The Findhorn Foundation and Community My Natural Health Vacation
Driving through the Scottish Highlands, north of Edinburgh, and enjoying the beauty, I wondered what I would find at Findhorn Community. What kind of people would I meet and what were their goals in life? To my amazement I arrived at a place well organized as a live in community and school, with extensive natural health education programs that reach around the globe.
The History
The Findhorn Foundation Community began in 1962 when Peter and Eileen Caddy and Dorothy Maclean came to live in the Findhorn Bay Caravan Park near the village of Findhorn, Scotland. They had no intentions of starting a community, but the garden that they planted in order to provide food for themselves and their children flourished with amazing results. Based on Eileen’s inner guidance, Dorothy’s ability to communicate with the innate intelligence of nature, and Peter’s sheer determination, they produced the now legendary 40-pound cabbages, as well as huge plants, herbs and dozens of different kinds of flowers. Word spread, horticultural experts visited the foundation and were stunned by what they saw.
The garden became famous for demonstrating what can be achieved when working in harmony with nature. As people came to see the gardens and learn about the principles behind them, many wanted to stay at Findhorn to learn more and to be a part of the journey. Over the course of time, a community of like-minded people gathered. Naturopath Stewart Mitchell and Medical herbalist David Hoffman, both presenters at our 2007 conference, Building a Natural Health Community, were residents of Findhorn in its early days.
Findhorn was formally registered as a Scottish Charity under the name The Findhorn Foundation in 1972, and through the 1970s and ’80s it grew to approximately 300 members. In 1978 two of their members, Joy Drake and Kathy Tyler, developed the Game Of Transformation in Findhorn, with its popular Angel Cards, of which over a million sets have now been sold around the world. In 1982 the foundation bought its home, the Findhorn Bay Caravan Park. During the 1980s the foundation also acquired neighboring Cullerne House, whose gardens are used for organic vegetable production, and Drumduan House in Forres, where community members established the Moray Steiner School.
Today the Findhorn Foundation is the organizational heart of a widely diversified community of several hundred people and dozens of holistic businesses and initiatives, all linked by a shared positive vision for humanity and the earth, and a commitment to the deep and practical nondoctrinal spirituality established in the Findhorn Community by its founders. Visit www.findhorn.org for more information.
Highlights of the Community
On my first evening at Findhorn, I had the pleasure of meeting Gabrella and Thomas Chavez from Portland, Oregon, who were at Findhorn performing a gourmet raw food demonstration class. Findhorn Press had just printed Gabrella’s book, The Raw Food Gourmet, Going Raw for Total Well Being, so we feasted on recipes from her book that evening. The experience was also a great opportunity for those staying at the community that week, as they had a chance to work in the kitchen with Gabrielle and Thomas and preparing for 80 to 100 people. Chavez was inspired to write the book after spending some time at Findhorn and realizing there were very few raw vegetarian cookbooks available. She is also the author of a children’s vegetarian cookbook called Some People Think My Mom is Weird.
The Bay Caravan Park, the main hub of activity at Findhorn, are numerous workshops covering varying aspects of community living and learning to live a deeper relationship with the earth and the world around us. A large number of people live at the park/school. There are administrative, library, gardening, teaching, mentoring, consulting, and cooking jobs. There is a store that seems to have everything imaginable, and then much more! It is a completely self-sufficient community that meets the needs of anyone seeking a life lived close to the earth and seeking a peaceful existence. I was impressed at the organization of the many programs and by the community’s global outreach. A group of Japanese visitors were there during the week I spent at Findhorn, and we share and eagerness to learn all we could in our time there.
If you are a guest and you wish to partake of meals, you must work in the kitchen for three hours a day helping to prepare great natural meals. Guests are welcome to stay for a few days or 12 weeks, whatever your choice of program requires.
One of the most fascinating aspects of the Findhorn lifestyle is the Green Machine, the community’s waste management system. It consists of several enormous plastic barrels half buried in the ground with plants growing in them to process the waste material. Outside in a mound of earth was a machine that ground the waste and pumped it into the green house where the barrels are located. As the fluid traveled from barrel to barrel it was naturally purified by the very specific sequence of plant varieties until at the end of the process, the water was clean enough for use in a swimming pool. Plants used in the process included papyrus, iris, and other plants with a large root system.
I was there during “Ecovillage Experience” week, and some of the classes offered included exploring community life, spiritual practices, planting, gardening, life purpose, and several youth programs. Other classes offered included the art of transformation, art of leadership, grounding love to deflate violence, creating joyful families. There were numerous opportunities for movement as well in dance, yoga, and tai chi classes. The list of sessions and classes offered during any given week at the community is endless.
Findhorn’s Healing Energy
Through the years the Findhorn community’s love, nurturing, and caring has helped many people who suffered from health or personal problems, anxiety, physical or spiritual pain. No matter where people come from or what state they are in, the Findhorn staff cares and offers you their unconditional love and acceptance.
I hope to return some day, as it is a terrific place for a little rest and relaxation in this busy, hectic world. Time seems to stand still at Findhorn while we reflect on who we are, and as the stress of life melts away, leaving one with a sense of peace and a feeling a renewal.
I recommend Findhorn for all ages. The family programs help to bond families together in new ways, allowing you to learn to appreciate one another anew.
Those of us working in the healing arts need a retreat to renew ourselves from time to time, in order to truly serve our clients as best as we are able. Findhorn is a wonderful place for healers to be recharged as well, and while you are there you learn so much from the educational programming, and from simply being, that you return home renewed and with new ideas for helping your clients. Findhorn Community is a great place to start on a new road and learn how to live holistically in a world full of negative vibrations by turning them into a positive influence in our lives as well as the lives of others.
Sharon Dodge, MH, CR is a graduate of Clayton College of Natural Health’s family herbalist, consulting herbalist, and master herbalist certificate programs. She operates a small practice out of her home called Serenity Alternative Therapies where she practices herbology, reflexology, raindrop therapy, hydrotherapy, and aromatherapy. She also offers aroma spa steaming and spa treatments. Dodge lives on 10 acres of land that includes a healing garden, various other herb and flower gardens, a tea garden with a gazebo, and a pool with a fountain. During the warm weather, she takes her practice outdoors into the gazebo so her clients can enjoy the surrounding woods, the sound of the water flowing in the fountain, and the birds singing. “It is wonderfully peaceful tranquil setting for holistic healing,” says Dodge.
Tara N. Brown • Editor
