George Harrison
George may have been known as 'the quiet one' in poptastic trio The Beatles, but with 58 years of devoted mediative life behind him, the other side held no fears when he died last year. We tracked him down to see what the afterlife is like for one fourth of the fab four.
How did it feel to be reunited with John Lennon after more than 20 years?
George Harrison
Ah, you see I knew you'd ask me this, and I could ask you the same question. John didn't make it. You know that line in Imagine where he sings 'Imagine there's no Heaven'? Well God's real big on ironic punishment, so he didn't let him in.
He didn't go to Hell either, in fact Lennon was reincarnated as some krill, and told to do better in this lifetime. He still doesn't know there's a loving God and a heaven at the end of it all. But then krill aren't particularly bright, generally.
In life you were attracted to Eastern mysticism, and elements of Hindu and Buddist theology, having been brought up with a core set of Christian beliefs. Have your religious views changed at all since your passing?
They haven't changed so much as not remaining the same. Not so much as during my lifetime on earth anyway.
You see there are positive and negative forces all around us, love and hate, good and evil, and all I did was to embrace that which I saw in any form of spirituality and try to live my own life in that way to the best of my ability. Oh and sitars, lots of sitar playing helps.
Ultimately I've realized now that none of it is wrong if you have lived the vision. All religion, all spirituality is a wonderful thing. Except Atheism and Islam.
Is there anything you haven't been able to take with you from earthly life that you really miss?
I'm really the wrong person to be asking, because I never valued my terrestrial possessions perhaps as much as some people anyway. We are all beings on another level, and now things like the physical ability to play a guitar are even less relevent.
Maybe the one thing I do actually miss is 'The Family Ness'. You see, animated childrens TV shows are one of the very few things that are banned from Heaven, and that programme was my favourite. When I close my eyes I can still hear Elspeth and Angus blowing on their thistle-whistles in the distance.
Regrets, you must've had a few?
Yes, but then again, too few to mention. (laughs)
I would give some advice to those who have yet to pass over to this side: Just because someone claims to be the finest cancer specialist in the world doesn't mean that you can trust them when they say 'Your throat's all better now, Mr. Harrison'. And don't ever let knife-wielding fans into your house. In fact, come to think of it, I wonder if they were the same person...
I suppose that in some ways I do regret not writing more of the material for the Beatles, but then again maybe if I had we wouldn't have been so successful. I mean, 'While my guitar gently weeps' doesn't compare to all those classic Lennon-McCartney compositions, does it? Ob-La-Di Ob-la-Da - fantastic stuff.
Many liken the experience of dying to an intense narcotic high. You took your fair share of drugs during your time upon the non-celestial plains, so how does it compare?
Wow! We're all just points on a graph, you know, we're all just speckles on a bigger, wider egg. Experience is real, it's what you make it.
In a way it was very similar to a positive LSD trip, except that it's less of an exact science. Chemicals always work in the same way, but when God plays a part, there's more flexiblity. For example the life that flashed before my eyes wasn't mine but Harry Secombe's. They got a bit mixed up, you see. And I was quite surprised when Richard Nixon came to take me by the hand - turns out it should've been Krishna.
Everything was explained afterwards. But I was cool with it. Anyone can make mistakes. We're all human. Or spirit.
