The Metaphysics of the Beatles

by Gayleen Isgrigg

This article is a result of an inspirational discussion I had with Rev. Diedre Ashmore about the Beatles' spiritual growth and impact on the world.

                 The Beatles left a long legacy of metaphysics through music that new and old generations are coming to realize. Their spirituality grew in different ways through each band member and collectively their powerful musical gifts helped change the world.

                That is why more than any other rock group, the Beatles’ songs have been recorded and are still heard as background instrumentals in elevators, malls, and stores. Their music and lyrics contained wisdom and reflected their personal journeys of spiritual awakening.

                Their music was honest and pure. It showed exactly what was important to them at each stage of their lives. In the early 1960’s, the young Beatles were singing about love, fun, and money. In the late 1960’s, they were becoming advocates for spirituality, anti-establishment, anti-war, peace, and inner happiness.

                In 1967, their first world-wide simultaneous telecast went to twenty-six countries. They were asked to write a song that transcended many cultures even though it would be sung in English. So for 400 million watchers, they introduced, “All You Need is Love.” Think about these partial lyrics:

There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known, Nothing you can see that isn’t shown, No where you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be, It’s easy . . . All you need is love . . . Love is all you need.

                Most Beatles historians agree that the several weeks spent in Rishikesh, India in 1968 with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, was their most creative period. They meditated, had privacy and peace. They wrote between twenty-three and forty-eight songs, seventeen of which were included in their White Album. Living in the Ashram overlooking the Ganges River, was Mia Farrow healing from her Frank Sinatra divorce, a very young Canadian filmmaker named Paul Saltzman, and the Beatles with their wives or girlfriends.

                Salzman reminisces in his book, "From a Long & Winding Road to Rishikesh," that each of the Beatles was there for different reasons, yet it inspired the group as a whole. Previously, Harrison had been exposed to much  of the Hindu culture and had learned to play the Sitar. He encouraged the group to go to India for he was ready to delve deeper into his spirituality and his understanding of the divine. John went there to find the secret to the meaning of life, which of course, does not exist in that form. Paul was interested in meditation and Ringo was a bit curious but not particularly interested in meditation, yet wanted to feel included in everything the group did.

                From this experience, George maintained a life-long interest in Eastern Religion and was active with the London Hindu Temple. However, John, Paul and Ringo were less enchanted with Maharishi. Rumors spread that the guru made passes at some female students. There were also accusations that the guru was materialistic and more interested in fame and wealth. John was so disenchanted that he wrote the song, “Sexy Sadie” to denounce what he saw as the guru’s inappropriate behavior. In later years, it was exposed that Maharishi was part of the brains and money for al Qaeda.

                When John was asked to describe Maharishi’s teachings, he said, “What he says about life and the universe is the same message that Jesus, Buddha, and Krishna and all the big boys are putting over . . . All the religions are all the same, it’s just a matter of people opening their minds up.”

                Lennon, always the instigator and experimenter, got the gang to try drugs, eastern mysticism and wrote more of the “spiritual” lyrics. On March 4, 1966, The Evening Standard published an interview in which Lennon said, “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first—rock n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.”

                The US press ran with the statement, KKK burned their effigy, and piles of records were burned in bonfires. In Spain and Holland, their songs were banned from the airways. Later Lennon told reporters in Chicago, “I’m not saying that we’re better or greater, or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing or whatever it is . . . I never meant it to be a lousy snit-religion thing, I apologize if that will make you happy . . .”

                This happened at the age of twenty-five. So what did Lennon really think about religion? He never bought the Christian dogma, but he was not an Atheist. With his sentimental respect for the basic things Jesus laid down about love and goodness, he embraced a vague spirituality instead. His mature lyrics demonstrated this in 1970 with his song called “God.”

                The following year he wrote the song, Imagine. These lyrics shed more light into his evolving spirituality:

Imagine there’s no heaven, It’s easy if you try, No hell below us, Above us only sky, Imagine all the people, Living for today, Imagine there’s no countries, It isn’t hard to do, Nothing to kill or die for, And no religion too, Imagine all the people, Living life in peace . . .

                Paul McCartney once told a reporter, “I do have a belief in goodness, a good spirit. I think what people have done with religion is personified good and evil, so good’s become God with the ‘o’ out and evils become Devil with the ‘D’ added. That’s my theory on religion.” He also observed that younger people were disillusioned with the Church of England, thus partly attributing to its decline.

                George Harrison was at the other end of the spiritual spectrum; he developed a serious interest in Eastern religions. It began when he learned to play the sitar and started practicing Yoga due to the pain he felt sitting cross-legged while playing. Harrison was raised a Catholic, but he didn’t like the approach of the teachers who said, “Believe this way because we say so.” He didn’t appreciate that the authority of the church was elevated over one’s own personal experience. He gravitated to Hindu mystics who honored personal experience and would say things like, “No, you can’t believe anything until you have a direct experience of it.” George wrote his own Hare Krishna mantra song and would use it while traveling, even in a car. This mantra helped his meditative practice.

                Although John and Paul wrote most of the songs for the group, George’s spirituality shone through his songs like, “My Sweet Lord,”  “Give me Love, Give me Peace on Earth,” and “While my Guitar Gently Weeps.” He also used the Tao of Lao Tzu for lyrical inspiration in the 1968 song, “The Inner Light.”

                Lastly Ringo, after the break up of the Beatles, developed his own music. In the song, “Fading in, Fading out” from his album Choose Love, he said, “You feel like if you die, the world will end. And actually, it won’t. Throughout the album, there’s a lot of peace, love and spirituality. So I wrote a line that says, ‘When I disappear, I hope I’ve left enough love.’ That’s all that you can really leave and all you really do need. You can leave your money if you want to, and leave the house. But if you’ve left enough love that’s more important, I feel.”

                During the production of his songs, “Photograph” and “Back off Boogaloo,” Ringo recalled that George, who produced it for him, was always trying to get in the words ‘God’ and ‘Krishna’ and that he fought it. “And now just with the growth within myself, I have no problem with that now. For “Oh My Lord,” we begin with my demo with me and my crazy little organ. George bless him, has his “Sweet Lord.” This is mine. I did play the song for Olivia (George’s widow) when it was a demo because I feel that George would have loved it. I always say God or Lord in a spiritual sense, not a religious way. But I’m big enough to say the word now.”

                These four young musicians matured in front of a large changing world. Their music deepened when they moved into their solo careers allowing many fans to grow spiritually along with them. As each Beatle continued on their own personal spiritual journey, so will their fans for many generations.

Reverend Diedre Ashmore, Minister of Pastoral Care at Unity Church of Truth of Spokane, lead a fascinating and lively discussion of this popular group at the Metaphysical Research Society meeting in Spokane, Washington.
This article was also in "Heart Links" of Spokane, Washington.