Meditation Education

Pattie and George Harrison during their India trip in late 1966

The India phase started with George and Pattie Harrison... I suppose filming Help! where Indian musicians played while trying to cut off Ringo Starr's finger in order to get the sacrificial red ring that attracted George in the first place. Then in late 1966 (while John was filming How I Won the War), George and Pattie took a trip there... oh yes, earlier that year The Beatles did pass through India while on tour. Needless to say, George and Pattie were in love and brought that love of style into their home. Soon, they got John, Paul, and Ringo, including Cynthia, Maureen, and Jane into the influence... well, maybe not completely but it was something new, something exciting, and definitely better than drugs and infidelities. 

"I suppose it was the establishment of the hippy trail, though we didn't realize that at the time, I was the first in our circle to start meditating. I guess I just knew that there had to be a more spiritual aspect to life, and I saw a little ad for meditation classes in the back of The Times. That's how it started. To me, it's about plugging into my essence, and calming myself down. We need it even more these days, with email and text anxiety and all of these things we have to keep up that are supposed to make our lives easier. And then India was a real third-eye-opener. It was the opposite to England at the time, a real spiritual society." 

Pattie Boyd, 2006

“I was always interested in Eastern philosophies and wanted find out about meditation, I went to some lectures and became initiated into transcendental meditation. When the Maharishi came to England, George said he wanted to meet him and became passionate about his teachings.” 

Pattie Boyd, 2004

“...That’s why we all went and listened to his lecture, and he was obviously very happy when he heard that they were in the audience, and he wanted to meet them. When he did he suggested that we all go to Wales for a few days to learn more about meditation: he wanted to initiate them. It was really awful because while we were up there, their manager Brian Epstein died. It was just awful. One can think how extraordinary that the one person who had been guiding them throughout their career, from the beginning of their career, died, just as this spiritual leader is taking over.” 

Pattie Boyd, 2011

Paul McCartney, Jane Asher, Mike McCartney, John, Cynthia, Pattie George Harrison at the Hilton Hotel to hear the lecture by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on August 24, 1967. Yoko Ono was also there. 

"Among those present for this great occasion were Cynthia Lennon; an assortment of Beatles; Mick Jagger and his girlfriend, Marianne Faithfull; my wife, Beth, and myself...and Yoko Ono, to whom I was now introduced for the first time."

Pete Shotton, 1983

"Although I was trying to close my mind to it I suppose our marriage was already under 

threat at this stage. It wasn't other women that were driving us apart, it was drugs. John by now had become a heavy user of LSD. He wanted to be a genius, he wanted to travel outside his body, he wanted to prove to the world that he had a unique gift. Acid stimulated his creativity and opened up his mind to previously undreamed-of wonders, he believed. I kept saying to him: 'John, something terrible's going to happen to you if you keep on like this.' But he wouldn't believe me. I couldn't convince him. 'I've cracked it, Cyn,' he'd reassure me over and over again. 'I can handle it. I've taken acid today and I'm fine. I'm normal.' But he wasn't normal. I'd look at his long matted hair, his face obscured by eccentric granny glasses, his outrageous clothes and I despaired. He thought this was normal. He'd lost touch with reality. Perversely, the music was fantastic. The brilliant Sergeant Pepper album was conceived at this stage and it was wonderful. I couldn't deny that. But what had happened to the down-to-earth, witty young man I used to know? The man who laughed at pomposity and could spot a phoney at a hundred paces? At home things went from bad to worse. I used to dread it when John went out at night. I'd lie awake waiting for his return just knowing what was in store. Sure enough, about four in the morning a string of cars would pull up into the drive and decant 15 to 20 people all high on acid, pot and whatever else they could lay their hands on, ready to party. I'd get up at breakfast time to find the place littered with drugged bodies and Julian, little soul that he was, couldn't understand what was going on. That's what upset me more than anything else. I thought okay, you can do what you like with your own body but don't influence the innocents. Julian would step over the bodies looking for his daddy and these strangers would start talking to him in weird, spaced-out terms that he couldn't comprehend. There I was, trying to cook breakfast and get him off to school, trying to be normal, while outside the kitchen door the house was strewn with zombies, one of whom was his father. Julian was utterly bewildered. It was a nightmare period. I didn't want to lose John and I feared for his health but I was desperately worried about Julian. I didn't know how to handle it. My mother, who'd moved to London by this time, and often came to stay, saw what was going on and was appalled. But both of us felt helpless. So when George's wife, Pattie, and some other friends went to a lecture in London on meditation given by this Indian guru called the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and came back raving about it, it seemed like a straw to clutch at. 'It's absolutely fantastic,' they told John. 'You don't need drugs. You can get the same effect with meditation. You've got to go.' I must admit I was skeptical at first. I didn't quite see how meditation could produce a mind-blowing effect like LSD, the effect John seemed to crave. But John was so enthusiastic. He thought I'd be pleased. And I had to admit that I knew nothing about meditation. "'Cyn, it's without drugs. I'll be off drugs. No more drugs, I promise,' he insisted. I think perhaps deep down he sensed that he was on the rocky road and was looking for another way. Anyway, as far as I could see it sounded harmless and if it really meant he'd give up drugs, I'd willingly go along with it. I'd do anything to get him off this horrible LSD and get my old John back. I agreed to give it a try. As it happened the Maharishi was taking over Bangor college for a series of lectures that very August of 1967 and we arranged to go. The idea was that we'd stay for the weekend and learn the basic principles of meditation for which John had such high hopes."

