This article was first published in One Earth magazine No 7 in Summer 1979.

The following material is taken from a transmission by David Spangler (from his Higher Self) during 1971. Although the initial question was a specific request for information on the proper business system for the Pineridge Studio businesses and the use of computers in the New Age, the principles and values relayed in the answer have lasting universal appeal. The original transmission was broken into titled segments to help identify the main points. This format has been retained.

HUMAN ECONOMY AS A MICROCOSM OF DIVINE ECONOMY

Business as  you know  it holds within itself characteristics which are true for all functioning throughout the universe – characteristics of energy exchange which are necessary in any system involving two or more centres of power and expression. Human economy is an attempt to manifest in the human social world the principles and laws which are found in the economy of creation itself.

INTERDIMENSIONAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTION

The problem is one of distributing energy from one dimension to another—in this case, of making available to consciousnesses whose attention is fixed on material form, insights, inspirations and energies coming from a higher dimension where consciousness is not so fixed or limited.

BRIDGING INNER AND OUTER WORLDS

The gap between what might be called the inner world and the outer world must be bridged. This remains the problem for beings dwelling in the physical world but maintaining an intimate attunement to higher levels. A centre such as Findhorn was created to fulfil the need for transporting or transforming the insights, inspirations and energies of one level of life to another, and to do this through various means: demonstration, teaching, literature and the production of the artistic centre.

THE OBJECTIVE AS A CONCRETE FORM OF CONSCIOUSNESS

But the objectives to give concrete form to a consciousness so that consciousness can be perceived and understood by individuals who are not able at this time to perceive or appreciate the subtler levels of life. They cannot see a consciousness directly; therefore, they must see it indirectly through its effects. This has both a personal meaning and a world meaning, because each of you within the dynamic system of your life is seeking to draw to yourself energy for functioning.

OUR PERSONAL INTERNAL ENERGY DISTRIBUTION

You each intuitively know that you have an attunement to an infinite and unlimited supply of energy, variously called God or Christ or your higher self or the inner plane or whatever symbol serves to designate for you that source of limitless supply. Yet you function physically, mentally and emotionally within a vehicle that perceives finiteness, a beginning and an end. Hence, a beginning to supply and an end to supply. In your inner economy, then, you are attempting to transfer energy from your limitless levels of consciousness to your limited levels so that they are nourished and supported.

PRODUCTION FROM AN INTEGRATED CONSCIOUSNESS

You also seek to accomplish this collectively through the means I have already described: of making available to other people’s perceptions the concrete evidence of your consciousness and of your attunement. Unless these two conditions are fulfilled, you do not fulfil your reason for existing as a centre. Now this reason holds true for all aspects of this centre. Though you may be separated legally from one another (Findhorn Studios versus Findhorn Trust), that separation is purely for human convenience. All that you produce on all levels and in all areas of this community and centre must come from a single integrated consciousness.

JURISDICTION OF OVERLIGHTING BEINGS

Nevertheless, different parts of this centre are under the jurisdiction of different beings who hold within themselves the particular attunement or the particular manifestation of the Divine Whole. Thus it is that all activities at Pineridge come under the jurisdiction of a being whom we shall call the god of talent and art (Apollo in ancient designation) and his assistants, the muses. However, this overlighting is not restricted only to what is produced in an artistic category, for it overlights all activities including the training and development of children and the development of business.

ALL OUR ACTIVITIES ARE ASPECTS OF THE SAME UNFOLDMENT

For human convenience, you may divide your activities into certain categories: education, business, art, gardening and so forth. But in your own awareness realise these divisions do not exist in essence. There are corresponding energy flows which complement these divisions but all these energies flow from a single source. Therefore, the business cannot be set aside and considered in distinction to the arts or education or the garden. They are all aspects of the same unfoldment. That is, they are all seeking to fulfil a basic economic problem—how to deliver from higher realms goods that are needed by people on the lower realms.

