Daniel Nicol Dunlop

When Dunlop was introduced to Rudolf Steiner in 1922, he was already a well-known theosophist and occultist in Britain – but also making his mark in the new world of electrical power and engineering. Dunlop is known in anthroposophical circles as the organizer of the “extraordinarily satisfactory” Summer School at Penmaenmawr (1923) and a year later at Torquay (1924). At the Christmas Conference at Dornach in December 1923, Rudolf Steiner had asked: “Where is Mr. Dunlop? Where is Mr. Dunlop?” We will seek a possible answer to this question in the light of Dunlop’s involvement with the Anthroposophical Society and his World Power Conference initiative.

2024 is the centenary of the first World Power Conference, a remarkable feat of global economic co-operation organized by Dunlop. The organization he set up is now known as the World Energy Council, involving 89 countries and, including this year’s Rotterdam conference, with 25 global conferences under its belt. Its mission is “To promote the sustainable supply and use of energy for the greatest benefit of all people”, a formulation proposed by Dunlop and that has remained unchanged to this day. Daniel Dunlop was quite consciously implementing threefold social ordering!

Daniel Dunlop was born in Scotland in 1868 in the area where the Irish monks of Celtic Christianity had arrived 1300 years earlier to Christianize the Pictish pagans. He spent much of his childhood on the island of Arran, where he had his first spiritual visions. His life’s course took him to Ireland, America and back to England on a double-track of occultism and technology. Human encounters guided his path of achieved idealism.

Through his biography, we will explore the intertwining of his occult, technological and social paths. What can we still learn from Mr. Dunlop?