Editor’s note: From 1977 the Findhorn Foundation (FF) held ‘Orientation Programmes’ to introduce new members to the Mystery School, our community culture and the organisational structures of the charity. The names for this programme changed over the years, amongst others it was called Orientation, Community Apprenticeship Programme (CAP), Foundation Year Programme (FYP), Living Education Apprenticeship Programme (LEAP).

This post endeavours to collate recollections to form a picture of this essential aspect of introduction to our Community over the decades and it gives quotes from Orientation stories in chronological order. We hope to get more stories relating to Orientation so that we can form a more complete picture.

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1976

In ’76 we didn’t have a formal Orientation programme.  I remember Joy Drake giving us a few simple group experiences; but it was basically All Hands On Deck then, what with the Cluny Renovations work going on, to finish in time to greet our first Coach Party that summer (to see out the old Mgt’s contract; part of the sale deal).  And then Ike of Ike & Maggie fame being photoed looking through a telescope down the front drive, because something happened with our first Coach Party not showing up when expected.  (Angus Marland & a bit of an older fellow who was there shortly w/wife, who were sharing the focalising job, missed the info about the cancellation between them.)  But finally, away we went, giving a 4-Star hotel service to those parties through that summer.

Ah, those were the days….and nights.  I was the Night Porter.  (Peter asked me to be.  I didn’t have a clue what I was letting myself in for.) Besides doing various cleaning jobs (especially mopping the hallway behind the Kitchen, & vacuuming & straightening up the Lounge), I was responsible for serving Early Morning Teas & making Wakeup Calls on the phone system, from a list given to me by the tour leader.  When the Coach Parties season ended, I was asked by more than one Member to continue the practice for the memberships; but politely declined……

The above are recollections, in 2025, from Stan Stanfield

1977

After doing the Experience Week we joined Orientation. Sanctuary, Meditation, Attunement, Manifestation and the workshops became the centre of our lives. Promotion came quickly and I was soon focalising Cluny homecare and in 1978 joined the guest department.
from Our Findhorn Story by Cally Miller

November 1977

Orientation November, 1977

Orientation group, November, 1977

The woman who was the co-focalizer for the Essence Program read my discourse and turned to her roommate Mary Inglis ( who was in charge of the upcoming November membership orientation) and said, “I said I think this person should come for membership orientation and not the Essence program and if he comes I am going to fall in love with him.” I did come for the guest week and then straight into orientation. She did fall in love with me and I with her. That woman was at the time Rue Wallace who is now Rue Hass my wife and soul companion for 40 plus years.
from Coming to Findhorn by Timothy Hass (1977)

Along with twenty-six others I began my Orientation* on November 17th 1977, the Findhorn Foundation’s fifteenth birthday, in Cluny. So many people wanted to join that there was another group living and meeting at the Park making us total 53.
from A Gift Dangled in Perfect Timing by Amanda Haworth

My Experience Week included the various elements of what was already a proven program: sharings with various community members, ROC audio-visual, outing to “a beautiful place in nature,” “group games,” “folk dancing,” and in sharings in the group, “I” statements, non-interruption, etc. At the end of the week, more than one person told me, “You’ll be back…” And I was back for Orientation, a few months later.
from My Findhorn story — Growing in Confidence by Charles Petersen (1977)

With the arrival of 35 new members for orientation (student member programme) in November, the size of the resident community here has doubled.
from CLUNY BECOMES COLLEGE by Ralph White From ‘Cluny Hill Notes’, Open Letter 14. in The Living Record – Cluny Chronicles 1975-78

Spring 1978

The three days I spent on Erraid led Alice and I to return to Findhorn after a short break, take up the members’ orientation programme and move to Erraid in May 1978 as Erraid Pioneers.
from “You’re going to Erraid” ! by Terry Ryan

Autumn 1978

 

Orientation Group 1978 photo Findhorn Foundation

Orientation Group 1978 photo Findhorn Foundation

Kathy Tyler, a meditation teacher and certified healer, arrived in the summer of 1978 after discovering the book The Magic of Findhorn, and initially didn’t like the place at all, “It was remote and cold,” she said, “even in summer!” However her house in the USA sold much quicker than expected and she found herself back at Findhorn for the autumn orientation programme, staying seven years.
from How The Game began

1981

Along with Alan Jacobsen, the Brockbanks and the Ripleys, we were pioneers and were called the Associate Members, although in 1981 I did the Orientation programme.
from Associates in the 1980s by Marilyn Barry

One of the requirements was that we should join the Foundation Orientation Programme, which we both did when we moved up a year later. It took people a bit of time to get used to a family moving up and even buying a house, and then not joining the Foundation. But doing Orientation was a great help for us in being known – something which many who came later and did not do Orientation struggled with.
from Associate Membership by Richard Brockbank

She did an orientation programme in 1981. She retired to The Park with her great friend Doris and they were both lucky enough to purchase two of the original cedar wood bungalows.
from Constance Marcham by Manda Stretch

‏Once bitten by the Findhorn bug, I knew that my next steps were to be there, so in 1981 I moved to Findhorn, attended the 3-month orientation programme and subsequently joined the Park Kitchen group.
from Kalikalos Authentic Holistic Community Project, Greece by Jock Millenson

August 1981

In August I joined the seven-to-eight-week Orientation group designed for new members, the only one not intending to join the Foundation. Richard did the next one where nearly half were intending to be Associate Members.
from You Are Not Going Without Me by Diana Brockbank

Early 1980s

How she heard of the Findhorn community I donʼt know, but in the early 1980s she did the year-long orientation programme, as it was then called, the entry to membership.
from Barbara Loveland [Gillians] – a eulogy by Gillian Paschkes-Bell

Autumn 1984

I did Experience Week in 1984 and returned in the Autumn to do Orientation to become a member of the Findhorn Foundation.
from Community Manifestation by Christa Gramatzky

1986/7

When new members come to the Community now, they enter an intense process of integration, including an orientation pro­gramme and two years of living here before becoming eligible to join the staff programme. Emphasis throughout is on attunement to the whole as a means of interacting and making decisions.
from One Earth – Free Enterprise in the Ashram (1986/7) by Andrew Murray

In 1987, I decided to do the 3-month Orientation programme, during which I had a number of ‘inner’ experiences that further opened me up (so to speak) to what I can only call ‘Spirit’.
from  An Incredible ‘New’ Family by Courtenay Young

May 1988

1988 Orientation group photo Findhorn Foundation

1988 Orientation group photo Findhorn Foundation

I returned to Cluny in February 1988, worked in the garden, did Orientation and became a Member, working in Cluny kitchen. I enjoyed the intensity and simplicity of a life that felt almost monastic to me.
from Circles within circles, a guided life by Cornelia Featherstone

1993

After considerable discussion it was finally agreed that:
Attendance at Foundation meetings for the purposes of making a decision shall be open to:
To Speak and Decide – Foundation Members [3]; staff builders and Foundation employees who have completed an orientation programme.
Silent Observers – Others as invited from time to time by the Chairperson of the Meeting.
from The Kingdom Within – The Problem of Individual Empowerment versus Collective Responsibility by Alex Walker

2024

Community Orientation Days – and how they came about by Hanna Morjan