Twelve people who live at, or have a connection with, the Findhorn Foundation were interviewed. Despite being known as, probably, the foremost intentional new Age community in the United Kingdom, the Findhorn Foundation has distanced itself from the term 'New Age' which does not appear in its promotional material. This is a reaction to the diversity of New Age, which is linked in many people's minds to developments with which the Foundation would not wish to be associated. Instead, it calls itself a 'spiritual community'. "What the Foundation has always been about is finding God within," one staff member explained to me.

However, at the Findhorn Foundation I encountered a wide range of New Age practices, either directly, or via the interest of those I met. These included meditation, visualisation and other personal development techniques, active environmental conservation, alternative therapies, divination and astrology, eastern religious and spiritual practices (eg, Tantra, Tai Chi), Native American spiritual practices (including the use of sweat lodges), shamanic practices and Aboriginal overtoning. Another popular practice was chanting, using the simple harmonies that have emerged from the ecumenical Christian community founded by monks at Taize in France. I did not encounter anyone with an expresed interest in witchcraft, which may also be considered a New Age phenomenon, but did encounter the 'art of manifestation', which may be regarded as a magical practice (although David Spangler, author of The Art of Manifestation, denies this.)

There were special meditations to mark solar eclipses and the phases of the moon, expressing the sense of oneness with the natural created order which is shared by pagan religion. I also encountered a concern with building community, both within the Foundation and further afield. This runs counter to some more individualistic trends of New Age, but again is very much part of the pagan ideal, as it is of the Christian. Janice Dolley, Chair of the organisation Christians Awakening to a New Awareness (CANA) is a trustee of the Foundation, and other CANA members have links with it, suggesting a certain compatibility of view.

Of the twelve people interviewed, seven were members of the Foundation's 'open community'. Of these, five live near the Foundation rather than on one of its sites, and two work, one full-time, one part-time, for the Foundation. Of the others, one was a staff member, two were on student programmes, one was an 'employee' – someone hired by the Foundation to carry out necessary work for which no staff member is qualified – and one, also a member of CANA, has been a regular visitor to the Foundation. The group included eight women and four men, reflecting the higher proportion of women who are attracted to the Foundation. The age range spanned young to elderly, with the larger number of resondents in their thirties and forties. All respondents were university or college-educated, and were, or had been, engaged in professional or skilled work.

Candidates for interview were selected, pragmatically, on the basis that they would permit the interview to take place. In practice this meant people with whom I had already established a rapport. The group interviewed were either people with whom I had started to become friendly, or people I met because of a significant shared interest (weekly celebration of the eucharist at nearby Minton House). As a result, five out of the twelve people interviewed regarded themselves as Christian. This proportion would not be reflected by the membership of the Foundation as a whole, although there is an interest amongst some members in 'Christ-consciousness', and Eileen Caddy, the sole founder member still present told me that she regards her role as representing the Christ.

Since the aim of this study is to discern what New Age and Christianity have in common, the high degree of participation in Christian practice among respondents is helpful. Their connection with the Findhorn Foundation is itself indicative that they have found some commonality of view, and their interviews reveal something of what this might be. The question of how closely their positions are aligned with orthodox Christian doctrine is a fundamental issue, and it is therefore interesting to compare their responses with those of the Christian church-goers group.

However, the majority of respondents did not regard themselves as Christian and these showed varying degrees of interest in and sympathy towards Christianity. One described herself as "always having been involved in the church" while she was growing up, while another said he had read most of the Bible. Others regarded their knowledge of Christianity as slight, and there was an antipathy towards Christian exclusiveness and its association with the powerful since it became the dominant and established religion of the western world.

In the first interviews I asked respondents for their 'spiritual history'. These early interviews led me to define my main areas of interest, and after completing four conducted in this way I changed my approach and asked respondents for their views on three distinct but related areas. They were asked for their concept of the Divine, their concept of good and evil, and their concept of 'self realisation'. While the first question tends to elicit views about how respondents see the Divine in itself, the latter two turn the focus to the relationship between the Divine and the human; or, more widely, between the Divine and the whole cosmos. The responses are grouped under the three headings, although some of the early interviews did not give me material for all the sections.

In this chapter I summarise the views expressed by the twelve people interviewed, drawing out the principal themes, and entering in brief discussion of some of the issues they raise. Discussion of the major questions is reserved for the final chapter. During the process of recording respondents' views, my aim has also been to discern and reveal the 'group voice'. This does not imply smoothing over differences. Even within an individual interview contradictory views may be expressed as people struggle to make sense of the deepest and most challenging questions of life. For the individual, the common thread that binds these views together is the approach they bring to the task. Attitudes may be more consistent than theology or philosophy. The common thread that binds the group voice is the impulse that drew these people to the Findhorn Foundation. Each one is, in a conscious way, on a spiritual path characterised by the determination to follow the inner voice rather than any externally prescribed pathway.

