Harrison George - Dream weaver: a memoir ; music, meditation, and my friendship with george harrison

God can be said to be the Weaver of Dreams in His vast creation, entertaining both Himself and mankind as He weaves epic stories and colossal events that span across lifetimes and millennia. In India, they say that running creation is Gods eternal work and that He takes it very seriouslybeing a God of love and compassion rather than a punishing dictator. He gave man free will to create his own destiny, never interfering in an individuals life unless petitioned by pure love from His devotee.

On a human level, it can be said that each one of us is also a dream weaver, creating our own dreams and weaving our own lives over many incarnations, like actors in a movie playing roles as superstars or failures, heroes or villainsall of which are an integral part of His megadrama of creation. Only on that day, when we have no more desires or karma to work out and only wish to be one with God in a state of ecstasy, will we wake from this dream of delusion and enter the highest state of bliss consciousness.

June 1976. I was in Philadelphia about to walk onstage before 120,000 people at John F. Kennedy Stadium. On the bill with me were Peter Frampton and Yes. My album The Dream Weaver had been on the Billboard charts since late 1975 and was currently at number 7; in addition, I had two number 2 singlesDream Weaver and, at the time of the concert, Love Is Alive. It was the largest concert Id ever played, and the power I felt standing before so many people who were radiating this astounding degree of positive energy was overwhelming. Theres no way to accurately describe the emotion I felt as a performer when I began singing Dream Weavera song Id written about Gods love and compassionto an audience of that size. In fact, the entire summer was like thatplaying at sports stadiums and other huge festivals around the United States and Europe to well over three million people. That summer of 1976 was a life-altering time for me careerwise, the highest point in my life up until then. I was thirty-three and had a lot of questions about who I was and how I would deal with success and my future.

I soon realized that even though I was experiencing a period of great elation, inevitably the highs would wane. I had been moderately successful as a child actor, even playing in a Broadway musical, Fanny. From my past experience, having released eleven albums, between my solo records and Spooky Toothnone of which were commercially successfulI knew the feeling of being pumped up with enthusiasm and then being dropped into despair, despite the star power of the musicians I worked with. I could feel intuitively that this experience of success might give me a great opportunity to test my newly found spiritual path and guru. After all, Dream Weaver was a song about Gods infinite mercy, carrying us through our trials: Dream Weaver, I believe you can get me through the night. And trials there were throughout my life. But I never avoided them, I faced them head on, which gave me spiritual muscle. My guru used to say, A wrestler will never increase his strength unless he works out with a stronger [opponent].carried them with me through all my experiences in life. That changed the entire scope of how I would deal with both success and failure, all the while trying to maintain even-mindedness.

Success does not land in your lap without hard work, something I realized early on in life. Eastern philosophy teaches that qualities and talents are developed and brought over from past lives. You dont just learn to be a genius or acquire any great talent in one lifetimeit takes sustained effort and deep focus to attract success to anything we do.