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The future of the Findhorn Foundation is reflected in its past. It was born as a centre of demonstration. What it originally set out to demonstrate was three-fold:

  • The power of discovering the God within oneself and living in touch with one’s own sacred centre which, in turn, is one with the sacred centre of all creation;
  • The co-creative co-operation between human and non-human lives, between the invisible and the visible worlds, and between humanity and nature; and
  • A new vision—a new imagination—of reality and humanity’s role that can be a transformative contribution to the emergence of a new world.

This demonstration took practical form as God’s presence and guidance, the co-operation with angels, the nature spirits and other non-physical, spiritual allies, and the idea of the New Age.

The form of this demonstration has changed over the years as the Foundation itself has grown and attracted more and more people, and as the times themselves have changed. At first it was a group, then a community, then a school, and now, perhaps, a village.

In the future, the Foundation may take on other ways of demonstrating its purpose. For example, I think personally the development of the wind park, the eco-village, and so forth, is an important way of demonstrating a social and ecological vision for the future. The Foundation may even wish to re-evaluate and redefine its purpose, though it should do so carefully. To cease to be a place of demonstration—which implies an openness to the public and a willingness to be scrutinised and observed—might well mean ceasing to be the Findhorn Foundation.

This centre is also a place of presence. Essentially, this is the presence of the sacred—of love and wisdom—as mediated through all the people who participate in the life and activity of the centre. However, one might also speak of the presence of spiritual energies or qualities representative of the New Age or the presence of the angelic, faery, and elemental worlds. These, as well as others, also add to the quality of the experience a person may have at the Findhorn Community.

This presence, in all its facets, represents one of the factors that attracts people to the Foundation and makes the experience here different from simply being at a workshop centre, a retreat place, or a community. If this presence changes, then the experience of the Findhorn centre will change.

Maintaining its policy of being open to the public as a place of demonstration and nourishing the spiritual presence that weaves through it will probably continue to define the Community’s work in the future. However, the Foundation also needs to adapt to changes in the world and in the needs of those whom it wishes to serve. As well, the members of the Community are also creative individuals, capable of new visions and new insights. While the past of the centre should not be disregarded—and major changes in direction and identity taken with care—the history of the Community should not be a limit upon what the future might hold. Everything that is alive grows and changes, adapts and matures, and the Findhorn Foundation should be no different.

For this reason, I cannot predict what the future of the Community will be like. I can only trust that it will be informed by the same spirit that birthed it in the first place. This is the responsibility of every member, not to slavishly hold to the past or the way things used to be done if there is a need to change and equally not to slavishly seek change just for the sake of novelty or fads, but to discern and hold to the informing, incarnating, co-creative spirit of the place.

If this transmission of the essence of the Community is accomplished, then I believe the future will unfold organically and gracefully from all that has been created here and all that you are creating in this moment.