HOW AND WHEN DID SUBUD START IN THE U - Subud World News
HOW AND WHEN DID SUBUD START IN THE U - Subud World News
HOW AND WHEN DID SUBUD START IN THE U - Subud World News
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
<strong>HOW</strong> <strong>AND</strong> <strong>WHEN</strong> <strong>DID</strong> <strong>SUBUD</strong> <strong>START</strong> <strong>IN</strong> <strong>THE</strong> U.S.A.?<br />
Harlinah Longcroft<br />
The following is a summary of a far longer and more detailed<br />
chapter containing many interviews, in the History of <strong>Subud</strong>,<br />
Vol. 1 Book 3. This book has not yet been published. It is<br />
currently being compiled and written.<br />
<strong>Subud</strong> members were first opened in California at the end of<br />
February, 1958 – but the story starts long before that – possibly as<br />
early as 1956, when a small group was being started in Hong Kong<br />
by Husein Rofé.<br />
One of those opened in Hong Kong was Michael Rogge, a young man<br />
who was working for a Dutch bank. He joined Tape Respondents<br />
International, whose members communicated with each other “by<br />
spoken letter”. In other words, they recorded a letter on a tape<br />
recorder, and then sent the tape to a member elsewhere, who then<br />
replied in the same way. Having a tape recorder for your own<br />
personal use, was a novel experience in those days.<br />
The Tape Respondents issued a catalogue of member’s interests,<br />
and Rogge got in touch with those listed as having “spiritual<br />
interests”. After starting communication, he introduced the subject<br />
of <strong>Subud</strong>. He continued to do this after he was moved by his bank to<br />
Japan. So, as a result of this taped correspondence Vic Torrey and<br />
Earl Robinson in California became very interested in <strong>Subud</strong>, and so<br />
did Reynold Osborne in New York.<br />
By early 1958, Rogge felt they were sufficiently enthusiastic for him<br />
to pass their names and addresses to J.G.Bennett, who in turn, told<br />
Bapak. However, neither Torrey nor Robinson were wealthy, so<br />
although they could, and did, spread the word about <strong>Subud</strong>, they<br />
were not the people to bring Bapak or anyone else to California.<br />
In 1957, while this tape correspondence was going on, a man from a<br />
wealthy family in California was looking for a cure for polio. Medical<br />
processes had not worked, so he was looking for alternative<br />
methods. As he was also very interested in the paranormal, and<br />
ways of inner development, he knew or was already known to<br />
J.G.Bennett. And while on his travels in 1957, he also met a<br />
Canadian <strong>Subud</strong> member, Bob Prestie and Prestie told him about<br />
<strong>Subud</strong> and Bapak’s visit to Coombe Springs. It was this man, John<br />
Cooke, and his sister, Alice Cooke Kent, who were mainly responsible<br />
for funding the visit of the Bennett’s and then of Bapak and his<br />
party, to California in the first half of 1958.<br />
1
Of course other people helped too, according to their capacity, and<br />
both Torrey and Robinson helped with the organization. Bob Prestie,<br />
who had been living at Coombe Springs, made all the arrangements<br />
in London for American visas for Bapak, Ibu Siti Sumari, Rahayu and<br />
Ismana, (Icksan had returned to Indonesia), and then he left for San<br />
Francisco. He arrived on February 28 and opened John Cooke on the<br />
day he arrived. Alice wanted to be opened too, but she had wait the<br />
arrival of Elizabeth (Howard) Bennett. Elizabeth, J.G.Bennett, and<br />
their children, George and Ben, arrived on March 8.<br />
In the mean time, Prestie had given a talk in San Francisco on March<br />
1, and then opened two of the men, so this was the first <strong>Subud</strong><br />
group in the United States.<br />
By the time the Bennetts arrived, Prestie, Cooke, and Vic Torrey had<br />
made a lot of contacts, and when Bennett gave his first talk in San<br />
Francisco – probably either on the day he arrived, or the next day,<br />
there were about sixty people at the Academy of Asian Studies (the<br />
Zen Centre) who heard about <strong>Subud</strong> that evening. After the talk,<br />
nineteen women and twelve men were opened. This all happened<br />
without any press publicity. No one had informed the press, because<br />
Bapak had recommended that in the U.S.A. all publicity should be<br />
