Click to see whole book

Future trends for the Foundation are hard to predict, but it seems likely that the re-development of the caravan park with permanent buildings will take up a considerable amount of time and energy for the foreseeable future. The success of the educational programmes has been proven over more than fifteen years, and although it will require constant effort to ensure its continued excellence, the Foundation’s special place in the minds of those seeking spiritual alternatives seems assured. There are several initiatives to develop links between the Foundation and academia at present and they may well prove to be a major area of importance in the future.

The role and nature of spiritual practice in the Foundation also goes through changes from time to time. The current separation of Core Group with it spiritual focus, from Management Committee with its administrative focus, will presumably remain for the time being and may prove to be the point of inspiration for a greater element of overt spiritual practice and celebration, and a renewed interest in retreats.

Quite apart from these conscious elements of policy there appears to be a less predictable element of learning that goes on in the collective. The effects of this process may be compared to the pendulum of a clock which swings from one side to another. For example the financial excess of the mid seventies gave way to the austerities of the following period. This may seem to be an obvious example of cause and effect but other examples are more enigmatic. For instance in the days of the ‘Cullerne Garden School’ during the early eighties, the work ethic was absolutely predominant and phenomenal energy was put into the physical structures. Unfortunately this left little time for dealing with the human side of affairs and when the Garden School collapsed it was quickly replaced by a group which, for a while, had more of an interest in ‘process’ and a laissez faire attitude to productivity which was the antithesis of the earlier activities.

There are many other examples – too many members, too few members; too little accommodation, too much accommodation (this seems to be a bi-annual cycle); authoritarian structures versus relative anarchy; broken-down buses, new Mercedes Benzes; intense activity in the studios, empty studios, and so on.

Perhaps these are simply very ordinary events, and it is too tempting to read esoteric symbols into them, but there does appear to be a kind of collective learning process by which one emphasis has to be replaced at a later date by its opposite, a situation which it is not always easy to apprehend in the short term.

However, from 1988 to 1993 the most significant area of expansion in the Community took place outside of the Foundation itself, and it is to this that we now turn.

NFD Ltd.
New Findhorn Directions Ltd., the Foundation’s wholly owned trading company, was created in 1979. From 1979-83 its principal activity was Weatherise Solar, now a semi-independent company called AES Ltd. From 1983 to 1987 its main activity was running the commercial part of Findhorn Bay Caravan Park. Since then it has taken on a number of activities once run as Foundation departments, such as the Findhorn Press and the Phoenix shop, and added a number of new ones such as the Wind Park. Of course the activities of the company remain in every way very close to the Foundation as can be seen from its Mission statement below. Nonetheless it is significant that NFD’s trading turnover now exceeds the value of total Foundation income from education, donations etc.

NFD’s Mission Statement
“Celebrating Business As Sacred”.

In order to achieve this:
1. We commit ourselves to integrating an awareness of the presence of God into all our levels of activity including inter-personal relationships and our decision-making processes.
2. We commit ourselves to the creation of an environment that supports the physical, emotional and spiritual well-being of our customers, employees, managers, suppliers and shareholders.
3. We commit ourselves to the fostering of businesses that promote excellence in their products and services, always maintaining an attitude of respect for the Earth.
4. We commit ourselves to implementing all of the above in such a way as to generate sufficient profit for the further development of the company and the support of other areas of the Findhorn Foundation, like-minded organisations and our local community, and to be a source of inspiration world-wide.

The Board of Directors
May 6th 1992

Our Mission Statement reflects the hopes and intentions of many people. We do not believe it always accurately portrays the way things are at NFD so much as the way we would like things to be. It is our dis-satisfaction with current reality, when compared with what is possible, that spurs us toward excellence and toward creating a better person, company, and world. When NFD fails to measure up to its stated Mission Purpose, as it inevitably will at times, we should not despair. Rather let us take up the challenge together to bring our reality closer toward our vision.

The Wider Community
Even more growth has occurred in the wider Community. Some of this has involved the creation of educational organisations such as Newbold Trust and Moray Steiner School, and the programmes at Minton House. A great deal of it involves individuals operating small companies or as sole traders in a wide number of activities.

Integrating this growth has not been easy. Numerous titles have been given to different groups such as independent members, associates etc. and there has sometimes been significant confusion about the role of such individuals relative to one another, to the Foundation and to the Foundation membership. On more than one occasion we have been warned that we are in danger of creating several different and to a greater or lesser degree antagonistic communities, rather than one united by a common vision. Moves are now afoot to create a community organisation of some kind, but at the time of writing it is not yet clear what its role will be.

