Jim’s notes from the meeting:

Jim O’Halloran

It was hot!  95 degrees.

Evan Padilla is the next  Susila Dharma International chair.  He plans to enact the receiving from testing about over the next 4-5 years.  Evan has proposed an SD dinner in Seattle sometime this fall, and Debbie has agreed to cater.

The next international congress will be in Kalimantan.

Other comments and reflections:

Ibu Rahayu  felt content was lacking in the congress.  The international helpers did hardly any content testing before Ibu spoke.  Afterwards they did a little more.

One member felt it was their least favorite international congress, but wonderful Latihans. Inconvenient, possibly due to being older.  The site was nowhere near anything.

Overall for most the food was not a big hit.  Good one day, but same menu for the entire congress.  Coffee was good.  Lousy service at hotel.

Another member had a very nice place to stay, cool, pleasant, inexpensive-Air BnB-easy to get to the congress, although a few stops away on mass transit.

Met people from Russia, Columbia, Spain, good groups, can tell they will stay in Subud for a long time.  Great stories about openings, including someone who pointed to a picture of Bapak after their opening and said that guy was walking around the room during their opening (!).

The Latihan was so powerful.  It was just incredible!

A regional member missed the bus and had to take a cab to Zurich airport. Another bus with the same destination would not accept his ticket, even though there was plenty of room on the bus.  The cab was very expensive!

Many expressed it was great to reconnect with friends from all over the world and to make new friends from all over!

Another member did 2-3 Latihans a day, testing in between and is still floating! One series of tests was how is it to walk under the influence of various forces.

We have new international helpers and chair.  Benedict Herman is a new international helper.  Benjamin Boyce is a new national helper.

A former  international helper mentioned their experience of receiving during testing for such situations was VERY clear and cut through questions from people who were not involved in the testing.

The congress had lots of entire families present, and they were very integrated into Congress- That was GREAT!

There are lots of young people in groups Europe, S. America, and L.A.; very vibrant strong groups.

The layout of the “Subud Village”  was a hit for many people, and led to flexible spontaneous interactions.  Young people designed the Subud village.  They started at the Freiburg meeting 2 years ago.

 

It was intentionally set up so it felt personal.   Marston has pictures.

Another member’s high point was seeing Eva Maria, former SGS member, now in Hawaii.  Husband Greg Doland was opened at the Congress.  His opening was very powerful- “hot stuff”  Balls of light, angelic beings.

 

David Lynch has a video of kid’s light show performance from dusk till night.  It included a big light lantern puppet!

 

Rachman’s photos and video regarding Greg Doland’s opening are in links on the SGS website.