The Findhorn Community and the Global Future

It’s a long time since my last post. I could plead the ‘silly season’, or busyness, or the ‘flu of having a new boiler (furnace) installed, or having a weekend group in the house – and they all would be true. But the reality is I’ve been going through a dry spell. The words and ideas haven’t been flowing, and I’m distracted by the long list of things to do before Christine and I take off for 6 months.

We go first to Thailand, to the Wongsanit Ashram near Bangkok where I will give a weekend workshop on my book “The Science of Oneness” for the Spirit in Education Movement. I will also give a lecture in Bangkok on “The Crisis of Civilization: A 10,000 year perspective.” Meanwhile my other half will be sharing about her healing work with local Thai healers, and treating a few clients in the Ashram.


From Thailand, we head south to Perth. There, I have a 4 month Visiting Fellowship at The University of Western Australia where I worked for 25 years. My official research topic is sustainability, and I’ll be based in the Centre for Water Research. But I’m not sure yet what I’ll focus on – perhaps the issue of trauma and climate change that I wrote about in several blogs last year. I’ll be collaborating with old friends to give a series of 10 evenings for the public on ‘Action for Climate Change’ organised by the university extension service. I’ll be talking about my book – including on breakfast radio. And I’ll be collaborating with an exciting new venture called the Centre for Integrated Human Studies. Full on and exciting.

Perth will also be an opportunity for Christine and I to catch up with our families, and revisit much-loved places in the forests and along the coast. After Perth, we spend a month with Christine’s son in Hobart, Tasmania, where I expect to make contact with local university faculty. Then to Hawaii and Vancouver to see some old friends from the Findhorn Community before returning home in September.

Which brings me in a roundabout way to the subject of today’s blog. One of the reasons we moved half-way round the world to live at Findhorn was the extraordinary impact this small community of about 500 people has on the world. Tens of thousands of people have spent weeks to years here before returning to ‘normal’ life where they have promoted change in one way or another. I’m constantly amazed at the number of ‘movers and shakers’ in the world who count the Findhorn Community as a formative influence, or even as a second home. There is no rational explanation!

After 10 years in and around the Community, I can honestly say it’s a wonderful place; a bright beacon in the world. And I can honestly say that it’s a challenging and frustrating place with a big shadow side. As an elder told us during our first visit here: “Findhorn is a microcosm of the macrocosm. If there’s a problem out there in the world, then we’ve got it here too.” So it’s not utopia. It’s not a place to escape the problems of life. But it is a place to learn and grow.

I don’t often write about Findhorn like this. I guess I don’t want to skite (Aussie for ‘boast’). But for once I want to say something about the place. Not long ago a professional study was undertaken of the Community’s ecological footprint. It came out as the lowest ever measured for a permanent community in the developed world – just half the UK national average. A more detailed comparison with the rest of the UK reveals some even more interesting statistics:

Home and heating – 21.5%. This is low because the main Community campus at ‘The Park’ has 4 windmills and is a net exporter of electricity. The Community also has many energy efficient eco-houses – as well as a legacy of extremely inefficient old caravans (trailers) and aging prefabricated buildings. The home and heating footprint will fall further when these are replaced as finance becomes available.

Food – 37%. Many Community members are vegetarian and eat a lot of local, organic produce.

Travel – 43%. Air travel is well above the national average because the Community earns a lot of its income from courses for people from around the world. Visits to family and friends also tend to involve a lot of travel because Community members come from many countries; and Findhorn is a long way from major urban facilities when needed. However, car mileage is only 6% of the national average, mainly because most people work within the Community and don’t need to commute.

Encouraging as these figures are, there is plenty of room for improvement. The Community is developing a renewable energy strategy and is committed to becoming ‘carbon neutral’ as soon as possible. Besides continued replacement of substandard buildings, current initiatives include replacing oil and gas heating systems in the largest two buildings with boilers burning locally-produced wood pellets. This will save substantial amounts of money as well as fossil fuels and carbon emissions. One of these buildings is the Universal Hall, our 350-seat conference and performing arts venue. The other is Cluny Hill College, which began life in the nineteenth century as a 100 room hotel.

Some years ago now, another study estimated that the average income in the Community was about a quarter of the UK average, and wealth was similarly low. These figures may have risen a bit in the interim due to an influx of better-off people, but the economic standard of living is still relatively low. Nevertheless, most Community members would claim that their quality of life is very high.

This is not to say that Findhornians are unconcerned about money. For many, it’s a perpetual struggle to pay the rent and buy food, and an on-going tension between trust in the process of manifestation and the ability of the universe to provide, and fear for the future if it doesn’t. There are many magical stories to support belief in manifestation, including my own, some of which reflect the spirit of generosity in the Community. When someone makes a need known – for a workshop or course fee, participation in a conference, a special pilgrimage, or even a much-needed holiday – others will respond and the money will appear. What goes around, comes around. This spirit of generosity is also reflected in the practice of service as part-time volunteers to support various aspects of Community life and its outreach. For instance, for over a year I’ve been working half a day a week to regenerate an old orchard and bring it back into production, and Christine regularly does shifts on the Reception desk at Cluny Hill College.

Many pragmatic strategies are used to overcome a lack of cash, such as working part-time and doing odd jobs (often at low pay within the Community), sharing accommodation, doing without or sharing a car, making and selling arts and crafts, offering a variety of therapies, joining the Local Exchange Trading System (generally known as LETS), various forms of government support, and so on. We also have a ‘Boutique’ from which clothing can be taken free of charge in exchange for donations of unwanted garments. Many of us also haunt the charity shops in the local town that raise money for good causes – it’s a long time since I’ve bought any new clothing other than underwear and shoes!

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As we move into an era of global constraint due to peak oil, climate change and other resource shortages, and as we search for ways to live more sustainably, I believe there are important pointers to the future in the lifestyle of the Findhorn Community. Money and the things it can buy are less important here than in mainstream society. There are many reasons for this, and even after a decade here, I can’t clearly identify all of them. But in my next post I’ll reflect on some of them.