About twice a week, Subud members go to a local center to participate in a group latihan, men and women separately.
One is recommended not to focus on any image or recite any mantra, nor to mix the exercise with other activities like meditation or use of drugs, but simply to intend to surrender to the Divine or the will of God.
[7] During the exercise, practitioners may find that, in terms of physical and emotional expression, they involuntarily move, make sounds, walk around, dance, jump, skip, laugh, cry or whatever.
[1] It usually entails an attitude of patience and trust, typically with some preparatory relaxation of thoughts and feelings,[9] and involves the whole human being, not just body, emotions, mind or any other single facet.
While the opinions of Subud's founder are often cited among its members,[7] the organization officially endorses no doctrine regarding the latihan's nature or benefits.
[7] Subud's founder speculated that the spontaneous movements which characterise latihan are similar in character to early meetings of the Religious Society of Friends which gave rise to the name Quakers.
[17] Preliminary methods used include listening to quiet music,[18] or else a breathing exercise intended to increase blood carbon dioxide levels followed by fifteen minutes looking at a strobe light while listening to music, both of these running at seven times the rate of the heart-beat in order to create an entrainment to alpha wave brain-state.