Then there are the courses encouraging you to commune with the angels dance with the devas and reconnect

Then there are the courses encouraging you to "commune with the angels", "dance with the devas" and "reconnect sex and the spirit". And there was the scandal two years ago when one of the foundation's long-term members, Verity Linn, died of dehydration during a fast on a Scottish mountain while following the teachings of the self-styled Australian guru Jasmuheen. It is Jasmuheen's view that human beings can "live on light" alone.The village tut-tutted at the foundation's purchase of the Cluny Hill Hotel, which has been turned into a spiritual college to fulfil the prophesies made by Eileen's "inner voice". They particularly hate the preference of foundation members for village properties with breathtaking views across Findhorn Bay.

About 40 of the village's 300 houses and flats have so far been purchased by foundation people. "It's going to be bigger than the village soon," complains a local oil-rig worker.The village's war against the foundation lost some of its vigour a few years ago with the death of Sir Michael Jouguin, a wartime pilot and local businessman who devoted his retirement to attacking the foundation He was hunting down the enemy right until the end. On the day of his fatal heart attack, he was ferreting through Roseisle Forrest looking for underground houses he believed the foundation had built, beyond their own boundaries. "It's the way he would have wanted to go," says one local sadly.Since Sir Michael's death, no one has campaigned so openly or with such commitment. But David Morgan, editor of the Forres Gazette, says the hostility has not gone away. "It is simply in remission," he says.But some warn that the village's attitude to the foundation is dangerously short-sighted.

Gavin Ellis, owner of the Knockomie Hotel in Forres, argues that the foundation brings many international visitors to an area that badly needs the economic boost. He hopes any financial difficulties at the foundation are temporary. "If it closed it would be as bad for me as the RAF base, next to it, going," he says.Lambert Munro, retired Findhorn businessman and a former community council chairman, agrees. In 1997 some foundation associates dismayed villagers by buying up a large stretch of beach and land between the village and the caravan park The annexation, everyone agreed, was under way. But Mr Munro recently helped negotiate the free handover of the land to a trust set up by the villagers.Mari Hollander says she thinks the land transfer improved relations between the two communities But even it was marred by suspicion. One of the village negotiators resigned before the deal was done, apparently because he believed that the foundation was only giving the land because, once its "invasion" was complete, it could have it back again.Mr Munro says the villagers' hostility to the foundation does them no favours Jobs are scarce in the area and wages low A village cannot afford to ostracise a major economic force.