishing, budgeting, archives and support of affiliates, it organizes a World Congress every four years. The ISC chairperson sits on the World Subud Council.
For purposes of a practical organizational structure, the Subud association is divided into nine multinational zones, more or less as follows:

• Zones 1 & 2 – Australasia and Asia
• Zone 3 – includes 8 countries of western Europe
• Zone 4 – central and eastern European countries
• Zones 5 & 6 – Francophone and Anglophone African countries, respectively
• Zone 7 – USA, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, Surinam, and the Caribbean
• Zone 8 – the upper part of South America
• Zone 9 – the lower part of South America

Each Zone has its own four representatives that are the voting members on the World Subud Council. They also serve as volunteers a four year term like helpers. They are selected at Zone Meetings.
The chairperson of the World Subud Association serves a four-year term from one World Congress to the next and is also the chairperson of the World Subud Council. The World Subud Council is responsible for ensuring that decisions made at World Congress are carried through. The current Chairperson is Luke Penseney,^[7] who was appointed at the 2010 World Congress in Christchurch, New Zealand.
There are ongoing discussions about improving the World Subud Association structure. Subud Switzerland, for example, is exploring a nonleadership (egalitarian) model of organisation.

[edit] Affiliates

Subud affiliates (sometimes called ‘wings’) are subsidiary organizations that focus on specific projects at a national or international level. They are technically independent organizations but have overlapping boards of trustees. They include:

• Susila Dharma International Association (SDI or SDIA) – humanitarian projects
• Subud International Cultural Association (SICA) – networking cultural activities
• Subud Enterprise Services International (SES or SESI) – networks between entrepreneurial activities
• Subud Youth Association (SYA) – networks among younger Subud members
• Subud International Health Organisation (SIHA) – incorporates both mainstream and alternative approaches

Some chairpersons of these affiliates also sit on the World Subud Council and serve a four-year term.
In addition to the above affiliates, a foundation – the Muhammad Subuh Foundation (MSF) – has been set up, whose main work is helping groups acquire their own latihan premises.
Informal networks and interest groups initiated by members include a Peace Network, a Spiritual Support Network (Yahoo group) and several Facebook groups.

[edit] Enterprises

When Subud first spread outside Indonesia, Pak Subuh talked mainly about the spiritual exercise. He started to encourage Subud members to engage in enterprises and donate a proportion of profits to welfare projects and to maintaining the Subud organisation. He explained that the fact of the latihan 'bringing to life' the physical body indicates that worship need not be viewed as narrowly as prayer in places of worship; that people's ordinary lives, when following and guided by the Power of God, are ongoing worship, such that there is a dynamic interplay between "material" life and "spiritual" life. Therefore his encouragement for Subud members to engage in enterprise is seen in the context of putting the latihan into practice.

[edit] Membership

Membership is open to any person over 17 years of age, irrespective of the person's religion or lack of religion. (As Pak Subuh saw it, the latihan is for "all of mankind.") The exception is that someone suffering from a serious mental illness may not be initiated as a member.
There is normally a waiting period of up to three months before a person may be opened. During this period, the enquirer is expected to meet a few times with the local helpers so that he or she can have questions and doubts clarified.
There is no membership fee, but most Subud members contribute, for example, to the rent or upkeep of premises where they meet.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Hunt (2003), p. 122
2. ^ Chryssides (1999), p. 261
3. ^ Webb (1995), pp. 269–270
4. ^ ^{a b} Chryssides (1999), p. 263
5. ^ ^{a b c} Webb (1995), p. 270
6. ^ Chryssides (1999), p. 269
7. ^ http://subudworldnews.com/hotlinks/index.php

[edit] References

• Chryssides, George D. (1999). Exploring New Religions. London and New York: Continuum. ISBN 0-8264-5959-5.
• Geels, Antoon (1997). Subud and the Javanese mystical tradition. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press. ISBN 0-7007-0623-2.
• Hunt, Stephen J. (2003). Alternative Religions: A Sociological Introduction. Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 0-7546-3410-8.
• Mulder, Niels Mysticism & everyday life in contemporary Java : cultural persistence and change Singapore : Singapore University Press, c1978
• Sumohadiwidjojo, M. S. "Autobiography" ISBN 1-869822-07-2, Subud Publications International (March 1990)
• The International Helpers, "On the Subud Way" ISBN 0-9757497-0-6, (c) The World Subud Association (WSA) 2005
• Webb, G. (1995). "Subud". In Miller, T.. America's Alternative Religions. New York: SUNY Press. pp. 267–275 . ISBN 0-7914-2398-0.