WE ARE ALL CHANNELS AND DISTRIBUTORS OF HIGHER ENERGIES

Each of you represents an outlet as well as a centre of distribution. And to the extent that you unfold your creative power and can generate divine energy, you become wholesalers—you become manufacturers and suppliers of raw material. Within each of you as a dynamic living system is contained the entire framework of all human business systems which are nothing more than the intellectual equivalent of organic life and a manifestation of the laws of energy exchange. This understanding, we feel, is basic lest your consciousnesses, seeking to intellectualise too much, become lost in detail and lose sight of the basic problem and the basic vision.

THE PRIORITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS OVER FORM

Therefore let us say quite clearly, it is not your function to establish the pattern for new age business, new age art, new age fashion, or new age education. It is your function to establish the consciousness which is the perfect channel between the limitless areas of being and the finite areas. As this is established, as you fulfil your own inner dynamics, then you cannot help but create new age forms in these given activities. I must emphasise this because it will be a tendency of beings functioning only from mind to attempt to establish the pattern first and the consciousness second. It must, however, move the other way around. The consciousness must be present, then the pattern will naturally unfold.

A NEW CONSCIOUSNESS AS THE SINE QUA NON FOR NEW AGE BUSINESS

What would constitute a new age business? It is just this: that those who comprise it exist and live in a different state of consciousness than those who express themselves within the framework of an old age business; otherwise there may be little difference. The law of supply and demand, the laws of acquiring raw material, processing it into a finished product, distributing it to where there is need, and receiving in return the compensatory energy which completes the cycle—all of this is a manifestation of a basic divine law, or series of laws; and all business, if it is to succeed, must in some way reflect these laws in the human economic state.

DIVINE LAW AS A FRAMEWORK FOR GROWTH

Therefore, these laws will be no different in the New Age than they were in the old age; which is why, if you seek to find different forms you may simply become confused. What will differ is the consciousness and its ability to utilise these laws. For the laws are highly flexible, that is, they permit functioning at several levels of skill. The laws do not restrict; they simply provide a framework for growth. And as growth occurs, the consciousness can utilise the laws to greater result. This was discussed by the being who is St. Germain in terms of manifestation.

THE PERCEPTION OF A NEW AGE BUSINESS SYSTEM

What is needed to be  done at this time with reference to the Findhorn Studios is not to attempt to perceive what a new age business system is. That is out of timing. That must unfold from consciousness—human consciousnesses that have become attuned to the wholeness within themselves.

A PRACTICAL OPEN-ENDED SYSTEM NEEDED NOW

What you do need, however, is to establish that practical system which will work for the immediate needs of the studio at this time and provide an open-endedness for growth (i.e., expansion involves only adding to the system already existing) so that the system will not require complete re-design at different stages of growth but will be will not require complete re-design at different stages of growth but will be able to expand smoothly as the consciousnesses and the studio expand.

THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF LACK

I wish to elaborate on this in terms of the difference in consciousness between the business you are establishing and that which is customarily established in human economic society. In human society man has the basic consciousness of lack. He perceives he is a being surrounded with abundance and in some way he must acquire his share of that abundance. However, no one is giving him his share unless he contributes something, which is indeed as it should be. He feels that he must move into some form of action in order to draw to himself that which will fulfil his lack, fulfil his needs. He must, in other words, earn a living. Therefore, he establishes his business, not so much to create a product and make it available to fulfil a need, but as a means to an end.

BUSINESS AS AN EXTENSION OF NEED FULFILMENT

He establishes his businesass as a means of satisfying some need within himself, which may be a need for food, clothing, shelter, approval, power, security, intellectual satisfaction and a need to demonstrate to himself that he is capable of competing successfully. Therefore, man’s businesses become tools to satisfy these personal needs; they become instruments of manipulation. And it is when you have a proliferating number of instruments of manipulation at work in your society that confusion is created.

THE CREATION OF ARTIFICIAL NEED PROHIBITS ENERGY FLOW

The consciousnesses involved must create for themselves a market for their product, since in many cases the product is not created in answer to a need. Therefore the consciousness of need must be projected into the mass awareness, and need created. Intrinsically, this is not in itself a wrong action; but when carried out by consciousnesses that are under the pressures of their own lack, hence insecure and fearful, it creates a condition of competitiveness and pressure which prohibits full flow of creativity and also prohibits the laws of divine economy from working out.

