title: The Beatles in India

text: Harrison flew to Bombay in January 1968 to work on the "Wonderwall Music" soundtrack, expecting the rest of the group to follow shortly. When they were delayed he flew back to London. The group spent a week in the studio, recording songs for a single that would be released while they were away on their spiritual retreat. The B-side, Harrison's "The Inner Light", was mostly recorded in Bombay and featured Indian instrumentation and lyrics espousing meditation as a means to genuine understanding of the world. Although it remained unreleased until late 1969, Lennon's "Across the Universe" contained the refrain "Jai Guru Deva", a standard greeting in the Spiritual Regeneration Movement. Aside from the celebrity musicians who now endorsed TM, the Maharishi had gained the support of American film star Mia Farrow while in New York City. In late January, amid the publicity surrounding her separation from her husband, Frank Sinatra, Farrow accompanied the Maharishi to India in advance of the Beatles' departure from London.


title: The Beatles in India

text: The Beatles and their entourage travelled to Rishikesh in two groups. Lennon and his wife Cynthia, Harrison and his wife Pattie Boyd, and the latter's sister Jenny arrived in Delhi on 15 February. They were met by Mal Evans, their longtime assistant and former road manager, who had arranged the , six-hour taxi drive to Rishikesh. Once there, the party walked across the Lakshman Jhula footbridge, over the River Ganges, and up the hill to the Maharishi's ashram. McCartney and his girlfriend Jane Asher and Ringo Starr and his wife Maureen landed in Delhi on 19 February. Since the press were expecting McCartney and Starr's party after the first group's arrival, they were subjected to constant attention. As soon as Starr arrived, he asked Evans to take him to a doctor because of a reaction to an inoculation.<ref name="Edmonds/SundayTimes"></ref> As a result, Starr, McCartney and their partners stayed overnight in Delhi and travelled to Rishikesh with Evans early on 20 February.


title: The Beatles in India

text: The Beatles arrived at the ashram three weeks into the course, which was due to end on 25 April. They were followed by a retinue of reporters and photographers, who were mostly kept out of the fenced and gated compound.<ref name="Leigh/Independent"></ref> Evans and Beatles aide Neil Aspinall were there for much of the time. Alexis "Magic Alex" Mardas, the Greek electronics engineer who had been among the first to recommend the Maharishi to the band in 1967, arrived four weeks later. Denis O'Dell, the head of the Beatles' company Apple Films, also joined them for a brief time. In his memoir "The Love You Make", Brown says that he only learned of the Beatles' intention to leave for India that same month, even though he and the band were committed to launching their multimedia company Apple Corps. He adds: "The mastery of Transcendental Meditation, they hoped, would give them the wisdom to run Apple."


title: The Beatles in India

text: Also there were Donovan, songwriter and sculptor Gyp "Gypsy Dave" Mills, Mike Love, jazz flautist Paul Horn, actors Tom Simcox and Jerry Stovin, and dozens of others, all Europeans or Americans. Farrow was joined by her sister, Prudence, and their brother John. American socialite Nancy Cooke de Herrera was also present, in her role as the Maharishi's publicist and confidant. A lifelong devotee to TM and subsequently an instructor to many celebrities, Cooke de Herrara later wrote that the Maharishi gave "special attention" to the celebrity meditators, which she feared would feed their egos and be detrimental to the experience. Although members of the press were barred from the ashram, journalist Lewis Lapham was granted access to write a feature article on the retreat for "The Saturday Evening Post". Paul Saltzman, a young Canadian filmmaker travelling in India, camped outside the compound until he was invited in and welcomed into the Beatles' circle.<ref name="Thorpe/Observer">Thrope, Vanessa (21 January 2018). "Revealed: Lucky break that led lovelorn traveller to a fling in India with the Beatles". "The Observer"/theguardian.com. Retrieved 9 April 2018.</ref> Despite speculation, Shirley MacLaine did not attend the retreat, and Lennon decided against bringing his artist friend Yoko Ono.


title: The Beatles in India

text: Located in the "Valley of the Saints" in the foothills of the Himalayas, Rishikesh is a place of religious significance, known as the "yoga capital of the world". The Maharishi's International Academy of Meditation, also called the Chaurasi Kutia ashram, was a compound surrounded by jungle set across the Ganges from the town, above the river. The facility was designed to suit Western habits; Starr later compared the ashram to "a kind of spiritual Butlins" (a low-cost British holiday camp). The Beatles' bungalows were equipped with electric heaters, running water, toilets, and English-style furniture. According to Cooke de Herrera, the Maharishi obtained many "special items" from a nearby village so that the Beatles' rooms would have mirrors, wall-to-wall carpeting, wall coverings, foam mattresses and bedspreads. She wrote that, compared to the other students' bungalows, the Beatles' cottages "looked like a palace". In Cynthia Lennon's description, her and her husband's bedroom contained a four-poster bed, a dressing table, two chairs and an electric heater.


title: The Beatles in India

text: Evans recalled there were around 40 staff, including cooks, cleaners, a joiner, and a full printing department. One of the Maharishi's aides, Ravindra Damodara, who later became a swami himself, kept a diary of this period at the ashram. For the Beatles' stay, according to Damodara, four small stone-covered buildings had been constructed along the path from the main centre down to the ashram gates. These dome-shaped rooms included a raised platform, accessed by ladder, on which each Beatle could engage in advanced meditation. The Maharishi's accommodation was a long, modern-style bungalow located away from the other buildings.


title: The Beatles in India

text: The ashram was surrounded by barbed wire and the gates were kept locked and guarded. Although the Maharishi kept the media away from his famous students, he gave interviews to the press. To the Beatles' gratitude, he asked the reporters to come back after the band had had "a little time with the course".


title: The Beatles in India

text: Throughout the Beatles' time at the ashram, these reporters filed stories about the retreat. While the music journalists among them demonstrated a tolerant approach, those representing the mainstream press often ridiculed the idea of the retreat and meditation. The press found McCartney the most willing to engage; according to author Howard Sounes, he was "the newspaperman's pet, the sensible Beatle" who gave them quotes and posed for photos on Lakshman Jhula bridge.


