1989: Going to Miami to see Prem Rawat

 Taken From  The Autobiography of a Head ISBN ‎ 978-1838440107

In 1989, I managed to get a good deal on flight and hotel in Miami, for a three day festival with my teachers, Maharaji.

I went with another premie, Beryl and a few days later her partner Mark joined us. We stayed in the Thunderbird hotel. They would not take cash and it was lucky that I had a credit card.

The Thunderbird was said to have the best Chinese restaurant in Miami. The food was very food. They served it at much lower prices in the hotel restaurants for guests only.

Most of the restaurants in Miami prided themselves in serving so much food that diners were able to take some home in a ‘doggy bag.

One day in the hotel lobby, Beryl and I were standing waiting for Mark and Beryl started coughing. I heard a voice, that I recognised, saying “That’s a nasty cough.”

I turned around and indeed who I though it was. It was the actor and stand-up comedian George Burns. Younger people may not know who he was. He was famous for standing on stage, smoking a cigar, well into his nineties. He also played God in films such as ‘Oh God’, a popular 1977 film. He had been to the Chinese restaurant and, sure enough, was holding a doggy bag.

 George Burns RIP

We saw brown pelicans flying past from our hotel balcony.

Miami was so humid that when I went outside or got out of the air-conditioned bus, my spectacles steamed up as if I was walking into a bathroom.

Mark with myself and Beryl Jackson RIP

 

 

The Thuderbird Hotel

 One day I decided to get something to eat for dinner outside the hotel. There was a diner across the road, so I went there. I had turkey drumstick and chips. There was masses and almost as soon as I started to eat, I just lost my appetite. I apologised to the waitress. She said she would wrap in up so I could take it away. I said that was no good as I was I a hotel. She brought a bag a bread rolls, saying I had to walk out with something or they’d get a bad name.

I crossed the road and went to the Thunderbird. Outside there were police cars. As I entered the foyer, somebody said “There he is!”

I thought ‘whatever have I done?’

The cop asked where I had been. I told him. He said that reception staff saw me leave the hotel but I did not get into a taxi, I just walked. When they went outside to look for me, I had disappeared. He said that it was not safe to walk about in the evening; people could shoot me from a car! I should have taken a taxi. It was a dual carriageway and two miles either way before one could turn round, so going to that restaurant by taxi would have been a round trip of eight miles!

The event with Maharaji was wonderful. It was so uplifting. I felt safe in Miami, walked around part of the city, went to the beach for a fireworks display. All the girls serving in cafes and bars were beautiful but clearly over obsessed by their hair. Everyone seemed to me to be very friendly.

I went to the science museum. There I saw the outfits worn by astronauts. It was remarkably thin, consisting of a few layers of plastic, silver foil and hemp!

There was an exhibition called ‘Walk on Mars’. For a price one could enter a room, walk up some steps, cross and platform and down some other steps. Set into the platform was a small glass case containing, supposedly, a small piece of a meteorite believed to have originated on Mars. I was given a certificate to say that I had walked on Mars!