Break-up of the Beatles Lennon was in a fragile state of mind after returning from the band's sojourn in India in early 1968 and was disillusioned and resentful that their Transcendental Meditation guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, had not fulfilled Lennon's expectations. Lennon became discontented over his personal identity and his artistic role within the Beatles and entered another period of drug use, which coincided with a deterioration in his marriage and family life. He began to develop an intense interest in the work of Yoko Ono, a Japanese-American conceptual artist whom he had first met at one of her exhibitions in 1966. The pair
The Beatles in Bangor the news, the Beatles held a press conference, during which Lennon and Harrison passed on the Maharishi's views on death to the media. According to McCartney, the Maharishi "was great to us when Brian died". Cynthia Lennon later wrote: "it was as though, with Brian gone, the four needed someone new to give them direction and the Maharishi was in the right place at the right time." The Beatles made plans to spend time at the Maharishi's training centre in India in late October. However, at McCartney's urging, they postponed the trip until the new year to work on their