title: The Beatles in India

text: The Maharishi had arranged a simple lifestyle for his guests. The days were devoted to meditating and attending his lectures, which he gave from a flower-bedecked platform in an auditorium. He also gave private lessons to the individual Beatles, ostensibly due to their late arrival. The tranquil environment and protection from the media throng helped the band relax. Harrison told Saltzman, regarding the Beatles' motivation for embracing TM: "We have all the money you could ever dream of. We have all the fame you could ever wish for. But, it isn't love. It isn't health. It isn't peace inside, is it?" In Saltzman's description, Harrison had a genuine dedication to meditation whereas Lennon's approach was "more adolescent … He was looking for 'The Answer'. Well, there isn't The Answer." According to Donovan, at the Beatles' first meeting with the Maharishi after arriving, an awkward silence filled the room until Lennon walked to the Maharishi and patted him on the head, saying, "There's a good little guru." Everyone erupted with laughter. Harrison's nickname for their teacher was "the Big M".


title: The Beatles in India

text: In the Maharishi's teaching, there were seven levels of consciousness, and the course would provide students with experience in the fourth: "pure" or transcendental consciousness. While Transcendental Meditation had earned the sobriquet "the McDonald's of meditation" for its quick and simple application, and the Maharishi espoused its scientific basis over religious dogma, strong Vedic and Hindu-aligned aspects remained. His lectures included stories and parables, and comparisons between TM and Western practices, particularly Christianity. He advocated meditation before prayer, and said that Christianity's upholding of Jesus Christ's earthbound suffering as a divine attribute was a "humiliating teaching" and a distraction from self- and God-realisation.


title: The Beatles in India

text: The Maharishi soon cancelled the formal lectures and told students to meditate for as long as possible. One student meditated for 42 straight hours, and Boyd said she once meditated for seven hours. Jenny Boyd also meditated for long periods, but suffered from dysentery (misdiagnosed as tonsilitis); she said Lennon also felt unwell, suffering from jet lag and insomnia. The lengthy meditation left many students moody and oversensitive. Several people on the course and the Maharishi were particularly concerned about Prudence Farrow's unwillingness to stop meditating.


title: The Beatles in India

text: All the students wore native dress and the ashram had a tailor on the premises to make clothes for them. The women in the Beatles party shopped in local towns and bought saris for themselves and material to be made into shirts and jackets for the men. These towns included Dehradun and Mussoorie, where markets were held by Tibetans driven out of their homeland by Chinese encroachment into Tibet. The Beatles' adoption of traditional Indian clothing affected Western fashion when they wore them after going home. Much of the proceedings at the ashram was filmed by various students on a 16mm handheld camera. Segments of this footage appear in the 1995 television documentary "The Beatles Anthology".


title: The Beatles in India

text: Vegetarian meals were eaten in a communal dining area, where food was vulnerable to aggressive monkeys (Hanuman langurs) and crows. Lennon described the food as "lousy", while Pattie Boyd said it was "delicious". Menu items included chickpeas mixed with cumin seeds, whole wheat dough baked over a fire, spiced eggplant, potatoes that had been picked locally, and, for breakfast, cornflakes, toast and coffee. Evans stockpiled eggs for Starr, who had problems with the diet because of his past illnesses. Starr recalled: "The food was impossible for me because I'm allergic to so many different things. I took two suitcases with me, one of clothes and one full of Heinz beans." After dinner, the musicians gathered on the roof of Harrison's bungalow to talk and listen to the Ganges river. Sometimes they listened to records and played guitar or sitar. Lapham recalled a conversation one evening between members of the Beatles and other students when Lennon described the band's records as "diaries of its developing consciousness" and said that this progression was also reflected in the photos and artwork used on their albums. Although the weather was cool in February, it grew hot over the ensuing weeks. By mid April, the Maharishi was planning to move the whole retreat to Kashmir, at a higher and cooler altitude.


title: The Beatles in India

text: The Beatles' approach to meditation was marked by a friendly competitiveness among the band members. Lennon was complimentary about Harrison's progress, saying: "The way George is going, he'll be flying a magic carpet by the time he's forty." Boyd recalls that she and Harrison each achieved an "out-of-body experience" through meditation but that, because their individual practice disturbed the other, they decided to move into separate rooms. While Lennon was "evangelical in his enthusiasm for the Maharishi", according to his wife Cynthia, she was "a little more sceptical". Cynthia later wrote that she "loved being in India" and had hoped she and Lennon would "rediscover our lost closeness"; to her disappointment, however, Lennon became "increasingly cold and aloof".<ref name="Cynthia/SundayTimes"></ref> After two weeks Lennon asked to sleep in a separate room, saying he could only meditate alone. He walked to the local post office every morning to check for Ono's almost daily telegrams. One read: "Look up at the sky and when you see a cloud think of me".


title: The Beatles in India

text: Saltzman recalls that the Beatles were "very close and tight" during his time at the ashram.<ref name="Kilachand/LiveMint"></ref> According to Damodara, however, at times McCartney "talk[ed] mean with George" and appeared to want to be the Beatles' "boss". Donovan taught Lennon a guitar finger-picking technique that McCartney partly mastered also. The technique was subsequently implemented by Lennon on the Beatles songs "Julia" and "Dear Prudence". The latter was composed by Lennon to lure Prudence Farrow out of her intense meditation. Lennon later said: "She'd been locked in for three weeks and was trying to reach God quicker than anyone else."


title: The Beatles in India

text: The stay at the ashram turned out to be the group's most productive period for songwriting. According to Lennon, he wrote some of the "most miserable" and some of his "best" songs while he was in Rishikesh. Starr completed his first solo composition, "Don't Pass Me By", which he had begun writing in 1963. In his 2005 autobiography, Donovan recalls that while the other three Beatles played acoustic guitars, Starr sometimes played a set of tabla hand drums, which Harrison had bought for him in Delhi. The retreat was also a productive one for Donovan as a songwriter. He recalls having "many a great little jam" with McCartney and says that, with Harrison demonstrating on sitar the knowledge he had gained through his teacher, Ravi Shankar, he and Harrison were "soon chording a new song or two", including the Indian-styled "Hurdy Gurdy Man".


