The most advanced experiment, involving communication with plants, has developed in a remote corner of Northern Scotland.
Three miles as the raven croaks, from the battlements of Duncan’s Castle at Forres, and just South of the heath…where 3 witches prophesied to Macbeth.
It is here that an ex-raf squadron leader, (turned hotelkeeper), decided to take up residence with his wife, and three young sons….in the derelect corner of a caravan park on Findhorn Bay.
It was a rubbish heap of old tin cans, broken bottles, bramble and grose bushes.
Peter Caddy, (who once walked two thousand miles through the Himalayas), crossing Kashmir, deep into Thibet, has been a follower, since his youth, of a school of “Adepts”, whose object is to bring back beauty and wonder to this planet.
He was illumined by the dictates of his consciousness, or  the “Will” of an all-powerful creative force which was revealed to him by his clairvoyant wife, Eileen, so they made the decision to pull up their roots and move to Findhorn Scotland.
Accompanying the Caddys was another “sensitive”, Dorothy Maclean, who had left the Canadian Foreign Office, to study “Sufism”.
For some time the Caddys had been intent upon radically changing their lives….by turning away from mundane occupations, and materialist pursuits, in order to enter upon, what  Caddy  calls, “a long period of training and  preparation”.
During this time, they planned to surrender everything.  This also included all personal volition, to a “being” they call “unlimited power and love”, whose “will” is manifest to them, through the guidance of a deceased Rosicrucian master.
This master they recognized in the flesh, as Dr. G. A. Sullivan, and in the spirit as “Aureolus”, or  (Saint Germain), the master of the seventh ray.

Findhorn Caravan Park
To be fair, the place in which the Caddys least expected to settle, was this unsightly, over crowded encampment of Mobile Homes, known as the Findhorn Caravan Park. (For years they had hurried past it, on their way to and from Forres).   Now some mysterious force was over-riding their  aversion.
Following what appeared to be a crystal guidance, they wheeled an old caravan onto the site of their new home. It was less than half an acre, in a hollow, not far from the main cluster of trailers.
A patch of land composed mostly of sand and gravel, (that was constantly swept by gale-force winds), protected only partially by tufts of broom and quitch grass, which kept the sand from blowing away. It was shaded by a belt of spiny fir trees.
With winter coming, it was a dismal prospect.   Following the concept of Monks, who  used to build their monasteries by hand, putting love and  light into the fabric of the building,  with every stone they laid….the  Caddys cleaned their  rickety trailer, from top to  bottom.  They polished all the furniture, pouring in vibrations of love….to cancel out negative vibrations, they  considered  to be  inevitable, in  structures  built by  people,  interested  only  in  money.
Cleansing and hand painting the caravan, was a first step toward the creation of their  own center of  light.

The Pioneers
As none of the Findhorn pioneers was employed, and  their  meager resources would carry them through only one dark and clammy, Scottish winter….they dreamed of  springtime…and  establishing a garden.  To  increase the protective shield of light  around  them,  and as a source of  healthy  nourishment.
When Easter rolled around, to herald a Renaissance of the land….the arid,  lifeless soil surrounding their  caravan,  seemed hopeless for growing anything edible.  Caddy,  who had never sown a vegetable seed in his life, felt like Noah….when guided to build an Ark, where there was no water,  but  he  persisted.
Either  guidance  was to be followed to the letter, or they might as well return to the world of business.   His  Rosicrucian masters, had taught  him one prime rule of  life:   “To  love where  he  was,  to  love  whom  he  was  with,  and  to love  what  he  was  doing”.
His wife Eileen, would rise regularly at midnight, and meditate for several hours.  She  had read,  “that everyone receives his spiritual   name, at some  point in life,  and that only  then, can he begin his spiritual work in earnest.  In 1953, she  had  felt  the  word  “elixer”,  branded on  her  forehead,  so  she  adopted  the name,  and from then  on,  her guidance was constant.

