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The secret message in the Yellow Submarine film — Transcript

by James Hargreaves Guitar · 5,541 words · 818 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00Approximately 2 years ago, I did a video
0:03explaining the meaning behind the
0:05Beatles magical mystery tour film. And
0:08down in the comments, I got various
0:10people requesting that now I'd decoded
0:12mystery tour, I should attempt Yellow
0:15Submarine. Now, I'd never seen it
0:17before. So, I ordered this, sat down one
0:20morning, and watched the whole thing
0:21from start to finish. Yellow Submarine
0:24is a mad psychedelic whirlwind of
0:26nightmarish images and kit cartoon
0:29figures that I felt had something in
0:31common with the Pink Elephants on Parade
0:33from Dumbo. The first time I watched it
0:35through, my overriding feeling was,
0:38"Bloody hell, what on earth was that?"
0:41But when I drumed up the courage to
0:43watch it again, I started noticing
0:46things. familiar themes, concepts, and
0:49ideas from other Beatles creations of
0:51that era. As I watched it through the
0:54second time, the whole film, the whole
0:56shape of it, the symbolism being used
0:59and the underlying message seemed eerily
1:01familiar, although at first I just
1:04couldn't pin down why. There was,
1:06however, one blatantly obvious
1:08connection that I could just make
1:10straight away. The film is pretty much
1:12just wallto-wall psychedelic acid
1:15inspired imagery just like Sergeant
1:17Pepper and just like Magical Mystery
1:20Tour. But what does it all mean? The
1:22first step to answering that question is
1:25establishing the context in which the
1:27film was made. Now, the period in which
1:29the Beatles made their most psychedelic
1:31work was naturally the acid period,
1:34which starts around the album Revolver
1:37and finishes more or less with the
1:39arrival of the White Album, at which
1:41point they had sworn off LSD publicly at
1:44least. Everything they made within that
1:47period, however, was completely a wash
1:49with the inspiration and the influence
1:52of the psychedelic drug. The Beatles LSD
1:55era began when John Lennon and George
1:58Harrison had their drinks spiked with it
2:00by a dentist in London in April 1965.
2:04Paul McCartney became the last Beatle to
2:06try LSD in December of that same year.
2:08And initially at least, it was just a
2:11wild new drug. 4 months later, however,
2:14led by John Lennon, the Beatles
2:16experience of LSD would start to take on
2:19some new religious overtones. Because a
2:22full year after his first acid trip on
2:24April the 1st, 1966,
2:27John Lennon went into the Indica
2:29bookshop in London and picked up a book
2:31called The Psychedelic Experience by
2:34Timothy Liry. He read the book and was
2:37fascinated by what he found. Liry
2:40explained that a guided acid trip was in
2:43fact a pathway to enlightenment, a way
2:45to encounter the divine and come back to
2:48your body after the trip changed,
2:51reincarnated with a new personality of
2:54your own choosing. He called this
2:56process ego death. And shortly after
2:58buying the book, John Lennon decided to
3:01give it a go. We know this happened
3:03between April the 1st, 1966 and April
3:06the 5th because on April the 6th, the
3:09Beatles recorded Tomorrow Never Knows, a
3:12seven verse song, each verse a
3:14paraphrase of each of the seven stages
3:18in Timothy Liry's book. It was the first
3:20track recorded for their next album,
3:22Revolver, which Lennon described as an
3:25acid album. Their first one, in fact.
3:28And at this point, John, who had now
3:30been converted to Timothy Liry's ritual,
3:33took on the role of psychedelic guru to
3:35Paul and the others. And soon enough,
3:38all of them, Paul included, were
3:40converted. As the Beatles took acid and
3:43followed the steps outlined in Lir's
3:45book, they began to believe that they
3:47had literally found the key to saving
3:50the world. They each felt transformed
3:53and changed into a better, more peaceful
3:56person as a result of their experiences
3:58with acid. And they began to believe
4:00that humanity as a whole could also be
4:03changed by it in the same way. Listen to
4:06this quote from Paul right in the middle
4:08of the acid era. After I took LSD, it
4:12opened my eyes. We only use one/tenth of
4:14our brain. Just think what we could
4:17accomplish if we could tap that hidden
4:18part. It would mean a whole new world if
4:21the politicians would take LSD. There
4:24wouldn't be any more war or poverty or
4:27famine. And so really from April 1966,
4:32the Beatles LSD evangelist era began. Of
4:36course, it is just my opinion, but I
4:38believe that in this time they were
4:40looking for ways to preach this new
4:43gospel to which they had been converted.
