interviews

A Conversation with Michael Lindfield on:

Life, Meaning, Findhorn, and Transformation

cont. p. 3

Tammie: It sounds like this perspective has worked very well for you.

Michael Lindfield: It works well as long as one is clear and listens deeply within. When I’m not clear and not listening deeply within, it doesn’t work as well. If it’s not working, I say to myself, "You’re not listening". So I straighten myself out and do whatever it takes to be receptive to those subtle signals from inside.

Tammie: When you mentioned putting Seattle on your luggage and sending it off, one of the things that strikes me Michael, is that about a year ago, I started to notice that many of the books I was reading and appreciating were written by authors living in Seattle. Or I would hear about, for instance, simplicity circles and Cecil Andrews, and find out that she was from Seattle. Just over-and-over again, it appeared to me that a great deal was going on in Seattle. I'm wondering if you find that to be true, and if it is, how do you explain what's going on there?

Michael Lindfield: Well, I told you I came in early ’86, I traveled around the states. I went to Milwaukee, then to California, then up here to Washington State. I was offered the job in San Francisco, it was a nice offer and I thought it would be fun. Then I thought, "no let’s just put that on the back burner."

I got on the plane to Seattle. When I got off, looked around, and sniffed the air, it felt so refreshing. It felt like, "Yeah this is home" - but not just on the physical level. Physically, it reminded me of Scotland and Scandinavia rolled into one. So I felt at home on that level. But on an inner level, on a psychic level - on a deeper level, it felt as though the sky was clear with very high ceilings: it was uncluttered.

When I was down in L.A. and San Francisco, it felt busy. Even though a lot of good things were happening, there was a lot already filled in. There wasn’t much psychic space. When I came up here to Seattle, it was as though the skies had cleared and I got this image of the northwest as the seed bed for the new civilization. We are talking distant future here. The whole Pacific rim is the magical ring or circle in which this new cultural expression will emerge.

It’s interesting to note that the Theosophical teachings mention that for each stage in human evolution over the grand scale - over vast time periods - each particular development is focused on a new continent. We’ve had Atlantis, we've had Europe, and now we have America. Supposedly another landmass will rise in thousands-and-thousands of years time called Pacificus and this will usher in the era of intuitive peace and alignment to divine intent. And so I have a sense that this ring of fire that we call the Pacific ring, or the Pacific Rim, is the magic circle in which the preparatory work is taking place for what’s to come. That's the deep sense I have of this place.

Tammie: I remember visiting Seattle and within an hour thinking, "this is an incredible place," and being very much drawn to it and feeling that this is a place where I would want to be.

Michael Lindfield: Yes, especially the Islands - the San Juan Islands - a short ferry ride from Seattle. In half-an-hour, you can be in another world – they are absolutely magical. It's as though, here in this part of the world, we really do have a seedbed for new ideas. Things are possible here. And also, I've found that there's a great sense of connection and support among people here. People really help each other out. And I am absolutely thrilled with the depth of relationship that I have established here – both socially and professionally in the academic and business circles. I know that good people exist everywhere on the planet, and yet, there is something happening here that I feel drawn to. People are being called to build something here, just as they are being called to build everywhere, but there's a certain quality here that I resonate to. I guess I’m saying that this is the right place for me. Now, that might change a year from now, or even two or three years from now. Who knows?

Tammie: But at this point in time…

Michael Lindfield: At this point in time there is a "rightness" about it.

Tammie: Well that's helpful for me, because I've said before, "I can't explain it, I just think there's something very special about Seattle." To which I usually received blank stares. Moving on to the next question, you've written that perhaps we ,in the Western world, have been looking in the wrong places and using inappropriate tools in our search for truth. I was hoping that you would elaborate on that.

Michael Lindfield: I believe, that in the West, we have worked to hone and perfect the analytical mind and in our scientific research into the meaning of life, we've been looking mostly at objects. What we haven't really paid attention to is the relationship between these objects. We see that as empty space. The prevailing world-view is that there's just empty space populated by objects.

What I believe is that space is a living field. Space is an entity in its own right that, through its energetic field, makes conscious relationship possible. It is what I would call a "vibrant field of conscious connection" because it allows a relationship between the objects to exist. It is a "thing" in its own right, but it's not a particularized thing, it's more like a wave than a particle. You have to have both waves and particles to have the whole picture. And I think we've just been looking at the particles and trying to put the particles together, and not realizing that there is no such thing as empty space.

Everything is a dynamic field of consciousness, and the only thing that we really have is relationship. We have the relationship with our own inner self, we have the relationship with others and we have the relationship with other life forms. So our experience of life is built on a series of simultaneous relationships. This is what gives coherency and meaning to life. Without relationships there would be no connection. Without connection, there is no meaning.

When I look outside my window right now, I see the sky and the clouds rolling in. In the middle distance, I see fir trees. So, as I now look at the sky and the fir trees together, there is also a quality and a living presence which can only be described as sky/tree. It isn't an empty space between sky and tree. It is in fact a consciousness, a relationship. The words don't really describe it properly. I don't think we have the words for that which we don't yet recognize. So that's one aspect of it.

The other aspect is - and I don't want to generalize too much - but I know that in the west we've always had this image of "the quest". The story says that one day I will reach the Promised Land, but I'll have to go through terrible terrain to get there, meet the monsters and all of that. And on one level that is very true, but what this image does is to create a mental model, or mind-set that says, "Today I am nothing. I am here, and over there is everything". This way of thinking creates a huge gap between here and there, between me and the fulfillment of myself. And then I look with more of a Zen Buddhist approach or an Eastern approach where the image is that life already is. We are already here – it is all around us.

The journey isn’t one of distance – it is one of consciousness. Just be still and be part of it. Where the only thing that is stopping you from being part of it, is your ability to stop and be part of it. It's a different way. So, in the same way that we have used the phrase "poverty consciousness" associated with an ability to acquire material things, I believe we have a poverty of spiritual possibilities in our western image of life.

We talked about that several years ago around manifesting money. The conversation was about how we each set our own ceiling and our own limits of what we're willing and able to create and generate. Well, I think there are echoes of that in the mental models that we use for spiritual wholeness or spiritual enlightenment. And it has to do with; "I don't have it, one day I'll get it." The other is, "It is here, I am already it. Can I allow myself to resonate with that and be it fully? Can I work from the inside out?" So I guess that's what it is, it's the difference between working from the inside out and acknowledging I already am in essence but not yet in manifestation.

It’s tough to stay in that space all the time. Sometimes I revert to the other mind-set where I am nothing and I feel the need to add to myself and appropriate cultural trappings and religious labels in order to be able to stand up and say, "this is who I am." I believe the gap has closed somewhat within the last ten years because of the influence of the eastern philosophies and their attendant practices that are now more prevalent in the west. However, I do believe that we still have a tendency in this particular culture - the American-European culture - to look at things as distant and to look at objects as separate. That’s what I was getting at. So it's our way of perceiving and understanding how life moves through us and how we move through life.

It’s the same thing that I mentioned before. If I truly believe that I'm only on earth for a limited number of years followed by death, oblivion and darkness, my possibilities in life are conditioned by these beliefs. It is very different from another culture that says, "If I do good now, I'll come back better and so I'm willing to sacrifice myself and lay my body on the line". Not that the world-view of "one life and you’re out" is necessarily wrong – I’m saying that it can be limiting – it can cramp your spiritual style. Fear of death can cramp anyone’s style!

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