Stories from Lusijah Sutherland:
There cannot be a complete history of Subud Palo Alto without mention of Husain Chung and the key role he had in establishing a large and vital Subud group in Palo Alto. He was a well-known leader in the human potential movement in the mid-1960s. His psychodrama workshops were picked up by the Free U (a consortium of universities that offered free coursework to the community) and were widely attended.
Husain’s work was geared towards connecting with authentic self and soul. Some participants wanted to know where he “got his juice” and followed him to Subud. Many people were opened; Husain estimated around 200. The energy of the young people who had come through the Human Institute created tensions with other members. A former member of Subud Palo Alto shared his perspective: “imagine young people being opened in Subud who had experienced the freedom and authenticity from Husain’s workshops. They were just too wild.” After complaints, Bapak told Husain that people who had been opened could no longer attend his workshops.
Bapak did acknowledge Husain and the influx of new members and also wanted to make sure there was no confusion; latihan was different than psychodrama. Husain himself and many who came from the Human Institute were hurt by this decision and the ultimate result was the end of the Human Institute. Of those opened, some left, some stayed. Among the people who stayed are members who have subsequently and continue to fill leadership roles in Subud in both regional and national roles.
Our building, an old renovated barn, was bought from an Asian Christian Church which held our mortgage until early 2000.
By 1975, the center was filled with young families, many with preschool age children. The Subud House housed a Subud playschool, run by Halimah Van Tuyl, a gifted teacher. This experience certainly helped Subud members in Palo Alto to be better parents. We wanted to do things differently, to be better parents, informed by the latihan. We were all reading books about “I messages” and non-violent communication with our children. I saw fine examples of sensitive interaction between adults and children that was based on honoring of each child. I look back on this 40 years later, as extremely important in supporting how I would parent my children.
What was a group of young people in the mid-seventies has changed over the years as members and families moved away, moved in, and sometimes moved back to Palo Alto. With the evolution of “Silicon Valley,” the membership became more professional, with members having skills that fit in with the exploding high tech industry. I remember going to Washington DC many years ago for a congress and those from Palo Alto were asked to characterize our group. It struck me then that the group is highly educated, there is a high level of creativity; members are innovative both personally and within the group, good problem solvers. This is still true today.
The Subud house has been slowly improved over the years from its historic beginnings first as a barn and later a church in old Palo Alto. The purchase price of the Subud house was around $40,000 in the early 1970s. With the explosion of high tech driving the average sales price of real estate in Palo Alto today to more than 2 million dollars, we are very fortunate to have this house in one of the nicest parts of Palo Alto.
Stories from Lianne Card
Reynold Bean was chair of Subud California when the current house in Palo Alto was purchased around 1973.
There was a time when the group shrank partially because of the founding of Subud San Jose as a separate group. This was spurred by a large Filipino family, the Icasianos, who were all opened and who had a Victorian house in San Jose where the group first began meeting about 1983. The San Jose group persisted for a period of about six years. During that time as I remember it, it was the Clarks and the Hills that kept things going in Palo Alto.
Then the San Jose group decided to give up the uncongenial space they were renting in a warehouse and merged back with the Palo Alto group. It was at that time that there was a conscious decision to acknowledge that the members lived in a wider geographical area than just Palo Alto. That was when the name Subud Santa Clara Valley was used for the group. This followed the practice of other groups taking the names of their counties e.g. Butte County, Marin County, and San Joaquin County.
After the fall of Saigon at the end of the Viet Nam war, Subud throughout the world sponsored the immigration of Vietnamese members. Many Vietnamese members settled in San Jose and for ten or fifteen years were a significant part of our group population. I have fond memories of Saturday morning latihans with as many as five elderly Vietnamese women in traditional dress attending. And our potlucks were wonderfully diverse with noodle dishes and Susan Trinh’s papaya salad.
Stories from Lalia Helmer
After paying off the original mortgage in 2000 and securing several loans from Subud CA, Subud Palo Alto proceeded with a series of renovations to the interior and exterior of the house. The most recent renovations have enabled the group to rent the house to several groups that offer music lessons, Spanish language, yoga and similar events. This greatly increased the revenue available for the maintenance of our house as well as provided the group with funds that could support charitable projects and to increase our support to Subud CA.
