Lorian Association

New Age organization. The Lorian Association was founded in 1973 by David Spangler soon after his return to the United States after a three-year stay at the Findhorn community, a pioneering New Age community in northern Scotland. Among the 15 individuals who founded the Lorian Association was Dorothy McLean, one of the co-founders of Findhorn, who also moved to the United States that year. The purpose of Lorian was to explore and celebrate the emergence of new spiritual energies that could bring about human transformation, both personal and social. In 1982 Spangler and the founders issued a statement of interdependence affirming a commitment to such New Age values as cooperative decision making, harmlessness in interacting with the environment, the wise use of energy, a diversity of cultural expressions, and communion with superhuman intelligences.

Channeling was a vital part of the association in the early years. Just as Eileen Caddy had received messages that guided the developing Findhorn community, Spangler and McLean channeled and the messages were published by the association. The association was located in Wisconsin through the 1970s but moved to Issaquah, Washington, around 1980. There it survived into the 1990s, but the community has recently disbanded. Spangler radically revised his opinions concerning the New Age in the late 1980s and abandoned the basic New Age hope of social transformation.

Sources:

McLean, Dorothy. To Hear the Angels Sing. Middleton, Wis.: Lorian Press, 1980.

Spangler, David. Channeling and the New Age. Issaquah, Wash.: Morningtown Press, 1988.

——. Conversations with John. Elgin, Ill.: Lorian Press, 1980.