170: The Maharishi and The Beatles

The full story of The Beatles’ Rishikesh visit and their relationship with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi had never been explored in detail and from the inside before – until now. Susan Shumsky spent over twenty years studying TM, including seven working directly with the Maharishi. The author of 14 books, her newest – Maharishi and Me: Seeking Enlightenment with the Beatles’ Guru – sheds light on the Rishikesh experience and how it impacted The Beatles’ lives and art. Years of misinformation is cleared aside by her direct knowledge and insider accounts of the good, the bad and the ugly of the Maharishi experience.

Susan Shumsky’s site: http://www.divinerevelation.org/

7 thoughts on “170: The Maharishi and The Beatles”

  1. Fascinating interview, though the Maharishi’s appetite for the ladies plus the ‘open ego surgery’ sounded a bit too cultish for my taste. It didn’t really answer the question if Rishikesh affected the group’s internal dynamic in a negative or positive way. Whatever ‘spiritual insights’ they were getting, it didn’t stop John treating Cynthia appallingly and Paul breaking up soon after with Jane Asher.

  2. Fascinating interview, though the Maharishi’s appetite for the ladies plus the ‘open ego surgery’ sounded a bit too cultish for my taste. It didn’t really answer the question if Rishikesh affected the group’s internal dynamic in a negative or positive way. Whatever ‘spiritual insights’ they were getting, it didn’t stop John treating Cynthia appallingly and Paul breaking up soon after with Jane Asher.

  3. Michael Evangeline

    Excellent program, Robert. I have been doing TM for the past 10 weeks. The Lennon experience pretty much skewed my disinterest in it for a long time. Not long ago Jerry Seinfeld admitted to doing TM for over 30 years. If it was good enough for such a skeptic as Jerry, I though it deserved another look. It works. Nothing cosmic, just deep inner rest and energy. Mr. Lennon was wrong, this time.

  4. Michael Evangeline

    Excellent program, Robert. I have been doing TM for the past 10 weeks. The Lennon experience pretty much skewed my disinterest in it for a long time. Not long ago Jerry Seinfeld admitted to doing TM for over 30 years. If it was good enough for such a skeptic as Jerry, I though it deserved another look. It works. Nothing cosmic, just deep inner rest and energy. Mr. Lennon was wrong, this time.

  5. Susan was an excellent guest, a very interesting episode.

    I think there may be some parallels to be drawn between Lennon and the Maharishi in the manner in which John set about his peace campaign in 1969, travelling the world, making himself available to the press and proposing a simple but effective solution to the world’s problems. He even resembled Maharishi that year, sat on the bed with the long hair and beard.

    Lewisohn has stated that, when they returned from India, they were no longer the same people. Maybe that has more to do with the fact that it wasn’t until after they came back from Rishikesh that it began to dawn on them just how much they missed and needed Brian, now that Maharishi wasn’t going to be the replacement in terms of a guiding light.

  6. Susan was an excellent guest, a very interesting episode.

    I think there may be some parallels to be drawn between Lennon and the Maharishi in the manner in which John set about his peace campaign in 1969, travelling the world, making himself available to the press and proposing a simple but effective solution to the world’s problems. He even resembled Maharishi that year, sat on the bed with the long hair and beard.

    Lewisohn has stated that, when they returned from India, they were no longer the same people. Maybe that has more to do with the fact that it wasn’t until after they came back from Rishikesh that it began to dawn on them just how much they missed and needed Brian, now that Maharishi wasn’t going to be the replacement in terms of a guiding light.

