My name is: Susan Shumsky. 

My book is called: Maharishi & Me: Seeking Enlightenment with the Beatles’ Guru (February 2018).

I was inspired to write it when: In 1998, an editor at Macmillan told me that she wasn’t interested in the book I was pitching, but the book she did want was my life story. (She was laid off soon afterward, but I wrote the book and my agent finally sold it 20 years later.)

It’s about: My intense emotional rollercoaster ride of heaven and hell, as I lived for 22 years in the ashrams and 6 years on the personal staff of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation and guru of The Beatles and hundreds of other celebrities. It also tells the story of many superstars who were influenced by the guru, including the time The Beatles studied with him in Rishikesh, India. 

My hope is that readers will: Be inspired by my spiritual journey and the experiences I had, peek behind the curtain on Maharishi’s enigmatic personality, learn what it’s really like to live with a spiritual master from India, get self-awareness of their own false expectations about what a spiritual master is supposed to act like, be entertained by the way it’s written, get their minds blown by what went on behind the scenes in the TM organization and enjoy the crazy inside stories about celebrities.

My next book might be: I have two books that are due soon: The Big Book of Chakras and one tentatively called, Third Eye Meditations.

The title of my autobiography would be: This is it.

If I was a character from fiction, I’d be: Mary Lennox from The Secret Garden, because she loved the philosophies of India and she put them into practice, revealing the secret of life when she helped a young boy heal himself through her tough love, the power of positive thought and her proactive deeds.