Within a year of my initial arrival at Findhorn in November 1974, I was assigned to work on the completion of the Universal Hall roof. My task was to take the community truck, called Tipsy, out to Mundole Court on the Findhorn River daily to collect river stones that were tipped daily at the rear of the building. I did so with a band of guests who did yeoman labour collecting them, wheel barrowing them onto the roof, and placing them into a pattern that accentuated its pentagonal shape. You can detect photographic proof of my engagement with this process in the FACES OF FINDHORN book we published in 1976, provided you have a magnifying glass… (You can see that on page 160 of the pdf ebook of FACES OF FINDHORN)

I suppose the most memorable highlight of that period in my life was the day that Burt Lancaster joined the crew. It seems that his girlfriend at the time was fascinated by all things New Age and Mel Kaushanky, our then resident comedian, sweet talked them both into visiting the community after encountering them at a nearby hotel. This was shortly after Burt had played his role in LOCAL HERO. Anyway, Burt joined my team for the morning, and I must say it felt a little like we were working on the Pyramids or some such comparably grand project that day. The ramp on page 159 of the pdf ebook of FACES OF FINDHORN is the one that Burt Lancaster and I used one day to transport river pebbles onto the roof. I just wish it had been filmed, but that was in the days of pre-video…

Another outstanding memory of my time working on the U Hall were our Saturday morning attunements. After cleaning up the place, Lyle usually began our group attunements at 10.00am with the intention of wrapping for lunch around noon. But the sharings and reflections upon our previous week’s work were so deep and gratifying that we frequently ran well past noon. There was a sense that this was our Cathedral of the New Age and we felt hugely grateful to be part of its construction. We were likewise grateful for Lyle’s focalisation. He not only knew his building bits really well, but it seemed to fulfil his one time ambition to become virtually our pastor as well, and many of us regarded him thus.

The final piece of my engagement with the U Hall was around the stained glass window that adorns its main entrance.

I met James Hubbell, artist and builder extraordinaire, during a visit to California in1981 and invited him to a conference I had been asked to focalise called “Building a Planetary Village” in October 1982. That was the conference that set the scene for buying the caravan park the following year. While James was here, he did several watercolour sketches for the big window surrounding the main entrance to the building. Treya Killam, one time community member who later married Ken Wilber, and I subsequently agreed to co-fund its creation during a Findhorn retreat week in upstate New York. Then in the summer of 1983, Otto Rigan (artist brother of Alice Rigan) and his partner Mayme came to actually cut and install the window that emerged from one of James’ designs. My job was to cut the many angled bits of burned and brushed timber that actually frame the window itself. Once again, the whole process was simply a joy and a gift of service to and for something greater than any of us realised at the time. And I’m hugely grateful that both the window and its ‘Angel Wings’ doors abide as an expression of something that’s simply one of the many beautiful bits that comprise our Universal Hall.