One of our Experience Weeks on a nature outing by the river Findhorn

How to capture the magic of Experience Week? The magic of the Findhorn Foundation’s first educational offering that has been held for over 50 years? The magic that is so personal and intimate and so different for everyone who has experienced it? How do you capture this magic in words? So many questions …

When we decided that we wanted to write about Experience Week for our blog and that this piece of ‘Work as Love in Action’ would be mine to hold, I was quite frankly DAUNTED! For a few weeks … not able to write … but, yes, believe it or not, there is a deadline … So what to do?

Some attunement

Lighting a candle to attune to the Sacred Within

After procrastinating for a while, I had a brilliant, yet simple idea and decided to attune to this question. So I lit a candle, sat in silence, and listened within. I didn’t hear a ‘still, small voice within’ tell me what to do, like our co-founder Eileen Caddy did, but I had a very clear feeling to make this blog personal.

How else to capture this week that has been sharing the essence of the learnings of the Findhorn Foundation Spiritual Community over the past 60 years and means so much to thousands of people all over the globe? It seems impossible to get it ‘right’. On the other hand it doesn’t feel quite ‘professional’ to share from the heart on our website and wouldn’t it be nice to be seen as a bit more ‘professional’?

Well, as Eileen would say when people shared with her that they received guidance: “So what? What do you do about it?” meaning that receiving guidance is simply not enough. You have to act upon it … And isn’t this spiritual life supposed to be all about being authentic and living joyously from the heart anyway? Isn’t work meant to be ‘Love in Action’? Just as her guidance for today says: “No one wants to go through life overburdened, lacking joy and spontaneity.” So let this exploration be a joyful one …

Some conversations

But where to start? As I wanted to get my facts and figures right and couldn’t find any satisfying answers online, I decided that asking one of my favourite elders for advice would be a good step in the right direction. So I met with Rosie Turnbull, who has been part of the Findhorn Foundation since the 1980s when she came to live here with her family. She was a close friend to Eileen and is one of my beloved wells of wisdom, which I like to drink from when I need to know more about the ‘early days’ …

Rosie and Ian Turnbull in the Universal Hall

So I had a couple of long, beautiful talks with Rosie to dive deeper into the essence of our core offering. I am sure there is much more to say about Experience Week than what I can capture here, but the following is an exploration of what seems to be important to say right now as we are about to embark on our journey of holding Experience Weeks on the Isle of Erraid.

Erraid Experience Weeks are going to start in spring 2025

Since 1974, Experience Week has been the core programme at the heart of the Findhorn Foundation. When more and more people started visiting the spiritual community that has been slowly growing in the north east of Scotland since the early 1960s, there was a need to introduce guests to the community. Visitors from all over the world were dropping in at all times of the day at any day of the week and wanted to learn about the ‘magic of Findhorn’ they had heard about through friends, newspaper articles, books, tv etc.

Group attunement in the garden in the early days of our Community

It proved challenging to accommodate all of them and to introduce them individually to what it was all about. This was especially difficult as – apart from the caravans and the famous flourishing gardens growing huge flowers and vegetables on sand dunes – there was nothing much to see in these early days. Yet, there was a lot to experience!

Many things could be learned from this new experiment of living together as a spiritual community when you joined the community’s daily activities like meditations, work, and mealtimes …

So, over time, a formalised experience was developed with the aim of containing the community’s learnings in a meaningful way to give the curious guests, on their search for spiritual practice, the opportunity to learn what they needed to learn for their own spiritual growth and then take their learnings back home and apply them in their daily lives.

Some essence

In its essence, Experience Week is an invitation to experience life within the Findhorn Foundation Spiritual Community. Here, we aspire to embody the Sacred by living and sharing our spiritual practices in everyday life to raise consciousness and, through this, contribute to transforming the world. Our three core practices are: Inner Listening, Co-Creation with the Intelligence of Nature, and Work is Love in Action – or, how they were referred to in the early days: Love, Light and Wisdom.

Andrew cooking at our retreat house Traigh Bhan, Isle of Iona

Experience Week introduces our guests to our approach of bringing Spirit into everything we do, and is an invitation to ….

explore your own spiritual journey held by the rhythms, rituals, and routines within your Experience Week group and the community. This creates a safe container of deep connection with yourself, Spirit, nature and others, which enables you to explore and develop your own spirituality.
fully be yourself, drop all masks and let go of everything you feel you ‘have to be’ to feel accepted and loved and come closer to who you really want to be in this world.
drop your expectations, relax into the experience and maybe choose a new way of being, connecting to Spirit within everyday interactions and tasks.
open up heart, mind and soul and experience this journey through all senses.
immerse yourself in group situations such as meditating, attuning, sharing, listening from the heart, singing, moving, dancing, being playful, helping with the community’s daily work, sharing community meals, connecting with others, celebrating, and much more …
spend time on your own and connect with nature and the divine in your own way following your own attunement for choosing your personal spiritual practice …
see everything that happens within the week as part of the experience. Holding the awareness that the most meaningful moments might occur when you least expect it: over lunch, whilst chatting to a stranger, when opening a book at the exact right page …
raise your consciousness by using simple spiritual practices such as attunement, meditation, sharing, etc, which support you to connect to a life in which you put Spirit first in everything that you do. Implementing these short practices within your day can have a transformative effect.
take home a spiritual tool kit containing various methods, techniques, exercises, activities, and practices that allow you to ground your spirituality and integrate it in all aspects of your daily life. These takeaways can be very small practical things, like naming your car, blessing your food, starting your day with meditation or singing, or using I-statements when sharing your personal story with others.

