I hope it's okay if I share some personal experience and lessons I received through John's spirituality...!
Without going into too much detail, this year I had some unbelievably difficult mental health struggles which took about all I had out of me, and there were more than a few occasions where it was on the verge of begging for any kind of higher power to come and take the burden away. I absolutely consider John to be my 'spirit advisor' or 'spirit guide,' as even without divine intervention he has already left enough 'little messages' in the mortal world from which there is so much wisdom to be gratefully understood and used in my own life.
In good moments, including in the present, I usually experience a lot of surreal and spiritual happenings, including the appearances of birds, feathers, but whenever I'd start to go into one of these kinds of 'pleading' situations, these moments would completely disappear and not return for a lengthy period of time. It was
It took the course of a few months before I had a zoning-out kind of daydream, which I can still only vaguely recall, but I felt that I was being approached, and heard a way-too-familiar Liverpudlian voice say, "I get it...but I can't help you, only
you can help yourself."
It really startled me out of this dreaming state, but I immediately felt a renewed conviction because I knew it was right, and a fundamental facet of understanding which permeates nearly everything he ever did. He'd been through the same trip - looking for help from various sources and putting his faith in them, receiving 'helpful hints' but never accessing a complete relief (be it a Maharishi, Janov, etc
. It's only through taking these 'little gifts' from various practitioners of health (mental, emotional, psychological, physical) that we can devise our own plan that makes use of all of them in order to fulfill our best self, because no one/singular modality can do it all.
I discovered early on in my life that I never felt 'God' was a separate omniscient being, but rather something that was already inside of each person, within our own possession and something we individually have to work to access. I still remember the feeling of awe I had discovering John had also reached the same conclusion rather early in life (and explained this openly as early as 1966).
Soon after, drifting to sleep one night, the same feeling being of being 'approached' came, and I heard "Every person is God, and the body is a temple."
It was brilliant, I thought - that in order to best fulfill our duty to ourselves, we must give our physical body the respect it deserves. It needs to be cared for, listened to, trained, and nourished to the healthiest possible state. There's such a distinct and unique correlation between mind and body, and that keeping our bodies healthy allows a stronger connection to the experiential self and allows it to thrive without restriction. If the 'temple' is maintained to its best order, access to 'God' while practicing in the 'temple' will be stronger!
It took only a few seconds to register that his 1968-onward vegetarianism and macrobiotic diet were what allowed him to access the same idea, surely. Not that neither he nor I haven't still indulged with food a bit here and there...! But the message was clear, and it too is something I've made changes in my approach to do as best as possible for my own greater good.
In the low moments before all this, my go-to was (and remains)
Mind Games, which is my very favorite John album, and one that's both beautifully deep and yet immensely bright at the same time. Whenever it was at the lowest point, I made myself keep going because I know the Ultimate Collection was coming, and I wouldn't want to miss an amazing presentation of something so special to me. So I persevered, and it was so worth it! (Yes, for many things, but this
really helped). The box set was the soundtrack to my summer, and something I could totally immerse in and enjoy instead of dwelling on the negatives that were surrounding me. I must have played the whole thing 25 times (I mean it!) and I still do. It almost singularly got me through a major rough period, and the fact this campaign just keeps on giving (including this wonderful forum) has been nothing short of a real blessing.
It was one morning while playing the album that I was sitting and quietly acknowledging how healing this album is for me (which John's music does for me like no one else). Suddenly, my phone lit up and it was a text from my grandmother, saying "You should come over." And, for whatever reason, I didn't question it and immediately paused the music and did exactly that. I walked in and she said, "I'm not sure why, I just thought you might like this," and handed me a framed plaque which reads "Music is the medicine of the mind." You can imagine how prescient this moment seemed. It seemed all too perfectly timed, and I graciously accepted it, and it now hangs adjacent to my bed so I can see it and acknowledge it every night before falling asleep.
I apologize for the lengthy post, but hopefully at least someone will find some enjoyment out of it...!
Here's a few quotes that I love which are closely aligned (if not identical) to what I felt he shared with me:
"The mind is a 'muscle', it needs exercise (to strengthen it)" (1979)
"Well, you make your own dream. That's the Beatles' story, isn't it? That's Yoko's story. That's what I'm saying now. Produce your own dream. If you want to save Peru, go save Peru. It's quite possible to do anything, but not to put it on the leaders and the parking meters. Don't expect Jimmy Carter or Ronald Reagan or John Lennon or Yoko Ono or Bob Dylan or Jesus Christ to come and do it for you. You have to do it yourself. That's what the great masters and mistresses have been saying ever since time began. They can point the way, leave signposts and little instructions in various books that are now called holy and worshiped for the cover of the book and not for what it says, but the instructions are all there for all to see, have always been and always will be. There's nothing new under the sun. All the roads lead to Rome. And people cannot provide it for you. I can't wake you up. You can wake you up. I can't cure you. You can cure you." (1980)
Although I had to be aware enough to understand and be capable to implement these things in myself, I do feel that I owe a huge debt to John's own "signposts and little instructions," for which I'm eternally grateful. If learning these things on his own journey and sharing them with us was his ultimate purpose, then it's a mission he was completely successful in. I'm so glad those of us here are able to continue learning from them and sharing them with others too. Thank you, John.
