On 7th November we received the following sad news:

Dear Findhorn Community,

I am writing to share some sad news with you. My dear friend, Ingrid Mann, also called Tanya from Berlin, who spent some time with you at Findhorn, sadly passed away today.

I wanted to let you know, as I know that her time at Findhorn was a meaningful part of her life. I felt that the people who shared this special time and experience with her should know that she is no longer with us.

I hope that you will remember her fondly.

With warm regards,
Monika

This post is a place to collect memories and reflections from Tanya’s friends. Please add yours in the Comments below or click here to Contact Us. We’d also love to receive any photographs you would like to share.

***

Tanya Mann photo Rosita GastonRosita Gaston wrote the following in 2025:

About Tanya: She was born in Communist Romania and told me she felt she could never have her own thoughts because they were taught what to think at all times. She was railroaded into becoming an engineer like her father and she once told me she could design a whole factory including placing all the vast machinery required.

She escaped to Germany in her twenties, dropped Engineering and embraced Sufism.

At Findhorn it was Sacred Dance that she loved and taught after she left.

She studied Psychosynthesis with me in London, after she left, and met her partner there, but after many years they separated.

She looked after the refugees pouring into Germany years ago and had a group of young men to teach the language and German culture to. She really loved them and gave so much to them and on the day that Germany decided to send them back to their countries Tanya had a stroke. With excellent care she got better and overcame it.

In her last years she reconnected with Findhorn and wished she could return to live there, but couldn’t, being European.

On 9th Nov 2026 she added:

It’s such a strange feeling now Ingrid (Tanya) has died. I keep looking out at the sky as if I am searching for her. We were kind of twins, our birthdays very close, and we went through so much of life together.

Her last year was spent in an enlightened kind of nursing home in Berlin which she could go out from to the park and to the river, which she loved, when she wanted. She gravitated to all things beautiful and loved Sufi dancing and music. She had silk veils and lovely colourful clothes for dancing in. She was a dancer at heart. I shall miss her so much.

***

Sean Gaston writes about Tanya: I am so sorry to hear about Ingrid/Tanya. She was gentle, graceful, eccentric and kind. A true dancing Sufi.

***

Giles Chitty writes: Tanya, steady, loving and loyal: Clare and I valued her friendship and reconnected on ZOOM in the last year or two. We shall miss her.

***

From Roger Doudna: Sad news indeed. I remember Tanya well from my early days in the Ed Branch of FF. She represented Newbold, as I recall. She was also a Sacred Dance enthusiast. And, more recently, she appeared religiously on Cullerne House Zooms and followed its evolution keenly as both an investor and supporter. She will be missed.

***

Cornelia Featherstone: I have met Tanya more on Zoom than in person. Throughout the Extended Members Zoom calls during look-down in 2021/2, innumerable NFA Community meeting and also the Cullerne House Zooms, she was always there, always caring deeply for this place. During her last visit a few years ago we also met in person for a good catch-up. During her previous visits we’d met more in passing, our shared roots in Germany always a point of connection. Travel well, dear Tanya, may your next adventure be joyfilled. We will miss you!