Pattie Harrison reads about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Pattie Harrison was reading The Times newspaper at her home in Esher, Surrey, when she saw an advertisement for Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Spiritual Regeneration Movement Foundation.

The newspaper was dated 3 August 1967, although on the day of publication she was in Los Angeles with George Harrison. It is likely that she saw the advertisement after 9 August, when the couple flew back to London via New York.

Intrigued by the advert, she made arrangements to attend an introductory lecture at Caxton Hall, London, where she was given a mantra.

George was away on tour yet again [sic] and I was sitting with my friend Marie-Lise at the kitchen table in Kinfauns. It was February 1967 and we had the Sunday papers spread out in front of us. I had a yearning to take up chanting, meditation or something spiritual – I suppose after the experience of India – and she felt the same. Something was missing from our lives, we decided. So there we were, combing though the papers, when we came upon an advert for transcendental-meditation classes in London. Perfect. Off we went to Caxton Hall and enrolled in the Spiritual Regeneration Movement.

Encouraged by the event, Pattie persuaded George to accompany her to another lecture at the Hilton Hotel. All The Beatles attended on 24 August 1967, and afterwards met Maharishi for the first time.