The Daily Swarm

AP:

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a guru to the Beatles who introduced the West to transcendental meditation, died Tuesday at his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop, a spokesman said. He was thought to be 91 years old.

“He died peacefully at about 7 p.m.,” said Bob Roth, a spokesman for the Transcendental Meditation movement that the Maharishi founded. He said his death appeared to be due to “natural causes, his age.”

Once dismissed as hippie mysticism, the Hindu practice of mind control that Maharishi taught, called transcendental meditation, gradually gained medical respectability.

Telegraph:

The most celebrated and famous of the 1960s spiritual gurus, the Maharishi drew in many high profile celebrities to his Transcendental Meditation movement. These included the Beach Boys, singer-songwriter Donovan, Clint Eastwood and avant-garde film maker, David Lynch.

But the most high profile followers were the Beatles, who spent time on a retreat in India in the late 1960s.
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However the relationship soured and, with the exception of the late George Harrison, the group became disillusioned with the Maharishi and following a widely-publicised spat, left. Only Harrison maintained an interest in meditation.

The spiritualist and author Deepak Chopra, a former maharishi disciple and a friend of Harrison, has said that contrary to popular myth, the row was nothing to do with claims that the maharishi made sexual advances on Mia Farrow, the actress and friend of the band.

Instead, he said, the maharishi had objected to the group taking drugs at his home in Rishikesh, northern India.

Dr Chopra told the Sunday Telegraph: “What isn’t generally known is that the maharishi had got fed up with the Beatles taking drugs while they were at his ashram [spiritual home].