Interview by Geoff Dalglish
The life of former US Army Special Operations Sergeant Thomas Miller is a story of radical transformation and a journey from war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq to the celebrated Findhorn Ecovillage and spiritual community in the northeast of Scotland.
Today the 38-year-old American serves as the head of the community’s fundraising team and is tasked with helping manifest the bold vision of a new Ecologically-inspired central area within The Park Ecovillage. At the epicentre of this is Findhorn’s now world famous Original Garden.
And pivotal to his personal journey was signing up for Findhorn Experience Week in 2013 at a time that he was deeply conflicted and unhappy.
“The morning after Experience Week I woke up with a sense of a presence hovering over my chest. It was transmitting an understanding to me (not communicating – it was revealing something I couldn’t question or doubt. It was evident to me that it was simply true).
“The knowing that came through that connection was that I was deeply unhappy and unable to connect with others. I couldn’t doubt this, but I also didn’t have a solution.” He remembers feeling completely drained and then asking to stay on at Findhorn so that he could work on his inner situation.
“It’s an ongoing journey of many steps,” he admits. Being in the Community for the past six years has been all about healing, learning and service.
“I was able to heal psychologically and physiologically after being in war zones. I learned how to connect with the consciousness of nature and with subtle beings in new ways.
“I connected with teachers I respect deeply like David Spangler and some members of the Lorian Association which has strong links with Findhorn.“I experienced many positive aspects of community life. I experienced a lot of warmth, support, and the opportunity to engage with new people frequently, and to work with and get to know people very different to me.”
A highlight was organising a conference to increase the love between people and the subtle realms, which was a transformational experience. “Doing so, I cooperated with non-human realms as well as some amazing human collaborators. I witnessed the power of focused intent as it created an atmosphere of love that conference attendees said was palpable and was creating lots of synchronicities and harmony.
“I have also learned here that human communities are always messy. I don’t expect that to be different, regardless of how beautiful and well-intentioned the group or community is.”
Contact with David Spangler and the Lorian Association in North America has been especially inspiring. “With them I encountered a spiritual lineage that provides ways of entering physical incarnation as a sacred act. “I can’t stress enough how important this is for me. I was raised in a religious context that teaches hatred and contempt for physical incarnation, so this opened ways for me to love life and being here.
“Reading David Spangler’s recent insights about new potential unfolding in the life of the Earth, I felt such a strong calling that it’s shaping my future directions at the moment.“Tapping into this (his term for it is the ‘Seed Earth’) I sense a potential for this planet that I have had inklings of before, but never so tangibly. I can sense what it would be like if each person were living from their inner experience of life with no shame or fear. If we were all freely expressing the love that arises in us for each other and the world as our natural way of being. If we were at home in our subtle dimensions and the earth’s subtle ecologies, as naturally aware of the non-physical realms and their beings as of the physical ones. If we felt the love the Earth has for us and all life, living within it like a fish lives in water and returning that care and nurturing support with our own reverence, interdependence and love for the world soul and its beautiful physical body. If we lived in harmony with the Earth’s ecologies because we loved them and we received their love.
“These inner experiences have inspired me to go out from Findhorn now and find ways of helping them manifest.”
Lesli kramer says
What a beautiful story of a beautiful internal transformation…….you give me hope. I have PTSD not from any physical war but an internal one that started in childhood.
Thank you so much for sharing your truth and story. You look entirely different energetically between those to pics. Congratulations for coming back to yourself.