4:46The Beatles had found themselves both
4:48with an unbelievable reach and influence
4:50over world culture. And they also
4:53believed that while in that position,
4:55they had discovered the key to saving
4:57the world and bringing about a new era
5:00of peace, unity, and love. But of
5:03course, there was a problem. The
5:05establishment did not agree. In the UK,
5:09LSD was illegal. They couldn't just come
5:11out and preach it. So if they wanted to
5:14talk about what they perceived as the
5:16drug's transformative qualities, they
5:18had to do so carefully in symbolism and
5:21code. Look at songs like Lucy in the Sky
5:23with Diamonds, which is blatantly all
5:26about acid imagery. At the time, they
5:28had to constantly deny it and hope that
5:30the message got through. And Paul
5:32McCartney confirmed in later years it
5:34was all about LSD. You can also look at
5:38the lyrics to the song Magical Mystery
5:40Tour. It's rammed with coded references
5:42to drugs. What would you have done in
5:45their shoes if you believed you had
5:47found the key to saving the whole world,
5:50but you couldn't just come out and
5:52preach it openly? It's my theory at
5:55least that the Beatles solution was to
5:58encode the message into their music in a
6:01plausibly deniable way. But what has all
6:04this got to do with the Yellow Submarine
6:07movie? Well, having watched it through a
6:09couple of times and noted some very,
6:12very similar symbolism and imagery, I
6:15decided to do a bit of digging to see,
6:17was this also made during their LSD
6:21evangelist era. Here's what I found in
6:24the Blu-ray booklet. Although the
6:26project went from initial designs to its
6:29London premiere in less than a year, the
6:31entire process took nearly 2 years. The
6:35actual drawing, painting, and animating
6:37of the film took 11 months and did start
6:40in August 67, but the scripting started
6:43a full year before, approximately July
6:471966,
6:49smack bang in the middle of the LSD
6:52could save the world phase. So, that was
6:54the first piece of the puzzle in place.
6:57The next thing I had to address was,
6:59were the Beatles actually involved at
7:01all in the writing of the film? Many
7:04articles and books say things like this.
7:07Apart from composing and performing the
7:09songs, the real Beatles only
7:11participation was in the closing scene
7:13of the film. The voices of their
7:15animated counterparts were provided by
7:17voice actors. And as a result, most
7:20people think that they actually just
7:22weren't involved at all, which isn't
7:24true. They weren't involved in the
7:26actual animation or the voices, but they
7:29were heavily involved in the writing of
7:32the scripts, which if you remember were
7:35all written in the LSD evangelist era.
7:39Here's a quote from American producer Al
7:42Brodax on the 14th of June, 1967.
7:46The Beatles are very, very enthusiastic
7:49about the new animated film Yellow
7:51Submarine. They've been calling us at
7:53all times with ideas. We have even had
7:55discussions at 2:00 in the morning.
7:58Their suggestions are very good and so
8:00far all the Beatles ideas are being
8:04incorporated into the movie. So, the
8:06Beatles were definitely involved. And
8:08did you see what he said there? Every
8:10single time the Beatles phoned up with
8:12an idea, they incorporated it into the
8:15movie, which probably explains why the
8:18script went through 14 to 20 different
8:21drafts, depending on who you ask. In
8:23fact, chief acid evangelist himself,
8:26John Lennon, literally claims credit for
8:29half the content of the script. And he
8:31says that the writers would even seek
8:33them out when they were in the studio to
8:35get more ideas and input saying, "You
8:38know what Al Broaddax used to do?
