Maharishi & Me
Page 4
They served organic vegetarian food on the meditation retreat. Raised on Wonder Bread, white sugar, frozen vegetables, steak, potatoes, iceberg lettuce, and Crisco, I now discovered organic foods, macrobiotic cooking, brown rice, and colon cleansing. I became a vegetarian. Reading Bernard Jenson’s Fasting Can Save Your Life, I learned how disease begins in the colon, and embarked on a seven-day fast.
In keeping with my back-to-nature frenzy, I moved into an antiquated Brown Shingle duplex next to a stream in Oakland, with a wood-burning stove, outdoor john, antique furniture, beamed ceilings, bay windows, window seats, and French doors. I installed a mirror right over my bed and decorated the place with tapestries and lace hanging from ceiling and walls.
This became my love castle—and I became a love goddess. It seemed the more I meditated, the more I felt like gettin’ my groove on. Maybe it was rebellion against “the establishment.” I managed to get it on with as many men as I could possibly squeeze in—that is, into my busy schedule.
My philosophy was “free love.” Commitment wasn’t in my vocabulary. It was the “love generation,” and I was a “love child.”
4
FEELIN’ GURU-VY
1967 TO 1969
The ocean is fulfilled, immovable, eternally content, but when someone wishes to draw, it flows spontaneously. It all depends on how much the disciple draws.
—MAHARISHI MAHESH YOGI
My involvement with TM predated the involvement of rockstars. But my parents (and the general public) were unimpressed until celebrities joined the bandwagon. Inexplicably, meaningless endorsements of the rich and famous endowed TM significant gravitas.
In the 1960s, Southern California was abuzz with Eastern mysticism. Well-known flutist Paul Horn, syndicated gossip columnist Cobina Wright, bestselling health food author Gayelord Hauser, and later his lover, Hollywood icon Greta Garbo, all became TM meditators. Doris Duke, flamboyant American Tobacco Company heiress, had been a devotee of Yogananda and Kriya Yoga practitioner. After learning TM, she donated $100,000 to Maharishi, which financed building his Meditation Academy in Rishikesh, India.
Efrem Zimbalist Jr., lead actor in the TV series 77 Sunset Strip and The FBI, became deeply involved with TM. He was responsible for getting Maharishi on The Steve Allen Show. However, Maharishi’s high-pitched voice, giggle, and long stringy hair didn’t play well.
Maharishi’s popularity was rising in England, Canada, the European continent, and South America, but in the USA, his following amounted to the Theosophy set. However, that all changed when, in the mid-1960s, a host of rockstars and Hollywood celebrities learned TM, including The Doors, the Beatles, Mick Jagger, and Marianne Faithfull. Not far behind were the Beach Boys, Donovan Leitch, Grateful Dead, Mia Farrow, Shirley MacLaine, and more.
September 1, 1967, Concertgebouw Amsterdam: Rolling Stones meet Maharishi after TM introductory lecture: l. to r.: Michael Cooper (photographer), Mick Jagger, a pregnant Marianne Faithfull, Al Vandenberg (photographer), Brian Jones.
CC-BY-SA-3.0,
Photo by Ben Merk (ANEFO)
Beatle George Harrison’s wife Pattie Boyd noticed TM advertised in a classified ad in The Times of London. Pattie and her friend, fashion model Marie-Lise Volpeliere-Pierrot, were initiated in February 1967 at Caxton Hall.
Maharishi was scheduled to appear in London on August 24. His organizers planned an average hotel for the lecture. However, he insisted on the newly built, luxurious Park Lane Hilton, whose ballroom sat over a thousand people.
Pattie felt more alert and energetic with TM, and believed it changed her life. She inspired George, who then wanted his own mantra. Sculptor David Wynne showed George a picture of Maharishi’s palm with its long lifeline and mentioned the upcoming lecture. George got tickets for Pattie, her sister Jenny Boyd, John Lennon, his wife Cynthia, Paul McCartney, his girlfriend Jane Asher, and Paul’s brother Mike McGear. Yoko Ono also showed up—and afterward barged into John’s limousine, wedged herself between John and Cynthia, and demanded a ride home. Ringo was at the hospital with wife Maureen, who’d given birth five days earlier.
