Fact or Fantasy? BBC television program
Apple Corps, 3 Savile Row, London
Length: 7:18
On a day when most of the world wanted to talk to the Beatles about Paul’s apparent split from the band, George found himself talking about far more meaningful subjects for the BBC theology program “Fact or Fantasy.” The circulating tape begins with George talking about how he came to meditation through Indian music (the episode in which George appeared was titled “Prayer and Meditation”). George claims that the only reason for living is to achieve total consciousness, and that “everything else is mundane and secondary.” He touches on his Catholic childhood which lasted until he was about 13, when he “couldn’t take it any longer. It was full of hypocrisy.” George explains that there are a “million” different techniques of meditation, and that the particular technique taught to him by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was “silent meditation.” He shows himself to be quite well-versed in Christian theology, and says that Christ’s message was also one of pure consciousness; if people can get past the material “bag of bones” that is their body, the world may come to realize that everyone is potentially divine.
In the second section, George says that “people say that I’m the Beatle who changed the most, but really that’s what I see life is about. Unless you’re God-conscious, you have to change.” He paints a nice metaphor about the ocean, and how if you’re not anchored to the bottom of the ocean, where things are calm and peaceful, then you subject yourself to being buffetted around by whatever forces are swirling around you. He ties it all together by saying that all types of yoga and meditation are simply ways to keep yourself anchored.
AVAILABILITY: The BBC “Program As Broadcast” log, checked by Mark Lewisohn for Chronicle, indicates that the final program featured just under 11 minutes of edited interview. Unfortunately, only a good-quality, offline tape lasting just more than seven minutes is all that circulates among collectors. Brief video extracts (in excellent quality) were unearthed for various tributes to George in November 2001.