8:40Broadax got half the yellow submarine
8:42out of my mouth. You know the idea for
8:44the Hoover, the machine that sucks
8:46people up? All those were my ideas. They
8:49used to come to the studio and sort of
8:51chat, hi John Old Bean, got any ideas
8:53for the film?" And I'd just spout out
8:55all this stuff and they went off and did
8:57it. And later, Lenon would go on to say
8:59that it wasn't just half the ideas in
9:01the film that came from them, but all
9:04the ideas. In the Blu-ray booklet, it
9:06says it was a curiosity that this film
9:08went into production without a final
9:10script and without a final story board.
9:14That's probably because they would
9:15change it every time a Beatle chipped
9:17in. They probably left it open to leave
9:20space for more contributions. But it
9:22wasn't just the Beatles who were
9:24immersing themselves in the drug soaked
9:26hippie culture. All the production team
9:28were as well. This is an abridged quote
9:31from producer John Coats taken from the
9:33Blu-ray audio commentary. A lot of
9:36people have said it was a psychedelic
9:38trip and that we were all on drugs. But
9:40it wasn't heavily or we would never have
9:42got the film made. There was smoking
9:44going on. In the making of Yellow
9:46Submarine, we counted 13 children that
9:49were born as a result of that whole
9:50scene. There were lots of parties.
9:53Everyone was having parties. London was
9:55incredibly inexpensive and fun. The
9:58baddies in the film are called the Blue
10:00Meanies. And in later interviews, John
10:03Lennon told us precisely who they are
10:05meant to be as well. This is a John
10:07Lennon quote taken from his official
10:09Facebook page. Establishment. It's just
10:12a name for evil. The monster doesn't
10:15care. The blue meanies are insane. The
10:18only thing they can't control is the
10:20mind. And we have to fight for sanity
10:22and peace on that level. And that's what
10:26they were doing in the LSD evangelist
10:28era. It's all about reaching people's
10:30minds. It's all about the battleground
10:32of the mind. Hence the repeated refrain
10:35in the film, it's all in the mind.
10:38>> It's all in the mind. You know,
10:40>> John also confirms this idea about the
10:42establishment in another interview where
10:44he makes it clear that the blue meanies
10:46are also politicians. It's no
10:49coincidence that the blue meanie troops
10:51are top hat-wearing men in long
10:53overcoats and other images reminiscent
10:55of the London establishment. And the
10:58film is full of comparable meaningful
11:00symbolism all throughout. Look at the
11:03hand signals John and Paul are making in
11:05this promotional photograph. We get the
11:07okay sign on the left and the horn sign
11:09on the right. Both of which do have
11:12different meanings in different
11:13cultures. But in the light of the 1960s
11:17occult revival, I reckon they probably
11:19mean this. Paul's circle probably
11:22represents secret knowledge or nosis and
11:25enlightenment. And John's horns didn't
11:28come to mean rock on until Ronny James
11:30Dio more than a decade later. At this
11:33point, they were actually more
11:34associated with something called the
11:37Karana Mudra, which is a sign for
11:39banishing evil and commanding forces.
11:42Here's the cartoon version of John
11:44making the same sign in the yellow
11:46submarine promotional materials. And in
11:48fact, all the Beatles actually make it
11:51constantly all the way throughout the
11:52film. Their hands seem to fall into that
11:55little sign by default all the way
11:57through. But why do even their cartoon
12:01avatars have a default hand signal
12:03that's meant to ward off evil? Perhaps
12:06it was in the hope that the true message
12:08they were trying to convey would get
12:10through. But what was the message? As
12:13we've already seen, Timothy Liry's book
12:15taught that power came through combining
12:18ancient occult wisdom with psychedelics.
12:21And now look at that little moment I
12:23showed earlier. It doesn't take Alan
12:25Turing to make sense of it, does it?
12:26It's just absolutely bloody transparent.
12:29We've got a petrol pump representing
12:31power. We've got a pyramid, one of the
12:33best known and most recognizable symbols
12:36of ancient occult wisdom. And we've got
12:39a psychedelic tie representing the
12:42psychedelic drugs. Power comes from
12:44mixing ancient occult wisdom with
12:46psychedelics. Timothy Liry once again.