[edit] External links

• www.subud.com Official site
• www.subud.org Official site
• www.subudbooks.com Books about Subud
• Subud Vision Unofficial site publishing critiques of Subud by Subud members. 100 articles readable online.
• www.subudforum.com Unofficial Online Subud Forum
• www.subud.se Official site in Swedish

Call No Man Master.

Blogger Reference Link http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science





I bought a copy of Call No Man Master sometime ago from the Slough Oxfam shop. I was especially interested in the accounts about Subud, and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.  RS



An Introduction by Colin Wilson



An overview of Joyce Collin-Smith's life experiences as expressed in Call No Man Master (ref Joyce Collin-Smith website)



In her autobiography Call No Man Master (1988) Joyce Collin-Smith describes her experiences with three of the most remarkable gurus of the twentieth century: Pak Subuh, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and her brother-in-law Rodney Collin-Smith, better known as Rodney Collin, the author of The Theory of Celestial Influence. The autobiography seems to me a classic of its kind and, in the case of Pak Subuh and the Maharishi, makes clear the dangers that can arise from 'discipleship'.



Through her brother-in-law, Joyce was introduced to the teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky - particularly the latter, with whom Rodney Collin had had a relation of deep friendship that transcended disicipleship.



Ouspensky had originally been a follower of Gurdjieff, and his teaching sprang from the same insight: that everyday human consciousness amounts to a form of sleep, and that with the right kind of effort, we can begin to wake up. When Ouspensky broke with Gurdjieff - for a variety of reasons - the chief one of which was obviously that he wished to cease being a follower and become a teacher - he came to London and gave a series of lectures that brought him many disciples. One of these was the woman who became Rodney Collin's wife, Janet Buckley, and it was through her that he was introduced to the 'work'.



By the time Joyce met him, Ouspensky was dead - Collin had been deeply traumatised by his death. As a teenager Joyce had been a member of the 'Oxford Group,'later known as Moral Rearmament, and was ready to imbibe new ideas. The teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, as conveyed by Rodney Collin, satisfied her both emotionally and intellectually.



Rodney Collin died suddenly on May 3, 1956, falling from the tower of the cathedral in Cuzco, Peru - probably made dizzy by the height above sea level. He was 48. So Joyce lost the man who had become her mentor.



Two years before his death, his remarkable book The Theory of Celestial Influence had been published in England. As the title makes clear, Collin attached great importance to the heavenly bodies. Like the ancients, he saw man, the 'microcosm', as a reflection of the universe, the macrocosm. The book shows a remarkable medical knowledge of the human body and its organs, particularly the glands. And when he comes to the assertion that the planets rule different organs of the human body, he adds that it will be necessary to reconsider, from a scientific point of view, the propositions of astrology. (p. 143.) It is significant, he says, that although we have discarded most of the assumptions of mediaeval and renaissance astrology, we still use the names of the planets to denote certain human dispositions - mercurial, jovial, saturnine, and so on. He states his view that when a baby emerges from the womb, it is as if it possessed a set of light-meters, each sensitive to the light of one of the planets, and that these meters record the moment of birth, and determine the child's future development.



It was when Joyce returned to England after Rodney Collin's death that she enrolled with the Faculty of Astrological Studies, and then went on to cast her brother-in-law's chart. When setting it up she was unable to enter his Ascendant (the sign rising at the time of birth), but thought it might be Scorpio. At that point she heard his voice saying to her: 'It's Cancer' - which proved to be correct.



Now Joyce herself has always been 'psychic'. She mentions in The Pathless Land that even in childhood she often felt there was someone in the room with her. 'Angels or fairies, or even people who had died, seemed sometimes to be 'just around'.' So her sense of contact with her brother in law is not surprising. And neither is her interest in astrology, for astrology can give us profound insights into character.



