This website began as a result of my frustration and disillusionments with the publishing houses available for Muftiah's two books:

"From The Shadow of The Rising Sun..."

"From Seven Hells... to Seventh Heaven... Subud..."

It seems that if your story contains both the worship of God, and some real life "not so nice" behavior, many publishers won't touch it. They can't find the proper audience or target readers.

Random House told us that she should re-write it as a novel, because she wasn't a celebrated person-author; and thereby could freely say those words: "Heavenly Father" "miracle", "miraculous", along with "divorce", "sex", and "sin" . . . . . all in the same paragraph. . .!

Frankly, they just could not believe here story to be the life of a "real" person.

"No one publishes or reads a biography of an unknown person."

Anyway, after many years of trying, I gave up.

. . . . . . . . .

After developing some experience in html code, I suggested to her that we just give the book away via the internet. We could retain all the publishing rights, just as you would with a book, but it would be available for anyone to read. We agreed upon this, and began to set it up.

I also began to contribute, and had some feeling that we call it
"Subud Stories", and ask others to join us.

So, what you see is our personal efforts, and some of our favorite stories.

The present format, the style is my design, but flexible enough to accommodate other members, depending on their preference.

Nothing is fixed, or rigid, technically, speaking.

We hope to make this a place where the Spiritual side of Subud is dominant.

There are many fine Subud websites already, and I praise their efforts. Subud...Stories is dedicated to personal accounts of the nature or essence of Subud, as told by us, for us. Not about, or for the organization side of Subud.

Our only external link is to the International website subud.org, a perfect starting point for anyone not in Subud, to get more info, or contact the various committees, centers, or dewans.

If this idea seems strange, or rigid, or if you have any suggestions to make improvements, please send meyour Questions, etc. I'm always open to other people's insights, and especially their inner feelings.

farlan . . .

October 17, 2007