12:50Perhaps the biggest piece of symbolism,
12:53however, was the yellow submarine
12:54itself. Was this a drug metaphor? It is
12:58at least possible. Let's take a quick
13:01look at what Paul McCartney said at the
13:03time about his writing style and how he
13:05was filling all his songs in this era
13:08with double meanings about drugs. Roll
13:11up, roll up was a reference to rolling a
13:14joint. We were always sticking those
13:16little things in that we knew our
13:17friends would get veiled references to
13:19drugs and to trips. Magical mystery tour
13:22is waiting to take you away. So that's a
13:24kind of drug. It's dying to take you
13:27away. So that's a Tibetan Book of the
13:29Dead reference. Magical Mystery Tour was
13:31the equivalent of a drug trip and we
13:34made the film based on that. And Yellow
13:36Submarine written in the same era was
13:38believed to be yet another double on
13:40Tundra for drugs. While the official
13:43party line was that it was actually
13:45named after a Greek suite, apparently
13:47yellow submarine was already a nickname
13:50for a psychoactive drug that had been
13:52doing the rounds in celebrity circles at
13:54the time. So, by now you would have
13:57realized that I personally believe the
13:59Yellow Submarine film is just blatantly
14:02obviously about hallucinogenic drugs, as
14:05is just apparent on a first viewing. But
14:08there's more to it than that, because as
14:10I rewatched it and started making notes,
14:12I made a startling realization.
14:15On closer inspection, Yellow Submarine
14:18seemed to follow the exact same
14:20structure and layout as Magical Mystery
14:24Tour, just remade for kids. Bit by bit,
14:27I started recognizing all the parallels.
14:30And it occurred to me that they had both
14:32used exactly the same source material.
14:35And as we've already seen from that Paul
14:37McCartney quote, that source material
14:40was Timothy Liry's book. The song
14:43Tomorrow Never Knows was based on those
14:44seven stages. The film Magical Mystery
14:47Tour was also based on those seven
14:50stages. And as I started realizing that
14:53Yellow Submarine just looked like a
14:55cartoonified, kidified version of the
14:58Magical Mystery Tour, I began wondering
15:01if that was based on Li's book as well.
15:03As I looked, it began dawning on me that
15:06everything made in that era seemed to
15:08have Timothy Lir's ritual running
15:11through it. like a stick of rock. For
15:14example, Magical Mystery Tour starts
15:16with Ringo in a bad mood stalking the
15:19streets of Liverpool. And look at what
15:21happens at the start of Yellow
15:22Submarine. Ringo feeling sad and
15:25depressed once again out on the streets
15:27of Liverpool. In the Magical Mystery
15:29Tour, there's a yellow mystery tour bus
15:32waiting to take you away. And in Yellow
15:34Submarine, there is another yellow
15:37vehicle, the Sub. And the parallels
15:40don't stop there. You could sit down at
15:42a desk with Lir's book open on the left,
15:45magical mystery tour, and yellow
15:47submarine on the right, and you could
15:49then move stage by stage through the
15:51book, pointing out everything that
15:53occurs in the Beatles stuff. Now, as it
15:56happens, I've already done large
15:57features digging into Sergeant Peppers,
16:00Magical Mystery Tour, and Tomorrow Never
16:02Knows. So, if you want to know more, the
16:04links are down in the description. But
16:06what I'm going to do now is I'm going to
16:08work through those seven stages of
16:10Timothy Liry's book. I'm going to show
16:12you where they connect to Tomorrow Never
16:14Knows. I'm going to show you where they
16:16connect to Magical Mystery Tour. And
16:18then I'm going to point out where they
16:20also connect in Yellow Submarine. And
16:23while they don't all highlight the exact
16:26same sentence from every chapter in
16:28Lir's book, they do all still
16:31nonetheless draw from all seven chapters
16:34in that order. So now briefly over to me
16:38from a couple of years ago.
