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I came to Findhorn having been inspired by The Findhorn Garden book, and specifically the experience of communing and co- creating with the intelligence and consciousness within Nature. I wanted to experience that myself but in February 1978 the garden was buried under 45cm of snow in the coldest winter Scotland had experienced in decades. So there was no opportunity at all to work in the garden!

Instead I discovered something much more profound – that when I had the courage to be my true spiritual Self, I could change my life, making it a reflection of my most important values of love, respect and care for each other and Nature.

By doing so I could also change the world – something I’d felt a deep inner calling to do for many years. But until that time I hadn’t found any effective way to bring about real change. This was summed up for me by a quotation from the Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn pinned on the wall at Cluny. It said: ‘If you wanted to put the world to rights, who should you begin with: yourself or others?’

I realised that I had been trying to change the world by getting others – like polluting companies and corrupt governments – to change, but had not been willing to make my own life a reflection of how I would like the world to be. This was life-changing for me.

I was 24 and felt strongly that I needed to help make the world a better place, addressing what I saw as so many wrongs happening all over the planet.

Now I’m 66, so I’ve spent most of my adult life here, and I can’t think of any better place to have lived.

After I arrived, I began to find fulfilment through acts of service and was supported in many of the ideas I suggested. Whilst these were small in scale at first, they gave me the experience of taking responsibility for an idea and bringing it forth in the world. This was the learning I needed for what has become my life work.

To me this is summed up as ‘helping to heal and transform the human relationship with the rest of Nature’. It has taken different forms over the years, from working in the vegetable garden at Cluny, to setting up the community’s first recycling programme, leading workshops on connecting with Nature, producing annual calendars that showcase the beauty of Nature, and most significantly, setting up Trees for Life to help restore the Caledonian Forest in the Highlands of Scotland.

I started that in 1986 with no resources or previous experience in ecology, and 30 years later the charity I grew it into had planted over 1,5 million trees, owned 10,000 acres of land and had engaged thousands of people as volunteers to help heal and restore some highly degraded landscapes.

I had found my power to make a positive difference, not just in Scotland but elsewhere too. My TedX talk about restoring the Caledonian Forest has been viewed by over 400,000 people, and several other ecological restoration/ rewilding projects have been started as a result. That has all come about because I have been learning to listen deeply to my heart and to Nature (I felt that the last lonely trees in some of the denuded Highland glens were silently calling out for help), and then acting with total love and commitment. These are some of the key learnings that happen for people at Findhorn.

When Peter, Eileen and Dorothy founded the community in November 1962, they had very little in the way of physical resources. By following the voice of Spirit from within, and acting on that with total commitment and faith, they brought the Findhorn community into being. It has subsequently touched millions of people – visitors, people reading the books, or those taking part in workshops that Findhorn members lead in various countries.

The creation of Findhorn became the founders’ learning experience about the power that can be accessed from within, through deep inner listening, and the Laws of Manifestation that help translate that into action.

Trees for Life offered me those same lessons. I started with no previous knowledge, no access to land, and no resources to achieve the ambitious goal of restoring a natural forest to a large area in the Highlands! The story of the development of the Findhorn community acted as my inspiration. Many others have similarly used those principles to develop projects that range from the creation of a large art centre and a solar panel business to an innovative local car share scheme.

In the mainstream world we are taught that knowledge has to be learned from books, schools, universities and from others. This ignores the fact that we all have access to deep sources of inner wisdom, truth and power.

I still resonate deeply with Peter Caddy’s description of Findhorn as being a ‘training centre for world servers’ – a place where people come to undergo an accelerated process of personal spiritual growth in order that they may find their power to play their conscious part in the profound transformation that humanity is going through. If anyone resonates with that call then Findhorn is an ideal place to come to. The atmosphere is very supportive for anyone embarking on that journey or looking for their next steps.

Alan Watson Featherstone
Freelance ecologist + nature photographer + inspirational speaker
from Scotland
First Findhorn visit » 1978

Alan Watson Featherstone

Born in Scotland, travelled the world over for nature, photography and nature conservation. I walk my talk through my lifestyle and my work – both professional and volunteering. Proud father of Kevin.