The  Vision
In her clairvoyant vision, “Elixer” saw seven cedar wood bungalows , clustered  together.  In the midst of a splendid  garden, all trim and neat.   (How this  vision was to  materialize…..in  the constricted  squalor of the caravan site, remained a mystery).   Yet all  were  prepared  to put their  faith in her  clairvoyance.
The prospect of creating a garden, seemed a super-human task. The ground was made of fine, dusty sand and gravel, in which nothing  grew,  but tough,  pointed  grass.
“Elixer” received  guidance,  that each time you put a spade into the ground,  you put  in  your vibrations.   That  the  right  vibrations,  acted  like a  magnet, to draw “like” vibrations.
Caddy made a 9 foot by 9 foot garden, tilling the grass, upside down, to provide nourishment, as it disintegrated.   His problem was to get water to the soil, a far more difficult job, than he imagined.   The sand  was so fine,  the  water  poured onto it, simply went into globules, like quicksilver.   With assiduous patience, by spraying the surface over long periods, with a very fine spray, it was possible to impregnate  the  soil,  sufficiently  for  it to  hold the  moisture.
More stones and gravel had to be raked out.   Finally the plot was ready for  seeding.   He planted  lettuce, and watched their  lettuce  grow into stunted apparitions,  attacked  by  wire worms.  

A Natural Compost Pile
They did not want to use chemical  pesticides.   A neighbor  chanced to pass by, and informed him of a  pile of seasoned  “soot”,  just outside the entrance to the caravan park, an admiral antidote  to  wire  worms.
He spread it carefully, and luckily it rained and the soot was washed into the soil.  By the end of May, they  were  eating luscious lettuces and radishes.  Chemical  fertilizers were toxic to the human body….a compost heap was essential, if they were to grow a greater variety of vegetables.
Only where to  obtain the  ingredients?
A pile of rotting grass,  was donated by a neighbor.   A nearby farmer, grateful for a rescued  sheep, gave him a large load of cow manure.  A  friend who owned a riding stable, allowed them to  follow his horses with a bucket and shovel.  A nearby distillery supplied them  with free  peat  dross,  and  cummings,  ( a natural barley  germ fertilizer).
Seaweed they gathered free….at the beach. A bale of hay, dropped from a passing truck, almost at the gate of the park…as if from heaven,  served to cover  their  compost.
They planted water cress, tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach, parsley, squash, and asparagus. They also planted hedges of blackberries, and rasberries, around their garden. Which began to spread beyond the caravan, till it covered 2 acres of ground.
Every bit of soil of which had to be manufactured from old turf, and new compost:  every square inch, man-handled several times in the process.

Stunning Results….
Within 2 months the results were stunning!   The  neighbors,  who,  not  knowing of the spirit, in which the Caddys, were going about their gardening, could not understand what was happening.   Especially when the Caddy’s cabbages and brussel sprouts….were the only ones in the area, to survive a plague of cabbage-root grubs,  (which eat away  at the  roots of the plants), and their harvest of black currants, grew healthily….by the bushel. Whereas the crop largely failed, in the rest of the country.
The lunches began to consist of salads, with over 20 ingredients:  surplus quantities of lettuce, radishes, spinach, and parsley were disposed of, around the country…which was suffering a  shortage.
Their evening meals included 2 or 3 vegetables from the garden, grown without fertilizer, or insecticides….freshly picked and cooked. Stews from garden vegetables…consisted of onions, leeks, garlic, carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips, artichokes, Kohlrabi, celery, squash, potatoes, flavored with all kinds of herbs.
“Elixer”, let her mind dwell on each ingredient, when making a salad, or  stew, her  thoughts and feelings were important…..in the continuing cycle of life,  she was to appreciate  whatever she was doing….whether peeling a carrot, or podding a pea.   Of the peelings  and  garbage, nothing was to be wasted.  All  was to go back into the compost, and the  soil….constantly increasing the living  vibrations.
The only drawback to this life, was that when they were obliged to go into town, or on a short holiday, they found it very difficult to support normal food.