16:40According to the book, the first thing
16:42someone undergoing the ritual has to do
16:45is to take what are today illegal
16:47psychedelic drugs. The book recommends
16:50various dosages with timings saying how
16:53long before the session they should be
16:55taken on an empty stomach. Please don't
16:57do this in real life. So when the steps
17:00of the actual ritual itself begin, the
17:03drug should be starting to take hold.
17:05Verse one of Tomorrow Never Knows is
17:08about those first effects and how you
17:10should respond to them. Turn off your
17:12mind, relax, and float downstream. And
17:16as we've already seen, that is taken
17:18directly from the introduction to the
17:20book. So phase one is taking the LSD.
17:25And in Magical Mystery Tour, this is
17:27represented by getting on the bus. The
17:31use of a psychedelic, brightly painted
17:33bus is largely believed to have come
17:36from an American leader in the hippie
17:37movement called Ken Keezy and a group of
17:40hippies called the Merry Band of
17:41Pranksters.
17:43This is the original magical mystery
17:45bus, which a few years earlier in 1964
17:49had fed a group of drug-teaking hippies
17:51all over America in an attempt to make a
17:53road movie. The whole thing, however,
17:56was just an exercise in drugfueled
17:58chaos. And Keezy's edit of the film was
18:01never completed or released. And when
18:04the bus would stop on its drives across
18:06the states, stoned hippies would wander
18:08off and not return, resulting in the
18:10famous quote from Keezy, "You're either
18:13on the bus or off the bus." And by the
18:16time of Sergeant Pepper and Magical
18:18Mystery Tour, the whole idea of being on
18:20the bus had entered popular culture as a
18:24reference to being part of the hippie
18:27movement. It kind of meant being on the
18:29drugs and peace and love bandwagon.
18:32And a few years after the Merry Band of
18:34Pranksters, here we have the Beatles
18:37with their own brightly colored bus
18:39making a film about a drug trip and
18:41inviting people to join them. While the
18:44origins of this symbolism are a bit
18:46obscure today, a bit more of a footnote
18:48in the history books back then, nobody
18:51would have missed that reference. This
18:53first section of the script corresponds
18:55to the introductory chapter of the
18:57psychedelic experience, which says you
18:59are now about to begin a great
19:01adventure, the journey out of your mind.
19:05And in yellow submarine, as we've
19:07already seen, the parallel is getting on
19:10the sub, which is bus backwards. Phase
19:14two is when the drugs start to take
19:16hold, and it tells you what you should
19:18first encounter.
19:20Verse one corresponds directly to the
19:22intro. Now, on to verse two, which
19:25corresponds directly to the first
19:27chapter of the book. Verse two and the
19:29first chapter of the book discuss
19:31encountering something that the book
19:33calls the clear light or the void. Lenon
19:37sings, lay down all thoughts, surrender
19:40to the void. And here is the line he
19:43used from the book for this verse. It
19:45uses very very jargonheavy language. But
19:48if you look at this sentence, it's
19:50saying liberate your nervous system from
19:52all mental activity. Meaning lay down
19:55all thoughts and realize the voidness.
19:59Surrender to the void.
20:01And when you look at what Lir's book
20:03says you should encounter when you
20:05surrender to the void, we get this top
20:08of a list of commonly reported physical
20:11sensations.
20:12Sinking down into the water. And of
20:15course, the yellow submarine does just
20:17this. sinking down into the water to
20:19travel the 80,000 leagues under the sea
20:22back to Pepperland. And of course, it
20:24passes straight into a black void in
20:27which, for some reason, there are
20:29bubbles showing one of the animators in
20:30a bowler hat. Now, on to phase three.