To retain the possibility of following the train of thought expressed by different people, I have chosen to attribute comments and quotations to named individuals, but using pseudonyms. The list of pseudonyms runs as follows:

Frances*
Jack
Nora
Anne
Simon
Bridget
Stephanie*
Gordon*
Gabrielle*
John
Diana*
Peta

* Christians

Of the three original founders of the Findhorn Foundation one (Eileen Caddy) devoted herself to 'going within' to hear the voice of God, while another (Dorothy Maclaine) sought in her meditation to make contact with the 'nature spirits' which she understood to be angels and termed 'Divas', using a Sanskrit term. When asked what concept they had of the Divine, and of the relationship between the Divine and the human (and whole time/space world), these two categories, the Divine within and the relationship between the Divine and the natural world, were important for Findhorn respondents.

"You're very strong on God-immanent, but what about God-transcendent?" Frances, whose spiritual journey took her via eastern religious practices back to Christianity, quoted these words spoken to her by a clergyman.

Others also described their sense of Divine immanence. Jack spoke of his dawning apprehension as a child that God was "in everything", and of his gradual realisation that if that was so, this must include himself. The way he interpreted this was to see himself as "part of God". Extending from this, he described how, in an important group discussion about life at the Foundation, he had a perception of the interaction of people as the Divine interacting with itself: "I began to hear among all those voices only One Voice. What I perceived was the voice of the Divine talking to itself. I heard the Divine Voice in everything that was current in that process. I heard it in the voice of fear and of love, and of isolation. I heard it very clearly in the voice of the facilitator who mediated all these points without judging… That was the Voice of Spirit among us."

A similar view was echoed by other respondents who used these phrases: "We are all God" ('Nora'), or "There is only the Divine" ('Anne'), and "the Divine is All-that-Is" ('Simon').

However, some of the same respondents also expressed a sense of separation from the Divine. While Anne described her resistance to the idea that God was outside herself and maintained that "there isn't a separation between me and the Divine," she also said, "In the plant and Animal kingdom I can see that there is no separation, but I find that hard to experience personally and with human beings." This troubled her: "I find it hard to accept that the full range of human feelings are a reflection of the Divine. And that self-awareness brings the responsibility of curbing certain aspects of our animal nature, which seems to be impossible, and makes me really not want to be incarnate at all."

Nora referred to the teaching of the Indian guru, Sai Baba, on the God within, but commented: "He knows it. I have a mental knowledge of it. I don't have the feeling of it. The glimpses I have … are that I'm not just me. I'm beyond." Nora's interest in Sai Baba appears in fact to spring from a need to experience the Divine beyond her inner self. She expressed it like this: "God is nothing. To have an image to relate to is, for me, easier. I need something to relate to. I know God is more than [Sai Baba], but for me he is God in human form … He just is Love …"

Despite the emphasis on the God within, other respondents also made statements indicative of separation between the human and the Divine. Peta referred to a "spiritual dimension in people." Bridget spoke of how she could be, "a channel for Divinity." Gordon referred to everything being an "evidence of God." None of these statements supposes a complete identification between the Divine and the human or natural worlds. Of all the respondents Diana made the clearest statement of separation when she referred to, "that which is not yet awake into the Divine." Such beings are, "less meaningful to me. So, the Divine is the Source of Meaning."

Alone of these respondents, Simon explicitly wished to distance himself from any concept of God. He did not like term 'the God within' because it, "sustains and perpetuates the idea of a God, which I suppose I find difficult because it tends to disempower me and reinforce the idea of separation, and of the attainment of something – some perfect state." In general conversation at the Foundation, I was lead to believe that his discomfort with the idea of God may be held by others.

Bridget took a further step when she said, "… I think that the Divine is a state of being, not a Being … I create the Divine on my own because I am the translator of the Divine. I can be a channel for Divinity, for the observer creates. If I observe the Divinity around me, that heightens it."

Several respondents remembered a sense of awaking to the Divine through nature. Stephanie's first numinous experience occurred while gardening and took the form of a "hint" of "a sense of one-ness between me and a plum tree." Jack spoke of his love for mountaineering, and how, "To walk alone in the mountains, for a long time, I felt very close to my Maker. I felt as I imagined a stag would feel. I could cross the landscape well, knowing the routes, techniques, very aware of my strength and my vulnerability… I was aware of some enormity of the landscape – powers, pressures out of any scale that's meaningful on a human level. And this was one mountain … in a universe. And who knows what was beyond that. Wow!"

Gordon described himself as similarly awed by the "infinite variety of life." Speaking of his interest in some native American writings he regretted the distractions of our society and suggested that a sense of the Divine "only comes in the silence, in the simple experience of nature." Gabrielle attributed her "extraordinarily powerful experience of nature" in Africa as an aspect of her experience of God.

