FINDHORN’S IMPACT ON ME

Building the New

I started my Experience Week in 1979 thinking I could always split if the folks at Findhorn were nuts. Instead, that week had a hugely positive impact on my life. It reinforced my meditation practice and taught me attunement, blessing food, committing to the highest possibility when working, and cooperation with angels; all of which I still do.

After a clear insight I ended up living at Newbold House from 1984-1986. It changed my life. I discovered a gift for spiritual healing and used my counselling skills to help guests on their life’s path. Christmas opened me to the birth of light in the wonderful and profound Angels and Mortals game of secret daily gifts to a person before revealing our identities on Christmas morning. It was also the first time I experienced the Advent calendar, a wonderful reminder of the birth of Jesus, whose life has been an inspiration to me. Expressing the Christ consciousness remains a powerful practice for me, as does seeing issues from a global perspective, caring for the Earth as a living being and showing respect for all life.

I left Newbold House and set up my hypnotherapy, counselling and healing practice, feeling like an ambassador for the spirit of Findhorn in northern Scotland. Two people I helped, started buying books at the Phoenix bookshop, which led them to become devotees of an Indian spiritual teacher and buy a flat at his ashram. Then I moved to Norfolk where I ran adult education courses and became a tutor for the National Federation of Spiritual Healers.

In 2000, a guest at Newbold House, Marinka, led me to my next right step: teaching English in Slovenia. As a former teacher I was conscious that a common language makes understanding possible. After Slovenia, teaching in Mexico, Poland, Germany and Austria provided more opportunities to help build the new. In Germany I taught staff at Eurocopter, and once had lunch with a helicopter crew on leave from Afghanistan. In Vienna I taught teenagers and helped them perform comedy.

I’ve also spent several years in Lower Silesia, offering young people and adults, often in business and medicine, new possibilities by developing their English and learning more about the world outside Poland. One of my most treasured gifts there has been Eileen’s Opening Doors Within, which I read daily.

For me, the best spirit of Findhorn is the inspiring challenge to open to the highest possibility in each moment and express it for the good of humanity and planet Earth. I believe that as I fulfil my highest purposes, I help enrich the lives of those around me and the Earth.

The Findhorn community and Newbold are my spiritual homes. I will always be grateful to them and those who carry the Findhorn torch. May its light continue to shine brightly and illuminate the paths of many more.

David Pashby