The Beatles Unravelled #73 The Beatles and the mystic East

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In 1968 the Beatles went to India to meditate with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It all went wrong and resulted in the John Lennon song Sexy Sadie.

On 24 August 1967, John, Paul and George, along with Cynthia Lennon, Jane Asher and Patti Boyd, attended a lecture by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at the London Hilton, Park Lane.
This was the first they met him. At a private meeting afterwards, they arranged to go to his seminar in Bangor, North Wales the following weekend

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi developed the concept of transcendental meditation.

On 27 August 1967, at the age of 32, the Beatles manager Brian Epstein died from an accidentally overdose in his Belgravia home.

The Beatles were in Bangor, North Wales when they heard the news of Brian’s death. They were attending transcendental meditation training with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. After hearing the sad news of Brian’s death they travelled back to London.

All four Beatles, with their wives and girlfriends travelled to India to study meditation with Maharishi at his Academy in Rishikesh. George and Patti with John and Cynthia arrived in Delhi, India on the 16 Feb 1968. Paul and Jane Asher, and Ringo an Maureen arrived a few days later.

Their stays with the Maharishi varied substantially. Ringo and Maureen returned to England after a staying just a couple of weeks. Paul, Jane and Neil Aspinall stayed until the end of March. Whereas, John, Cynthia, George, Patti and “Magic” Alex left the retreat in mid-April.

Their stay was marred by the allegations that the Maharishi was using his position to gain sexual favours from some of the female meditators there. The Maharishi not given the chance to confirm or deny the accusations. According to John, they confronted him, told him they were leaving but didn’t actually say why. When asked by the Maharishi why they were leaving, John reportedly said, “Well, if you’re so cosmic, you’ll know why”.

John wrote the song Sexy Sadie at Delhi Airport. At the time he called it Maharishi It was released on their White Album.

Shortly afterwards the Beatles publicly distanced themselves from the Maharishi.

Lots more on my website..: Rock'n'Roll Unravelled - the story of rock'n'roll from its roots to mid-1970s punk.


Author of Rock'n'Roll Unravelled, Derek Shelmerdine - fortnightly guest appearances on the Mop Tops and The King radio show; with his segments, The Beatles Unravelled and Elvis Presley Unravelled.

Lots more on my website..: Rock'n'Roll Unravelled - the story of rock'n'roll from its roots to mid-1970s punk.


Author of Rock'n'Roll Unravelled, Derek Shelmerdine - fortnightly guest appearances on the Mop Tops and The King radio show; with his segments, The Beatles Unravelled and Elvis Presley Unravelled.