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Lilliana Gibbs - But what IS Subud

Is Subud occult? From Edward Fido, February 4, 2008. Time 23:33

Hi Philip,

For historical information on Theosophy and associated groups in Australia 'Other Temples, Other Gods: The Occult in Australia' by Nevill Drury and Gregory Tillett, Methuen, Australia 1980 ISBN 0454002491 is excellent.

Gurdjieff is not mentioned. I suspect due to the extreme secrecy of those groups.

One of the problems Subud has to face in modern societies -and not necessarily from Christian Fundamentalists - is whether or not it is part of the occult.

When you get someone like Raymond van Somers referring to Coombe Springs as 'an esoteric school' on a radio interview on Subud some people would prick up their ears because of the connotations.

Raymond is someone I have the greatest respect for but I think the Gurdjieff and Coombe Springs connection, much as they mean something to some members, like the Javanese spiritual universe of Pak Subuh and his premodern approach to psychology and mental health, are possibly not essential to Subud.

I, for one, would never have joined if I thought Subud was in the least bit 'occult'.

It is time to clean out our Augean Stables.

Hopefully sanity will prevail after this mammoth task.

The Subud of 1950s Coombe, 60s and 70s Cilandak and most of what existed for the first 50 years is, IMO, dead in the water.

Those who wish to proceed further down that particular path are doomed IMO to, at best, irrelevance, or, at worst, gradual extinction except as a fringe cult.

Whether Subud as an organisation survives I honestly don't give one. My concern is that all the decent people in it, including the contributors to these pages, who have really enlightened me in so many ways, go on to full and happy lives. If the ship goes down I want the passengers, some of whom I have the greatest affection and respect for, to survive. All of them.

So many people have suffered so needlessly from so much nonsense for so long it is nothing short of tragic.

Certainly the new administration in Subud Australia seem to have made many worthwhile changes but I think, both here and abroad, there is so much more to do.

The task is gigantic. Make Subud as a whole ethical, responsible and answerable to all its members.

Regards,

Edward

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