Arriving at Findhorn

This follows on from my short story, “How I heard about the Findhorn Community.” In August 1970, about five months after Ian Campbell had regaled my Blackpool friends and me with stories of nature spirits, psychic little old ladies and cheese soufflés the height of skyscrapers, I could wait no longer to discover this magical sounding place for myself. So, on a summer weekend 1970, Ian and I took the overnight bus from Blackpool to Glasgow and stuck out our thumbs on the best route north.

Many lorries later we found ourselves walking bedraggled and hungry along the road from Kinloss towards the Findhorn Bay Caravan Park. Following our noses, we stumbled into the kitchen at the Community Centre and were indeed met with the welcome sight of cheese soufflé and baked potatoes. An elegant and commanding middle-age man in a maroon jacket came up to us with a smile and an outstretched hand. “Who are you?” he asked and we told him our names. “Ian, can you dig ditches?” he asked. “Yes,” announced Ian, and “Carol, can you type,” he queried me. “Yes, very fast,” said I. Come on in then, wash your hands and eat, someone will show you to the 7-berth caravan afterwards. That someone was Craig Gibsone, and later he also suggested we follow him through the sand dunes to a party on the beach. We were in! No experience week in those pioneering days, just the willingness to work hard and follow a few basic rules of kindness and being a team player. A few days later Peter asked me to come to his office next to the Sanctuary and introduced me to his secretary Dorothy Maclean. “Dorothy, this is Carol, she’s a fast typist and your new assistant.” A few days after that Dorothy put me to work transcribing David Spangler’s Limitless Love and Truth transmission audio tapes with Ed Maxcy, preparing them for publication. I was, as the saying goes, “Not in Kansas any more.”

Carly Newfeld

In the Park building 1971 listening to a David Spangler lecture. 
Easy to spot faces include Zanni and Michael Worth, Milenko Matanovic, 
Ed Maxcy, Carol (Carly) and Ian Campbell, Lois Christine and Myrtle Glines.