August 24, 1967, London: Beatles attend Maharishi’s lecture at Park Lane Hilton: l. to r.: Paul McCartney, Mike McGear (Paul’s brother), John Lennon, Cynthia Lennon, Pattie Boyd, George Harrison, Jenny Boyd, Alexis Mardas.
Associated Newspapers/REX/Shutterstock
After his lecture at the Hilton, Maharishi meets the Beatles backstage. Mirrorpix/Newscom
John Lennon’s hand-painted Rolls-Royce limousine. © KEYSTONE Pictures USA
Pattie described Maharishi as “impressive,” and herself as “spellbound.” George said, “That’s the first time anybody has talked about these things in a way I understand.”8 Some of the Beatles recognized Maharishi from Granada’s People and Places TV program years earlier.
After the lecture, Vincent Snell, MD, orthopedic surgeon and the first Initiator in Great Britain, introduced the Beatles to Maharishi, whom they met for about an hour backstage. They expressed, “Even from an early age we have been seeking a highly spiritual experience. We tried drugs and that didn’t work.”9 When George asked Maharishi about getting a mantra, he invited the band to attend a retreat in North Wales starting the next day, August 25. Attendees included the Beatles, Cynthia Lennon, Pattie Boyd, Jenny Boyd, Jane Asher, singer Cilla Black, so-called inventor Alexis Mardas, Mick Jagger, and his girlfriend, singer Marianne Faithfull.
August 25, 1967, Beatles on train to Bangor, North Wales: from front around circle, clockwise: George Harrison, Hunter Davies (biographer), Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon, Maharishi. Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy Stock Photo
Just as the train to Wales pulled away from London’s Euston station, the Beatles boarded. Since John Lennon bolted ahead and ditched the luggage for Cynthia to handle, she got separated, left behind in tears on the platform. This seemed an apt metaphor for her state of mind, since Yoko Ono was quickly taking possession of John. Cynthia recalled, “I knew in my heart, as I watched the people I loved fading into the hazy distance, that the loneliness I felt on that station platform would become permanent before long.”10
August 25, 1967: Beatles arrive in Bangor, North Wales: l. to r.: Brahmachari Devendra, John Lennon, Maharishi, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, George Harrison (carrying sitar). Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy Stock Photo
August 25, 1967, Bangor, North Wales: Beatles onstage with Maharishi: l. to r.: Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Maharishi. Daily Mail/REX/Shutterstock
After the train ride, three hundred course participants, including Cynthia Lennon (who drove with road manager Neil Aspinall), stayed in dorms at University College in Bangor, sharing bunk beds and eating canteen food (or Chinese eat-in). There Maharishi initiated the Beatles into TM.
Since drug abstinence was prerequisite to starting TM, the musicians stopped using drugs—for the first five minutes, anyway. Maharishi commented, “The interest of young minds in the use of drugs, even though misguided, indicates their genuine search for some form of spiritual experience.”11
August 26, 1967, Bangor, North Wales: Beatles follow Maharishi to the stage carrying books autographed by the guru. mptvimages.com
August 27, 1967: Beatles walk on campus at Normal College, Bangor. Mirrorpix/Newscom
Beatles manager Brian Epstein was planning to attend the retreat, but an accidental drug overdose took his life on August 27 in London. Consequently, the Beatles stayed only for the weekend rather than ten days.
John Lennon told journalist Ray Coleman, “We want to learn the meditation thing properly so we can sell the whole idea to everyone. This is how we plan to use our power now. We want to set up an academy in London and use all the power we’ve got to get it moving. It strengthens understanding, makes people relaxed and it’s much better than acid. This is the biggest thing in my life now and it’s come at the time when I need it most. Brian has died only in body. His spirit will always be working with us.”12
After the Beatles returned to London, George traveled around England with Initiator Vincent Snell for some time. When Maharishi first taught TM in England in 1959, he’d stayed with Vincent and Peggy Snell for seven weeks.
In autumn 1967, the Beatles continued to express enthusiasm about TM (and defend meditation to skeptical reporters) in multiple interviews, including The Frost Report. John told The Daily Sketch, “We’ve never felt like this about anything else.”15 He even suggested to his co-Beatles, “If we went round the world preaching about Transcendental Meditation, we could turn on millions of people.”16 He wrote the song, “Across the Universe,” an anthem to TM, which included the appellation “Jai Guru Deva.”