title: The Beatles in India

text: Plans were discussed for a possible concert in Delhi to feature the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Donovan, and Paul Horn. While he also wrote several new songs in Rishikesh, Harrison complained that more time should be spent on meditating. When McCartney discussed his vision for an album containing the songs they had amassed so far, Harrison replied: "We're not fucking here to do the next album. We're here to meditate!" In Donovan's recollection, when not meditating, McCartney was rarely without his guitar and kept the Beatles party "entertained" with parody songs such as "Rocky Raccoon" and "Back in the U.S.S.R.", but he was not "totally convinced" about TM. Many of the Beatles' new songs were inspired by nature and reflected the simplicity of their surroundings. In this way, they contrasted markedly with the band's psychedelic work over the previous year, although few of them were overtly reflective of the TM experience. An exception was "Sour Milk Sea", in which Harrison exhorts his listeners to embrace meditation and "illumination", while Lennon's "Child of Nature" and McCartney's "Mother Nature's Son" were both inspired by one of the Maharishi's lectures.


title: The Beatles in India

text: In late February, the Maharishi arranged for a group photo of all the students. In Lapham's description, the Maharishi began preparing for the shot early one morning and approached the task as if "the director on a movie set". Instructing his assistants, he oversaw the assembly of a platform of risers, the precise placement of flowers and potted plants in front of the raised stage, and the seating allocation for each of the students from his hand-drawn diagram. The students were then called down to take their allocated seat.


title: The Beatles in India

text: Surrounding the Maharishi, each member was dressed in traditional Indian attire and adorned with a marigold garland of orange. Lapham commented that the Maharishi had the Beatles positioned "in the center of the set", surrounding him, with the other students "arranged according to the degrees of their celebrity". The Maharishi had a large picture of Brahmananda Saraswati – the guru evoked by Lennon in "Across the Universe" – placed behind him. The Maharishi encouraged his students to present their best "cosmic smiles" to the camera. The photo took half an hour to complete while the participants sat facing the bright morning sun. In 2009, "The Hindu" described the result as "one of the most iconic photographs in the history of rock 'n' roll".


title: The Beatles in India

text: For the Beatles' public image, their attire contrasted with the modern, psychedelic clothing they had worn on arrival from London. The photo and others from the shoot were used in Lapham's cover article for "The Saturday Evening Post", a magazine that, although in decline by 1968, was influential among America's suburban middle class. Saltzman was one of the photographers at the session. His shots from this time were compiled in his book "The Beatles in Rishikesh", published in 2000.


title: The Beatles in India

text: On 25 February, the Maharishi held a party to celebrate Harrison's 25th birthday. The event included communal chanting, a sitar performance by Harrison, and a firework display. The Maharishi gave Harrison an upside-down plastic globe of the world and said: "George, the globe I am giving you symbolizes the world today. I hope you will help us all in the task of putting it right." Harrison turned the globe over and said "I've done it!", and the other students applauded. For Love's birthday, on 15 March, members of the Beatles and Donovan performed "Spiritual Regeneration/Happy Birthday Mike Love", a song based on the Beach Boys' "Fun, Fun, Fun". Lennon presented Love with a round handmade card containing a self-portrait of him naked, and Harrison gave him a painting of Guru Dev. A dual celebration was held on 17 March for the birthdays of Boyd and Horn. On 8 April, the Maharishi gave an Indian prince's outfit to the Lennons for their son in England on his birthday.


title: The Beatles in India

text: An aviation company owner and patron of the Maharishi's, Kershi Cambata, flew two helicopters to Rishikesh to take the Maharishi and his guests for rides. Lapham wrote that Cooke de Herrera, a friend of Cambata, had arranged this event to provide what she called a "visitation of modernity". McCartney recalled that he asked Lennon why he was so eager to be the one to go with the Maharishi on his helicopter ride, and that Lennon replied: "I thought he might slip me the Answer."


title: The Beatles in India

text: In early March, an Italian newsreel company filmed the Maharishi and many students, including the Beatles and other musicians, going down to the river while the musicians sang standards such as "When the Saints Go Marching In" and "You Are My Sunshine". One evening when the moon was full, the Maharishi arranged for everyone to cruise on the Ganges in two barges. The trip started with the chanting of Vedas by two pandits, after which the musicians brought out their instruments. The Beatles sang Donovan songs, while Love and Donovan sang Beatles songs, and Horn played flute.


title: The Beatles in India

text: McCartney and Starr told Lapham that they had each experienced the benefits of meditation but the band's trip to India was more out of support for "George's thing". Starr's wife had a strong aversion to insects; McCartney recalled that Maureen was once "trapped in her room because there was a fly over the door". Spiders, mosquitoes and flies were present at the ashram, and when Starr complained to the Maharishi he was told: "For people travelling in the realm of pure consciousness, flies no longer matter very much." Starr said in reply, "Yes, but that doesn't zap the flies, does it"? Starr disliked the food, and he and Maureen missed their children. The couple left India on 1 March, and on their return to the UK, Starr was keen to


title: The Beatles in India

text: avoid the impression that he was no longer interested in TM. He told reporters: "The Academy is a great place and I enjoyed it a lot. I still meditate every day for half an hour in the morning and half an hour every evening and I think I'm a better person for it … If everyone in the world started meditating, the world would be a much happier place."


title: The Beatles in India

text: McCartney and Asher departed in mid to late March. According to Cooke de Herrera's account, McCartney had arranged to get back to London to supervise Apple Corps, and Asher had a theatrical commitment; as he left he told Cooke de Herrera, "I'm a new man." According to what he told Lapham, however, McCartney was uncomfortable with the Maharishi's flattery, particularly his calling the Beatles "the blessed leaders of the world's youth", and he found himself lost in the Maharishi's more elaborate discussions. Damodara wrote that Asher had no interest in meditation, a view echoed by Saltzman, who said that she was eager to visit the Taj Mahal with McCartney. McCartney later said that his intention had always been to stay for only a month, and that he knew he risked accusations from his bandmates that he was not sincere about meditation.


