I think Lewis Lapham also wrote a piece on TM at the time for the New Yorker.
Lapham's son, by the way, married former Prime Minister of Canada, Brian Mulroney's, daughter a few years back. --- In [email protected], "Robert Gimbel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Transcending the media madness > > 'With the Beatles' > Author: Lewis Lapham > > Publisher: Melville House, $12.95, 147 page > > By Regis Behe > TRIBUNE-REVIEW > Sunday, November 6, 2005 > > Reporters will do almost anything to be the sole media representative > at any event of global importance. > When Lewis Lapham managed to do it, he wasn't overwhelmed by his good > fortune. He knew it was a huge story, the Beatles visiting the > Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram in India in February 1968. As a > journalist with the Saturday Evening Post, then one of the premier > magazines in the U.S., he had outmaneuvered his peers by gaining > access to the compound where the Beatles were staying. > > Lapham would have been more impressed if it was Miles Davis or > Ornette Coleman. > > "I knew I wasn't well prepared to write a fan type of piece on the > Beatles," says Lapham, who was born in 1935 and prefers jazz over > rock 'n' roll. "But it was a very big story in the winter of 1968. > The two biggest stories were, of course, the American war in Vietnam > and the Beatles on the ashram with the maharishi. There were no > bigger celebrities than the Beatles at that time." > > The just-published "With the Beatles" expands the two-part series > Lapham wrote for the Saturday Evening Post about the Beatles visiting > the maharishi. Lapham, the editor in chief at Harper's Magazine and > the author of the books "Theater of War," "Waiting for the > Barbarians" and "30 Satires," says it's important to remember that > 1968 marked a turning point in the era. The idealism engendered by > John F. Kennedy's "Camelot," Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" and > flower power were about to be transformed by the Tet offensive in > Vietnam and the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert > Kennedy. > > "The mood begins to turn dark; it begins to turn ominous," Lapham > says. > > Between the transition from optimism to pessimism was the slight > figure of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who advocated transcendental > meditation as an alternative to mood-enhancing drugs to reach a > higher consciousness. The discipline became a trend on college > campuses, with thousands of students lining up to get their mantras, > the word to be chanted that would open the doors of enlightenment. > > When the Beatles -- especially George Harrison -- decided to embrace > transcendental meditation, it became a phenomenon. Reporters flocked > to the remote village of Rishikesh in northern India, but only Lapham > was able to enter the maharishi's compound. > > "I attribute it to being patient," Lapham says of his success, noting > he didn't have a pending deadline like other reporters. "I had time > to gradually work my way into the confidences of the maharishi's > subordinates." > > Before going to India, Lapham had researched transcendental > meditation, interviewing adherents including the Beach Boys. That was > in his favor when it came to admitting him to the grounds and getting > interviews with the maharishi. It also was clear he was not a tabloid > journalist, and that he would give a fair account of what he saw. And > the maharishi, despite his spiritual trappings, also recognized an > opportunity for media exposure. > > "The maharishi was hoping to attach his teaching and his movement to > the Beatles," Lapham says. "They were the stars, and he was the > wagon. What suited his end was a sympathetic piece with the maharishi > in the same set of photographs as the Beatles. He had hopes of the > Beatles becoming such loyal disciples that they would turn over some > of their record income to the building of transcendental meditation > centers." > > The members of the Beatles seemed relaxed during their stay at the > remote compound. Lapham thinks they enjoyed not being the focus of > events -- all the guests were truly interested in transcendental > meditation -- and the band spent a lot of time writing the songs that > would end up on "The White Album." Lapham's presence didn't bother > them, because the Beatles were only a part of his story. > > But things didn't turn out the way the maharishi planned. Only > Harrison was truly enthusiastic about the yogi's ideas. > > "George was a serious student, a disciple, a believer, and he > embraced it fully," Lapham says "He had the kind of a mind who might > have been a visionary or mystic, and he also wanted to explore Indian > music." > > Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney were mostly there, Lapham surmises, > because it was a fun thing to do. > > "They had more secular minds, let's say, than Harrison," Lapham > says. "And (John) Lennon, he was an intellectual who appeared to > entertain it as a thesis or hypothesis. He wanted to examine it, > wanted to question it, wanted to approach it as an intellectual > proposition as well as a spiritual exercise." > > The maharishi never gained the funding he sought from the Beatles, or > anyone else, although he is still active and has dreams of building a > transcendental meditation center, Lapham says. Nor did transcendental > meditation become anything more than a trend, even though Lapham says > there are some benefits to be derived from its practice. > > "It went out of style," he says, noting that the downturn in the > national mood after 1968 didn't help the movement. "By 1970, the tone > begins to be sarcastic and ironic as opposed to trusting and > idealistic. Some of the idealism and optimism goes out of the > American spirit, and the '70s becomes the decade of retrenchment: big > debt, Watergate, we find the president of the United States is > impeached. So the cultural atmosphere, the cultural weather changes > and the maharishi's flowers wilt in the colder air. > > "But it's still around. Yoga is enjoying something of a revival at > the moment. So it's not bull. ... It's how you dress it up." > > Capsule review > > Lewis Lapham's "With the Beatles" is a short but by no means slight > book about an anecdote in the legendary band's career. In 1968, the > band went to northern India to stay with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi > and study transcendental meditation, causing a media frenzy. > > Lapham was the only journalist who gained access to the maharishi's > compound, and his story, expanded from a two-part series he did for > the Saturday Evening Post, is an enjoyable remembrance, filled with > insight and delightful anecdotes about monkeys, the maharishi's use > of the media and the Beatles themselves. > > > Regis Behe can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or (412)320-7990. > ------------------------ Yahoo! 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