THE LAW OF DIVINE ECONOMY

It was stated by the Christ that just as the flowers of the field do not toil or spin yet are clothed in raiment greater than Solomon, so it was true for man that all his needs were supplied. This was a statement of the basic law of divine economy. When consciousness forgets this fact, and forgets the equally important law that if it searches within and finds its wholeness all else is supplied, then it cuts itself off from divine economy and must work with a shadow economy projected within the field of human endeavours.

BUSINESS AS CREATIVE FULFILMENT AND SPIRITUAL NOURISHMENT

Business in the New Age will not be created as a means of earning a living, though it will indeed fulfil this function in that it will provide a channel for the flow and circulation of energy to and from various sources. It will be created as a means by which a consciousness can fulfil its creative power and offer to the world the produce of its creativity. And if that produce has been infilled with the vibrations of love, wholeness, light, divine pride, beauty and perfection, it will automatically attract other consciousnesses to it. It will be a source of nourishment on a spiritual level. It creates its own market.

BUSINESS AS SERVICE

The purpose of the Findhorn business is, indeed, to assist in the circulation of energy known as money, both from and to this centre and the people involved, but that is not its primary function when seen in relation to the whole. It is simply another aspect, another means by which a total consciousness of service, love and revelation can manifest itself into the human condition. To create a new age business you must first abolish from yourselves the consciousness of lack and must manifest the basic principle of this centre: that all your needs are supplied. This is fundamental. Without it you cannot create a new age business.

BUSINESS AS REVELATION

You must know that you are not creating an economic device designed to place you into a competitive state. You are creating an artistic device designed to reveal, to make manifest, to illumine, to uplift and to inspire. It can still have all the forms of old age business: departments for purchasing, production, distribution, marketing, analysis and so forth so that balance, harmony, and the laws of right functioning and economy of energy are maintained. That is not in question. But if the consciousness is centred and attuned to its fullness, then these business forms cannot help but reveal, inspire, uplift and illumine.

GOD MARKETS HIMSELF THROUGH LOVE IN ACTION

It is not wrong to say that God has the same problem that you are facing: how to market Himself and distribute Himself to the many infinite centres of consciousness that may not be aware of Him. The laws of manifestation, of knowing, of setting up a consciousness that attracts to itself all it has need of because the consciousness holds, as a reality, that which can give of itself knowing that what it gives will meet the needs of others—these are the means that God uses to reach his infinite parts. It is love in action drawing all that have need to all that fulfils that need, when this can be allowed to function through a relaxed and uplifted state.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS

I have been stressing consciousness because that is where the basic work must be done if you are to create a new age system. It does not matter whether this system operates in the most primitive form of manual paper work or in a highly computerised form. It can still, in either case, manifest a new age business if the consciousness is proper.

THE MARRIAGE OF BUSINESS AND THE ARTISTIC

The running of the business, the administrative side, should not be totally divorced from those who are involved in the artistic and creative side. There are two reasons for this:

BUSINESS AS AN EXPRESSION OF WHOLENESS

The realm of business has become a separate level of functioning in human society. It establishes itself, often, as if it were an end in itself, which it is not. The functioning of new age business should be within the hands of those who are knowledgeable and skilled in making the proper contact and harmonious inter-relation with the economic system of your world. However, it should not be totally in the hands of people who are simply business oriented. It must be an expression of the wholeness of human life.

THE INERTIA OF THE WORLD ECONOMIC SYSTEM

Because this is not accomplished in normal human society, you have conditions where people in great need are left in great need—impoverished, without food, proper housing or proper care. The economic systems of your world cannot easily move to meet those needs, for if they did, they would shatter your entire economic structure which has built itself up to be a law unto itself. If at any point that law is broken, the entire structure will tumble.

