Religion; don't take my word for it...

May 20th – Religion; can’t live with it, can’t live with it… So how does that work then? How come religion got so intertwined with music? Is it because…hang on, let me think…because of those early Gregorian chants, the drone and the trance-like state that they represent? I know that, on the occasions I've ventured into a church or cathedral and have been lucky enough to time it with choir practise, the whole event is mesmeric. 
I did a tour of Eastern Europe which included Hungary and when we did Budapest I made time to visit St Stephens’s basilica in Buda…or was it Pest? Whatever. I can highly recommend it…worth a look on Google Images if you've not had the pleasure. How the church, any church, can have that much static wealth… But then, that’s all been done before and it’s not my place to whinge. Certainly true that whatever your religious leanings, the basilica is stunning, the ceiling so high and the paintings, many by an artist named Gyula Benczur (nope, me neither) that adorn it; stunning. When I visited they’d been burning fresh incense and there was a pall of what can only be described as scented clouds filling the upper reaches. As these smoke clouds drifted and shifted around in the air movement so gaps in the clouds revealed the paintings of cherubs, angles…the Virgin Mary offering Hungary to St Stephen… So, what do you reckon a peasant coming in from the fields and being told about God the Devil and the life of purgatory that awaited those who didn't empty their pockets into the collection plate would feel? Bloody terrified, I’d say. The height, the smoke from incense, the wonder, choirs, chants…sufficiently in touch with the other; enough to make a saint swear, I’d say. 

Like most folk of my generation who were a result of the love-life production line from WW2 and coming of age during the Vietnam war, I searched for the meaning of how the world and its peoples were being treated. I dabbled in Hinduism, Buddhism and Mormonism and revisited my roots of Protestantism coming up short each time. You want a better explanation than that, we can talk; this isn't the forum. Gradually things were weeded out until I arrived at my present destination; an atheist christian. What has stuck are the Yoga, which I've practised since the 60's and still use today and, latterly, the Tai Chi; non-religious activities that invoke trance and discipline without having to nail some poor bugger to a cross in order to get it verified.

A large number of high-profile slebs and musicians have also gotten into the religion bit; some because they think it fits the tenet of their beliefs and some because they’re stoopid. ‘Madge’, Mr. Travolta and Mr. Cruise are three in the latter category. Have a read about those who've joined the Scientology movement, read the background to the gospel according to L. Ron Hubbard then handed over their cash; you’ll be so disappointed at those who did.

One who didn't, however, was George Harrison. On this day in 1967 he visited the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for the first time and took up transcendental meditation and the living of a life through reality to reach fulfilment and freedom. No drugs, no opiates just course fees and the opportunity to learn to play the sitar…no wonder our George fell under the spell of the incense smell.