avoided.<br />
Among those who had been contacted was George Field, of George<br />
Field’s Book Store. His book store was very well known because it<br />
specialized in philosophy and occult literature. Bennett said that<br />
Cooke and Field made most of the arrangements for Bennett’s and<br />
Bapak’s visits. George Field kept mailing lists of his clients, and<br />
circulated a notice about the talks John Bennett was going to give.<br />
Bennett was, of course, well known in Gurdjieff and Ouspensky<br />
circles.<br />
It was not only the Gurdjieff people in San Francisco who were<br />
interested. Laura Carol recalls that there had been a major exodus<br />
of people from New Orleans who came to San Francisco at about<br />
that time, and quite a number of Gurdjieff people from the French<br />
Quarter of New Orleans also became interested in <strong>Subud</strong>. They also<br />
herd about Bennett’s talks from George Fields. However, it was not<br />
only the Gurdjieff people who attended Bennett’s talks – Harun<br />
Taormina was there because the young lady with whom he was<br />
keeping company at that time, was into all the “isms”, and she, too,<br />
heard about these talks from George Fields, so of course Harun was<br />
there too – and also got opened. And of course there were others<br />
like him. It was a time when all sorts of gurus and mystical ways<br />
were being followed, and although may people were disillusioned,<br />
they went on being attracted to just about anything new.<br />
2
After a few days in San Francisco, the Bennetts went to Carmel on<br />
March 13 -14, and opened people there, and Bob Prestie went to Los<br />
Angeles on March 13. He went there because Earl Robinson had<br />
already told a number of people about <strong>Subud</strong>, and while Prestie was<br />
there he opened Robinson and others. He gave a talk at which, he<br />
says Ron Hubbard who founded Scientology was present, and so<br />
was Ida P. Rolfe, who asked him if he could persuade Bapak to come<br />
to start a group with in Walteria, a suburb where she had a group of<br />
people whom she was training in her methods, which later became<br />
famous.<br />
The Bennett’s went to Los Angeles on March 15 and this provided<br />
the opportunity for women to be opened, including Ida P. Rolfe.<br />
Within two days twenty-one women and sixteen men were opened.<br />
When Bennett got back to San Francisco, he says, “The number now<br />
opened in California was ninety-nine,” so he decided to defer further<br />
openings until after Bapak’s arrival.<br />
Bapak’s first visit to California.<br />
Bapak, Ibu Siti Sumari, Rahayu and Ismana arrived in New York on<br />
March 21, after a difficult flight from London. Ismana was pregnant,<br />
and Rayahu had suffered from airsickness for most of the journey.<br />
Coombe Springs had warned Alfathah Kerner that they would be<br />
arriving, and hotel accommodation for one night, had been booked.<br />
Alfathah had been opened when on holiday in Sri Lanka in January,<br />
during a visit by Icksan and by Muftiah Arnold who opened the<br />
women. She then joined Bapak and his party in Europe, before<br />
returning to join her husband in New York. He knew nothing about<br />
<strong>Subud</strong>, however he went to the airport to meet Bapak and his<br />
family. As Kerner was a member of the Sri Lankan delegation to the<br />
United Nations, he had access inside the customs, and could help<br />
them. He then took them back to his apartment – and on arrival Ibu<br />
lay down to rest. Ronimund and Sophie von Bissing, who had been<br />
opened by Rofė in England, were visiting New York at this time, and<br />
also came to greet Bapak at the apartment.<br />
When it was time to go to the hotel for the night, Ibu did not want to<br />
move. And so Bapak and Ibu remained in the Kerner’s bedroom,<br />
Rahayu and Ismana slept on the floor of the living room, and the<br />
Kerner’s moved in with friends. The next morning Ed took Bapak and<br />
his party to the airport, for their flight to San Francisco. They arrived<br />
on March 22, and Alfathah joined them on March 28. While she was<br />
in California, Bapak first told her to prepare for a visit by Bapak to<br />
New York, and after she had returned to New York, she received a<br />
letter from Bennett saying that Bapak authorised her to start a<br />
3
group in New York as soon as there were twenty men and twenty<br />
