Findhorn Foundation : New Age Mecca brought to earth

It was planned as a place where spiritual tourists could get in touch with their personal gods.

But the organisers behind Scotland's capital of all things New Age, the Findhorn Foundation, face a more worldly problem: debts of 600,000 pounds.

And to make ends meet, the foundation is now divesting itself of worldly goods in a bid to keep its bank manager happy.
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The foundation - nicknamed the Vatican of the New Age - was set up by mystics Peter and Eileen Caddy, and their friend Dorothy Maclean in 1962 on the Moray Firth, near Elgin, after the friends reputedly received a vision. The centre mushroomed over the next four decades from a couple of battered caravans into a major internationally renowned spiritual and environmental centre, with 95 employees and a turnover of GBP 1.2m a year from a host of eco-friendly businesses.
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But profits at the centre have fallen dramatically over the past year, prompting the sale of the centre's organic food shop for GBP 220,000, with other properties soon to be sold as well.

Mari Hollander, the head of the Foundation's managing structure, said it had become a victim of changing times and local circumstances. It now faces competition from around 30 similar spiritual centres around the world set up in recent years, and a 40% drop in the number of tourists coming to the Moray area.

The centre, which is marketed as a visitor attraction, also relies heavily on international tourists, who attend self-help courses and workshops costing in the region of GBP 600 a week. Last year the community hosted a conference on angels, and it has also run courses combining Zen Buddhism and meditation with golf.
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In 1999 the centre attracted notoriety when a resident, Verity Linn, a 49-year-old Australian, was found dead outside her tent on a remote Highland hillside. She had been living on air and light as part of the teachings of a mystic called Jasmuheen.
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