title: The Beatles in India

text: Mia Farrow departed to begin work on a new film in London, where she arrived on 8 March. Described by author Jonathan Gould as "restless", she had left the ashram before to visit Goa, and then returned. In her 1997 autobiography, Farrow recalls that she felt overwhelmed by the Maharishi's attention to her, which included private sessions, gifts of mangoes, and a birthday party where he gave her a paper crown. Love left the retreat on 15 March, having stayed just over two weeks, due to his tour commitments with the Beach Boys, but would complete his TM instructor course in 1972. Donovan departed because he recognised he had a "mission" in music and sought to convey the Maharishi's teachings in that way.


title: The Beatles in India

text: According to Gould, Lennon and Harrison viewed their bandmates' departures as an example of McCartney and Starr "once again balking on the path to higher consciousness", just as the pair, particularly McCartney, had earlier held out before joining them in their LSD experimentation. While Harrison and Lennon remained steadfast in their devotion to meditation, some members of the Beatles' circle continued to be distrustful of the Maharishi's hold on them. Aspinall was surprised when he realised that the Maharishi was a sophisticated negotiator, knowing more than the average person about financial percentages. According to Saltzman, Evans told him that the Maharishi wanted the band to deposit up to 25 per cent of their next album's profits into his Swiss bank account as a tithe, to which Lennon replied, "Over my dead body." In Brown's account, Lennon was not opposed to paying the tithe until Alex Mardas, the Maharishi's "most powerful critic", intervened.


title: The Beatles in India

text: Mardas arrived after McCartney had left. He pointed to the luxury of the facility and the business acumen of the Maharishi and asked Lennon why the Maharishi always had an accountant by his side. Mardas also derided the characters of the non-celebrity meditators and was highly critical of the way the Beatles had been assembled for the "class photo" and the promotion of the Maharishi's movement. In an attempt to silence his criticism, according to Mardas, the Maharishi offered him money to build a high-powered radio station. Lennon later told his wife that he felt that the Maharishi had, in her words, "too much interest in public recognition, celebrities and money" for a spiritual man. Cynthia Lennon, Cooke de Herrera, and author and Beatles associate Barry Miles have blamed Mardas for turning Lennon against the Maharishi. Miles writes that Mardas feared for his status as Lennon's personal guru, and set about sabotaging the relationship between the Beatles and the Maharishi. In a statement published in "The New York Times" in 2010, Mardas denied that this was the case.


title: The Beatles in India

text: Before leaving London in February, the Beatles had considered making a documentary film about the Maharishi through Apple Films. The idea gained traction once they got to the ashram, which led to their summoning Denis O'Dell to Rishikesh. Together with Aspinall, he flew to India intent on dissuading the Beatles from making the film. According to Cooke de Herrera, the Maharishi gave the Beatles and Apple the rights for a film about him, his movement and his teacher, Guru Dev. Joe Massot, who had directed "Wonderwall", said that Harrison phoned him from India inviting him to participate in the project. However, Charles Lutes, the head of the Spiritual Regeneration Movement in the US, had already arranged with the Maharishi to produce a similar documentary, with Horn. In early April, Lutes arrived at the ashram to ensure that his venture was not jeopardised by the Beatles' interest. He signed a contract with Four Star Films and John Farrow was scheduled to direct the film. Horn expected that Donovan, the Beatles, the Beach Boys and Mia Farrow would appear in it.


title: The Beatles in India

text: According to Mike Dolan, another of the TM students, when a film crew from Lutes' company Bliss Productions arrived later in April, Lennon and Harrison "were more than a little pissed" and made a point of staying out of sight. Horn said that the arrival of the film crew was the catalyst for the discontent that resulted in the last two Beatles' premature departure from Rishikesh. In Massot's recollection, the crew was led by producer Gene Corman, who subsequently pleaded with Massot to use his influence with Harrison and Lennon to ensure the Beatles' participation.<ref name="Massot/Mojo"></ref> Cooke de Herrera also felt that the Four Star deal and the presence of the film crew was the reason for the sudden departure.


title: The Beatles in India

text: Before leaving the ashram, Mia Farrow told some of the other students that the Maharishi had made a pass at her. In her 1993 autobiography, Cooke de Herrera says that Farrow confided to her, before the arrival of the Beatles, that the Maharishi had made a pass during a private puja ceremony by stroking her hair. Cooke de Herrera says she told Farrow that she had misinterpreted the Maharishi's actions. Farrow's 1997 memoirs are ambiguous, describing an encounter in his private meditation "cave" when the Maharishi tried to put his arms around her. She also says that her sister Prudence assured her that it was "an honour" and "a tradition" for a "holy man" to touch someone after meditation.


title: The Beatles in India

text: In Pattie Boyd's account, it was the allegations of the Maharishi's sexual impropriety that caused life at the retreat to go "horribly wrong". Through Mardas' insistence, Lennon became convinced that the Maharishi, who said he was celibate, had had a sexual encounter with one of the young female students. As reported by Brown, the woman was a "pretty blond nurse from California" who, Mardas said, had engaged in a sexual relationship with the Maharishi. Dolan recalls that she was in fact a "feisty" schoolteacher from New York, named Rosalyn Bonas (or "RB"), who was having an affair with Mardas. She had become disillusioned at the extent to which Hindu tradition and the Vedas were part of the course, and was prevented from leaving early for the US due to the conditions of her airline ticket. Jenny Boyd wrote that she had seen Mardas and the woman deep in conversation, "obviously cooking something up".