  7. Matt Kindelmann

    It’s interesting that in early February 1968, just days before the Beatles headed off to India and immersed themselves in transcendental meditation; they recorded Paul’s Lady Madonna, by far their most Catholic song to date. The ode to matriarchs evoked pictures of the hardworking mother and the Virgin Mary- two images common in Irish Liverpool childhoods- and Paul’s boogie-woogie piano and Americanized vocal signaled the Beatles’ reverting to a more orthodox formula of songwriting after the psychedelic Sgt Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour. Conversely, the single’s flipside, George’s The Inner Light, showed the band embracing the ideals of meditation and their growing interest in Eastern culture and philosophy. In my mind, the Lady Madonna/The Inner Light single is the Beatles’ most contradictory. Lady Madonna harkens back to the rock and roll and the maternal figures of their youth, while The Inner Light shows not only where the Beatles were headed spiritually, but also physically as well.

  8. Matt Kindelmann

    It’s interesting that in early February 1968, just days before the Beatles headed off to India and immersed themselves in transcendental meditation; they recorded Paul’s Lady Madonna, by far their most Catholic song to date. The ode to matriarchs evoked pictures of the hardworking mother and the Virgin Mary- two images common in Irish Liverpool childhoods- and Paul’s boogie-woogie piano and Americanized vocal signaled the Beatles’ reverting to a more orthodox formula of songwriting after the psychedelic Sgt Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour. Conversely, the single’s flipside, George’s The Inner Light, showed the band embracing the ideals of meditation and their growing interest in Eastern culture and philosophy. In my mind, the Lady Madonna/The Inner Light single is the Beatles’ most contradictory. Lady Madonna harkens back to the rock and roll and the maternal figures of their youth, while The Inner Light shows not only where the Beatles were headed spiritually, but also physically as well.

  9. Excellent show. With the risk of succumbing to parallelomania, in many ways 2019 feels like a 1968 Part Deux for me. It does seem that revolution is once again “in the air,” and within this zeitgeist so re-emerges the tension between revolution via personal transformation – New Ageism or psychedelic drugs, for instance – and revolution via the transformation of institutions, either through maverick electoral political candidates or militant direct action.

    I noticed this tension within the interview, as the guest suggested that New Age personal transformation was not only quite prevalent but was also succeeding in rectifying the sins of the institutions. I think this suggestion may have taken you aback, Robert, as it did with me.

    In my own recent experience I have found aspects of New Ageism does liberate the mind to a degree, but as I sometimes tell friends in the most material sense possible, “I’ve never seen reiki fill an empty belly.” And electoral politics and militant direct action may dismantle the institutions that keep bellies empty, but without internal transformation, the utopian society does not seem possible either.

    I think John’s own life reflected this tension too – he was eternally in search of the “the answer,” – whether through psychedelic drugs, New Ageism, his Peacenik phase and even his more militant Power to the People era. Perhaps John was seeking to atone for his personal sins as much as society’s sins in his quest for an ideal world; I know that has been the case with me.
    Anyways, thank you for another intriguing episode!

  10. Excellent show. With the risk of succumbing to parallelomania, in many ways 2019 feels like a 1968 Part Deux for me. It does seem that revolution is once again “in the air,” and within this zeitgeist so re-emerges the tension between revolution via personal transformation – New Ageism or psychedelic drugs, for instance – and revolution via the transformation of institutions, either through maverick electoral political candidates or militant direct action.

    I noticed this tension within the interview, as the guest suggested that New Age personal transformation was not only quite prevalent but was also succeeding in rectifying the sins of the institutions. I think this suggestion may have taken you aback, Robert, as it did with me.

    In my own recent experience I have found aspects of New Ageism does liberate the mind to a degree, but as I sometimes tell friends in the most material sense possible, “I’ve never seen reiki fill an empty belly.” And electoral politics and militant direct action may dismantle the institutions that keep bellies empty, but without internal transformation, the utopian society does not seem possible either.

    I think John’s own life reflected this tension too – he was eternally in search of the “the answer,” – whether through psychedelic drugs, New Ageism, his Peacenik phase and even his more militant Power to the People era. Perhaps John was seeking to atone for his personal sins as much as society’s sins in his quest for an ideal world; I know that has been the case with me.
    Anyways, thank you for another intriguing episode!

  11. Pingback: 252: The Inner Light | Something About The Beatles

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