Watching the sunset near our retreat house on Iona (photo by Mark Richards)

Many of the practices you will get to know within Experience Week have been used within our spiritual community since the early days for one simple reason: because they work! If you aspire to live life in a space of embodied spirituality while working in harmony with nature and each other, immersing yourself in this journey might be worth giving a try ...

Some mystery

Some of the things you will experience during Experience Week you might already know, or might have done before or might be practising already, but there seems to be a secret ingredient that infuses this week. Many participants share about a special kind of mystery or magic, about synchronicities like meeting just exactly the right person at the right time, thinking about a question and receiving the answer seemingly accidentally only moments later, finding their needs mysteriously met after naming them, and so on …

There are many magical stories among Experience Week participants, and while we cannot provide scientific evidence to describe the exact nature of this special ingredient, it seems to be related to the process of opening up during the week. This opening up leads to a deeper sense of connection to the Spirit within, allowing for a new level of authenticity and a more conscious state of mind, heart, soul, and Spirit, enabling us to be in awe of these magical experiences that surround us all the time.

One of the gates leading into the ‘Original Garden’ at the Ecovillage Findhorn

To open up to these states of deeper connection and heightened awareness, the important thing doesn’t seem to be exactly where you are, who you are with or what you do, but how you do it, the inner qualities you bring towards everything you do. As our co-founders Peter and Eileen Caddy used to say: “Love where you are, love who you are with and love what you are doing.” Just taking time to focus on this sentence and putting its intention into action can change our consciousness and raise our vibration significantly. If you follow this motto and take time to attune to it, it might not only transform a simple task but also change your outlook on your day, and maybe even your whole life.

Some call this conscious way of opening up to a state of heightened awareness of our oneness with Spirit and bringing the presence of Love into everything we do ‘applied spirituality’, ‘embodying the divine in everyday life’ or simply ‘Love in Action’.

Some magic

As mentioned before many little moments of magic can be found during Experience Week and everybody has their own personal story about how this special week has influenced their lives in bigger or in smaller ways. Some love the way they opened up to life in completely new ways, some met their life partners or friends for life, some even changed their jobs or moved. Many find their lives changed forever in small, yet significant ways, and some feel challenged, or even dislike some of the experiences ... The whole spectrum is possible.

“My Experience Week was full of surprising opportunities to grow. I was especially surprised by how much I liked the dances and the mirroring exercise. ”

— Experience Week participant

The stories you hear when you ask people about their Experience Week are as numerous and unique as the grains of sand on the beach, but there is one thing they all have in common: everyone seems to be touched by their experience …

Like community member, and lead singer of the Waterboys, Mike Scott, who remembers some special moments during his Experience Week in December 1992:

“I had a heart-opening experience with powerful inner fire during the week, triggered by many things, but the final key being the Group Discovery Games on the Monday. I spent the rest of the week and some time after in an altered state of consciousness. I will never forget it, and I still use in my daily life many meditation tools, affirmations, and techniques I learned at that point and in my later Findhorn times.”

Mike Scott plays his Experience Week song to his group at the ‘end of the week sharing’ in Cluny

“Experience Week is a beautiful gateway into a place where we can really shine. It really helps me lift my spirits whenever I am facing challenges in everyday life. It brings me into a place of knowing that anything is possible. I definitely achieved healing through experiencing the magic of Experience Week within a peaceful, safe environment held by capable facilitators.”

— Experience Week participant

I personally have never met anybody who couldn’t recall one moment of magic, mystery, awe, or transformation that touched them during their Experience Week. And sometimes this piece of magic drops in where you least expect it: during a tea break, a walk by the sea, in your dreams, while you take a bath … You never know when magic will find you …

Some memories

My particular moment of Experience Week Magic happened when I was sitting in the sunroom at Cluny and picked up the Findhorn Foundation’s brochure. It was one of the most magical experiences I have ever had in my life. When I opened the page about the Isle of Erraid, it felt like golden light was rushing from the heavens and all through my body and I knew I had to go and live there.

The magic of Experience Week might have touched you already or maybe it draws you in right now as you read these lines … if you should ever choose to join us for this special week, be ready for magical moments! And as you might already know: magic surrounds us wherever we are, whatever we do. Why not open up to miracles right now, and let the magic find you wherever you are, whatever you do? Maybe even in the smallest, most mundane moments by loving where you are, loving who you are with, and loving what you do. Let’s see what will happen …

As we say: Expect a Miracle!

Discover the magic of Experience Week

Embark on a sacred journey of connection and self-discovery. Together we’ll create a space to celebrate who we are, love what we do and our shared connection with all life.

The Magic of Experience Week – Expect a Miracle!