title: The Beatles in India

text: On the Beatles' final night at the ashram, Mardas arranged to entrap the Maharishi by spying on him and the woman when they were alone together. Mardas then reported to the others that he saw the two of them in a compromising position. Many of the people at the ashram – including Harrison, Horn, Cooke de Herrera, Dolan, Cynthia Lennon and Jenny Boyd – did not believe that the Maharishi had made a pass at any woman. According to Cynthia, however, Mardas' allegations "gathered momentum ... without a single shred of evidence or justification". In her autobiography, Pattie Boyd also expresses doubt regarding the truth behind Mardas' claims, but in this atmosphere of suspicion, she had a "horrid dream about Maharishi" and, the next day, told Harrison that they should leave. According to Harrison, Lennon "had wanted to leave anyway", to see Ono, and the speculation surrounding Farrow and other female students "stirred up a situation" that Lennon was able to exploit.


title: The Beatles in India

text: Deepak Chopra, who was not present but later became a disciple of the Maharishi and a friend of Harrison, said in 2006 that the Maharishi was displeased with the Beatles because they were taking drugs, including LSD, at the ashram. Members of the Beatles group also violated the Maharishi's "no alcohol rule" when they consumed "hooch" that Mardas, whom Cynthia thought was not an active meditator, acquired from a nearby village and shared with the women. Harrison and Lennon did not imbibe and were highly critical of those who did.


title: The Beatles in India

text: Massot recalled that he himself arrived at the ashram with a small amount of hashish, which he shared with Lennon. In his autobiography, Donovan writes that when John Farrow arrived, he presented him with a large block of hashish that "someone had brought into the ashram". Donovan took the block from Farrow's hand and threw it out into the Ganges. Dolan, who stayed in a bungalow next to the one occupied by Mardas and Bonas, said that Bonas "openly" smoked hashish, and he became used to the "familiar smell of very happy herb" emanating from their room.<ref name="Dolan/Trance"></ref> According to Chopra, the departure of Lennon and Harrison was not of their own volition but at the request of the Maharishi, due to his disapproval of their entourage taking drugs: "[The Maharishi] lost his temper with them. He asked them to leave, and they did in a huff."


title: The Beatles in India

text: On the night of 11–12 April, Lennon, Harrison and Mardas sat up late discussing the Maharishi and decided to leave the next morning. In Brown's description, they argued, and Harrison was "furious" at Mardas' actions and did not believe "a word" of the allegations. In the morning, the Beatles and their wives left hurriedly, while Mardas went to Dehradun to find taxis. Lennon was chosen to speak to the Maharishi.


title: The Beatles in India

text: Lennon described the exchange in a highly emotional December 1970 interview with Jann Wenner of "Rolling Stone", which was later published as the book "Lennon Remembers". When the Maharishi asked why they were leaving, Lennon replied, "If you're so cosmic, you'll know why." Lennon recalled that his mind was made up when the Maharishi gave him a murderous look in response. Lennon said he was "a bit rough to him" and the Maharishi responded by saying, "I don't know why, you must tell me." According to Mardas' 2010 statement: "John Lennon and I went to the Maharishi about what had happened ... he asked the Maharishi to explain himself"; and the Maharishi answered Lennon's accusation by saying, "I am only human." With regard to his own position, Harrison said that he had already told the Maharishi that he would be leaving before the course relocated to Kashmir, because he was due to participate in the filming of "Raga", a documentary about Ravi Shankar, in the south of India. According to Harrison's account of his and Lennon's final conversation with the Maharishi, in the 2000 book "The Beatles Anthology", Harrison reminded him of the plan to join Shankar, but the Maharishi was unable to accept it. Harrison added: "That's when John said something like, 'Well, "you're" supposed to be the mystic, you should know.'"


title: The Beatles in India

text: While waiting for their taxis, Lennon wrote "Maharishi" (later retitled "Sexy Sadie"), in which he sang: "Maharishi – what have you done? / You made a fool of everyone." In a 1974 interview, Lennon said that they were convinced that the delay in the taxis' arrival was orchestrated by locals loyal to the Maharishi, and this paranoia was exacerbated by the presence of "the mad Greek". According to Cynthia Lennon, when the group finally left the ashram, the Maharishi looked "very biblical and isolated in his faith". Jenny Boyd later wrote: "Poor Maharishi. I remember him standing at the gate of the ashram, under an aide's umbrella, as the Beatles filed by, out of his life. 'Wait,' he cried. 'Talk to me.' But no one listened."


title: The Beatles in India

text: After leaving Rishikesh, the taxis repeatedly broke down, leading the Beatles to wonder if the Maharishi had placed a curse on them. The car that the Lennons were in suffered a flat tyre and the driver left them, apparently to find a replacement tyre, but did not return for hours. After it grew dark, the couple hitched a ride to Delhi. They then took the first available flight back to London, during which Lennon drunkenly recounted a litany of his numerous infidelities to Cynthia. Harrison was not ready to return to London and face running Apple and the band's other commitments. In her autobiography, Boyd writes: "Instead, we went to see Ravi Shankar and lost ourselves in his music." Harrison said when he got dysentery in Madras that he thought it might have been due to a spell cast by the Maharishi, but he recovered after Shankar gave him some amulets.


title: The Beatles in India

text: The Beatles' departure and split with the Maharishi was well-publicised. In Delhi, Lennon and Harrison merely told reporters that they had urgent business in London and did not want to appear in the Maharishi's film. Once reunited in the UK, the band announced that they were disillusioned by the Maharishi's desire for financial gain. On 14 May, when Lennon and McCartney, accompanied by Mardas and Derek Taylor, were in New York to launch Apple to the US media, Lennon used his appearance on "The Tonight Show" to denounce the Maharishi. He told the host, Joe Garagiola, "We believe in meditation, but not the Maharishi and his scene" and: "We made a mistake. He's human like the rest of us." On another occasion, McCartney said: "[The Maharishi]'s a nice fellow. We're just not going out with him any more." By the time he returned to London, on 21 April, Harrison felt that he and Lennon were wrong in the way they had treated the Maharishi. In June, Harrison told reporters in Los Angeles that his dissatisfaction was centred on how the Spiritual Regeneration Movement was "too much of an organization".