20:34According to Liry, this is where your
20:36old personality dies. This is ego death,
20:38and this is where you become like a
20:40little child. Interestingly, Timothy
20:43Liry's book states at this point, just
20:46as an infant must wake up and learn from
20:48experience the nature of the world, so a
20:50person must wake up in this new
20:52brilliant world and become familiar with
20:54its own peculiar conditions. So, as you
20:57by now probably expect, it still all
20:59lines up with the book. The bus has made
21:02its first stop at an army recruiting
21:05base. It's also interesting to see that
21:08it says God saved the king on the wall
21:11rather than the queen who was actually
21:12on the throne at the time of making that
21:14film. They have gone back in time. The
21:17next place the yellow submarine goes is
21:19the sea of time where the Beatles go
21:22back in time. Just like Larry said, they
21:24become little children, too. Next, we
21:27move on to phase 4, which is where you
21:30encounter a peaceful being and new
21:32knowledge. And in Yellow Submarine, they
21:35encounter a peaceful, magical being, a
21:37seemingly all- knowing creature called
21:39Professor Jeremy Hillary Boob. The book
21:43tells us we might expect to see a
21:45dazzling display of dramatic creativity.
21:49The name Jeremy means God will uplift
21:52and the name Hillary literally means
21:54cheerful, glad, or merry. This is the
21:57encounter with the peaceful deity. Next,
22:00we enter phase five in Magical Mystery
22:03Tour. This is where the notorious
22:05Jesse's nightmare scene occurs. Now, at
22:08this point in this section, which I'm
22:10going to accurately just call section
22:11five, we have crossed the threshold into
22:14the notoriously weird and darkest inner
22:17sanctum of this movie, which as always
22:20lines up with Timothy Liry's book in
22:22sequential chronological order. This is
22:25where, having encountered a being of
22:27love previously, we now enter the
22:29nightmare phase, where you expect
22:31fearful and unpleasant encounters. John
22:34Lennon famously plays a waiter in this
22:36scene in which he constantly shovels
22:39mound after mound of spaghetti onto Aunt
22:42Jesse's plate. It's a very strange and
22:44disturbing scene and one that apparently
22:46came from a dream that John had just
22:49had. I don't know this, but probably
22:51while he was on acid himself. Jesse
22:54keeps eating and eating while Jon
22:56shovels endless spaghetti and Buster
22:58keeps passing over clean napkins that
23:00end up in the mass of spaghetti.
23:03And of course, in Yellow Submarine, this
23:05is the point in the story at which we
23:07encounter Pepper Land. Dead and drained
23:10of color. The frozen lifeless figures
23:12can only weep as the minions of the blue
23:14meanies, the establishment, continue to
23:17torment them. In the context of a kids
23:19film, this is the wrathful deities. This
23:23is the nightmare scenario. But now we
23:25move on to phase six, which is where you
23:28begin to clothe yourself with your new
23:30chosen personality.
23:32Lenon sings. But listen to the color of
23:35your dream. In this phase, according to
23:38the religion, the person's personality
23:40has now encountered various different
23:42incarnations of the Buddha and is ready
23:45to come back as something new.
23:48And in the next chapter of the book
23:50called third boardo, period of re-entry,
23:53the book talks about this as the
23:55beginning of personality reincarnation.
23:58It lists seven different types of
24:01possible personality reincarnation and
24:04each one has their own color. The world
24:07of saints or davas is said to shine with
24:10a white light and to be preceded by
24:12visions of delightful temples and
24:14jeweled mansions. The world of heroes
24:17has a green light and is signaled by
24:19magical forests and fire images. The
24:22ordinary human world has a yellow light.
24:25Animal existence is foreshadowed by a
24:28blue light and images of caves and deep
24:30holes in the earth. The world of
24:33neurotics or unsatisfied spirits has a
24:36red light and visions of desolate plains
24:39and forest wastes. The hell world emits
24:43a smoke colored light and is preceded by
24:46sounds of wailing, visions of gloomy
24:48lands, black and white houses, and black
24:51roads along which you have to travel. So
24:54according to this mystical ritual, you
24:56are now getting your new personality,
24:59and you know which type it is by its
25:01color. Listen to the color of your
25:04dreams. In Magical Mystery Tour, we have
25:06the song Death Cab for Cutie. This is
25:09the point in the movie where Paul, the
25:11cute one, figuratively dies. Of course,
25:14you can't put something like a song
25:16about death in a strip club in a kids
25:19movie. So instead, you have the Beatles
25:21taking on their new personalities by
25:23choosing costumes and becoming the
25:25characters from Sergeant Pepper's Lonely
25:27Hearts Club Band by choice and clothing
25:30themselves with their new personas. And
25:33finally, we come to the last one, phase
25:35seven, the conclusion and a new
25:37personality, reincarnation.
