Subud claims through its spiritual practice the 'latihan kedjiwaan' that its members are being purified of all their rubbish they have accumulated in their lives and the lives of their ancestors. The latihan is like a cathartic type of exercise which is practised twice a week and more during national congresses and world congresses. It works like this.
You have to wait three months after applying to join until you can 'do' your first latihan. This is a 'BIG DEAL' and is called your 'OPENING'. They actually believe you never get unopened or closed again. Long winded theological discussions often occur on this topic.

Anyway men and women do it separately in their own rooms.( big Islamic influence from Bapak here,who was a muslim. Women and men worship separately in Islam) This was explained to us for the following reason. Because of the 'lower forces' in man called the 'nafsu' by Bapak there would be a reaction. Bapak taught( they say there's no teachings but there tons!) that if men and women did it together the nafsu would rise up and this would result in orgies and that type of thing! The mind boggles doesnt it?

So in your 'opening' you stand quietly while the helpers start doing their latihan and then magically they pass it on to you. Its as simple as that! Then for the rest of your life you dont need any other guidance other than this life force/essence to guide you and lead you into all truth!( isnt that what Christianity says about the HOLY SPIRIT?)
So you might start praying in tongues or singing or walking around or doing back bends or growl or basically whatever you FEEL your 'inner being' is being led to do. Just remember now youve got GOD in you its pretty well infallible whatever you do in the latihan because ts all coming from God so they teach.( what another teaching?)

Yes, its a parallel of Christian teaching where a person who is BORN AGAIN by the SPIRIT of GOD begins to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Christian theology it is explained as the born again spiritual man starting off as a babe in Christ and growing to full spiritual maturity nourished on the Word of God which is illuminated to him by the HOLY SPIRIT.
Only in Subud there is no Word of God to nourish the person spiritually except the WORDS OF BAPAK. Because they claim there is no TEACHING each person is left to decide for themselves what TRUTH is. Also the spirit is not called the HOLY SPIRIT that they GIVE THEMSELVES TO. It is called the ESSENCE of ALL RELIGIONS.
Its very strange that Muslims will adamantly reject the GOD of the BIBLE as being the same GOD as ALLAH. Also Jews will ADAMANTLY reject the Christians GOD as the GOD of the OLD TESTAMENT. And Christians will adamantly reject the Islamic god ALLAH and allow that the Jews have had their eyes blinded to Jesus Christ as their Messiah up to the present point in time. ALL THESE GROUPS( Christian, Jew and Muslim) also reject the HINDU gods and the BUDDHIST gods as well as the ANIMIST religions.

But Subud people don't blink an eye at this because they have been TAUGHT( not another teaching!!?) NOT TO THINK. Can you believe this, in this day and age that a people are being taught not to THINK?! Their critical faculties have atrophied as they have conditioned themselves to 'NOT THINK' but only RECEIVE. This is because they BELIEVE what Bapak taught them. They have put their FAITH in HIM and in the LATIHAN for all their NEEDS.

This is similar to Christian teaching when people put their FAITH in JESUS CHRIST and FOLLOW his TEACHINGS! They put ALL their TRUST in HIM and their HEAVENLY FATHER for ALL THEIR NEEDS.

'THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING' as they say! That means we look at the RESULTS of what people put their FAITH and TRUST in and LIVE their LIFE by.

Does Subud and its WAY OF LIFE produce TRUE peace, joy and love? Subud has been documented by many health professionals as the cause of mental disturbances and psychotic episodes. Dr Michael Urlich has written an article recently about Subud in an American Psychiatric journal.
In its early days and still occurring today Bapak gave many teachings on 'crisises'. This was a disturbed mental state in which a Subud person could find themselves in from doing the latihan. People who experienced it were advised to stop doing the latihan. Even now in the application form there is a warning to people who have suffered from MENTAL ILLNESS. They are advised NOT TO JOIN SUBUD.

The God of the Bible never made these distinctions in order to come to know him. In fact He promises healing and peace for those who experience this disturbed mental state. Subud raises many questions with its PRACTICES and BELIEFS.

They are not examined critically by its membership and one wonders why. There are not enough adequate answers given to sincere, honest questions. One must feel sorry for the 2nd and 3rd generations caught up in it now. Young people experience much frustration and confusion within their lives and families because of its cultic aspects.
Single people are advised to only marry Subud partners as this could cause division because of the'latihan'. The Subud person is in CONTACT with God but the NON-SUBUD person IS NOT so they teach( WHAT ! another teaching?!!)

The young people end up becoming isolated within society as their mental outlook prevents them from connecting in a healthy mental and social way with the society they live in.
To be continued.

Quote
Lincoln
The young people end up becoming isolated within society as their mental outlook prevents them from connecting in a healthy mental and social way with the society they live in.

Amen to this. Most 'Subud Youth' find it increasingly difficult to explain parts of their lives to friends from outside Subud. I've been to Youth Workshops where older SYA (Subud Youth Association - sound familiar!!??) members would give talks and testing sessions on how to talk about Subud to your friends, how to explain about Bapak or how to explain about name changes (Subud members often change their names when in a 'transition period,' another very common cult technique. Members do not pick their own new names but they are given through 'testing' by Ibu Rahayu, acting Subud Leader or a more senior helper. For non-Subud members interested in the subject, sometimes the member is given little more than a letter and told to go and choose six names beginning with that letter. The helper will then 'test' which name is right for them. How can your 'new name' come from God if there's a six-way split over which name you end up with? Ridiculous).

Even now Subud Youth is the hardest part of my experience for me to criticise as it is the part I was most emotionally invested in. It was the part I most wished I could fit in to. Kinda sad, huh? Unfortunately I perceived SYA to be glamorous, mature, accomplished and cool. There are just as many cliques in Subud as anywhere else and I felt a huge pressure to be something that I wasn't, both from my parents and other adult Subud members and indirectly from Subud Youth, whom I often felt painfully isolated from. There were considerable amounts of mixed messages coming from different sources on how young people were expected to behave, and what they were realistically assumed to be able to achieve. No matter what I did, it never seemed good enough... and I carry that pain through as an adult.

I find it much harder to blame Subud youth for their actions even though it is often 'the youth' that are more violent in their criticism of anyone wishing to leave Subud. Certainly not one of my friends wanted to continue a relationship with me outside of Subud - any communication would inevitably result in "Do you want to come to Latihan tonight?" or "Are you going to Congress?"

For me, it just got harder and harder to communicate with non-Subud members. Most of my dreams and ambitions ended up being filtered back through Subud... the loneliness and confusion and split between 'Safe Subud' and 'Horrible Reality,' was most pronounced in my last 6 months of Subud but I think was always present. The rest of the world started to seem so senseless and I ended up requiring more and more testing to make 'sense' of it all, more and more bizarre explanations just to stitch everything together...

Dear Jupiter,
You make some damning revelations on Subud life, many of which I can empathise with. I feel from looking at the evidence that Subud affects people critically at every stage of their life perhaps. It has the effect of atrophying our normal human development through each stage of life from a young child through the teen and young adult stages to the early marriage and relationship stages and on to adult maturity.
An adult mind is the product of many complex thought processes, conclusions, discarding and reaffirming of beliefs and experience. When allowed to develop in a healthy enquiring way the mind functions effectively to order our lives in relative peace and harmony. Subud encloses and oppresses healthy thinking and logical thought and thus affects us in every area of our life. It colours the way we look at everything. It produces introverted navel gazing, selfishness and self centredness. These are not qualities we want to be encouraging in our children, young adults and future leaders of our society. more later.. Linc