I think it must have been early in 1982 that Peter Caddy sent Roger Mostyn who was an architectural draftsmen, to persuade me to be the Project Manager to complete the unfinished Universal Hall. I really thought that this was a mad idea (me being the project manager although I had done that for Cluny Hill Hotel years before in 1975/6).

At that time Peter was moving away from the Foundation, and I wondered why he hadn’t asked me directly himself, so it took me quite a few weeks to take the whole idea seriously. At that time I had completed the interior decoration of Drumduan House as a workshop space, and I think that I was involved in education and was on the management team.

Once I had taken in the importance of the work I realised what a huge enterprise it would be with only eighteen months to complete a grant process and do the actual building and interior design.

Building on the Hall had had to stop due to lack of funds, and most of the building team had left the country. George Ripley, the only architect left from the original collaborative team of five, needed to be persuade to finish not only the concept drawing but the detailed drawings.

At that stage the outside of the building was there but only partially dressed in sandstone. The whole foyer area was empty, no staircases just breeze block walls. The risers for the seats were in the auditorium, the original benches covered in purple wool were in place and the beautiful beech floor was laid, sanded by hand and sealed.

However the walls were still bare, there were no proper public lavatories or disabled access and many things had to be changed to turn it from a private building, for private use only, to a public building not least the fire and safety regulations.

The only way it could be done was if the Beings that wanted it done, and done on time, helped us and, for me, gave me clear guidance.

The opening of the third World Wilderness Congress, about eighteen months away, which Vance Martin had secured for us citing Scotland as the last bit of Wilderness in the U.K., was the real deadline and I had to find the money.

Creating the grant application for the Scottish Tourist Board took me some time but I had had a practice run as Peter had previously asked me to get a grant to turn Drumduan House into an upmarket Conference Centre. I had done this and Sandy Barr, the then general Secretary, and I travelled to Edinburgh to see the Tourist Board.

The lovely gentleman at the Tourist Board said that he approved of that grant application and he’d recommend that it get signed off. Sandy and I were very excited, returned to Findhorn and found out a few days later that the said gentleman had died of a heart attack without signing our application, which as it turned out was just as well as The Scottish Tourist Board don’t give two grants to the same organisation and that left Drumduan free to become the School and the Hall application to be created.

This time, after I had most of the prices in, I estimated that we needed 20,000 pounds before the matching funds, so the whole amount that we needed to find was around 40,000 pounds.

However for me the process of creating the application for a new Grant was like wading through thick mud underground in the dark. I had to search about in the mud, find a stepping stone, place it in front of myself, step on it and then feel about for another one repeating the process for many weeks.

Our small Hall group, consisting of Nevena Silic, Roger Mostyn, William Martin and myself, were working hard in group meditation and cleaning the Hall every week, even though it was not being used. We kept the energy at every level as conscious as possible between us, the task to be done and what was trying to manifest through the Hall.

We needed the detailed drawings from George Ripley, and we realised that he too was having difficulty  bringing the vision through. The four of us visited him and he explained that he could not fit his beautiful semi-circular staircases into the foyer connecting the ground floor to the upper foyer. As we looked at the drawings, Nevena suggested that George reverse the position i.e. place them upside down, and suddenly the placing of the staircases became very evident and that is how they are today. The Group process always works in my experience.

When I had the Grant application ready, I took it to the Trustees and explained that however much the Tourist Board agreed to give us, they never usually gave money to complete a building and they never gave the full amount asked for. I presented three different estimates from a basic finished building to a building complete with carpets etc. Sir George Trevelyan seemed to be almost asleep as I explained why the staircases were so expensive, and then someone else asked why the handrail could not be made of rope! Quick as a flash I answered ‘fire risk’ and the gods were with me because suddenly Sir George became very present, raised his fist in the air and said in typical Peter fashion, ‘We go for the Highest, only the Highest is good enough for God.’

I then had to explain that the Foundation would have to find matching funds pound for pound if we got the Grant. Oh well, you had better go and find the matching funds, I was instructed! At this point I was almost ready to give up, but as I left the building I ran into someone and explained my dilemma. Where was I going to find about 20,000 pounds we could guarantee for matching funds? This person just said ‘oh my mother has just died and I can lend the Foundation that money,’ ah the synchronicity!

By this time we had one day left to get the grant to the Scottish Tourist Board in Edinburgh. At that time there were two telephones in the Foundation, one in the corridor of the Community Centre and the public phone box beside the shop for which you had to use coins. However we were told that we could not make phone calls in the mornings as they cost more than in the afternoon. I wanted to register the fact that it our application was coming in the post that day. However someone found me in the CC trying to make the call and forbad me to do it. I came out of the building in tears, feeling furious and misunderstood. I felt that I had spent months on research, I had prices for everything held for six months down to the last door hinge and I wasn’t allowed to make sure that the grant got registered in time. I felt like burning it! Again, serendipity. Binka Popov found me, dried my tears took me down to the public phone box, and between us we found enough coins to make the phone call with only hours before cut off time!

Finally after many weeks, I phoned the Tourist Board to see how we were progressing because, although I had alerted some of the original builders that we would be starting the completion process, some of them had to come from the States and Australia at their own expense and would be working as usual for board and lodging only.

The Tourist Board said, ‘you have been given the whole amount you asked for, you must have friends in high places’ and without thinking I just replied, ‘yes the Highest’.

However, although it was very clear on the inner levels that the completion of the Hall was to happen then, I had taken Vance Martin’s advice and asked our local MP to afternoon tea to show him the Hall and explain that we needed the grant and that the Hall would be a wonderful asset to the whole area. No local Council could possibly afford to build it. If anything happened to the Foundation, then well, here was a wonderful unique asset for Morayshire.

Now I never had afternoon tea, but my bungalow was one of the best. I had my own decent furniture and I schooled my six year old daughter Isla to behave so that the MP, who was very nice, got the impression that we were not a bunch of hippies and knew what we were doing. I’m pretty sure that’s what helped us.

After the Hall was completed and the Wilderness Congress finished, one of the Foundation’s critics in the local Findhorn Council was up in arms and wanted to know why we got the grant? What gave us the right to so much money?

Alex Walker was on that Council, as it was important that we integrate more with the local community and he called me into their council meeting warning me about the kind of questions I would get, such as ‘Why should the Foundation get a grant?’ ‘What had we to do with the real people in the area?’
I countered those questions with ‘Have you applied for a grant? Do you have a project that brings tourism into the area and creates jobs and money?’ Then I answered all questions truthfully, gave them the figures and gradually all the other councillors understood not only why we got the grant but that it would benefit The Village of Findhorn as well.

Much later I was told that the Scottish Tourist Board then used my application to show other applicants how to do it. Vance Martin and Sandy Barr both gave me invaluable help on the presentation and it never occurred to me not to enter every item that I could think of with written quotes.

There were however many jobs that George had just written ‘By Others’ meaning we had no idea who was going to do that work and we had no money for them, just for materials as far as we could guess. But how the gods helped with that is another story which you can read in Complying with the grant and completing the Hall ‘By Others’.