25:40We are now into section seven, the last
25:43one, which opens with the song, Your
25:45Mother Should Know. The Beatles are all
25:47standing on a winding staircase in white
25:50suits wearing carnations. Ringo, George,
25:52and John are wearing red carnations,
25:55while Paul's is black. A woman comes up
25:58and presents Paul with a bouquet of
25:59flowers which he takes and begins
26:02dancing separately to the other Beatles.
26:04Now, this scene is often interpreted by
26:06people who are into the Paul is dead
26:08conspiracy as being a kind of funeral
26:11scene. And I actually think they're
26:13right. I think they've got the imagery
26:15correct, but the meaning wrong. Paul
26:18wearing a black carnation is symbolic.
26:21Him being given a bouquet of flowers is
26:24symbolic. But the real life Paul wasn't
26:27dead. It's about metaphorical death.
26:29It's about death and then reincarnation.
26:32All of this takes place in a part of the
26:35Tibetan ritual called the third boardo.
26:38And interestingly, in this section in
26:40the book, we have Timothy Liry saying,
26:43"You may think, I am dead. What shall I
26:45do?" The seven stages of the guided LSD
26:49trip have now been completed and the
26:51voyagers are ready to be reborn,
26:53reincarnated into new personality. And
26:57just as if to confirm this, why are they
27:00all wearing carnations?
27:02Carnation. Reincarnation.
27:06More word play. And if you're still in
27:09any doubt that yellow submarine is just
27:12magical mystery tour remade for kids,
27:14here's how that film ends. Our peaceful
27:17deity Jeremy Hillary Boob casts a spell
27:20on the chief blue meanie. And the body
27:23of the greatest enemy in the film
27:24suddenly blooms with, you guessed it,
27:28carnations. Again,
27:31carnations.
27:35This cartoon is literally from the
27:37moment we see Ringo on the streets of
27:39Liverpool and then climbing aboard a
27:41yellow vehicle in both movies right
27:44through to that final moment of
27:45reincarnation represented by the flower
27:48incarnation. Exactly the same story and
27:51the same symbolism just being told for
27:54two different audiences. In Magical
27:56Mystery Tour during Jesse's nightmare,
27:58she actually makes peace with the
28:00symbolic enemies in that scene. Yellow
28:03Submarine concludes with the same thing
28:05happening again. The Beatles and the
28:07inhabitants of Pepperland overcome the
28:09Blue Meanis with music and love and then
28:12invite the Blue Meanis to join them as
28:14friends and they all make peace together
28:16as one. The Chief Blue Meanie finally
28:19accepts and takes on the new title of
28:22your newness instead of your bless. And
28:26he is then, while covered in these
28:28carnations, immediately changed and
28:31reborn. And in his new reincarnated
28:33form, a tree grows out of his head in
28:36which now lives the bluebird of
28:38happiness. And that really sums up the
28:41message and the meaning of the whole
28:42thing. Join us on one of these trips and
28:45anyone, even the evil establishment
28:47themselves, can be transformed,
28:50reincarnated, and reborn into beings of
28:53peace. And then of course the film
28:55finishes with the real Beatles saying
28:58that the real blue meanies out in the
29:00real world can also be defeated with the
29:02message of the Beatles music. And in the
29:05final credits, this is broadcast in all
29:07different languages showing that this is
29:09a message meant for the entire world.
29:13While I find it pretty much completely
29:15mental, I still find the stuff made in
29:17the Beatles LSD evangelist era oddly
29:21charming. There was an album for
29:23everyone which carried the coded
29:25message. There was a movie for adults
29:27that also carried the coded message. And
29:30then there was a cartoon for kids as
29:32well which carried exactly the same
29:35message again. If everyone takes LSD and
29:38undertakes this guided ritual, the world
29:41will enter a new era of peace,
29:44prosperity, and happiness. These three
29:46bele works are a trilogy. They are like
29:49their LSD manifesto to see the whole
29:52world reincarnated and born a new. And
29:55Paul McCartney said in an interview
29:57later on that in the 60s while taking
30:00drugs he believed that he had found the
30:03meaning of life and it contained seven
30:05stages.