title: The Beatles in India

text: Lennon's outspokenness was informed by the sense of personal betrayal he felt towards the Maharishi, and his 1970 "Rolling Stone" interview represented a purging of his past, in line with the emotional effects of his recent primal therapy treatment under Arthur Janov. In the interview, Lennon referred to "a big hullaballo about [the Maharishi] trying to rape Mia Farrow or somebody and trying to get off with a few other women",<ref name="Wenner/RSI Pt 1"></ref> and, since 1968, the allegations concerning Farrow were rumoured to be the cause of the Beatles' split with the Maharishi. Brown wrote in "The Love You Make", first published in 1983, that his book told for the first time "what really happened in the ashram", challenging the "widely circulated" but incorrect story about Farrow. Reflecting in a 1980 interview, Lennon said he had been "bitter" after discovering that the Maharishi was "human", just as he was later about Janov for the same reason. Lennon and Ono holidayed in India in late 1969. According to author Susan Shumsky, a TM devotee, Lennon sent a telegram to the ashram, saying he was in Delhi and urgently wanted to see the Maharishi. As he and his secretary discussed the telegram, the Maharishi repeatedly claimed not to recognise the singer's name, and he shut down the conversation by stating, "I do not know a "John Lennon"."


title: The Beatles in India

text: Writing for "Mojo" magazine in 2003, author and journalist Mark Paytress said that, for many observers, the Beatles' falling out with the Maharishi engendered a long-lasting suspicion that "they'd become faddists tipped into eccentric habits by unfathomable fame". Having given up touring in 1966, the trip to India was the last time all four Beatles travelled together. Their self-exploration through meditation and before that, LSD, led to each of them adopting a more individual focus, at the expense of band unity, through to the group's break-up in 1970. The acrimony within the band was evident during the recording of their 1968 double album "The Beatles" (also known as the "White Album"), when they recorded many of the songs written in Rishikesh. Adding to the tense atmosphere, after Lennon had left his wife, Ono became a constant presence from the start of the sessions and was viewed by the other Beatles as an unwelcome intrusion into the group dynamic.


title: The Beatles in India

text: Author Nicholas Schaffner wrote in 1978 that, following their return from Rishikesh, Lennon, Harrison and McCartney were "three very different personalities who seldom saw eye-to-eye any more". He also said that the trio served as an "almost archetypal cross-section" of the many young people who progressed from LSD to Indian spirituality during the late 1960s: Lennon "continued to drift from one unconventional self-awareness trip to another"; Harrison intensified his interest by embracing Krishna Consciousness, or the Hare Krishna movement, under A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada; and McCartney exchanged "consciousness expansion" for "more bourgeois preoccupations".


title: The Beatles in India

text: Philip Goldberg, in his book "American Veda", writes that the Beatles' trip to Rishikesh "may have been the most momentous spiritual retreat since Jesus spent those forty days in the wilderness". Despite their rejection of the Maharishi, the Beatles generated wider interest in Transcendental Meditation, which encouraged the study of Eastern spirituality in Western popular culture. Chopra credits Harrison with spreading TM and other Eastern spiritual practices to America almost single-handedly. Spiritual biographer Gary Tillery also recognises the Beatles, or more specifically Harrison, as having "abruptly brought Indian spirituality to everyday awareness" through their association with the Maharishi. Tillery writes that, while the influence of Indian gurus such as Vivekananda, Yogananda, the Maharishi and Prabhupada was well established by the late 1960s, it was the Beatles' endorsement of their respective philosophies that most contributed to yoga and meditation centres becoming ubiquitous in Western cities and towns over subsequent decades. According to author Andrew Grant Jackson:


title: The Beatles in India

text: The Beats had promoted Buddhism since the 1950s, but it was George Harrison's songs espousing Hindu philosophy and featuring Indian musicians, and the Beatles' study of Transcendental Meditation, that truly kick-started the human potential movement of the 1970s (rebranded New Age in the 1980s). In this way, the musicians helped expand the freedom of religion the United States was founded on to encompass options outside the Judeo-Christian tradition.


title: The Beatles in India

text: Mike Love arranged for the Beach Boys to tour the United States with the Maharishi in May 1968. However, the tour was cancelled after several appearances and was called "one of the more bizarre entertainments of the era". After 1968 the Maharishi fell out of the public spotlight for a period and TM was described as a passing fad. Interest grew again in the 1970s when scientific studies began showing concrete results. The Maharishi appeared twice on American television's "The Merv Griffin Show" in the mid 1970s, leading to a surge of popularity called the "Merv wave" that lasted until the end of the decade. In a 1975 interview, Harrison said of the Beatles' association with TM: "In retrospect, that was probably one of the greatest experiences I've ever had … Maharishi was always put down for propagating what was basically a spiritual thing but there's so much being propagated that's damaging to life that I'm glad there are good people around like him." In 1978 Lennon wrote that he considered his meditation a "source of creative inspiration". Despite Lennon's public denouncing of the Maharishi, according to Tillery, "for the rest of his life he often turned to meditation to restore himself and improve his creativity."


title: The Beatles in India

text: In her 2005 book "Gurus in America", author Cynthia Ann Humes comments that although the split between the Beatles and Maharishi was widely reported, there has been "little mention" of "the continued positive relationship Maharishi maintained" with Harrison and McCartney. During the 1990s, Harrison and McCartney were so convinced of the Maharishi's innocence on the issue of sexual impropriety that they each offered their apologies. Harrison gave a benefit concert for the Maharishi-associated Natural Law Party in 1992, and later apologised for the way the Maharishi had been treated by saying, "We were very young." In "The Beatles Anthology", he stated: "It's probably in the history books that Maharishi 'tried to attack Mia Farrow' – but it's bullshit, total bullshit." Asked if he forgave the Beatles, following Harrison's public apology in 1991, the Maharishi replied, "I could never be upset with angels." McCartney took his daughter Stella to visit the Maharishi in the Netherlands in 2007, which renewed their friendship.


