BY Phi l i p G o l d b e rg
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ing youth. As a result, curious scientists designed experiments to study the effects of meditation, and, before long, physicians and therapists were recommending it to stressed-out grownups. Now, hundreds of studies later, meditation and yoga are as mainstream as aerobics and vitamins. Would this have happened if the Beatles had not gone to India? Maybe, but certainly not as quickly. That’s not just my assessment. In 2008, when Newsweek commemorated the seminal year of 1968, one article was titled “What the Beatles Gave Science.” Why? Because the lads’ trip to India “popularized the notion that the spiritual East has something to teach the rational West.”
Forty-six years ago this month, the Beatles settled into the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, in Rishikesh, India. The media frenzy was non-stop, as it had been six months earlier when the lads took up Transcendental Meditation (TM) and the word mantra entered the global vocabulary. Why would rich, famous, fun-loving young men hunker down to meditate in an austere, vegetarian compound in the Himalayan foothills? What could an impoverished country, two decades removed from imperial rule, offer people who seemed to have everything? Such questions turned what might have been a brief media burst into a watershed moment in cultural history. It was as though the earth tilted on its axis, allowing India’s ancient wisdom to flow more easily to the West. The result would impact healthcare, psychology, neuroscience, religion, and spirituality. Like many in the counterculture of which they had become de facto leaders, the Beatles had come to see that drugs like LSD could open the door to higher consciousness but did not let you stay there, and were dangerous in the bargain. The search was on for safe, natural ways to attain inner peace and unified awareness. George Harrison, having spent time in
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India studying sitar with Ravi Shankar and reading spiritual literature, was among the more ardent seekers. When, in August of 1967, his wife Pattie heard that Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was lecturing on Transcendental Meditation at the London Hilton, it was only natural that George and his mates would make it to the jam-packed hotel ballroom. The Beatles took to meditation like they had to Chuck Berry and Little Richard, and they were not shy about singing its praises. Young people everywhere, always eager to emulate the Fab Four, flooded TM centers. The press coverage featured parents and cultural leaders who were impressed by the life changes they observed in meditat-
That’s reason enough to commemorate that eventful journey 46 years later. If you need another excuse, go listen to the Beatles’ “White Album.” Almost all the songs on that extraordinary double record were written or conceived in the ashram on the Ganges. Philip Goldberg (www. philipgoldberg.com) is the author of numerous books, including Roadsigns on the Spiritual Path and the award-winning American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation, How Indian Spirituality Changed the West.