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Findhorn Foundation

The Findhorn Foundation is a Scottish charitable trust registered in 1972, formed by the spiritual community at the Findhorn Ecovillage, one of the largest of the communes in Britain . The Foundation runs educational programme for the community and has now become an international centre for holistic education, spiritual guidance, and ecoliving, it also houses about 40 community businesses like the Findhorn Press, and an alternative medicine centre .

Starting as commune in 1962, from a caravan park, and founded by Eileen Caddy, Peter Caddy and Dorothy Maclean, the Findhorn Foundation and surrounding Findhorn Ecovillage community at The Park, Findhorn, a village in Moray, Scotland, and at Cluny Hill College in Forres, is a home to more than 400 people . The community has no formal doctrine or creed. It also offers a range of workshops, programmes and events in the environment of a working ecovillage. The programmes are intended to give participants practical experience of how to apply spiritual values in daily life. There are approximately 3000 residential participants from around the world taking part in programmes each year.

Findhorn Ecovillage, has been awarded UN Habitat Best Practice designation from from the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (HABITAT), and regularly hold seminars of 'CIFAL Findhorn', a United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), affiliated training centre for Northern Europe .

The founders; early history

In the late 1940s Sheena Govan emerged as an informal spiritual teacher to a small circle that included her then-husband, Harrow-educated former RAF caterer and erstwhile J. Lyons and Co. employee Peter Caddy, and Dorothy Maclean, a writer on spiritual matters. Eileen Caddy, as she became, who had a background in the Moral Rearmament movement, joined them in the early 1950s. The group's principal practices were channeling and forms of meditation. In 1957 Peter and Eileen Caddy were appointed to manage the Cluny Hill Hotel near Forres, Maclean joining them as the hotel's secretary. Though now separated from Sheena Govan, whose relationship with Eileen Caddy had deteriorated, they continued with the practices she taught.

In late 1962, following concerns by the hotel's owners over adverse publicity, Caddy's employment was terminated. He and Eileen settled in a caravan near the village of Findhorn; in early 1963 an annexe was built so that Dorothy Maclean could live close to the Caddy family. They began organic gardening as a way of growing food and supplementing their income (the family at this point being entirely supported by Family Allowance). To this activity they brought their spiritual practices, which partly centred on supposed communication with 'nature spirits' or devas as Maclean referred to them; the Caddys credited the garden's success - it allegedly produced "exceptionally large vegetables" - on these practices. Peter Caddy also introduced the positive thinking methods he had learned in the Rosicrucian Order Crotona Fellowship. Locals from outside the community, however, feel that the garden's successes can be explained by the unique microclimate of Moray or the substantial amounts of horse manure donated by a local farmer.

After Peter Caddy had met British New Age leaders, and after Eileen Caddy's theories had been distributed to a New Age mailing list in the form of a booklet titled God Spoke to Me (she claimed to receive daily messages from God in a nearby public convenience) a community began to form around them. Initially, many of its practices were unconventional even by the standards of New Age circles. During the early and mid 1960s, Caddy and his circle of 'channelers' believed that they were in contact with extraterrestrials through the medium of telepathy, and prepared a 'landing strip' for flying saucers at nearby Cluny Hill. The contactee element of Findhorn's origins was gradually played down during the 1970s after the predicted landings failed to happen, and is no longer mentioned in its publicity.

Dorothy Maclean left the community to live in North America in 1973. Peter Caddy left in 1979, shortly after informing Eileen "that he was taking one of the Foundation's young women followers on a trip to Hawaii". Eileen Caddy remained, and in 2004 was awarded the MBE by Queen Elizabeth II. Peter Caddy died in a car crash in Germany on 18 February 1994. Eileen Caddy died at home on 13 December 2006. Dorothy Maclean continues to give talks and workshops worldwide and still visits Findhorn regularly.

A centre of education

The arrival of David Spangler in 1970 resulted in the gradual transformation of the small community into a centre of residential spiritual education with a permanent staff of over 100. There are now a wide variety of courses and conferences on offer and this remains the Findhorn Foundation’s core activity. The Universal Hall, Findhorn's theatre and concert hall, was built between the years 1974 and 1984. The musical group The Waterboys, who have performed a number of concerts in it, named their album Universal Hall after the structure.

A growing ecovillage

Findhorn Ecovillage is based at The Park, in Moray, Scotland near the village of Findhorn. Within the Findhorn Ecovillage at The Park, sustainable values are expressed in the built environment with 'ecological' houses, innovative use of building materials such as local stone and straw bales, and applied technology in the Living Machine sewage treatment facility and electricity-generating wind turbines.

The Findhorn Ecovillage is intended to be a tangible demonstration of the links between the spiritual, social, ecological and economic aspects of life. It is a constantly evolving model used as a teaching resource by a number of university and school groups as well as by professional organisations and municipalities worldwide. It is a founder member of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) a non-profit organisation that links together a diverse worldwide movement of autonomous ecovillages and related projects.

