The Game of Transformation is a quintessential manifestation of the culture in the spiritual community at Findhorn. This expresses itself in so many of its aspects, from its creation, through its evolution to the embodied experience of each encounter with any of the elements of the Game.

The name of the Game evolved over time. It started out life as Joy’s Game, then became the Game of Life before its name settled as the Game of Transformation for the ‘original version’ workshop and Transformation Game for the box game.

In the early 1970s Joy Drake’s deep interest in human development came into sharpened focus when she came across the concept of soul infused personality in the teachings of Alice Bailey, writer on theosophical subjects.

During the Spring Conference 1976 which was entitled GROUPS AND TRANSPERSONAL GROWTH, Joy and Mary Inglis were sitting together. Hearing about a Tibetan Buddhist training Game to develop consciousness, Joy turned to Mary and said, ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a game along these lines for the West rather than the East…’ and so it began. In conversations over meals, in groups and in workshops the Game developed its own being, it became an entity, infused by an energy field that is lovingly referred to as the Game Deva.

What followed was a long incarnational journey sustained by inspiration, synchronicities, creativity, group consciousness, intuition and co-creation with the subtle realms – in short all the elements of the ‘Findhorn Experience’. In 1978 Joy was joined by Kathy Tyler to explore the inner levels of the Game.

The Game is described in many ways: an incarnational tool, an emotional tool, a mini lifetime journey. The effects of the energy field, the synchronicities experienced by players, the relevance and wisdom of the messages which allow the personal unconscious to be made conscious give the Game an oracle quality which empowers the individual to find their own solutions – or as my typo would have had it soul-utions.

Over the decades the Game has evolved into different formats that serve in a wide variety of contexts:

Begun originally as a hobby, nurtured and inspired by Joy and test-played with willing players from the community, the ‘original’ version of the Game – known as The Game of Transformation – was first offered as a workshop in October 1978. This facilitated weeklong experience involving 5 players and two guides has been part of the core educational journey for many Findhorn Foundation staff over decades, as well as being one of the essential guest programmes of the Findhorn Foundation.

The first ‘public’ version of the Game was a day-long experience in the Art of Synthesis workshop in June 1978, in an experimental format which took the Game off the board and involved 20 participants playing around a Game path on the floor, and taking different roles in the process – Angels, Insights, Setbacks and Players. This was the forerunner of what became the Planetary Game.

The Transformation Game, a box game version, was launched in 1987 for individuals to play with family and friends, experiencing the power of this soul-infused ‘Monopoly’ on whatever level they choose. It is also used by over 1000 certified facilitators all around the world. Having a facilitator allows participants to go into greater depth in the process of understanding and transforming key issues in life.

Transformation Game Facilitator trainings are now held around the world as well as at Findhorn.

Elements of the Transformation box game have become beloved tools for many – be that the Angel Card deck, the Blessing cards, or the Insight, Setback and Angel cards from the Intuitive Solutions Card Set.

The Planetary Game, a mega-game which can be played with up to 120 participants around a large path on the floor, was played for the first time in November 1987, with the whole Findhorn Community, including Eileen Caddy as one of the players. In January 1989 it was offered as a public weeklong programme for the first time. This exciting strand of the Game offers groups and communities the opportunity to engage with subjects beyond the personal journey of the individual, yet using the individual’s lived experience to process the collective’s journey with the stated intention. The Planetary Game has also been played in the Netherlands, Brazil and Thailand.

Another large-scale version of the Game was created in November 2002 for the Community’s 40th birthday, played over one day with current and former members around a single intention. Since then, this version has been part of the Community’s birthday celebrations in November most years.

You can find below links to descriptions by Mary Inglis of a couple of these Games:

When Joy and Kathy realised that the Game had a lot of relevance for the corporate world but that the application was hindered by language, they developed Frameworks for Change, for use in organisational settings, and also the Frameworks Coaching Process (FCP), a streamlined version which can be used by coaches in the workplace.

InnerLinks was set up in 1987 to create a container for their work on all these levels. Transformation Game Findhorn gives specific information about game offerings at Findhorn.

For further study:

The Game is such a fulsome topic that you may enjoy reading some more summaries and descriptions or watch a few videos. Each one shows different facets of this gem.

In this YouTube video on Jelena Markune’s channel – Mary Inglis about the Transformation Game – Mary shows the different aspects of the Box Game. If you have a close look, you can see that the text on some cards is in Russian, a beautiful glimpse of the international impact of this powerful tool.

In 1986 Joy gave an interview in the US just after moving there from Findhorn. It gives a wonderful contemporary glimpse of her and The Game. It is perfectly complemented by her interview with Roger Doudna in 2017: Love in Action – The Transformation Game with Joy Drake.

In the 50th Birthday Book Mary Inglis contributed a summary. Christine Lines wrote an article about the Game following an event in 2012 called Foundations of Findhorn. The relevant section in The Living Record, collated in 2007, gives a fascinating list of facts.

Personal stories relating the impact of the Game experience on a life’s journey are offered by Kate Waring and Bonnie Blue.

2023 – here you can watch Joy Drake’s Thank You speech during an event in honour of her 80th birthday in the Universal Hall.

Collated by Cornelia Featherstone with much appreciated input from Mary Inglis, Joy Drake and Kathy Tyler – January 2023

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Topics are a ‘reader’s digest’, a summary of essential Community facets offering a compilation of posts for further information. Click here for a list of Topics we have produced so far.

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