The Maharishi, she told me, was also interested in astrology, but although he admitted to being a Capricorn, he would not divulge the year of his birth - for a reason I shall return to in a moment.



I myself learned just how accurate astrology can be as a result of being co-opted to write a horoscope column for a weekend magazine given away with the Observer newspaper. I knew very little of the subject when the editor approached me, and I accepted because I thought it would give me the opportunity to 'learn astrology'. And over the next few months, I did precisely that. I learned how to cast horoscopes simply by buying and studying dozens of books on the subject. I certainly never thought of myself as a true astrologer. Then an interesting experience taught me to recognise that astrology is not merely an intellectual discipline. One day, a reader wrote to me about her son, who had committed suicide, and gave me the precise time and date of his birth. As I began to cast his horoscope, I suddenly realised that his personality was beginning to take shape in front of me. Suddenly, I understood what kind of a person he was, and why he had decided to commit suicide. I wrote his mother a long letter, outlining my conclusions, and received a reply saying that I had portrayed him so accurately that it was as if I had known him.



So I am not surprised that the Maharishi was unwilling to provide the necessary information to cast his horoscope. It is like allowing someone to read your private diary. And the Maharishi, I am inclined to believe, was not the kind of person to wish to give anyone access to his inner being, for a reason touched on in Call No Man Master. When Francis Roles, one of Ouspensky's leading followers, took over the English branch of the Maharishi's organisation, it seems he lost no time in applying to it the obsessively strict discipline which was typical of Ouspensky's own interpretation of 'the Fourth Way'. Soon he had driven away those followers he felt to be too light hearted or insufficiently enamoured of discipline. The Maharishi's headquarters in Prince Albert Road, Regent's Park, ceased to be full of laughter. Suddenly, all was serious and rather gloomy. Returning from his travels, the Maharishi found this disturbing, and exerted all his charm, persuasiveness and hypnotic power to persuade Roles - who was also the financial provider of the group - to alter his approach. This failed completely, and Joyce records that those who saw the Maharishi immediately after this confrontation saw 'an expression of naked anger' on the guru's face. 'He looked frighteningly human' said one follower, to which Joyce comments: 'It had already occurred to me that, in spite of the claims on [his] flowery writing paper, Maharishi could not be called a fully-realised man'. It was the beginning of her disillusionment with him.



It was in the late '60s that Joyce first began to study the Tarot in depth. At an Astrological Association conference, a fellow delegate did a spread of cards for her, and she was astonished at their accuracy. The man spoke of her two marriages, one brief and unhappy, her estrangement from her daughter, and then went on to speak about an old friend who was 'distressed about a dear one' who was very ill in another country. Joyce, he said, would be able to assure her friend that all would be well. That evening she visited an old friend in Barnes, and learned that she was indeed frantic about her son, who had fallen ill in Australia. But, as the cards had foretold, he recovered.



But how can this be possible? Even if we are willing to accept that the Tarot reader may have been 'psychic', this still leaves the apparently unanswerable question of how the cards themselves can have indicated that Joyce had been married twice, etc. Of course, most Tarot readers would reply that it is not the cards themselves that provide the information, but the subtle interaction between the cards and the mind of the 'reader'. But that still leaves the question unanswered.



It is, of course, the same question we encounter in other 'occult' arts that depend on 'readings', whether of hands, tealeaves or the I Ching. There can be no logical explanation of how any operation that depends on chance - the patterns formed by tealeaves or the throwing down of three coins - can produce anything but a chance result. Yet anyone who is skilled in the practice will tell you otherwise. And I personally accept that this is so.



Joyce herself comes close to suggesting a reason when, in Call No Man Master, she remarks that the Maharishi's teaching was 'an attempt to turn the world back to the innocence of its own beginnings, and says: 'But in my heart I believed that the way forward for man was not by returning to first beginnings, but by pressing onward in some way. In this I was subscribing once again to the idea of man as a self-creating being, as Gurdjieff described him, and thinking of an evolving system of some kind, and of the growth of consciousness. I did not think one could actually contract out of the sufferings that seemed to be a part of life in a developing world'.



