My Sweet Lord: Revisiting the Beatles and Transcendental Meditation

RNS offers a special package of four stories as part of its Tuesday report, called My Sweet Lord: Revisiting the Beatles and Transcendental Meditation. The articles included are as follows:

The Gospel According to John, Ringo, Paul and George, by Bob Carlton:
Forty years after John Lennon made his infamous and often misunderstood comment that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus" -- spawning ban-the-Beatles protests -- rock music writer Steve Turner explores the Fab Four's spiritual quest in his latest book, "The Gospel According to the Beatles."

Transcendental Meditation Makes a Comeback, by Nora O'Dowd:
"TM? Is that still around?" That's the immediate reaction of many to the mention of Transcendental Meditation. After a bright turn in the psychedelic limelight of the 1960s when it was embraced by celebrities such as the Beatles and Donovan, it seemed to go the way of bellbottoms, flower power and love beads. But others maintain that it's never gone away. Even in the years when TM "was not so popular in the United States, it was extremely popular in other areas of the world," says Bill Sands, director of the Maharishi Enlightenment Center in Paoli, Pa.

Beatles' Spiritual Guru Is Still Going Strong, by Amanda Garrett:
The Maharishi, who was embraced as a spiritual guru to the Beatles four decades ago, wants to open 3,000 so-called Peace Palaces around the world. He has opened an accredited university in Iowa, promised tantalizing superhuman powers, vowed to bring world peace and launched a political party, which in 2004 endorsed Rep. Dennis Kucinich's bid for the presidency. He also amassed a fortune estimated between $5 billion and $9 billion with his web of businesses and charities. His latest strategy is to do for yogic flying what Starbucks has done for a cup of coffee. Is the Maharishi selling religion? A cult? A pile of rubbish? People have been trying to figure that out for a long time.

Questions and Answers on TM With David Lynch, by Michael Kress:
In works such as "Blue Velvet" and "Twin Peaks," filmmaker David Lynch has explored the darker side of human nature. In his personal life, though, Lynch has found contentment and balance by practicing Transcendental Meditation, or TM. Popularized by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, TM involves twice-daily sessions in which practitioners meditate on a specific mantra. In recent years, Lynch has worked to publicize scientific research on the benefits of TM, and his David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace works to bring TM into schools to reduce student stress. Lynch spoke with Beliefnet about the effects of TM on his life and his plans for bringing the Maharishi's teachings to a much broader audience.