women interested.<br />
When Bapak and party arrived at the airport in San Francisco, about<br />
twenty or more people from the San Francisco group were there to<br />
meet them, including Alice Kent, John Cooke, George Fields and Vic<br />
Torrey, as well as Bob Prestie and the Bennetts. Bapak and his party<br />
stayed at a five-star hotel used by embassy people when visiting<br />
San Francisco, and when they got there, more people were waiting<br />
to welcome them. Bapak gave an informal talk, but did not want it<br />
to be recorded, and the next morning the latihans started.<br />
Torrey wrote to Rogge about all this a day or two after Bapak<br />
arrived. He said:<br />
“…Already the group is far too large and starting Monday we plan to<br />
run four relays of exercises a day in the Metaphysical Library…<br />
Nothing else to say except that it has poured rain and been very<br />
damp and yet 77 year old women, etc., have been coming out<br />
regularly. Guess I’m still the youngest in the group. I met Robinson.<br />
He seems like a wonderful person although a little bit older, greyer,<br />
and more wrinkled that I had expected.<br />
“Our main problem right now is space. Nobody had done anything<br />
and the same was true in England and Germany…Last night,<br />
Bennett turned away and sent home a number of people who came<br />
for the first time. Everything is up in the air and we do not know<br />
where we will meet from day to day. Bennett said that it took them<br />
ten days in England to get started and three weeks in Germany. And<br />
if we can do it in three days, we will be three times faster than<br />
England!...This has all been wonderful…”<br />
Bapak remained in San Francisco for only six days, and during that<br />
time Bennett says there were four general latihans and about fifty<br />
men and women were opened, including some from Carmel and<br />
Sacramento. During this period Bapak gave two talks at the<br />
Metaphysical Library. Then Bapak and party went to Carmel, where<br />
he stayed from March 28 to March 30.<br />
Either at this time, or possibly a little later, Mardiwati (Sylvia)<br />
Nicolosi-Brown arranged for Bapak, Ibu, Rahayu and Ismana to visit<br />
the then Governor of California. Ismana thinks that Mardiwati was a<br />
member of his staff. Ismana remembers:<br />
“…At that time we don’t have the proper dress…oh…[we were]<br />
really like girls who come from the village. [We had nothing suitable]<br />
for visiting the Governor!” Ismana laughed. “Only Ibu, of course,<br />
wore kine and kebaya. And we went there, and, oh! Everybody was<br />
so well dressed. Even Mardiwati was really elegant. And she looked<br />
4
at us in our Marks and Spencer dresses.” Ismana laughed again.<br />
“The Governor was very kind, and very nice to us. He talked to us<br />
and made the time for Bapak, and was very nice. But I could see<br />
that other people…[saw us] really like from the jungle sort of thing!”<br />
And she laughed again. [Marks and Spencer was an English chain<br />
store specializing in inexpensive good quality everyday clothes].<br />
Bob Prestie and friends collected Bapak and party and the Bennetts<br />
and they all went to Los Angeles – Bennett remained there from<br />
March 30 to April 3, while Bapak and party stayed on until April 6.<br />
There, a Mrs. Thomaset, formerly head of the Los Angeles<br />
Conservatoire, had place a house at their disposal, and all the party<br />
settled there – some using divans, sofas, and even the floor as beds.<br />
Bennett says: “We were ten people in a house with two bedrooms,<br />
but very happy to be together.” Rachman de Michele remembers<br />
this house as a small stucco building on Normandie and Wilshire.<br />
Later he discovered that Aldous Huxley – who was opened later on –<br />
lived in a larger house only one block away from were Bapak stayed.<br />
Bennett gives a description of this period in Los Angeles.<br />
“In Los Angeles the latihans were held in magnificient, large, but<br />
expensive rooms of the Park Manor Hotel on 6 th Street. About forty<br />
men and women had already been opened, and there were sixty two<br />
new people the first evening. More than a hundred were present to<br />
hear Pak Subuh’s first talk, which, unfortunately, was not recorded…<br />
“It rained nearly all the time we were in Los Angeles, and the floods<br />
were a serious menace to traffic in the coastal regions.<br />