title: The Beatles in India

text: By the time of the Maharishi's death in 2008, more than 5 million people had learned Transcendental Meditation, and his worldwide movement was valued in the billions of dollars. After the Maharishi died, McCartney said: "my memories of him will only be joyful ones. He was a great man who worked tirelessly for the people of the world and the cause of unity." Starr said in 2008, "I feel so blessed I met the Maharishi – he gave me a mantra that no one can take away, and I still use it". Representing her late husband, Yoko Ono said: "John would have been the first one now, if he had been here, to recognize and acknowledge what Maharishi has done for the world and appreciate it." In 2009, McCartney, Starr, Donovan and Horn reunited at a concert held at New York's Radio City Music Hall to benefit the David Lynch Foundation, which funds the teaching of Transcendental Meditation in schools. A 2011 article titled "Celebrities Who Meditate", in "The Daily Telegraph", reported Harrison as having said: "Maharishi only ever did good for us, and although I have not been with him physically, I never left him."


title: The Beatles in India

text: In 2007, Indian-born American film-maker Mira Nair said she had begun work on a documentary film about the Beatles' visit to India. Paul Saltzman's photographs from the retreat have been displayed in galleries throughout North America and in a permanent exhibition above the retail units in the departure lounge of Liverpool John Lennon Airport. In February 2018, the 50th anniversary of Lennon and Harrison's arrival in Rishikesh was marked by the opening of a two-year exhibition titled "The Beatles in India" at the Beatles Story museum in Liverpool. A similar celebration took place at the ashram site, now known as Beatles Ashram.<ref name="Trivedi/HT"></ref> The exhibition in Liverpool was announced as featuring memorabilia, photographs by Saltzman, a sitar courtesy of the Ravi Shankar Foundation, and video contributions from Pattie and Jenny Boyd.<ref name="Parthsarathi/TheWeek"></ref>


title: The Beatles in India

text: The Beatles' 1968 retreat in Rishikesh is the subject of Saltzman's documentary film "Meeting the Beatles in India" (2020) and forms part of director Ajoy Bose's film study of the band's interaction with Indian culture, "The Beatles and India" (2021).<ref name="Male/Guardian"></ref> Reviewing the latter documentary for "The Guardian", Peter Bradshaw said that through the group's incorporation of Indian music in their work and their visit to Rishikesh, the Beatles "used their colossal influence, greater than any politician or movie star or religious leader, to direct the world's attention to India, a country which until then had been opaque for many in the west".<ref name="Bradshaw/Guardian"></ref>


title: The Beatles in India

text: The Beatles wrote many songs during their visit to Rishikesh: 30 by one count, 48 by another.<ref name="Choudhury/DN&A"></ref> Lennon said: "We wrote about thirty new songs between us. Paul must have done about a dozen. George says he's got six, and I wrote fifteen. And look what meditation did for Ringo – after all this time he wrote his first song." Many of the songs became part of the White Album, while others appeared on "Abbey Road" in 1969 or on solo records.


title: Market liquidity

text: In business, economics or investment, market liquidity is a market's feature whereby an individual or firm can quickly purchase or sell an asset without causing a drastic change in the asset's price. Liquidity involves the trade-off between the price at which an asset can be sold, and how quickly it can be sold. In a liquid market, the trade-off is mild: one can sell quickly without having to accept a significantly lower price. In a relatively illiquid market, an asset must be discounted in order to sell quickly. Money, or cash, is the most liquid asset because it can be exchanged for goods and services instantly at face value.


title: Market liquidity

text: A liquid asset has some or all of the following features: It can be sold rapidly, with minimal loss of value, anytime within market hours. The essential characteristic of a liquid market is that there are always ready and willing buyers and sellers. It is similar to, but distinct from, market depth, which relates to the trade-off between quantity being sold and the price it can be sold for, rather than the liquidity trade-off between speed of sale and the price it can be sold for. A market may be considered both deep and liquid if there are ready and willing buyers and sellers in large quantities.


title: Market liquidity

text: An illiquid asset is an asset which is not readily salable (without a drastic price reduction, and sometimes not at any price) due to uncertainty about its value or the lack of a market in which it is regularly traded. The mortgage-related assets which resulted in the subprime mortgage crisis are examples of illiquid assets, as their value was not readily determinable despite being secured by real property. Before the crisis, they had moderate liquidity because it was believed that their value was generally known.


title: Market liquidity

text: Speculators and market makers are key contributors to the liquidity of a market or asset. Speculators are individuals or institutions that seek to profit from anticipated increases or decreases in a particular market price. Market makers seek to profit by charging for the immediacy of execution: either implicitly by earning a bid/ask spread or explicitly by charging execution commissions. By doing this, they provide the capital needed to facilitate the liquidity. The risk of illiquidity does not apply only to individual investments: whole portfolios are subject to market risk. Financial institutions and asset managers that oversee portfolios are subject to what is called "structural" and "contingent" liquidity risk. Structural liquidity risk, sometimes called funding liquidity risk, is the risk associated with funding asset portfolios in the normal course of business. Contingent liquidity risk is the risk associated with finding additional funds or replacing maturing liabilities under potential, future-stressed market conditions. When a central bank tries to influence the liquidity (supply) of money, this process is known as open market operations.


title: Market liquidity

text: The market liquidity of assets affects their prices and expected returns. Theory and empirical evidence suggest that investors require higher return on assets with lower market liquidity to compensate them for the higher cost of trading these assets. That is, for an asset with given cash flow, the higher its market liquidity, the higher its price and the lower is its expected return. In addition, risk-averse investors require higher expected return if the asset's market-liquidity risk is greater. This risk involves the exposure of the asset return to shocks in overall market liquidity, the exposure of the asset's own liquidity to shocks in market liquidity and the effect of market return on the asset's own liquidity. Here too, the higher the liquidity risk, the higher the expected return on the asset or the lower is its price.


title: Market liquidity

text: One example of this is a comparison of assets with and without a liquid secondary market. The liquidity discount is the reduced promised yield or expected return for such assets, like the difference between newly issued U.S. Treasury bonds compared to off the run treasuries with the same term to maturity. Initial buyers know that other investors are less willing to buy off-the-run treasuries, so the newly issued bonds have a higher price (and hence lower yield).


