Myrtle Glines was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1908. In her family, she was the oldest of three children, with a younger sister and brother. As an adult, she was married with four children of her own. Suffering from crippling migraines which doctors were unable to alleviate, she found help in the study of Personology, a system of personality analysis developed in the 1940s in California. The insights she gained from this study enabled her to cure herself of the migraines, which she recognized as being stress-induced, and gave her a deep insight into the structure and functioning of the personality. She enrolled in a two-year training course offered by the Interstate College of Personology and became a professional personologist. She established her own school in Salt Lake City as a branch of the Interstate College, and it was a great success. She trained dozens of students to become certified personologists and helped thousands of people through her work as a human relations and marriage counsellor.

Myrtle’s success was due in part to her training and the effective approach to self-understanding that Personology offered, but mostly it was due to her deep love and empathy for people. She had a high level of emotional intelligence and a powerful intuition rooted in her compassionate nature. She also had a deep appreciation for the working of spirit in people’s lives, as well as in her own.

When her children were grown, Myrtle retired from teaching and left her school. She and her husband separated as well, not out of any loss of love but due to growing differences in their spiritual pursuits and outlooks on life. Myrtle began exploring non-traditional avenues of spirituality which eventually led her to attend, along with her younger sister, Lois, a metaphysical conference in Arizona where she met David Spangler, who was eighteen and in college at the time, and his parents. There was an immediate recognition between David and Myrtle that they shared a soul bond, that they had known each other in previous lives, and that they had work to do together in this life, though it was not at all clear what form that might take.

Two years later, David received guidance from his subtle colleagues that it was time for him to leave college and go to Los Angeles where he had been invited by friends who ran a spiritual centre to give lectures on spirituality. He phoned Myrtle to let her know, and she said she had also been invited by the same friends to offer lectures on Personology. The two of them joined forces and began teaching together with an emphasis on the unity and partnership between soul and personality. This led to the two of them establishing a teaching program in northern California, combining each other’s knowledge, insights, and skills to offer a holistic approach to spiritual and personal development.

David Spangler lecture 1971 Photo Kathleen Thormod Carr

In 1967, friends from the UK told Myrtle and David about the Findhorn community, but it wasn’t until 1970 that they actually had an opportunity to visit. That visit turned into a three-year stay during which time David became a co-director of the community with Peter Caddy and Myrtle became the unofficial human relations counsellor for the community, a job that proved not only necessary and important given the emotional challenges that could arise for people living in community but one for which her training, love, and wisdom made her eminently qualified. In time, she was joined there by her youngest son, Jim, who took on the management of the Shop for a time, and her younger sister, Lois, who was a counsellor in her own right.

Though most of Myrtle’s work was behind the scenes, her presence and contributions to the well-being and health of the community were every bit as important as those of Peter or David. Though not a founder of Findhorn, she, and her insights about the value of the personality as an important part of our spiritual wholeness, was certainly one of the foundations that supported the community’s growth.

Myrtle Glines Photo Findhorn Foundation

Publications

Findhorn: Garden or Jungle?, Findhorn Foundation Early Study Paper, also printed in New Age Journal and United Focus Journal, and The Kingdom Within compiled and edited by Alex Walker

Featured image © Findhorn Foundation.

You can find other stories about Myrtle Glines on our website by looking up her profile and by following this link to her tag.

David Spangler

I have been a teacher of subtle realities for sixty years. I am married with four children, all of whom live in the Pacific Northwest. I have a granddaughter and a grandson.