Nevertheless, Bapak and the family were able to tour the hills above<br />
the city and also go to Beverley Hills and see something of the<br />
famous “Homes of 200 Famous Film Stars”.<br />
Earl Robinson had been chiefly responsible for the preparations for<br />
Bapak’s visit. He was the leader of a small group who had started to<br />
study the Gurdjieff and Ouspensky systems. Bob Prestie took over<br />
the preparations when he visited Los Angeles, and also brought<br />
some of his friends to <strong>Subud</strong>. They were not followers of Gurdjieff, or<br />
of any other ‘metaphysical’ group, and Bennett noted that there<br />
was therefore quite a difference of temperament and preparation.<br />
The Bennetts were exhausted by the time they left.<br />
The Bennetts then remained in San Francisco with a short visit to<br />
Carmel, for the next month. Bapak came back on April 6, and stayed<br />
there until April 25. On April 12, less than a week after Bapak’s<br />
return, Luthfi and Irene James arrived in California. They had been<br />
opened in Holland during Bapak’s visit there in 1957, and had then<br />
been with Bapak in Germany in January 1958. By the standards of<br />
the time, they were “long-time” <strong>Subud</strong> members, and Bapak asked<br />
5
them to join Bob Prestie in Los Angeles, so that Irene could do the<br />
latihan with the women, while Bob and Luthfi looked after the men.<br />
So they stayed only two days in San Francisco, and then went to Los<br />
Angeles where they stayed in “Bapak’s house”.<br />
At some point during Bapak’s three weeks in San Francisco, Bapak<br />
received an unexpected invitation to visit Australia on his way<br />
home. He agreed to do so, but also wanted to stay in California as<br />
long as possible. It was arranged therefore that he would visit<br />
Australia for just one week, meaning he could remain in California<br />
until May 26. As Bennett felt that one week would not be long<br />
enough to establish <strong>Subud</strong> in Sydney, it was decided that he and<br />
Elizabeth with the two boys would leave for Australia on May 3.<br />
Before the Bennetts left, Icksan Achmad, the husband of Ismana,<br />
arrived in San Francisco from Indonesia. It has been suggested that<br />
he was brought to California to replace Bennett as translator for<br />
Bapak, but in fact his arrival was already expected before it was<br />
known that Bennett would be leaving. He arrived in California on<br />
April 16. He was needed because there were now <strong>Subud</strong> groups in<br />
Carmel and Sacramento, as well as the two main centres of San<br />
Francisco and Los Angeles. So there were a great many very new<br />
members, and Bapak’s party, with the Bennetts, Bob Prestie and the<br />
James’s were at full stretch to look after them all.<br />
Bapak returned to Los Angeles on April 25, and stayed there until he<br />
left on May 26 while Luthfi and Irene James returned to San<br />
Francisco. They remained there after Bapak left California to help<br />
the <strong>Subud</strong> Centre. George Fields became the first “Elder” – shortly<br />
afterwards renamed, “Chairman”.<br />
At this time, there was no waiting period before people could be<br />
opened, and apart from Bapak’s talks, and Bennett’s lectures, and<br />
the work of Bob Prestie and the James, there was no real source of<br />
information about <strong>Subud</strong>. Bennett’s book, Concerning <strong>Subud</strong>, was<br />
first published in England on May 5, 1958. It was at this time, on<br />
May 16, that Bapak issued a document entitled “Bapak’s Statement<br />
for Helpers to Read to New People” – or what we now call “The Preopening<br />
Statement”. The translation from the Indonesian was not<br />
particularly good, but at least this statement helped, and it had to<br />
be read to every person who wanted to be opened.<br />
When Bapak left for Australia, the burden on Irene and Luthfi James<br />
was enormous. Although Bapak had appointed helpers – they were<br />
not yet permitted to open people. So the James were the sole<br />
“helpers” as we know them, for San Francisco, and they also opened<br />
other groups – Chicago and Portland, Fresno and so on.<br />
6
And what about New York? When Bapak left for Australia, Alfathah<br />
had already started to draw together people who were interested in<br />
<strong>Subud</strong> – but that comes a little later and is another wonderful story.<br />
END<br />
7