30:07Had a mystical experience once at a
30:09party with Bob Dylan. I felt like I'm
30:11walking around and I'm going around and
30:13gradually going up a spiral walkway and
30:16get to the top and I go, I've got it.
30:19And I tell I say to our Rodie, Mal, I
30:21said, Mal, I've got to write this down
30:23and you keep this. So, I wrote something
30:25down. I said, now you keep this and show
30:28it me in the morning. Don't lose it.
30:30This is the meaning. This is the meaning
30:32of life. In the morning, he shows me it.
30:34He said there are seven levels.
30:38But of course, life is rarely so simple.
30:41And the LSD manifesto failed because
30:45however innocent and well-intentioned it
30:47was, it was also really naive and highly
30:51dangerous. Lennon would say this later
30:53on about what those LSD trips actually
30:56did to him in the long term. LSD, I must
31:00have had a thousand trips. I just used
31:02to eat it all the time. I stopped taking
31:05it because of bad trips. I just couldn't
31:07stand it. I dropped it for I don't know
31:09how long and I started taking it again
31:11just before I met Yoko. I got a message
31:14on acid that you should destroy your ego
31:16and I did. I was reading that stupid
31:18book of liies the psychedelic experience
31:21all that [ __ ] We were going through the
31:23whole game that everybody went through
31:25and I destroyed myself. I destroyed my
31:28ego and I didn't believe I could do
31:30anything and I let people do and say
31:32what they wanted and I was nothing. I
31:35was [ __ ] Even though Lenon would later
31:38swear off LSD, that was later when the
31:42dream was over. Despite having renounced
31:44LSD to the press, he actually remained
31:47in touch with Timothy Liry all through
31:49the 60s. and Lennon's song Come Together
31:52right at the very end on the final
31:53Beatles album recorded several years
31:55later was actually originally written as
31:58a campaign song for Timothy Liry to try
32:01and get him into a position of high
32:03office in the states the governor of
32:05California and I personally can't help
32:08but see that as being a step they were
32:10trying to take in the LSD master plan.
32:14Imagine a world in which Liry and the
32:16Beatles had succeeded. Imagine a world
32:19in which they never met the Maharishi.
32:21They never renounced acid and Liry got
32:24elected and then went on to become
32:26president. Imagine what the world would
32:28have been like if they had actually
32:30succeeded and had been able to put their
32:32psychedelic drugfueled vision for world
32:35peace into action. Someone really should
32:37make a film about a parallel universe
32:40where they succeeded and Liry became
32:43president. All the leaders of the world
32:45tripping on LSD. LSD in the world's
32:48water supply. I'd go watch that. The
32:51president having a bad trip and then
32:53pressing the big red button. You could
32:55call it acid armageddon. Or you could
32:58name it after a Beatles song. The end
33:00leaps immediately to mind. And of
33:02course, with that said, this is also the
33:04end. A big thank you to everybody who
33:06requested this video. I really enjoyed
33:09researching it and putting it together,
33:11even if it did turn out to just be
33:12Timothy Liry. Again, in this video, to
33:16avoid excessively repeating myself, I've
33:18only really skimmed the surface of the
33:20connections between Timothy Liry and the
33:22Beatles. If you'd like to know more, go
33:24check out my video on Tomorrow Never
33:26Knows, and also the ones on Sergeant
33:29Peppers and Magical Mystery Tour. Let me
33:32know your thoughts, any questions you
33:33might have, and any other future videos
33:35you might like to see down in the
33:37comments below. Thank you so much for
33:39watching, and as always, I'll see you
33:41next time.
33:42And as always, a massive thank you to
33:44all my supporters on Patreon. If you
33:47would like to be credited at the end of
33:48videos, if you would like access to
33:50exclusive bonus content and to my ad
33:53free archive, the link is in the
33:55description. And hopefully I'll see you
33:57inside.

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