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Brainwashed, by George Harrison and the Bhagavad Gita

2004; University of Toronto Press; Volume: 8; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3138/jrpc.8.1.004

1703-289X

Michael J. Gilmour,

Religious Tourism and Spaces

This reading of George Harrison’s final album Brainwashed–posthumously released in 2002–is guided by two principal concerns. First, when engaged in the study of spirituality in popular, secular “texts,” scholars of religion are easily charged with reading too much into the objects of their inquiry. This study will represent an experiment in that the author (trained in the Christian Bible) will explore a songwriter’s presentation of a religious tradition far removed from his field of expertise. I attempt to measure, in effect, what an interested but non-specialist listener might discover about religion following clues provided by the songwriter. Second, this paper offers a source-critical reading of George Harrison’s writing that observes the importance of the Bhagavad Gita as the primary inspiration for this album.