Maharishi meets Beatles and their wives in London: l. to r.: Paul McCartney, Jane Asher on couch. Cynthia Lennon, Mike McGear, Ringo Starr, Maureen Starkey, George Harrison. John Lennon on floor. Vincent Snell, SRM leader of Britain, upper left corner. Associated Newspapers/REX/Shutterstock
Once the Beatles became public advocates, Maharishi found himself all over the press, and, over the next few years, his following exploded to millions. On September 8, 1967, Maharishi appeared in Life Magazine, posing with the Beatles at Bangor.17 In a second Life article in November, “Invitation to Instant Bliss,” Maharishi said, “It’s so very simple. They keep telling me I must make it complicated so that people will think I’m saying something important.”18 A third Life article appeared in February 1968.19
September 26, 1967 marked Maharishi’s first appearance on The Tonight Show. From the moment Maharishi appeared, carrying flowers, removing his sandals, and crossing his legs, Johnny Carson raised his eyebrows, rolled his eyes, and made snide faces. Still, the show resulted in thousands of eager students queuing around blocks to learn TM. In January 1968, just before Maharishi left for India with Mia Farrow, he returned to The Tonight Show. After that, mocking Maharishi became a recurrent theme of Carson’s jokes.
Even so, Maharishi’s popularity skyrocketed. Time magazine called him “Soothsayer for Everyman.”20 The New York Times Magazine declared him “Chief Guru of the Western World.”21 In Newsweek he was quoted: “Just as you water the roots of a tree, you have to water the mind through meditation.”22
The February 6, 1968 cover article in Look Magazine, “The Non-Drug Turn-On Hits Campus: student meditators tune in to Maharishi,” reported students learning TM at UC Berkeley, UCLA, Harvard, Yale, Wellesley, Northeastern, and U of Cincinnati.23
An article by Paul Horn in the same issue quoted Maharishi: “Meditation we don’t do for the sake of meditation. We want some positive effects in life—something that will make a man more dynamic in his field of activity.”24 Paul Horn added, “Best of all, you can never have a ‘bad trip’ with meditation.”25
Before the Beatles ever appeared on Maharishi’s radar, I was chomping at the bit to become an Initiator. TM Teacher Training Courses were offered during fall and winter—the only times Westerners could bear India’s oppressive heat. In 1967, I applied for the next course, January 1968. However, at age nineteen, I was too young to qualify.
The Beatles spent a few weeks at that course in lockdown meditation mode. On the way to the ashram, George Harrison told a reporter, “A lot of people think we’ve gone off our heads. Well, they can think that—or anything they like. We’ve discovered a new way of living.”26
After the Beatles arrived, the press couldn’t get past the ashram gates. When reporters broke the lock and stormed the Beatles’ quarters, Maharishi’s brahmacharyas (celibate monk disciples) forcibly removed them. Then Maharishi enlisted a Gurkha to guard the gates round the clock. Security tightened and photographers were dislodged from the trees.
Starvation for news of the Beatles tantalized the public. Maharishi tried to quell journalistic passion with press conferences. Just outside the gates under the trees, rugs were laid on the ground for reporters. Maharishi turned these meetings into TM advertisements—not what reporters were assigned to cover. Requests to interview the Beatles ended in frustration: “They do not want publicity, fans or press. They want to be left alone to meditate.”27 “There’s nothing to see inside the ashram except people meditating, which isn’t very interesting.”28
Most questions, i.e., about wealthy disciples, or the ashram’s alleged luxury, or celebrities, or planned airstrip for a twin-engine Beechcraft, remained unanswered, as Maharishi responded with evasive rejoinders, punctuated by giggles. Ever patient and composed, he possessed an uncanny knack for boundless politeness, despite rude, vicious attacks.
Growing angrier daily, the press fabricated creative headlines: “Maharishi’s congregation of actors, divorcees, and reformed drug addicts.” “Wild orgies in ashram,” “Beatles wife raped at ashram,” “Cartons of whiskey delivered to Maharishi’s guests at ashram.”
Finally reporters had something to photograph when two helicopters, in their noise and fury, made a ruckus on the Ganges riverbank below the ashram—loaned by Bombay transportation magnate Kershi S. Cambata (one of Maharishi’s followers), president of Cambata Aviation. Maharishi took a spin, John Lennon took another, and photos circulated worldwide.
