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It is important to view our experiments in co-operation with nature in a wider context. As elsewhere, the views of the Community seem to be converging with mainstream Western thinking. In the early 1960s Western rational and scientific ideology held that man’s dominion over nature was all but complete, and that this was a desirable state of affairs. Yet this period was probably the zenith of orthodox science’s confidence in itself. In the same year that the original caravan came to its final resting place at Findhorn Bay caravan park, Rachel Carson launched the first serious challenge to the agro-chemical consensus with her seminal work ‘Silent Spring‘.

Not long after that came the ‘Only One Earth’ conference and the now largely discredited alarms sounded by the Club of Rome. As the 70s dawned an ecologically aware generation emerged who would view the ‘Secret Life of Plants‘ (which includes a chapter about our Community) as a logical extension of their environmental concerns. The contrast with the ‘twin set and pearls’ image of an earlier generation of spiritual aspirants became an important feature of Community life, and it was one of the major successes of the Foundation that unity could be forged from such a diversity of backgrounds. Perhaps all were united in their sympathy with E. F. Schumacher’s declaration that ‘Small is Beautiful”.

The 80s saw the publication of a variety of works which stressed not only the dangers of technology but also the importance of a spiritual approach which emphasised both the intrinsic value and awareness of nature itself. Rupert Sheldrake’s ‘hypothesis of formative causation’ is the closest that science has come to an acknowledgement of elementals and devas. James Lovelock’ s ‘Gaia Hypothesis’, the work of Peter Russell and the emergence of the notion of ‘deep ecology’, have all become influential.

The heir to the British throne talking to plants may still be a cause for embarrassment to the establishment, but in a country where 15% of the population are vegetarian, and ‘inner directed’ growth techniques are commonplace in mainstream business circles, Prince Charles views are increasingly seen as a rallying cry for a significant and growing minority rather than the voice of an eccentric loner crying in an empty wilderness.

The challenge for the Foundation and Community is then to maintain its cutting edge in a world where lip service to ecology is becoming the norm.