BUSINESS AS A SERVANT OF LIFE

Therefore, the business  pattern must be attuned to laws of the wholeness of man and life and be seen as a servant of this, never as a separate entity in itself. With reference to the Pineridge energies, the business cannot be simply, shall I say, analogous to a mind placed upon feeling, intuitive level (analogous to George Orwell’s 1984—to a very sophisticated computer system); it cannot be something which is a separate intellectual construction. It must be fused completely with the artistic energies and with the energies governed by Apollo. Therefore, those who run the business must be attuned to the artistic flows, and those who are artists must be aware of the business aspects so that the two are completely merged.

GROUNDING THE ARTISTIC IMPULSE

The second reason [for uniting the artistic and business impulses] is to anchor the artistic energies and prevent the artistic temperament from becoming ungrounded, unbalanced and unaware of the practicalities of placing its energy and creation into usable flows. Both sides have much to offer to each other, therefore both sides must be blended. The business, or the administration of the business, should not be removed totally from the hands of the artists. The artists should not set it aside completely as being a distraction from their normal tasks. It should be established in such a fashion that the artist does not have to spend a significant portion of his time involved in administrative detail, so that he can accomplish the function that he is born to accomplish.

A FLEXIBLE, SIMPLIFIED SYSTEM

For this reason, the system that is established should not, at the outset, be beyond the capabilities of [the] management and understanding of the artistic community; therefore, it should not be totally computerised. It should establish itself at this time within a simple system which can be handled manually, if necessary, and understood in its component parts by all involved; but flexibility should be present so that automation can be entered into as soon as there is a need, as soon as the expansion of the business warrants it. The business side must be integrated yet, until this occurs, it should not expand into its full potential of automation.

SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS

Therefore, establish at this time a system which can cope with the immediate needs of ordering, of production, of fulfilling sales requirements and so forth. Simplify it as much as possible, but make it flexible enough that it will not break down when expansion occurs. Educate those in the artistic community into the functioning of this system so that they are aware of it. They do not have to become enmeshed in its details, but they must be aware of it, just as the business side must be aware of and attuned to the inspirational and artistic energies. In this way the new age business will unfold step by step to meet the needs as the needs arise.

THE HUMAN ELEMENT AS AN ANCHOR

The human element is still needed to anchor the vibrations and energies into the business and administrative system, for it is through humans and their consciousness that the energies of the overlighting forces flow. Those who can be developed to handle the administrative side (and, eventually, the automated and computerised functioning) must also become integrated and attuned to these overlighting angelic presences so that at no time do they become divorced from them. The machine must be simply an extension or an aid to the distribution of the energies of inspiration, as represented by the concrete form of a woven object or a pot, whatever is produced. [The] machine should never impose its own requirements upon this flow of inspiration and upon the flow of attunement. It should be, simply, an aid to the efficient manifestation of this flow.

PLANNING AND FORECASTING, OLD AND NEW

In the old consciousness man must plan far ahead; he must take into account changes in market patterns and attempt to project these trends into the future to establish the guide-lines for his production. In the new age consciousness this becomes less necessary, for the function of the intuition is to accomplish this itself. You are not at that intuitive point, but you must realise that is what you are moving toward and not place obstacles in your way, putting too much reliance upon purely intellectual analysis.

THE TRANSFORMATIVE OBJECTIVE OF BUSINESS

One purpose for this is that your objective as a business is not exactly the same as the objective of a business in the outer world, which is to enhance its economic and competitive position. Your objective is to release to the world that which will transform it and, at the same time, to fulfil the law by creating a channel through which energy may be returned to you for your nourishment and for your functioning. This is why you will sell your products for this provides the return, and this is quite important. You do not need to and will not compete for markets, for if your consciousness knows of its attunement, markets will open. They cannot help but do so.

THE MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTING OF NEEDS

It is all in the hands of the divine economist. As you become more aware of a true need in society, then you can move to meet that need through distribution. But the needs will be brought to you, and you will know where you should market your goods and these in turn will trigger further markets. But this will only flow freely as you can release the process and concentrate upon creating the forms that will embody the presence of the Beloved. The business should be simply a means of making this process of distribution a smooth one, for at this time it is not your function to become economically competitive. You do not need to do this. All your needs will be supplied.

