‘Next to me stood a man silently weeping - he’d just finished hand-carving fifty beautiful new windows and was watching them reduce to ash’
Freya: What emerged for me was freedom. For 30 years
we only had a summer business but now we can operate all year round. We can fulfil so many more requirements for our guests. We can have 50 children having an outdoor holiday plus honeymooners plus someone on a writing retreat and with such a huge space they can all co-exist in harmony. Also the first rebuild didn’t include replacing the roof but the second rebuild did, so we now have a warm, watertight structure.
Lyn: What emerged for me was hope. People don’t like broken
things and we’ve been a broken thing for 5 years. This is now a house of possibilities and the ethos is one of love. It can be many things to many people. The Phoenix has risen from the ashes - now it just needs help to spread its wings.
David: What emerged for me was beauty. The house feels as if
it’s now leaving behind its brutal history. It has spectacular views and a calm energy that people comment on. We want people to come in search of an emotional connection with nature. The island offers a chance to see deer, dolphins, sea otters, seals and basking sharks as well as activities that test your nerve such as coasteering, abseiling and gorge walking.
Lyn: You can rediscover fun and play here too. Everyone has
a different experience and takes away a different memory, but they all retain a sense of connection. Raasay is the same size as Manhattan Island yet you’re in a wild place with only 120 people and it’s only a 4 hour journey from Gatwick airport. It’s a 2 hour flight to Inverness and 2 hour journey from there to Raasay, taking in some breathtaking views. I remember when it used to take 24 hours. Now I can leave in the morning and be in my home town of Brighton having tea with a friend by tea time!
I needed to do something because I wasn’t happy. We were hosting a Shamanic conference up here and a lady called Dawn Eagle Woman suggested the Process to me. I wasn’t keen on weekly therapy because I didn’t want to bring emotional processing back into the family on such a regular basis - an intensive week away was perfect. I’d call it a leap of desperation rather than a leap of faith - I didn’t know what else to do!
Lyn: When I finished training in Psychosynthesis in 2002, I felt that was enough personal discovery work. But I could see an immediate difference when Freya came back from the Process - she stepped into herself. She asked me to take a year’s sabbatical from work and when I got back she gently suggested that I did the Process - I haven’t looked back since. It’s taken a wee while to merge the understandings of the Process and Psychosynthesis but they live together within me. Freya: My experience of Lyn when she came back from the
Process was that she was less in her head. She stopped overthinking things and did more bodywork such as yoga.
David: I noticed Freya had changed when she came back from
the course. She was more assertive. I was very resistant to doing the Process but in the end seeing the continuing effect of both Lyn and Freya’s experiences convinced me to go myself. Now, since we’ve all done the course, we gently and slowly give each other space. I feel we planted something at Florence House, where we did the course, which is flourishing now at Raasay. The Process has been such a huge kick-start.
Freya did the Hoffman Process in 2001 and Lyn followed her example in 2004. Having seen the differences it made in their relationships, David did the Process himself in 2011. How did the course affect their work and personal relationships?
Freya: I was 33 when I did the Process and our son was two and a half. I’d not done self development before but I knew
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