Editorial: Gorillas In Our Midst by Sahlan Diver (Note: The opinions expressed in any Subud Vision editorial are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the other Subud Vision editors) Yesterday I read an article in a national newspaper describing a psychological experiment in which volunteers are shown a film of a basketball match and asked to count up and report the total number of ball passes made. What is fascinating about this seemingly mundane experiment is how few of the volunteers also notice the gorilla running about between the players during the match. It’s as if the twin obligations of urgency and duty in respect of the given instructions dull the participants’ normal faculties. Similarly, yesterday I also read the preliminary reports to the New Zealand World Congress and I couldn’t help wondering if this wasn’t just another ‘gorillas in our midst’ experiment—impress the members with the urgency and duty to go through, yet again, the rote of agenda items imposed upon us by both Bapak and Subud tradition, thereby ensuring that we miss the gorillas, the real issues, which nobody wants to either acknowledge or tackle.
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What are the gorillas we're not seeing? Here is my personal list:
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I heard a report recently of a Subud meeting in which a number of topics were discussed that should have been of mutual interest. There was apparently a great deal of discord and personal accusations. The meeting was described to me by one person as ‘like a living hell’. And these weren’t beginners in the latihan, but people who had been latihaning for decades, who had been helpers, chair people, zonal reps and so on. Such stories are not isolated. Clearly something is wrong. It could be that the latihan does not work, or has only a superficial effect. Or it could be that Subud itself, straightjacketed by a misplaced desire to preserve a misunderstood Bapak’s legacy, creates situations of friction and frustration that work to neutralise the benefit of the latihan. I myself incline to the latter view. Subud needs to turn its focus away from endless ball passing and confront its gorillas. Click here if you are interested in reading the other editorials, or sending feedback on any editorial. |