NEW AGE ADVERTISING

In the future, new age business will be seen, not as an end in itself, but simply as a means of satisfying the requirements of energy transfer between a point of high supply and a point of low supply, so that balance is maintained, and as a point of distributing the power of revelation. If you conceive of, say, a new form of pottery or a new type of jewelry, you have revealed something—but the world is unaware of that. Therefore, you must have means of making the world aware of what you have revealed. This is in the form of advertising and distribution, but not advertising to create a need advertising, however, to announce a revelation.

COMPUTERS AND THE REORIENTATION OF VALUE STANDARDS

There will come a time when computers will be most useful, both to this business and to business as a whole. Indeed, it is quite possible within the functioning of computers to re-orientate your monetary system so that different aspects, or, I should say, different qualities, become the basic media of exchange and standard of value other than tangible objects. When this is accomplished, man will be able to reflect his true economic worth rather than an economic worth measured in terms of raw material and production alone—in other words, finite standards.

 

At this time I will ask if there are questions?

Q: Should we consider, in our running of the business, the economic survival of the business, since we are dealing with the outside world?

RESPONSIBLY USING ENERGY

In the form of your structure and system you must establish yourself in a pattern that is respectable and which inspires confidence in the eyes of the outside world. This is also true if you realise that what you are dealing with in terms of money is simply a symbol of energy. Energy is from God and not to be used irresponsibly. Only the consciousness that can use economic symbols responsibly can use the reality of the God life responsibly, for the two are intimately wedded.

INTELLIGENT, CRYSTALLIZED ENERGY

See the problem in the following light: You receive energy which you invoke; it takes form. That form is simply light, love, truth. It may be crystallized as a dish, teapot, rug, dress or a book; nonetheless it is God-light, crystallized. Because that light has intelligence, because that pot or rug or book is alive, it will move to that point which can fulfil its living destiny. In other words it will find its buyer. It will move out from the centre which has created it.

CONSERVATION OF SPIRITUAL ENERGY

Yet, that energy can never move out; it is of the oneness. All that goes forth must return. There must be this complete cycle; it is a law. Therefore, that energy of light, of love, of truth, of wisdom will return to you in the form of a symbol which is money—that which is given to you by the buyer, which is simply his created expression. And when that energy returns to you, it is still God energy. In essence nothing has changed.

ENERGY TRANSMUTATION AND ENRICHMENT

There has been, in the physical realms, a transference of forms, but in the spiritual realms energy is still there, save for one difference: the energy that returns to you has been multiplied. It is stronger by virtue of the fact that it has gone forth, returned, and has gained in energy along the way. Therefore, you are enriched. This is seen financially in that the amount of energy you put into the object, in terms of money, is not what you sell it for. The margin of your profit represents your energy enrichment on a financial level. But this is only a symbol of the enrichment of energy.

GROWTH THROUGH CREATION

As stated by the Christ when he said, ‘You may cast forth your produce and it will return to you a thousand fold,’ this is profit, and that must be used. That is what life is about. As man learns to create, he learns to accept what that creation does to him. If he creates skilfully, his creation will expand and return to him and make him greater than he was. If it only returns to him and makes him the same as he was, then nothing has been accomplished; there has been no true growth.

THE PARABLE OF THE TALENTS

Observe, if you will, the meaning behind the parable of the talents and the servants who invested or did not invest their talents during their master’s absence. Therefore, what is returned to you is a profit, a surplus of energy, a measure of growth and [an] expansion of being, What then will you do with this expansion of being? Will you allow it to be dissipated? Will you allow it to remain at the level of the status quo? Or will you, in turn, invest it in such a way that that expansion becomes manifest on the physical level?