Other voices went further in making an identification between the Divine and nature. 'John' described the Divine as "a law of nature." He perceived, "perfect harmony between the Divine and nature. With humans, ego gets in the way." Regarding the suffering in nature, he said that it looked to him like "perfect suffering. I can only assume that the spirit of the animal chose to create that, and that that's the lesson that the animal needs. It's only suffering from the point of view of the ego or personality. From the soul's point of view, it's perfect."

Anne did not think 'the relationship between nature and the Divine' a relevant phrase, because, "There is only the Divine. Every manifestation of it is a miracle and a wonder… the unique and individual form that I perceive the Divine takes." Jack identified the Divine with nature spirits: "Nature spirits are one of the forms the Divine takes. They're not separate at all – fingers of the hand, as it were." He added, "I don't see fairies, but I don’t have any problem with personifying [nature spirits]. They take the shape suitable to the consciousness of the one who perceives them."

Monism, the belief that all is one, and pantheism, the belief that all is God, are characteristic New Age ideas. Among the Findhorn respondents, the Christians did not express monistic or pantheistic views. Nor did Peta (who used to be a Christian church-goer). But in different ways, most of the other respondents did.

The main Christian doctrine that is challenged by some of the positions held by those others is that of the Creation. If we can create the Divine (Bridget) and if the Divine is a law of nature (John) belief in the Divine as prior to the world of time and space appears to be absent. The Dominican theologian, Herbert McCabe, sees the doctrine of the Creation as the Biblical answer to the Jewish question, 'Why is there anything?' If the Divine is seen as a law of nature, the question, 'Why is there nature?' is not answered. If the Divine is seen as a state of being that we can create, we lack an account of our own existence. Expounding Aquinas on this subject, McCabe writes that such questions are valid ones, even though the answer to them is something, "We do not and cannot in this life know … but we label it 'God' …"

To retain a concept of 'Creator ex nihilo' does not invalidate the experience Bridget has of a particular state of being that she calls Divine. However, it provides a broader context within which such experiences are seen as an entering into a holiness that is already and always present, rather than the creation of something that would otherwise be absent.

It may be remarked that some of those respondents who expressed monistic or pantheistic ideas struggled with their actual experience, which was one of separation (Anne, Nora; John also described an earlier period of his life when he had not felt in tune with the Divine).

What leads self-confessed monists to identify separation between themselves and the Divine? John identified the ego as the cause of separation; Anne, in spite of her view that there is no separation between the Divine and the natural world identified our 'animal nature' as the problem. However, from the perspective of a monistic world view, the basic issue is not what causes separation, but why there should be any sense of separation at all? There appears to be a need for a sense of Divine transcendence along with the sense of immanence. In Christianity, the christology of Chalcedon and the doctrine of the trinity have been formulated in response to that need. This will be discussed more fully in the final chapter.

There is a tendency within the New Age to deny evil any reality; things may appear evil from our limited perspective, but this is an illusion. However, there was no denial of the darker side of life amongst many of those interviewed.

At one end of the spectrum, Peta denied the reality of evil. Bridget maintained that she had not experienced evil – only deep hurt. Anne knew of the connotations of error implied in the Hebrew term for sin, and believed that failure to realize the human task of reflecting the Divine arises through misunderstanding, which falls short of evil. Although in practice she perceived good and evil in the world, she tried to "live and perceive the world on the basis of non-duality. Meaning that there isn't a separation between me and the Divine; there are no contrasting pairs. And in this case it means the logical precept, 'If there is good there must be evil' doesn't apply."

Despite distancing herself from belief in objective evil, Peta expressed an area of doubt: "When I watch movies like Damian II, I think 'Oh God. I hope I don't have to deal with anything like that, because I don't understand it and it feels very powerful.'"

Some such 'powerful things' were within the experience of another respondent. In the course of her work as a therapist assisting clients in 'past-life regression' Frances had encountered, "very dark experiences. Process releasement, like deliverance. Something here said, 'This is not just psychological stuff. It's much, much bigger.'" She also expressed the view that, "There probably is a devil and he probably does have a little army. But I'm not sure. There certainly are very evil entities, forces." For her, "the Eastern belief that there is only wisdom and absence of wisdom" did not give a full account.

Recognition of disturbing aspects of life and the need to deal with them and not avoid them led Gordon and Diana to speak of the need to 'go into the darkness'. For Gordon, "We sometimes need to deal with the shadow. Or the ability to transform the darker areas wouldn't be possible if we're just going to separate ourselves from them. Going into the darkness [is] a process of expanding yourself and being cleansed to open yourself to new ideas."

Diana saw evil as a "forgetfulness of God's love and unity." She went on:

"'There's no health in me.' Quite an affirmation to come up with week after week. I have a lot of trouble with that. If you begin with sin you have a very negative, legislative approach.

I realise our rules are not always the most human e things. Jesus was contextual."