The Antidote stories

I began it with a purpose - to show that there is an antidote, I believe, to the present world situation, not through complex technological systems or political antics, but through the deeper processes of human change. And I believe that this change is brought about through the timely arrival on our earth of a spiritual force for the good, be it called the Supreme Life Force, the power of God, the Holy Spirit, or just (as I myself prefer) ‘a spiritual energy’, that is available today in full measure to anyone who asks.

I also began this book with two simple facts in mind. First, that although I was brought up the complete atheist, I am now a convinced religious. This means that I have been able to experience, as realities, many of the truths in the great religions. Not just read or ‘believed’ them, but, as I say, experienced them. Secondly, that a similar process of profound transformation has also occurred to many, many other people and through the same agency: the spiritual training that is found in Subud.

If such a transformation has any value today, then the method by which it came about deserves wider recognition and application. Hence this collection of stories, written by people who follow the training, by the spiritual energy, in the Subud latihan. (And for the meaning of these terms you will have to turn a few pages on to the Glossary.)

I chose the title Antidote because I am convinced, after some 30 years of having followed it, that this spiritual energy is some kind of divine force for the good and that it can limit and constrain the viler aspects of humanity. Though I can offer no proof of this conviction, at least these stories of the working of the Energy add the evidence of others who have experienced the same thing, whether through the latihan or some other path.

Looked at objectively, these tales are not fantastically wonderful. They vary from the mundane to the five-star miracle, as does the experience of their writers. But at least they are descriptions of the truth as they see it, and not the product of mass suggestion, emotion or imagination .

Salamah Pope,
Wisma Subud,
Jakarta

Index to Stories