I came to Findhorn for the first time in 1986 and it was because I had found just a year before a book of Eileen on the book counter of a workshop on Positive thinking in Germany "Footprints on the Path". I was so taken by the book and thought this is exactly what I want to experience or am already partly doing that I immediately wrote to Findhorn asking for the brochure and planning the Experience week in summer 1986 and immediately afterwards Eileen's workshop "Learning to Love" together with David Earl Platts. I really wanted to meet Eileen myself.Both took place at Cluny Hill College. And getting there it felt just like coming home. I seemed to be in the right place at the right time. My awakening to spirituality had taken place about 18 months beforehand, but I realised later that all my life had been a preparation for it. I had travelled a lot for many years, especially to many holy places of the ancient cultures, being interested in archeology.
Already during the experience week I was told by one of the participants, a young English girl who was a clairvoyant, that I was a healer which had seemed strange, but she made me try it out by laying on hands and it seemed to work. It has been one of my tools over the years. Then during Eileen's workshop in one of her meditations "The challenge of change" I heard the word "Centre of Light" which was very strange for me, never having heard words in my head, and I resisted not knowing what to do. I could not create a centre of light, I had only just started on my path, tears came and a lot of tension, but finally I said "yes". And when I asked Eileen after the meditation what I could do with it she just simply said "Why don't you start by becoming a centre of light?" And I said, yes I can do that. And that is what I have done ever since. Whatever Eileen said and taught us spoke to me and sounded true. So I bought "Opening Doors within" and read it every day applying it all into my life for years. It was like my bible. The religious bible - I was educated a Lutheran - did not really speak to me, but Eileen's words were so much more practical and easy to understand.
Coming back to Brussels I wanted to find other people of the same spirit and found a spiritual bookshop the manager of which had just recently been to Findhorn also and suggested I create a Findhorn group in their house, there were rooms upstairs for rent for things like that. Then I asked at Findhorn for addresses of Belgian people having come to Findhorn and wrote to them and created the group once a month, sharing and meditation. And about 15 people turned up. We continued that for a long time, and after a couple of months I asked to become a Findhorn Resource Person which was agreed to. And then I started inviting people from Findhorn to come to Brussels to give workshops. One of the first ones to come was, of course, Eileen herself. She came with David Earl Platts and then with Judy Buttner. I also had Dorothy McLain come and other people whom I had met in Findhorn, since I went there usually once a year after my first visit. I never felt that I needed to live there but that I should bring back the teachings to where I was living.
Besides reading "Opening Doors Within" I also used a lot of affirmations which Eileen had told us she used, for example "I am a wonderful Christ filled being, a being of light, a beacon of light, the light of God, the light of the world" or "I am at one with all of life, the whole world is my family" or "I always have time for everyone and everything" - to learn more patience.
With using all these tools over many years I eventually realised that I had become a very loving, patient person, enjoying all the benefits of meditation, although I did not really meditate regularly - because I could not find the peace of mind that way. And towards the end of the nineties I noticed that I was totally happy all the time and had no more external needs, even I was not hungry any more. But, of course, I continued eating - had been vegetarian for many years - because I did not know that you could live without eating physical food. Until one day someone told me about Jasmuheen, the Australian woman who talks among others about pranic nourishment and pranic living and has practiced that for more than 15 years now. I met her for the first time in 1999 when she was giving her first international workshop in Australia. And strangely enough I already had made arrangements to go to Australia that year just during the time the workshop was going to take place, but I had meant to go for a journey with a group of Aboriginees which was scheduled exactly the same week. However a few weeks before I got an e-mail telling me that the trip was cancelled ..... and finally it was postponed to a week later so that I could do both. During my stay with Jasmuhee I immediately went from vegetarian to raw food diet. Then I invited her to come for workshops to Brussels and she agreed, and when she arrived two years later I knew a couple of days before that now was my time to stop eating physical food. And this has been going on for nine years now for me. That does not mean that I never eat, but sometimes just for social reasons I have a little food with friends or family, not to separate myself too much from the world. And we also have the choice to do that. But in general I feel best when I do not eat or drink. Through Jasmuheen I learnt all about the theory needed, i.e. to program that the universe provides all the vitamins and minerals and all the substances that my body needs to live in this way. And it is also the lifestyle in 8 points that Jasmuheen talks about and which I had been practicing for many years : Meditation, Prayer, Mind Mastery + programming, Silence in Nature, Physical Exercise, Selfless Service, Sacred Song and Music, Light Diet.
It is a challenge to live such a life, and sometimes people get angry with me, but I had to learn to take nothing personally and not judge anyone and love myself enough to carry on living the way that is right for me. I do not want to convince anyone to do the same, just be an example and a pioneer for a different life style. There are about 50.000 of us all over the world now.
And my life is filled with grace and miracles all the time, my body is in perfect health, and I am always at the right time in the perfect place meeting the perfect people. All my prayers are filled with gratitude for this wonderful life in service to the Univers and to Humanity. Thank you Beloved that this is so. So it is, so it is, so it is.
Erika
