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It seems the staff, all newly opened Subud members, did not escape purification and change either. Patricia explained how, whenever any new member of staff came, even relief nurses, without exception they all went down with diarrhoea and vomiting for twenty-four hours.  There were also mysterious goings-on at night. "We regularly we found ourselves waking up and going downstairs at 4.30 in the morning, meeting up in the kitchen.  We just couldn't sleep, we drank coffee and played bridge until 7 am ...it wasn't until two or three years later Bapak told us 4.30  is the most important time for morning prayers!"

Another patient was a  young man who had had a motor bike accident he had also become very bitter about his condition.  He was unable to walk and was so angry he had isolated himself and could no longer get on with his colleagues. After a  three month stay at Brookhurst and twice weekly latihans his whole attitude and character changed, not only that, he made huge improvements in his walking. Everyone was astonished at the changes in him.

"Even though Brookhurst began so early in the life of Subud in Britain the latihan was central to every day life. "As nurses, we were to enter the rooms with the latihan inside us.  When we prepared the vegetables, or served the meals it was the same.  We were advised not to talk much to the patients, so as to quieten them and hasten their receiving.  We did a latihan with the patients three times a week. And with some children, while they were asleep, for Bapak said it was good for children who had an incurable disease to be opened."

Two young Thai princesses, aged four and nine, also suffering from muscular atrophy, were there for a while. Even though their parents were not in Subud, the children were opened in their sleep. The helpers did latihan with them at night twice a week.  Soon though, they knew what was going on, and would ask for the latihan gleefully - they loved it - not only that, the latihan brought them more mobility.  Sadly they were not cured and Patricia recalls how Bapak suggested children sometimes carry the family load, and the only way it could be cleared was if the parents came to Subud. 

"Rosemary Griffiths, much in demand as she was a fully trained nurse, says that it was her three months at Brookhurst Grange that kept her in Subud, so strong was the experience.  It was as important for the staff as it was for the patients.  "Bapak hoped that we would be able to stand in front of a patient and feel their illness, but that was beyond us."

When difficulties threatened closure, Bapak urged that "We must go ahead because we need to practice in this field"  Bapak himself laid down the structure of operation a board of governors, nursing staff, house staff and a quite a separate group of helpers to arrange latihans and care for the spiritual welfare of both patients and staff."  (In a talk he gave at Brookhurst,   (59BRG 1  59-09-15 ) Bapak was clear as they got bigger, the nurses and doctors should  concern themselves only with the care of the patients and that it was too burdensome for them to latihan with patients as well.)

The outer conditions were far from ideal.  The rooms in the house were much too large for individual treatments, including the latihan, which each patient required.  Its remoteness was hard on staff, though Bapak emphasised that its quiet isolation was a positive factor. But it was very expensive to run and in 1959 a report said: "It has only ten instead of the desirable twenty patients, and its viability is doubtful."  By the end of the year it was up for sale, in spite of Bapak advising that no money would be lost if it was kept. Indeed its value in other hands appreciated rapidly.  For sure, seen historically, Brookhurst Grange was one of the great learning grounds of Subud. Soon Patricia Lacey and her husband Richard were carrying to South Africa something of the inner strength and awareness of the healing power of the latihan they had gained in an isolated Surrey mansion.  Patricia concluded  "We did not understand till much later what really was happening at Brookhurst.  We hadn't a clue!  But Bapak did tell us at the time it was a training place for Subud."  "

When asked what would she have done differently, she says she would have been more diligent, more careful to encourage the patients who left to continue the latihan. People were only told that they would be given a spiritual exercise which would help them, they were given no idea of the direction, process and purpose of the latihan.  Very often the staff had no idea what happened to people after they left Brookhurst Grange.

This early experience of Subud health care is naturally a reflection of the time. It is also a testament to the courage and conviction of the Subud members involved, who with very little experience or understanding of the latihan, put their trust in it and took the steps.... 

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