EXPANSION AND PROFIT

This 1s known in the economic pattern as turning part of your profit back as capital to provide for expansion of the business, Setting it aside, for example in savings, until the time is proper, the forms can be created and the growth can be manifested on the physical level. Part of this may go forth in the form of wages and added wages, which is simply another way of describing the enhancing of the growth of the individual dynamic system and providing for expansion of its own being.

ECONOMIC RESPONSIBILITY ANO THE PROVISION OF GROWTH

All your ec0nomic patterns are symbols of divine realities. If you can see these realities, then you can use the economic pattern with wisdom. You must make your business economically responsible. It must provide for growth. It must be viable in that sense, for that fulfils a basic law of creation. As you send forth, it retums to you expanded in its measure.

CREATIVE FULFILMENT

You must take that expansion for the profit of experience and apply it to yourself in some way, If you apply it wisely, you will continue to grow, and you fulfil your purpose of being as a creator. If you dissipate it, do not apply it wisely, then you do not grow, and you must repeat the process until you learn the lesson.

Q: How should we enhance energy in the form of profit to establish the selling price of the articles produced by the studios?

EVALUATING SELF AND PRODUCT

This is the product of several factors. It is a product of your own consciousness, that is, the consciousness of the creators. What does it wish as its return? What does it feel it is worth? This is an exercise in self-evaluation and evaluation of the product. Man’s tendency is either to undervalue or, at times, to overvalue—though, more often than not, he undervalues. This is a point of growth for all of you who will set the value of what you produce. That is one factor.

MARKET AWARENESS

Another factor is an awareness of the market itself. But this is a secondary factor. If you are attempting to [be] competitive, then you must be very aware of the market. If, however, you know that what you produce will attract to itself those who have need of it, those who wish it, and those who can return to you the enhanced energies, then you will be less concerned with the market. Though you must be aware at all times of the relationship between you, as the creator, and the rest of creation and its ability to absorb that which you send forth. If you send forth that which is out of context, cannot be absorbed, cannot be utilised, it will return to you just as you sent it out, without being enhanced.

NON-AWARENESS OF COMPETITIVE VALUES

But if you send forth and you know that it will attract the right buyer to it, then you do not have to be as aware of competitive values. You can price what you feel the object is worth and know that those who wish it will pay for it accordingly. In actual fact, you will run a whole range of profit margins. Some items will have a very small profit margin, others will have a much larger one, depending upon their quality and complexity, depending upon why they were created and what they represent.

INTUITIVE PRICING – A CHALLENGE TO CONSCIOUSNESS

I cannot answer this question directly for you, for it is a challenge to your consciousnesses to determine the pricing scale of what you produce, how much profit you wish to achieve and what you will do with that enhanced energy or profit. But I will say this, that man does tend to undervalue. He tends not to see clearly because his consciousness is blinded by need, by lack, by fear, by greed and by other emotional contents, rather than his intuition. The more you can price with intuition, the more you will manifest a new age business.

SPIRITUAL UNDERVALUATION

Undervaluation is the problem in human society, not so much in tangible economic terms, but in spiritual economic terms. Man consistently undervalues the worth of his own being and its infinite creative possibilities. You should establish, through consensus of thought and intuition, what your pricing schedule will be, realising, of course, that if you completely ignore the requirement of the market, then you can create an obstacle to your manifestation.

STRETCHING TO YOUR POTENTIAL

For God does not ignore His market, he gives you just what you need. He may give it to you at a level just above what you think you can achieve, but he never gives it at a level truly above what you can achieve. You may have to work a bit, stretch yourself a bit, to achieve what he offers, but it is always within the range of your potential. It is never placed outside that range.

ACCEPTING GREATER REVELATION

You may wish to price things just a little above what an individual thinks he can afford, but never overprice or place it beyond what the market can carry. For this in its own way is poor use of divine energy. And at times God will approach you, simply, and gradually uplift your consciousness until you become aware that you can accept a far more complex and intense revelation of His Being.

THE BALL’S IN YOUR COURT

We leave the pricing of your products with these suggestions to your consciousnesses as a creative exercise.

Computer graphics by Edwin Maynard