This post was previously published in Findhorn Today – Papers prepared for New Synthesis Think Tank Conference October 1987 New York City.

Over the past twenty-five years the Findhorn Community has developed a unique culture and system of economic organisation. A certain amount of information[1] has already been published on the central tenets of this latter theme which can be summarised as follows.

1) Abundance. The world in which we live is not governed by scarcity, as most western economic theories suggest. Rather, there is a wealth of abundance available to all who can work with natural principles and laws and realise an existing potential. Such work does however involve a readiness to come into alignment with ones own and the collective’s true needs by a process of spiritual attunement, rather than through a desire to maximise convenience or profits.

This may be summed up by the following “Economics is the science which studies human behaviour as a relationship between ends, and abundant means which are limited only by our imagination.”[2]

2)Stewardship and Manifestation. The Findhorn Foundation is the charitable trust at the heart of the community. The primary work of the trust is spiritual education, and the specific strategy which has been developed to encompass its economic needs recognises that this form of work may sustain itself, but cannot be expected to finance its own growth. Thus the idea of ‘stewardship’ is the community’s commitment to being a wise caretaker of that which it already has, whilst ‘manifestation’ is the process by which the capital, materials, and skills necessary for growth can be both identified, and obtained from outside sources.

3) The Emerging Village. The community has not experienced linear growth, but the overall pattern has been one of slow expansion. Today there is an international population of 300 or so adults and children living and working in a variety of locations in and around the Findhorn peninsula. As this growth has taken place it has become clear that it is necessary to encourage a diverse economic base if the spirit which informs the entire community is not to be lost in a large and cumbersome unitary structure.

The Foundation itself has experimented with a diversified internal framework, but in recent years the main thrust of new activity has come from the growing number of individuals and groups who have decided to set up in business on their own outwith the Foundation umbrella, yet remaining in the locality. Such ventures have come to be known as ‘village’ projects, – a recognition of the increasing complexity and diversity of the economic life of the community. The village is not so much a geographical location, as a set of social and economic relationships united in spirit.

These new enterprises include limited liability companies involved in home and solar panel construction, the running of a caravan (trailer) park, and the creation of computer software. There is also an apothecary, a graphics design partnership, a healing and conference centre, two arts production concerns, and a variety of sole traders engaged in healing techniques, retailing, specialist wood carving, and so on. It is envisaged that the community Steiner School, bookshop, and mail order department will soon become independent establishments.

Each has a unique relationship to the society around it. For instance, one company is wholly owned by the Foundation. Another two have offered the trustees a minority shareholding, whilst others are entirely in private hands. Some organisations are completely new, others have grown out of activities that were once carried on within the Foundation. Some are run by ex- members of the Foundation, others by individuals who have never previously had a formal role in the community.

Although the Foundation’s total economic activity is expected to remain static or even decline during this period, the expertise and range of contacts it has at its disposal will continue to play a vital role. The Foundation has pioneered the development of an internal currency, and a credit union, acted as a guarantor and a lender, and remains the major provider of debate and initiative at the collective level.
It is therefore possible to see that this is an organic system of interdependent relationships, the structure of which bears more resemblance to Doris Lessing’s concept of “According to Necessity”[3] than any planned political economy.

These developments have a wide variety of ramifications, but the most important economic and financial challenges to be faced include the following.

a) Diversity of income – in the past the community has embraced individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds. Some have had wealth, some none, but all have benefitted equally from the collective. In the future it is clear that there will be wide discrepancies not just in capital wealth, but in
earned income as well. It remains to be seen whether this will prove to be a more contentious state of affairs.

b) Right Use of Land – land as a resource has always had a unique place in economic theory, and the complexities of the emerging village have provided some difficulties in this regard. The Foundation, which is the major land-owner, and has the express intention of developing the 22 acre Findhorn Bay caravan site, has a policy of “not treating land as a commodity”. This has meant that potential home builders are being offered rights of occupancy to a particular site, but not ownership of the land itself. This is a simple concept in theory, but in practice it is one which has discouraged traditional methods of financing house building.

c) Holding the centre – the growth of the village has led to a philosophical debate within the Foundation. Should it continue to see itself as a kind of ashram, offering a life of low or unpaid service to the faithful, or attempt to become a more business like organisation offering a higher standard of living to its members, but perhaps making greater demands upon them?

Secondly, being so large relative to the whole at this point, the Foundation has a unique responsibility to foster the smaller concerns emerging in its shade, but obviously, it must strive to avoid becoming seen as the sole provider of social benefits, or as an alternative welfare state for the unsuccessful.

Furthermore, in the past, members of the community tended to stay for a year or two and then leave to set themselves up elsewhere. Now, many people are finding it possible to stay in the area and start or join a new business. This has the advantage of retaining a valuable pool of experience in the locality. Equally however, there is the possibility of a ‘brain drain’ of the most able and entrepreneurial minded out of the Foundation, and into the village.

d) Maintaining the vision – concomitant with this, there is the difficulty of maintaining a collective sense of identity in a diversifying culture. The community has always avoided having any kind of formal dogma or creed, preferring to rely on a continuing sense of goodwill, and a recognition of the value of a stimulating diversity of beliefs. There are no western models to draw upon; the only available blueprint is the community’s faith in itself, and in the unseen worlds which guide it.

This last challenge may ultimately be the most important. It is clear that we inhabit a world that has little to offer by way of a convincing holistic economic model. Competing self interests vie for attention, and the disadvantaged suffer. The small business is often eyed with a mixture of envy and contempt, derided by the left as a means of self-aggrandisement, and ignored by the right which concerns itself with the powerful and organised might of governments and multi-national corporations.

The Findhorn Bay village provides a structure in which new relationships, ideals, and business methods can be developed. No doubt many pitfalls lie along the way, but the aim is a culture in which the production of wealth through individual and group enterprise is seen as a vital and healthy expression of our inner divinity; a forum for creative self-expression for the benefit of the whole.

The central task for the future essentially concerns the community’s ability to allow freedom for the individual and small group to develop their own modus operandi in relation to the perceived market need, whilst retaining a collective vision which will continue to inspire.

Alex Walker June 1987

Footnotes:

[1] See for instance – D. Spangler, “The Laws of Manifestation”, Findhorn Press, 1975
J.R. Slocombe, “Manifestation, Finance, & Right Livelihood” in “Faces of Findhorn”, Findhorn Press 1980.
D. Nicholson-Lord. “The Findhorn Factor”, London Times, 16.10.84.
A.L. Walker, “The Findhorn Foundation and Finance”, in “The New Economic Agenda”, Findhorn Press, 1985.
D. Cole, “Economic Organisation of a Spiritual Community”, Drew University, New Jersey, 1985.

[2] A corollary of this is the extraordinary role of work in economic theory. In standard models work is something which the individual has to be bribed or coerced to do, largely because of the assumption that capital is a more important commodity than labour. Yet everyday human experience belies this. All over the world people “work” in their gardens, workshops, and sports fields for recreation rather than remuneration. The Findhorn community addresses this verity by encouraging individuals to see work as a form of creative self-expression, an activity that has a social and spiritual value quite apart from, and in many ways more important than strictly economic considerations.

[3] Doris Lessing “Canopus in Argos: Archives”, Vols 1-5, Jonathan Cape, London, 1979-82.