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| Sgt. Pepper album cover: a correction |  | ||
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When I was a devotee of the Guru Maharaj ji (Prem Rawat), we were told many outlandish fables (including Rennie Davis' published comments about aliens coming to the Astrodome for Millennium '73). Among the cult's many fibs and outright lies promulgated are stories regarding George Harrison that circulated all over premiedom (i.e. the Rawat cult communities) in the 1970s. One story alleged that George Harrison asked for the so-called 'knowledge' and was told by Rawat to give up playing guitar for a year, first. Another story alleged that George Harrison then gave Rawat a beautiful Rolls Royce, but that Rawat had it sawn in half and returned it to Harrison, in pieces. Yet another story alleged that when the Beatles were recording Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967, Harrison had a photo of the young 'satguru' placed on the album cover looking over his shoulder - because Harrison had heard that the boy guru was an incarnation of the Lord God in the flesh, and so they included him in the collage (which was put together by artist Peter Blake). In fact, the headshot is that of American child-star/singer Bobby Breen. The other Rawat promotional cult stories have likewise never been substantiated by Rawat cult members or any other persons, or by any evidence whatsoever. The relevant peripheral connection Harrison actually had with the Rawat cult (and its members) was based upon his relationship with Olivia Arias, a receptionist at A&M Records who was a Rawat cult member. When A&M Records agreed to sponsor Harrison's Dark Horse record label in the mid-1970s, the two became acquainted, then romantically involved. (Harrison’s first wife, Patti Boyd, had left him for his pal, pop star Eric Clapton.) Due to Arias' connection and influence, Harrison then produced an album for a local Los Angeles premie band, Jiva, on his label [Jiva -1974]. Harrison subsequently married Arias (his second wife), and she and their son Dhani are the heirs to Harrison's fortune/estate. During his lifetime, Harrison remained a devotee of Lord Krishna, especially via the Krishna Consciousness cult ("Hare Krishna"  , and of Yogananda (the Self-Realisation Fellowship), and the vegetarian Harrison also practiced yoga, TM and other meditations. Unfortunately, these practices weren’t enough to help him shed his addiction to cigarette smoking – which gave him lung cancer and killed him. [Note: Harrison had earlier introduced the other Beatles to TM and the Maharishi in India, whom his bandmates rejected after reportedly finding the alleged celibate swami attempting to have sex with a western devotee (among other reasons cited – privately and publicly - by Lennon and McCartney).] Over the years, while not publicly renouncing Rawat, Olivia Harrison herself became more interested in George's spiritual leanings, as well as forms of 'New Age' Christianity. Modified by Mick at Thu, Mar 09, 2006, 15:35:14 |
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