Much of the confusion stems from the fact that the Foundation is the owner of virtually all the available collective facilities in the Community, but finds itself unable to provide for everyone’s needs. Conflicting views about appropriate uses of for example the Community Centre and the Hall have therefore arisen.

The Basis of the Spiritual Community
Any group of individuals has a complex web of interactions which no simple description can ever provide anything more than a general guide to understanding. Nonetheless, comprehension of the Community as a whole can be aided by reference to the following diagram.

The Kingdom Within - Diagram of Spiritual Community
Its main features are:

  • There is a spiritual impulse here around which all connected with the Community are aligning themselves.
  • The ‘Hub’ of this Community is Core Group. The facilities directly associated this are the sanctuaries, the Quiet Garden, Traigh Bhan etc.
  • Gathered around this Hub are a variety of organisations and individuals who choose to consciously support this centre – the Foundation’s education and building programmes, NFD, Moray Steiner School, and all members and associates are part of this inner ring. Note however that the alignment is to the spiritual core, not necessarily to the Foundation itself.
  • There is an ‘outer ring’ of groups individuals and organisations who are here because of the spiritual impulse at the centre, but who do not necessarily wish to formally associate themselves with our work for whatever reason. The association in this case would be with the entire ‘Selectorate’ not just the Foundation.
  • Beyond this metaphorical outer ring there is of course the wider community of West Moray who have no association with our work.

There is no suggestion that those in the outer ring (or beyond) are any less spiritual than those nearer the centre, it is simply that they are choosing to express their spirituality in a way which is different from ours.

The above section is an amended extract from ‘A Five Year Strategic Plan for the Findhorn Foundation: Part B’; Unpublished Foundation report; 1992.

Other Items of Useful information
This section contains a brief selection of items of information that is not included in the main text, but which readers may find of interest.

Past Focalisers of the Foundation
Peter Caddy 1962-7?
François Duquesne 197? – 83
Jay Jerman 1983-87
Craig Gibsone 1987-91
Judy Buhler-MacAllister 1992 –

As explained in Section 10, Roger Benson and Joan Jerman were considered as co-directors of the Foundation for some time during Craig’s tenure.

Judith Bone became acting focaliser of the Foundation for several months during the 1991-2 interregnum.

The Founders Today
Eileen Caddy spends some of her time on speaking tours, and in visiting her extensive family, but her home base is very much at Findhorn.

Dorothy Maclean is similarly still active, visiting the Community from time to time. She has her home in Washington State.

After Peter Caddy left the Community he spent some time in the United States where he married Paula McLaughlin. Together they had a son, Daniel. They subsequently divorced, and Peter later married Renata Zurn. Sadly, Peter died in a car accident on February 18th 1994, shortly before his 77th birthday. His ashes are interred in the grounds of the home where he and Renata lived in southern Germany.

Lena Lamont is described as one of the ‘four founders’ in some early literature. Unfortunately our contacts with her and her family have ceased since she left, and her present whereabouts are not known.

Community Facilities
Minton House. Purchased by Judith Meynell and others in 1983, Minton has run a variety of workshops and other events over the past ten years. In 1993 plans are afoot to set up a charity – the Minton Trust – to embrace many of these activities, particularly retreats, workshops, inter-faith dialogue and ‘faith in business oriented events. The house will also continue to offer both bed and breakfast and longer term accommodation.

Moray Steiner School. Founded as a department of the Foundation in 1985 it was originally located at ‘The Family House’ on Pineridge and moved to Drumduan in 1987. The school, a company limited by guarantee with charitable status was formed as an independent entity in… The creation of the school was one of the most important achievements of Jay Jerman’s term as focaliser.

Newbold House. After a brief period as part of the Foundation, Newbold became an independent trust in the nineteen seventies. The many activities at Newbold are described in the Foundation guest brochure and require no repetition here.

AES LTD. aka Weatherwise solar. “Weatherwise’ was one of the first divisions of NFD under the direction of Lyle and Lisa Schnadt. In 1983 it became independent, returning as a partly owned subsidiary of NFD in the nineties.

One Earth Magazine publishes a wide range of information about community life. It was at one time a Foundation department, but it became independent in 1991?

Findhorn Bay Holistic Health Centre, which offers a range of health care services for the Community was formed as an independent charity in 1993.

Trees for Life, whose work is outlined in section 3, also became an independent charity in 1993.

Information on these organisations, and a range of other Community facilities is outlined in ‘Welcome to the Findhorn Foundation’, an information pack first published by the Foundation in 1994 as a guide to new members of the Community.