![]() So they give you a word or sound – mantra – and by using this, the whole idea is to transcend to the subtlest level of thought. As George Harrison said to the press, “Each individual life state has its own rhythm. ![]() Maharishi, or one of his teachers, gave each student a specific sound that was in rhythm with that person. Lennon and Harrison affirmed daily meditation as a natural process of accessing the latent energy within more easily. Maharishi claimed that serenity and energy were the results of his system of meditation. As a result, scientists, prodded by Maharishi, who had majored in physics, started doing rigorous research on the effects of the practice. It featured parents and respected cultural leaders who were impressed by the life changes they observed in the meditating youth. The press coverage was remarkable for its shortage of cynicism. Young people everywhere, always eager to emulate their musical heroes, flooded TM centers. The Beatles took to meditation like they had taken to Chuck Berry and Little Richard. John Lennon acknowledged in an interview that the youth of the day were looking for answers that the established church, parents, and material things couldn’t give them. They liked what Maharishi said about having a simple system of meditation of twenty minutes in the morning, and twenty minutes in the evening, to improve the quality of life and to find meaning in doing so. George was the one seriously looking for a mantra to get through to the other world, and all four were looking for more meaning to life after becoming disenchanted with drug use. George Harrison, having spent time in India studying sitar with Ravi Shankar and reading spiritual literature, was among the ripest candidates. The East seemed to have answers, and all signs pointed to something called meditation. The search was on for safe, natural ways to expand the mind and attain inner peace and unified awareness. The band members had come to see that psychedelic drugs like LSD could open the door to higher consciousness but came with serious risks. “The result would impact healthcare, psychology, neuroscience, and especially the way we understand and engage our spirituality.” “It was as though the Earth tilted on its axis in February, 1968, making ancient Eastern teachings flow more easily and quickly to the West,” Goldberg says. In the West, meditation went from an esoteric and elitist practice to something as common as aerobics or vitamins. In an article published in the Huffington Post, Goldberg describes how the retreat shifted whole cultural norms. In its effect on Western spirituality, this was probably “the most momentous spiritual retreat since Jesus spent those forty days in the wilderness.” This, at least, is the assessment by Philip Goldberg, interfaith minister and author of books on cultural change. Not long afterwards John, Paul, George, Ringo and their wives traveled to India to spend several weeks studying with Maharishi at his ashram in Rishikesh on the Ganges River in the Himalayas, where they also conceived The White Album in a house on stilts high in spirit. ![]() ![]() The next day the Beatles jumped on a train and went to a seminar in Bangor to learn how to meditate. The famous fab four went to meet Maharishi in person at the jam-packed Hilton Hotel ballroom in London during a lecture tour in England in 1967. They had seen Maharishi on the television when they were kids, and knew him as the giggly little guy going round the globe seven times to heal the world. The cultural revolution gained momentum when the Beatles learned the technique of Transcendental Meditation from Maharishi. When, in 1965, college students began to take up TM, word spread quickly and meditation clubs popped up on campuses. His laser-like focus on meditation, and his skill in presenting a systematic, universal practice that was suitable for both secular self-improvement and spiritual enlightenment, were ideally suited for the rational, pragmatic West. The purpose of life is to expand happiness.” With closed eyes and open palms, he declared, “Mankind was not born to suffer, mankind was born to enjoy. In the spring of 1959, Indian sage Maharishi Mahesh Yogi began his international travels to spread the teachings of Transcendental Vedic Mantras and Meditation to all those interested in metaphysics.
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