Cynthia, 1994

Cynthia crying while being escorted by Peter Brown and Neil Aspinall after missing the train from London to Bangor at Euston Station on August 25, 1967.

"Cyn and I were thinking of going to Libya, until this came up. Libya or Bangor? Well, there was no choice, was there?"

John, 1967 

(quote originally appeared in another blog post, A Country with No Phones: Libya)

Originally, John and Cynthia were thinking about going to Libya, where Cynthia's brother Charlie lived. In retrospect, I would have preferred them going to Libya, instead of Bangor. Libya was a country with no phones at the time, and Cynthia wouldn't have missed that train. So much would have been so different. Well, that's speculation and it's obvious that John and Cynthia picked Bangor. Speaking of missing the train, I already posted about Cynthia missing the train to Wales as well as John's relationship with Yoko in it's early stages in Starting to Crumble. Yet here's an additional quote that provides a recap and be part of this story:

"As they left the hotel, John and Cynthia went to get into their car when, out of nowhere, Yoko appeared and hopped into the car, to sit between them. Someone had tipped her off about John's attendance at the lecture and she had arrived, to wait quietly in the lobby for this moment. Cynthia froze. All the months of strange mail, the cut-off phone calls, the waiting silently at the gate were encapsulated in this tiny, terrifying woman. She glanced questioningly at John. He shrugged, as if to say, 'I haven't a clue.' 'I'd like a lift home,' Yoko said. It wasn't a polite request; it was the order of an assured woman. Cynthia was seriously concerned when the car drove to Yoko's flat off Regent's Park, seeming to know the way without being told. The next day, Paul, George, and Ringo and their women, together with Mick and Marianne, arrived at Euston Station to catch the train to Bangor. Cynthia and John arrived at the station in his painted Rolls. The station was packed with holiday-makers and the press. As John and Cynthia fought their way through the melee, a flashbulb went off in Cyn's face, blinding her. By the time she could see, everyone had vanished and she didn't know which was the correct platform. She raced along, but the police didn't recognize her and thought she was another hysterical fan. Suddenly, all the Beatles stuck their heads out of the windows of the train, urging her to run faster. 'Run, Cyn, run!' John yelled. Those were the words Paul had used when chased by fans in their early touring days. As his car sped away, he'd put his head out of the window and called out, 'Run, girls, run!' and the girls would redouble their efforts. Cynthia stopped. It was no good; the train was going too fast. John hadn't come back for her, no one else bothered; it was as if she didn't exist. At that moment, she said, as she watched the train pull out, she saw how utterly irrelevant she was."

Tony Bramwell

Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Pattie Harrison, Cynthia, and John attend an International Meditation Society meeting at Normal College in Bangor, Wales on August 26, 1967

John, Paul McCartney, Jane Asher, Cynthia, and Ringo Starr at Normal College in Bangor, Wales on August 27, 1967 around the time of receiving news on Brian Epstein's death.