What she is implying is that man has some odd capacity to create himself, to expand into areas that already, in a sense, belong to him. In this present book, Joyce evokes an image used by Gurdjieff: that we should think of man as someone who lives in an enormous house, with dozens of rooms, but for some odd reason, confines himself to the basement. Moreover, the house possesses electricity, and all he has to do is throw the switch; but he has forgotten about its existence, and lives by candlelight.



In his poem The Maze, Auden writes:



The answer that I cannot find



Is known to my unconscious mind.



I have no reason to despair



Because I am already there.



It is surely this unknown part of the mind, what the paranormal investigator F. W.H. Myers called 'the subliminal self', that explains how a chance operation, like throwing down coins or shuffling cards, can produce meaningful results. Many of us take it for granted that we can tell ourselves that we have to be awake at five in the morning, and wake up on the dot of five. The same 'unknown self' seems to collaborate in interpreting the cards or a birth chart. Jung regarded this 'unknown self' as responsible for synchronicities.



But to place too much emphasis on 'the unknown self' would be to misrepresent the way Joyce sees reality. She also accepts the existence of what, for want of a better word, we have to call 'spirits', as well as of 'elementals' and fairies. And it was in this connection that I came upon one of her rare incomplete or one-sided stories, which presents me with an opportunity of saying something important about her attitude to 'the spirit world'.



On page 40 Joyce mentions the famous case of the Cottingley fairies, which was brought to the attention of the British public by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the Christmas issue of The Strand Magazine for 1920. Two schoolgirls, Frances Griffiths, 10, and her cousin Elsie Wright, 17, claimed they had seen fairies by the 'beck', a stream in a wooded dell. The adults naturally disbelieved them, so Elsie borrowed her father's camera, and came back with a photograph of Frances leaning on a bank and gazing at tiny winged creatures who were apparently fairies. Soon after that they brought back a photograph of Elsie watchng a dancing gnome. Elsie's father made several prints. But it was not until after the war that a meeting of the local Theosophical Society was told about the photographs, and copies fell into the hands of a London Theosophist who examined them and decided they were genuine. After Conan Doyle's article, Elsie and Frances became briefly famous. And in the face of powerful scepticism, the girls continued to maintain that the photographs were genuine.



A psychic investigator name Joe Cooper made a television programme with Elsie and Frances in 1976, on which they continued to maintain that the photographs were genuine. But in the following year, a researcher named Fred Gettings proved otherwise. Looking through a volume called Queen Mary's Gift Book, published during the First World War, he came upon the fairies of the photographs, illustrating a poem by Alfred Noyes. The magician James Randi thereupon denounced the two girls in an article in The New Scientist.



In 1981, Cooper met Frances again, and she admitted that the fairies had been propped up with hatpins. And that seemed to close the case.



But not quite. Cooper, whom I had known since the previous year, had written a book called Modern Psychic Experiences in which he had argued - as Joyce does - that there really are such things as 'elementals', nature spirits, and investigated a number of cases in which people claimed to have seen them. As it happened, I had also come across a number of such cases - for example, a Scots television interviewer had told me casually, in the course of a conversation in a pub, that he had once seen a gnome on the pavement outside a convent gate, and that it had 'scared the hell' out of him. And a friend named Lois Bourne, a psychic who (in her book Witch Among Us) describes herself as a witch, tells a completely circumstantial and detailed story of how, on holiday at Crantock, in Cornwall, the husband of another member of a 'wicca' coven had taken her to a local stream at sunrise, where she saw a goblin sitting on a stone washing his socks. It saw them and disappeared. 'Now do you believe us?' asked the husband.



Now according to Joe Cooper, both Elsie and Frances were psychic, and Frances had been seeing fairies for months when she told her cousin about them. She admitted to seeing fairies when her parents beame irritable with her when she had fallen into the back a second time, And asked her why she went down there, Frances had admitted she went to look at fairies. And it was the total incredulity of the adults that led Elsie and Frances to concoct the hoax with the cut-out fairies.



After Conan Doyle's article, the girls were in a difficult position. In effect, they had to live their lives with a lie. But if they admitted it was a lie, they would also be claiming that the fairies never existed. And that, they insisted, was simply not true.



