Spiritual Deepening:
Living from Purpose and Soul

This course requires previous participation in Experience Week plus either an Exploring Community Life or a Spiritual Practice week.

Essential Findhorn focalisers

2 March–24 May 2013

This 12-week programme offers a core journey to deeply engage with your own inner wisdom, a time in which to come alive in a new way, weaving fresh insights into daily community life and your ordinary experience. It's an opportunity to practise sustainability on all levels.

Spiritual Deepening flier 2012 image

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Would you like to deepen your relationship with yourself, with your soul, with the innermost part of yourself, no matter what name you give it? You can learn to recognise its voice, listen clearly and answer its call, by giving your commitment, nurturing presence and joyful expression.

If you are in a time of change or wanting a supportive and stimulating environment in which to look at current life choices, Spiritual Deepening offers you a powerful training that can become a framework for life. It is a heart-opening journey on which you can discover more of what has touched you previously here in the Findhorn Foundation.

The central focus of this programme is on being and deepening, on living your life consciously and authentically, exploring what it means to be connected with spirit and your own intuition and to practise this in everyday life. It is about celebrating who we are and what we can contribute to the whole. In short, this is an exercise in applied spiritual living. The flow of the weeks and each day will be geared towards this goal, and this, as well as reviews and mentoring sessions, will support you in this process.

The group journey will be your playground and a field of exploration and inspiration, where you can be lovingly held, supported, challenged and encouraged by kindred souls, and where you can discover new ways of being with others.

BuddahButterflyOur journey will begin with group building and reflecting on our soul's journey, together with creating personal purposes to focus our attention and our goals during this time. 'Being' in community helps to self-reflect, develop awareness and cultivate authenticity, which can result in greater connection with self, others and source.

Each week will include a silent day for reflection, journaling, integration, meditation and prayer, a day of retreat and of being in the world but not of it.

The programme includes a week of silent retreat which does not follow any specific tradition and will include sitting and walking practices as well as chanting and group walks.

We engage with the group dynamics consciously and creatively. Members of our community will be invited in for specific topics and sessions such as characterological defences, communication skills, group dynamics and more. Other tools will be used to further ground our learning, such as The Transformation Game® and artistic expression of various kinds.

Throughout the programme there will be opportunities to help ground and integrate the programme's qualities by engaging with one of the Foundation's service departments at either The Park or Cluny Hill sites.

ConMed20A week on the island of Erraid allows you to get away from everyday distractions, to slow down, experience simplicity, to be even closer to Nature and to visit the ancient isle of Iona.

At the end of the programme we offer you the possibility to continue with mentoring by your group focalisers, the first two times for free, and from then on at our usual rate.

Experience Week plus either an Exploring Community Life or a Spiritual Practice are prerequisite.

All applicants participate in an interview and attunement.

Income related price (click here for more information): £4250 / £3500 / £2950
£5,250 if paid for by your organisation

Income Related Pricing

We want to ensure that our courses are accessible to people with diverse financial means. When you book, please choose the high, medium or lower price listed for your programme, based on your personal income and keeping in mind that paying the lowest price covers only basic costs, while paying the medium and higher prices will allow this centre to develop and grow. Limited bursary funds are available if you cannot pay the lowest price, please see how to apply. You can also contribute to our bursary fund when you make your booking.

Includes 12 weeks accommodation and all meals.

Our bursary fund allows for the possibility of supplementing those on low income and/or from developing countries. Please contact the programme focalisers directly when you apply.

For more information or to book, please contact the Spiritual Deepening programme focalisers at

I arrived at Findhorn on a cool and sunny day in early March to begin the twelve week programme known as Spiritual Deepening. Gathering together with a small group of people from around the world, I felt a curious combination of excitement and anxiety. We ranged in chronological age from the 30s to the 70s and yet I sensed that we were all about the same age on the inside. The first couple of days were devoted to getting to know one another individually and as a group as we shared the stories of our lives. I recalled the expression that "we are all spiritual beings having a human experience."

The next several weeks were both interesting and cathartic. Many of the therapeutic modalities that are used as a basis for inner work at Findhorn were presented to us. Some were familiar to me and others were not. All, however, had their special gifts to bestow on my psyche and what I understood to be my comfortable psychological framework. I held on tightly in the beginning and then gradually began to see the futility of such attachment. It was my ego that needed to have everything in my life in perfect order and happiness and harmony. My soul, however, called out for more. There were extraordinary moments when the unfolding was not so gradual, more like a bolt of lightning that had been building up for many years. In those unfamiliar and uneasy times, I felt safely held as if in a container of love.

The programme allowed abundant time for meditation, contemplation, expansion and deepening of my spiritual practice and an engagement in the life and spirit of one of the most open, honest and loving communities in the world. There were many opportunities to identify and shed light upon the wounds I carry in life, thereby allowing my armour to crack and my shields to be set down... my own idea of 'turning swords into plowshares.' My goals were to be more transparent, more open and more loving.

I have been on many retreats in various spiritual traditions but never one as long, deep and loving as the one I experienced at Findhorn. Perhaps it was due to the programme structure with abundant time for learning, contemplation and self expression, or perhaps it was the joy (and sometimes tension) of being on the journey with a group of multicultural fellow travelers, perhaps it was Kairos (God's time) or perhaps it was simply the "Magic of Findhorn." And now I think that the gift of the retreat need not be attributed to anything other than grace and the blessing of being in the right place at the right time. What I experienced was most profound and beautiful. I have come to realise that the Spiritual Deepening Programme was, for me, simply about understanding, experiencing and loving the person I am and was created to be. Thank you Findhorn!

Marcus L, previous programme participant