Paul McCartney, Jane Asher, Pattie Harrison, Mike McCartney, Ringo Starr, John, Maureen Starkey, and George Harrison listening to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at Jemima Pitman's home in Kensington, London on August 31, 1967. Cynthia did not attend.

"It was Pattie Boyd who introduced us to the Maharishi. George Harrison and Pattie had become interested in Indian spiritual beliefs and went to a lecture in London, held by the spiritual regeneration movement. Later that year – 1967 – its leader, the Maharishi, came over from India to hold a conference in Bangor, North Wales. John went to hear him speak in London beforehand, with George, Pattie, Paul McCartney, Jane Asher and Ringo Starr. 'It’s fantastic stuff, Cyn, the meditation’s so simple and it’s life-changing,' John told me. Like the others he had been bowled over by the Maharishi’s charisma and promises of nirvana. So off we went to the Bangor conference. George, Pattie, her sister Jenny and Paul were all going. Ringo decided at the last minute that he would come too, and so did Mick Jagger and Marianne Faithfull. The Beatles had overdosed on everything that fame could bring. The Maharishi was anti drugs and had explained that through meditation you could reach a natural high as powerful as any drugs could induce. John loved this idea and was already talking about enlightenment, cosmic awareness and doing without drugs. So I was all for the Maharishi’s message: perhaps this was the change of direction John had been looking for. We were staying in dormitories at a large training college, along with a couple of hundred other followers. Our room was basic, with bunk beds and simple chests of drawers. Mick and Marianne sauntered in looking bewildered. 'Hey John, what’s happening? Where do we go from here?' 'Back to school,' John laughed. The introductory seminar was an incongruous mix of the Maharishi’s regular devotees joined by the psychedelically clad pop star elite, all sitting cross legged on the bare wooden floor. That afternoon the Beatles held a press conference renouncing the use of drugs, in keeping with the Maharishi’s teachings. Only a month earlier they, along with other pop stars, had taken a full-page ad in The Times stating that the law on marijuana was unworkable and immoral. Now all that was turned on its head. The press were wildly excited. But the story had barely hit the newsstands when it was overtaken. As we were heading back to our room, a reporter told us that Brian Epstein, who had steered the Beatles for the past six years, had been found dead. The disbelief and horror were overwhelming. Brian had been the Beatles’ mentor, their guide and best friend. The details were sketchy but it was a suspected overdose. This was horrific. And help came in the shape of the Maharishi. We were called into his quarters and walked in, heads bowed. He sat yoga-style in the centre and asked us to sit down on the floor and talked to us for the next few minutes about life’s journey, reincarnation, release from pain and this life being a stepping stone to the next. 

The Maharishi’s words helped us all to feel a little less bleak and as the weeks passed after we returned to London, John and I were brought closer by grief. John and George were also being drawn towards the Maharishi. It was as though, with Brian gone, the four needed someone new to give them direction and the Maharishi was in the right place at the right time. John and George agreed to go to the ashram in Rishikesh, at the foot of the Himalayas in India, to study meditation. Patti and I would go too. Paul, Jane, Ringo and his wife Maureen were less convinced about the joys of meditation but decided to join us. The trip was planned for February 1968."

Cynthia, 2008

Jane Asher, Paul McCartney, John, Cynthia, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Pattie Harrison, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and Jenny Boyd in Bangor after receiving word that Brian Epstein had died on August 27, 1967.

Paul McCartney and Jane Asher leave Bangor first back to London after hearing about Brian Epstein's death on August 27, 1967

While everyone was in Bangor, the phone rang; Jane picked up and handed the phone to Paul. Brian Epstein was dead. He was supposed to join them in Bangor. They were devastated, and once the news settled in, lost. Brian was not only a manager who skyrocketed The Beatles to fame, he was a father figure and he took care of a lot things, personal and professional. After Brian's death news, Maharishi offered words of sympathy, comfort, wisdom, and invited them to go to India at his ashram in Rishikesh. It was set for February for two or three months. In the meantime, The Beatles had projects to do - particularly Magical Mystery Tour.