Age and proximity to Marshy is no signpost of common sense or clarity of perception - Jerry Jarvis told my friend Bill over the phone a few weeks ago that all the allegations by Mark Landau, Billy Clayton and the other skin boys were all ridiculous. He said he spent more time around M than any of those guys and he never saw a hint of any wrongdoing of any kind.
________________________________ From: nablusoss1008 <no_re...@yahoogroups.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, September 8, 2013 5:20 AM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Dear Prudence – an interview with Prudence Farrow Dear Prudence – an interview with Prudence Farrow This entry was posted in Knowledge & news on September 8, 2013by Andrew Lawson Kerr. ________________________________ Prudence Farrow achieved international fame through the Beatles song ‘Dear Prudence’, where they sing of her dedicated focus on meditation during her teacher training course in Rishikesh with Maharishi, which John Lennon and George Harrison also participated in. Here is a recent interview with Prudence where she talks of her time then and since. Interview: Priya: Which brings me to the subject of song, “Dear Prudence” which was written for you by John Lennon. It’s such a beautiful, expansive song… Prudence: It actually captured the feeling of that course (that we took with Mahesh Yogi). Priya: That’s interesting. Great songs seem to capture things in layers – distilling so many things in any given moment… Do you want to elaborate on what you mean when you say it captured the course? Prudence: It captured that period that we were there. Especially the feeling of India… and of that meditation course… none of the other songs that they ever wrote have that…to me… And when I hear it I just feel that time in India, that course. And that course was very powerful for me. It was a monumental experience. At that time Maharishi did not realize, this is what he said, is that he did not realize that we, the young people from the West, carried so much stress. And I was kind of a prototype of many that were to follow. I was just leading the way of many, many others that would come after me. You know, after that course, he didn’t have people meditate solidly. But on that course, he had people do it just as long as you could do it, and you’d just be meditating all the time. But meditation is also a practice of purification and while its packing in and integrating that silence of your experience. So for me, it was horrendous and amazing at the same time. It was a huge game-changer… To go into the solitary guidance of such a great man. I totally trusted him beyond anybody I’d ever met. So I could safely give myself over to the process of just complete silence and deep, deep, deep meditation. So it was extraordinary of course. Priya: I believe that in your own words you’ve called your dedication to meditation “fanatical”…that you were in your room non-stop meditating while others took time off, the Beatles rehearsed. I think you mention that even your sister Mia went out to hunt tigers while you stayed in your room. What for? Prudence: After that experience of my father, there could be nothing that could match that. So I became ferociously hungry for more. Priya: Did you find what you were looking for? Prudence: I did. I did. You know, originally I wasn’t allowed to go. Because of my age and all that…So I went to Lourdes for a miracle. You know, so that I could go to Rishikesh…Cos I figured I just have to go! There’s nothing else for me. I don’t want anything else. Priya: Did you just say you went to Lourdes to get a miracle? Prudence: Yes, because they wouldn’t accept me on the course. And I tried in California. I tried in New York and then I tried in England and it just wasn’t going to happen. I had to be twenty years old and I had to finish college. And that, to me, wasn’t going to happen. So I really felt, at the point where I was, where I just couldn’t live…I didn’t want to live without this. And I knew that this was what I wanted. So I figured, I’ll get a miracle. I’ll figure this out. I’m going to go. Priya: Right. I hear you. (laughing) Prudence: So then I went to Lourdes and I did. I got a miracle. And it was amazing! And when I came back from Lourdes, on the pillow of my bed, was a drawing. Some fan of my mother’s was there from Brazil and she was a dentist and her name was Lourdes. And she heard from my mother that I was coming home and so without telling my mother anything she just drew this welcome home drawing, stuck it on my pillow, and it was signed Lourdes, but it was all in blue. It was like the grotto where I had been! When I saw it on the pillow when I walked in the door, I just knew I was going to India. It was like this is it! It’s in the can. I’m going to India! I had no idea how it would work out, but I knew I was going to India and exactly one year later, Maharishi came to Boston where I was staying. In a year I was on my way to India, on an airplane with Maharishi, and all of that. Priya: Certainly sounds like you were very willing to experiment with your life on the basis of that spiritual experience you had after your father died. But do you think your willingness to go out on a limb has something to do your having grown up in a world where so many people around you were creative sorts – who were probably heterodox and experimental in their approach to life in the first place? Prudence: Probably…To a certain extent…Yeah, I think that there were people experimenting with all kinds of things around me. And I tended to gravitate towards people like that. You know, I have sisters and brothers who didn’t. But it is true that the kids who were from the wealthy areas like Beverly Hills in California, they tended to be bolder, to try things that other people didn’t. But having seen my friends and people I grew up with, nobody was obsessed like I was. Whatever anyone told me I couldn’t do or dared me to do, I’d do. I’m the kind of person that will still go out on a limb. Priya: Right. (laughing) Prudence: You know at my age, going to the Kumbh Mela…You know….I’ll still do it. I think it’s part of a radical personality…maybe? I don’t know… Priya: Now the Beatles had a pretty publicized split with Mahesh Yogi. What happened with you and Mahesh Yogi in that period? Prudence: It was amazing. I had absolute and complete respect for him through the whole thing. So nothing, nothing happened. Nothing but exactly what I dreamed would happen. Maharishi was a real master and I felt that I got the best guidance I could ever have imagined. And he was truly as great as I dreamed he would be. I didn’t see anything that the others saw. I only saw him one way. Priya: Right. You’ve been teaching meditation since 1968. How has your practice changed since you first started? Prudence: It’s just deepened. Beyond what I could even have hoped for. And that’s really true.