When the new TM Initiators returned home, rumors spread—the Beatles had severed their relationship with Maharishi due to inappropriate behavior with Mia Farrow. Soon after the Beatles’ return, journalist Larry Kane asked them, “Is Maharishi on the level?”
John Lennon scoffed. “I don’t know what level he’s on. We had a nice holiday in India and came back rested to play businessman.”29
On May 14, 1968, John said on The Tonight Show, “We believe in meditation, but not the Maharishi and his scene. But that’s a personal mistake we made in public. Meditation is good and does what they say. It’s like exercise or cleaning your teeth, you know. It works.”30
In mid-June, Paul declared, “We made a mistake. We thought there was more to him than there was. He’s human. We thought at first that he wasn’t.”31
John said, “I think we had a false impression of Maharishi … we were looking for it and we probably superimposed it on him. We were waiting for a guru, and along he came.”32
Despite what the press portrayed as a vicious falling-out between the Beatles and Maharishi, their parting of ways didn’t dent the exponential growth of his following. As for me, I was already hooked. So I didn’t give one whit whether the Beatles liked, loved, hated, or were entirely indifferent toward Maharishi.
While the Beatles moved on, Maharishi’s fame continued a meteoric rise. In the cover article of The Saturday Evening Post, May 4, 1968, he was quoted: “If one person in every thousand meditated, there would be peace for a thousand generations.”33 This key statement was Maharishi’s essential purpose and message. His campaign was always to establish world peace through meditation. He often said, “For the forest to be green, every tree must be green. To attain world peace, each individual must be at peace.” This always struck me as a most sensible idea.
From August 4 to 30, 1968, Maharishi taught a one-month Leadership Training Seminar to eight hundred meditators at Squaw Valley Ski Resort, Olympia, California. The seminar was like old-home month for hippies, a sort of ex-druggie family reunion.
What a motley bunch dragged up the ski slopes that summer! A gaggle of hips, beats, heads, straights, gays, dropouts, flower children, yippies, heavies, lovechildren, soul brothers and sisters, rockstars, groupies, all trying to get our shit together, looking for the ultimate contact high—darshan with the Beatles’ guru. (Sanskrit for “sight,” darshan refers to spiritual energy transmitted in a saint’s presence.)
Maharishi,
our ideal guide to inner space, was the ultimate hippie. He looked the part and fit right in with us misfits—long unkempt hair, love beads, white robes, funky sandals. Always laughing and doling out flowers, as though either holding or tripping, on a perpetual high, he did nothing but hang out, laugh, and groove to meditation.
1968, Squaw Valley: SIMS Leadership Training Course. Left of Maharishi seated on ground, Brahmachari Devendra. Right, Jerry and Debby Jarvis.
The Doors musicians Robby Krieger, guitarist, and John Densmore, drummer, made the scene. In 1965, fifteen people attended a lecture with Maharishi in Los Angeles at the home of Keith Wallace (later president of Maharishi International University). Krieger, Densmore, and Manzarek met there and formed The Doors, whose name was borrowed from William Blake: “If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”34 Maharishi’s oft-quoted expression, “Take it easy, take it as it comes,” became lyrics in their song recorded in 1966. John Densmore said, “There wouldn’t be any Doors without Maharishi.”35
Robby Krieger was shy, but with my braless mammilla peeking through my see-through lacey blouse, his shyness tended to dissipate. He invited me to his room and gave me a gigantic silver ring, set with an oval cabochon black star sapphire.
Jerry Jarvis, president of SIMS, along with wife Debby, totally flipped when they saw how I was dressed. With one look of alarm, they let me know it.
Lots of heavy hitters from LA joined in—rockstars, actors, producers, and directors. This guru attracted wealth like magnets attract metal. I was neither rich nor famous, but my Initiator Jerry Jarvis liked me. He arranged for me to do housekeeping at Maharishi’s hidden cabin in the woods. I spoke with Maharishi privately and handed him an oil painting that took me all summer to paint—his portrait. It wasn’t bad for a teenage amateur artist, but not exactly a Rembrandt. “I painted this. Do you want me to put it up on the mantelpiece?”