Preserving the Life Foods
When midsummer came, they were ready to preserve quantities of rasberries, blackberries, and strawberries. Putting up, altogether a hundred pounds of jam. They pickled 15 pounds of red cabbage, and a large quantity of cucumbers. In a newly built garage, they stored potatoes, carrots, beets, and shelves full of shallots, garlic, and onions.
During the winter they  prepared the Earth, for  the following season.  They  planted more fruits, altogether  some 20  species,  including  apples,  pears,  plums,  cherries,  apricots, loganberries, and  boysenberries.  By   May of 1964,  the fruit trees and  bushes  were bursting  into  bud.

A  Life  Experiment
It began to dawn on them…that there might be some greater underlying purpose behind what was happening. That they must be involved in some mysterious pioneering venture.
Some larger  experiment, in  group  living….that  the garden might be the nucleus of some larger  experiment, in new age  living.  
A sort of training course in the realization that life  is  a  whole.
In June 1964, when the county horticultural advisor came to take a sample of the soil, for analysis, (his first comment on arrival  was that  the soil would require a dressing of at least 2 ounces of sulfate of potash,  per square yard). 
Caddy replied that he did not believe in artificial fertilizers….and he was happy using compost, and wood ash.  The  advisor  said  that  would  be  totally  inadequate.
Six weeks later, when the advisor returned, bringing the results of the analysis, he acknowledged with some bewilderment, that the analysis had found no deficiencies….in the soil  sample.  All  necessary  elements,  including  rare trace elements, were  present.
By now they were growing 65 different kinds of vegetables, 21 fruits, and over 40 herbs, (both culinary and medicinal).

Dorothy Maclean
For some time Dorothy Maclean had also been receiving extraordinary spiritual guidance, of her own. And  had  adopted  the  name  of  “Divina”.
She realized that by raising the quality of her own vibrations….she might eventually open the doors, to a whole new spiritual realm of plant life.
It became clear that human thinking, human passion, human anger, human kindliness and affection…all have far-reaching effects on the world of plants.
 (Plants are most susceptible to human thoughts, and emotions…which affect their  energy).
Poisonous and  bad-tempered moods, have as depressing effect on plants, as happy uplifting frequencies….have a beneficial effect.  It occurred to her,  also, that bad effects could come back to humans…as they ate the produce….they had  infected, with bad  vibrations.
Thus, the whole cycle could become viciously descending…..leading to more and more misery,  pain and  disease.  Or  hopefully  ascending…leading to greater joy, and greater light.
The most important contribution that man can make to a garden…even more important  than water and compost…is the radiation he puts into the soil,  while cultivating it.   Such as  love, and every member of a group, has something to contribute, in the way of radiations, strength,  happiness,  and  so  on………
Everything that comes in to a human being, through inspiration of one sort or another, goes out again…modified in wavelength, tone, and timber…by the “will” of the person involved.  He  or she can improve the quality of what is sent out, and increase the brilliance….of  its  wavelength.
At the same time the soil and plants, are constantly being affected by radiations from the earth itself, and from the cosmos…each of which contributes to its fertility…without which both soil and plants, would be sterile;
These radiations were more fundamental then chemical elements, or microbiotic organisms…radiations that are subject fundamentally to the mind of man.
Man appeared to have the role of a demi-god.   By cooperating   with nature, he might find  no  limit…to  what  could  be achieved on this  planet……………

The Vision of Light
In the spring of 1967, they extended the garden even further…and made it into a place of beauty,  with the planting of many kinds of flowers.  The vision they  had  seen, was now beginning to  materialize.
Money for neat cedar  strip bungalows, turned up, as if by miracle, and the bungalows  were soon surrounded by  impeccable flower  gardens.
In 1968, when Findhorn was visited by a number of accomplished gardners and agricultural experts, they were amazed at what they found.  They had never seen such a uniformly  high  standard  in  all  sections of a  garden.
The growth and color of the flowers in the new herbaceous borders were so remarkable…that the visitors were at a loss to explain the phenomena, considering the poverty of the soil, and the rigorous northern climate.
The root vegetables were the best they had ever tasted, and they were surprised to find fruit trees of all sorts in blossom, as well as a  vigorous  young chestnut…standing 8 feet tall,  among broad-leaved trees and shrubs thriving on the slope of  windswept  dunes.
With and interest in the organic method…they had seen enough to know that compost and straw mulch alone, mixed with poor, and sandy soil, were not enough to account for such a garden.
There must be some “factor x”, to be taken into consideration.
If so much could be accomplished at Findhorn, in such a short time…the Sahara could be made to blossom.