Like Joe Cooper, I am willing to believe the girls were telling the truth. Both had had many psychic experiences, which Joe records (and which anyone who wants to explore further can find summarised in my son Damon's article on fairies in our joint book Unsolved Mysteries Past and Present).



Joe's book The Case of the Cottingley Fairies received little publicity and is still not widely known. This has given me the opportunity to speak of my own attitude to these things, and to explain why, like Joyce, I accept the reality of these 'elementals', as did the poet W.B.Yeats and his friend Lady Gregory, and as did the writer and researcher Evans Wentz in his classic book on the subject, The Fairy Faith in Celtic Countries.



All this explains why I can recommend the present book so whole-heartedly.



When Joyce told me she had written The Pathless Land, I was eager to see it, for I expected it to be an autobiographical sequel to Call No Man Master, and because I regard that volume as a masterpiece, could hardly wait to read its successor. Joyce sent me The Pathless Land as an email attachment, It was not what I had anticipated, but I was not more than a few dozen pages into the book when I realised that it is something equally valuable: a summary of what Joyce has learned over a lifetime.



Whether she will now, at the age of 85, write another book I do not know. What I can say is that these two books contain the essence of her life and work, and will secure her place as one of the most interesting writers and teachers of the twentieth century.

An Encounter with the Subud Brotherhood....

Blogger Reference Link http://www.p2pfoundation.net/Multi-Dimensional_Science





Right back in 1983 I was doing research for a possible article on the Subud Brotherhood. In Windsor I met Dominic Rieu, my key contact. He was a charming fellow of the old boy network. At the time if I recall correctly the conference centre of Anugraha was nearing completion. The word which is Sanskrit means Unexpected Place.

Anyway, I nearly had the chance of meeting Bapak the founder of Subud who was visiting Anugraha. Unfortunately, it was not to be due to other commitments. When I met Dominic I mentioned that the receiving of the "Holy Spirit", or "Higher Energy" during the practice of Latihan as it was called was like the Kriyas in Indian yoga. These Kriyas, or actions are an outward result of the purifying Power of the Spirit (similiar to the Pentacostal experience). They may involve strange movements such as jerks, and other kinds of actions. However, the human will can stop the process at any stage of the Latihan experience.

Anyhow, Dominic Rieu seemed impressed by the above "revelation", and the Indian mystical connection ..along with my knowledge on the Subud Brotherhood. He showed me a book which he had recently written, and published. I was allowed to borrow it along with other material.

Rieu died sometime ago in his nineties..Here is a link to him which also has link to a Times Obit on him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._C._H._Rieu

Bapak the founder of the Subud Brotherhood wrote something of his inner experiences in certain "controversial" writings. These have yet to be traced by me. They maybe similiar to those of Indian Mystics.

Interestingly, I posted a link on Multi-Dimensional Science on a Subud discussion group. One lady made the claim that if people were able to record in writing something of their inner experiences on receiving the "Holy Spirit" it could cause premature awakenings in others which would not necessarily be desirable. This reminded me of Swami Muktanandas highly descriptive accounts of his visions, and the the like which could in some cases cause people reading them to awaken the Kundalini energies, and hence, bring about "higher" changes in conciousness. Whether this leads to "desirable" consequences is another matter.

Sant Kirpal Singh a respected Shabd Yoga Master gave a brief "critical" comment on Subud.


http://www.ruhanisatsangusa.org/col/col-7.htm


"....The mystic base in the case of Subud is much more important than in that of Christian Science, yet is often directed toward the same end. It seeks, through following a certain course of exercises called Latihan, to put its followers in touch with hidden psychic powers. It does not seem to enhance consciousness directly but enriches it indirectly through increasing one's powers of intuition. Whether one looks atthe experiences of Mohammad Raufe or those of John Bennett, one realizes that in the case of Subud, a person may serve as a medium for higher spiritual forces,curing people of diseases, without becoming a conscious co-worker. The result is that instead of progressing to higher and still higher planes of consciousness, until one merges with the Infinite, one tends to cultivate a passive receptivityto psychic powers which may not necessarily be of the higher kind. Many disciples during Latihan reproduce strange animal or bird experiences--a far cry from the Nirvikalp Samadhi or the Sehaj Samadhi spoken of by the greatest mystics."