The Findhorn Foundation Ecovillage Project has received Best Practice designation from the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat).

Since the 1980s numerous organisations have started up in the vicinity of Findhorn which have an affiliation of some kind with the Findhorn Foundation. These include Ekopia, Moray Steiner School, the Phoenix Community Store, Trees for Life (Scotland) & The Isle of Erraid. Collectively they now form an ecovillage which aims to demonstrate a positive model of a viable, sustainable human and planetary future. As of 2005, Findhorn Ecovillage has around 450 resident members.

Organisation of the community

The community includes an arts centre, shop, pottery, bakery, publishing company, printing company and other charitable organisations. All aim to practice the founding principles of the community and together make up the New Findhorn Association (NFA).

In 1999 a community association, the New Findhorn Association or NFA, was formed to provide a structure for all the people and organisations in the community. It includes people from within a 50-mile radius of The Park, at Findhorn. Each year a council and two listener-conveners are elected by the membership of the NFA, who organise monthly community meetings to decide upon community-wide issues.

Individuals connected to the Findhorn Foundation

Individuals with past or present connections to the Findhorn Foundation include celtic art author Aidan Meehan, Waterboys songwriter and singer Mike Scott, sports psychologists John Syer and Chris Connolly, authors William Irwin Thompson, Caroline Myss, William Bloom, Sir George Trevelyan, Marko Pogacnik and Paul Hawken, Scottish novelist Margaret Elphinstone. motivational writer Carol A. O'Connor, activists May East and Vance Martin, Australian singer Hans Poulsen, Trees for Life (Scotland) founder Alan Watson and naturalist Richard St Barbe Baker.

The following have given lectures, workshops or presentations at the Findhorn Foundation: Eckhart Tolle, Neale Donald Walsch, Caroline Myss, E.F. Schumacher, Ervin Laszlo, Geoffrey Ashe, Paul Horn (jazz musician), James T. Hubbell, Paul Winter, Laurens Van Der Post, Jonathon Porritt, Satish Kumar, Joanna Macy, Peter Russell, Anita Roddick, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Petra Kelly, Matthew Fox (priest), Patch Adams, John and Caitlin Matthews, Robert John Stewart, Peter Dawkins (FBRT), Robert Muller, Ysaye Maria Barnwell, Danah Zohar, Machaelle Small Wright, Lynne Franks, Hazel Henderson, James Twyman, Jane Goodall, Aubrey Manning, David Bellamy, Miranda Holden, Sandra Ingerman.

Andre Gregory speaks of his experience there in the film, My Dinner with Andre.

Links with the United Nations

In December 1997 the Findhorn Foundation was approved for formal Association with the UN Department of Public Information as an NGO. The Findhorn Foundation is a member of the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO), attends the Sustainable Development Committee meetings and is a founding member of the following NGO groups active at the UN Headquarters in New York: The Earth Values Caucus The Spiritual Caucus and the The NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns In September 2006 a new sustainable development training facility, CIFAL Findhorn was launched. This is a joint initiative between The Moray Council, the Global Ecovillage Network, the Findhorn Foundation and UNITAR.

Footnotes

References

For published articles written by (and added to the biography of): Eileen Caddy, Dorothy Maclean, David Spangler.

Burns, B. et al. (2006) CIFAL Findhorn. Findhorn Foundation.
Caddy, Peter (1994) In Perfect Timing. Findhorn Press.
Castro, Stephen (1996) Hypocrisy and Dissent within the Findhorn Foundation: Towards a Sociology of a New Age Community. New Media Books. ISBN 0-9526881-0-7.
Earl Platts, David (Ed) (1999) Divinely Human, Divinely Ordinary: Celebrating The Life & Work Of Eileen Caddy. Findhorn Press.
Earl Platts, David (2003) The Findhorn Book Of Building Trust In Groups. Findhorn Press.
Greenaway, John P. (2003) In the Shadow of the New Age: Decoding the Findhorn Foundation. Finderne Publishing.
Hawken, Paul (1975) The Magic Of Findhorn. Harper & Row.
Riddell, Carol (1990) The Findhorn Community: Creating A Human Identity For The 21st Century. Findhorn Press.
Sherman, Kay Lynne (2003) The Findhorn Book Of Vegetarian Recipes. Findhorn Press.
Talbott, John (1993) Simply Build Green. Findhorn Foundation.
Thomas, Kate (1992) The Destiny Challenge. New Frequency Press.
Thompson, William Irwin (1974) Passages About Earth. Harper & Row.
Walker, Alex (Ed) (1994) The Kingdom Within: A Guide to the Spiritual Work of the Findhorn Community. Findhorn Press. ISBN 0-905249-99-2.
Various (1975) The Findhorn Garden. Harper & Row, republished 2003 by Findhorn Press.
Various (1980) Faces Of Findhorn. Harper & Row.