The Devas……..The Nature Spirits
Lady Cynthia Chance, a follower of Rudolf Steiner’s biodynamic farming methods, was astounded when Peter Caddy told her…he did not need to apply Steiner’s methods, that he  had a more direct  spiritual  way,  of obtaining  the  same  results.
“The vigor, health, and bloom of the plants in the garden, at midwinter…on land which is almost a barren, powdery sand…cannot be explained by the moderate dressings of compost.
Nor indeed, by the application of any known cultural methods,  of organic  husbandry.  There  are other  factors…and  they are  vital  ones”.
At which point, Peter Caddy broke down, and let out the secret of their success, at Findhorn.
He said that “Dorothy Maclean”, or  “Divina”,  had  managed  to get in direct  contact  with the devas,  or  angelic creatures…who control the nature spirits. 
That are said by clairvoyants, to be everywhere…at work nurturing plant  life.

Communication with the Devas
Conscious investigation of such worlds is of the utmost importance, to our understanding of the life of plants.  Peter Caddy put out a series of pamphlets,  describing the true nature, of the experiments at Findhorn.   “Divina” contributed  detailed  descriptions of  the messages she  received,  directly  from  the  Devas.
She described whole hierarchies…responsible for every fruit, and vegetable..to every flower and  weed.
A new Pandora’s box opened up.

New Age  Center  of  Light
Findhorn quickly developed into a community of over a hundred disciples.  Young  spiritual leaders  turned up, to  preach the gospel of the New Age.  And a college was  founded  in the community,  to teach the tenets,  of this New Age.
What had started as a miraculous,  little garden…appeared to be turning into a true center of  light…for the Aquarian Age,  visited annually…from every continent of the globe.
Parting the veil into other worlds, and other vibrations…beyond the limits of the electromagnetic spectrum…may well go a long way to explain the mysteries…..which are incomprehensible physicists who limit their looking…to what they can see with their physical eyes, and their instruments.
In the more etheral world of the clairvoyants, who claims to have mastered the art of etheric and astral vision…a whole new series of vistas, opens up around plants…..and their relation to man, to the Earth, and to the Cosmos.
The growth of seeds and plants, as Paracelsus intimated, may  indeed be affected  very  stongly…by the  position of the moon, the positions of the planets, and their  relation to the sun and to the other stars of the firmament.
Fechner’s animistic vision of plants being “ensouled”, becomes less of a wild conceit.
The ancient wisdom, as detailed by seers like:  Helen Blavatsky, and Alice Bailey, throws quite another light on the energy of bodies, both of humans and of plants, as well as the relation of individual cells…to the entire cosmos.
The secret behind Pfeiffer’s biodynamic compost, which has been proved so highly effective, scientifically….turns out to be a homeopathic wonder.
Based on a fairy-land creation, of Rudolf Steiner’s organic brews…..made by burying cow horns, filled with cow dung, and deer bladders, filled with nettles and camomile leaves.   Steiner’s  spiritual science, throws such a light on plant life and agriculture, as to make  Scientists root  in  their  tracks…………….
Aesthetically, the world of Devas, and the nature spirits….turns out to be even more full of color,  and sound,  and  perfume, than the creations of Wagner and Mozart.
Their  gnomes,  nymphs, and undines…their fire,  water,  earth and air  spirits….closer to reality  than the Holy  Grail…..and the eternal quest it engendered.
The attraction of worlds…..within worlds, is too great to forego,  and the  stakes too  high….for  they may include survival for the planet.
Where the modern  Scientist, is baffled by  the  secrets of  the life of plants….the seer offers solutions which,  however incredible,  make more sense…..than the dusty “mouthings” of Academicians.
What  is   more….they give philosophical  meaning to  the totality  of  life…………….