Editing Lindisfarne Association (section)

==History==
Thompson conceived the idea for the Lindisfarne association while touring spiritual sites and experimental communities around the world. The Lindisfarne Association is named for Lindisfarne Priory—a monastery, known for the [[Lindisfarne Gospels]], founded on the British island of [[Lindisfarne]] in the 7th century.

Advertising executive Gene Fairly had just left his position at [[Interpublic Group of Companies]] and begun studying [[Zen Buddhism]] when he read a review of Thompson's ''At the Edge of History'' in the ''New York Times''. Fairly visited Thompson at [[York University]] in Toronto to discuss forming a group for the promotion of planetary culture. Upon returning to New York he raised $150,000 from such donors as [[Nancy Wilson Ross]] and Sydney and Jean Lanier. Support from these donors served as an entrée to the [[Rockefeller Brothers Fund]].<ref>{{harvp|Helgesen|1977|p=84}}: "Fairly went back to New York to use his connections to raise money for the project. He says he stirred the interest of Nancy Wilson Ross at the Asia Society; Mrs. Stanley Young, a wealthy woman interested in Zen Buddhism; and Jean and Sidney Lanier, hiers of the poet and funders of the now-defunct Finca La Folenca. a mini-Esalen in Southern France where the Laniers had established themselves as unofficial gurus. Mrs. Lanier is known in fund-seeking circles as a key to the Rockefeller Brothers fund, so that door was opened, and between these groups Fairly says he put together $150,000 to set things going." See poet [[Sidney Lanier]] (1842–1881); and the [[Asia Society]], founded 1956 by [[John D. Rockefeller III]].</ref>

=== Incorporation and first years in New York ===

Lindisfarne was incorporated as a non-profit educational foundation in December 1972. It began operations at a refitted summer camp in [[Southampton, New York]] on August 31, 1973.{{sfnp|Collins|1982|p=23}}

From 1974–1977 Lindisfarne held an annual conference "to explore the new planetary culture" with the following themes:{{sfnp|Collins|1982|pp=23–24}}
* Planetary Culture and the New Image of Humanity, 1974
* Conscious Evolution and the Evolution of Consciousness, 1975
* A Light Governance for America: the Cultures and Strategies of Decentralization, 1976
* Mind in Nature, 1977

''Earth's answer : explorations of planetary culture at the Lindisfarne conferences'' (1977) reprints some of the lectures given at the 1974 and 1975 conferences.

The Lindisfarne Association was first based in Southampton, New York in 1973 and then in Manhattan at the [[Church of the Holy Communion and Buildings]] which was leased to Lindisfarne from 1976–1979.

=== Move to Crestone and formation of other branches ===
As Lindisfarne began to run low on funding, it faced the loss of its lease on the Church of the Holy Communion. At a conference at the [[New Alchemy Institute]] in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, [[Petro-Canada]] CEO and [[United Nations]] official [[Maurice Strong]] offered to donate land from [[Luis Maria Baca Grant No. 4|his ranch]] in [[Crestone, Colorado]]. Thompson chose 77 acres of land near Spanish Creek—self-reportedly because his "Irish Druid Radar" had gone off while driving past—where Lindisfarne began to construct new buildings for its purposes.{{sfnp|Collins|1982|pp=24–25, 43–44}}

[[File:Fullsizeoutput 56b.jpg|thumb|265px|The Lindisfarne Fellows House in Crestone, Colorado]]

Today the Lindisfarne Fellows House, the Lindisfarne Chapel, and the Lindisfarne Mountain Retreat are under the ownership and management of the [[Crestone Mountain Zen Center]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The Lindisfarne Tapes|url=http://www.centerforneweconomics.org/content/lindisfarne-tapes|publisher=Schumacher Center for a New Economics|accessdate=5 May 2014}}</ref>  Lindisfarne has functioned variously as a sponsor of classes, conferences, and concerts and public lectures events, and as a [[think tank]] and retreat, similar to the [[Esalen Institute]] in [[California]]. Lindisfarne functioned as  a not-for-profit foundation until 2009; the Lindisfarne Fellowship continued to hold annual meetings until 2012. It is no longer an active organization.

In addition to its facility in Crestone (the "Lindisfarne Mountain Retreat"), three other branches of the organization were formed:<ref name=Redenius254>{{harvp|Redenius|1985|p=254}}.</ref> 
* a headquarters in New York City at the [[Cathedral of St. John the Divine]];
* the Lindisfarne Press was established in [[Stockbridge, Massachusetts]]; and
* the Lindisfarne Fellows House was opened at the [[San Francisco Zen Center]].