title: Market liquidity

text: In the futures markets, there is no assurance that a liquid market may exist for offsetting a commodity contract at all times. Some future contracts and specific delivery months tend to have increasingly more trading activity and have higher liquidity than others. The most useful indicators of liquidity for these contracts are the trading volume and open interest.


title: Market liquidity

text: There is also dark liquidity, referring to transactions that occur off-exchange and are therefore not visible to investors until after the transaction is complete. It does not contribute to public price discovery.


title: Market liquidity

text: In banking, liquidity is the ability to meet obligations when they come due without incurring unacceptable losses. Managing liquidity is a daily process requiring bankers to monitor and project cash flows to ensure adequate liquidity is maintained. Maintaining a balance between short-term assets and short-term liabilities is critical. For an individual bank, clients' deposits are its primary liabilities (in the sense that the bank is meant to give back all client deposits on demand), whereas reserves and loans are its primary assets (in the sense that these loans are owed to the bank, not by the bank). The investment portfolio represents a smaller portion of assets, and serves as the primary source of liquidity. Investment securities can be liquidated to satisfy deposit withdrawals and increased loan demand. Banks have several additional options for generating liquidity, such as selling loans, borrowing from other banks, borrowing from a central bank, such as the US Federal Reserve bank, and raising additional capital. In a worst-case scenario, depositors may demand their funds when the bank is unable to generate adequate cash without incurring substantial financial losses. In severe cases, this may result in a bank run. Most banks are subject to legally mandated requirements intended to help avoid a liquidity crisis.


title: Market liquidity

text: Banks can generally maintain as much liquidity as desired because bank deposits are insured by governments in most developed countries. A lack of liquidity can be remedied by raising deposit rates and effectively marketing deposit products. However, an important measure of a bank's value and success is the cost of liquidity. A bank can attract significant liquid funds. Lower costs generate stronger profits, more stability, and more confidence among depositors, investors, and regulators.


title: Market liquidity

text: The market liquidity of stock depends on whether it is listed on an exchange and the level of buyer interest. The bid/ask spread is one indicator of a stock's liquidity. For liquid stocks, such as Microsoft or General Electric, the spread is often just a few pennies – much less than 1% of the price. For illiquid stocks, the spread can be much larger, amounting to a few percent of the trading price.


title: Creation Museum

text: The Creation Museum, located in Petersburg, Kentucky, United States, is a museum that promotes a pseudoscientific, young Earth creationist (YEC) explanation of the origin of the universe based on a literal interpretation of the Genesis creation narrative in the Bible. It is operated by the Christian creation apologetics organization Answers in Genesis (AiG).


title: Creation Museum

text: The museum cost 27 million, raised through private donations, and opened on May 28, 2007. In addition to the main collection, the facility has a special effects theater, a planetarium, an "Allosaurus" skeleton and an insect collection. As the headquarters of AiG, the museum has approximately 300 employees, and permanent employees must sign a statement of faith-affirming their belief in AiG's principles.


title: Creation Museum

text: Reflecting young-Earth creationist beliefs, the museum depicts humans and dinosaurs coexisting, portrays the Earth as approximately 6,000 years old, and disputes the theory of evolution. Scientists, educators and theologians have criticized the museum for misrepresenting science and expressed concerns that it could harm science education. Proponents of other religious beliefs about the Universe's origins—including old Earth creationism, theistic evolution, and intelligent design—have said that its rejection of scientific consensus damages the credibility of Christianity and its adherents. Tenets of young-Earth creationism enjoy substantial support among the general population in the United States, however, contributing to the museum's popularity.


title: Creation Museum

text: The museum is controversial and has received much commentary from cultural observers and the museum community. Scholars of museum studies, like Gretchen Jennings, have said that creationist exhibitions lack "valid connection with current worldwide thinking on their chosen discipline" and with "human knowledge and experience," and are not in their view museums at all.


title: Creation Museum

text: The Creation Museum portrays a literal interpretation of the creation narrative from the Book of Genesis in the Bible, known as young Earth creationism (YEC), the viewpoint advocated by Answers in Genesis (AiG), the creation apologetics organization that owns and operates the museum. According to the AiG website, the purpose of the museum is to "exalt Jesus Christ as Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer", to "equip Christians to better evangelize the lost", and to "challenge visitors to receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord". AiG founder Ken Ham said: "We're not out to convert people to believing in Intelligent Design. We're not out to convert people to "not" believe in evolution. And we're not out to just convert people to being Creationists. We're Christians."


title: Creation Museum

text: YEC, the belief that the God of the Bible created the Universe and everything in it in six 24-hour days, approximately 6,000 years ago, contradicts the scientific consensus that the Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old and that living organisms come into being by descent from common ancestors through evolution. Nevertheless, a "Sunday Independent" columnist said in 2007 that "there are plenty of Americans ready to embrace Ham and support his museum", citing the fact that the $27 million museum was entirely privately funded, and citing a Gallup public opinion poll showing widespread belief among Americans in biblical accounts of human origins. A similar poll conducted by Pew Research Center in 2016 found that 35% of Americans agreed with the statement "humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time".


title: Creation Museum

text: From the time AiG was founded in Florence, Kentucky, in 1994, the group's officials planned to open a museum and training center in the area. Ken Ham, a native of Australia, said that "Australia's not really the place to build such a facility if you're going to reach the world. Really, America is." In a separate interview with "The Sydney Morning Herald"'s Paul Sheehan, Ham explained, "One of the main reasons [AiG] moved [to Florence] was because we are within one hour's flight of 69 percent of America's population." The museum is located in Petersburg, Kentucky, west of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.


title: Creation Museum

text: In 1996, AiG petitioned Boone County to rezone a tract of land near the Big Bone Lick State Park from agricultural to industrial use for the construction of the Creation Museum. The county initially opposed the rezoning, citing in part potential conflicts with the fossil-rich state park. In 1999 newly elected commissioners approved the rezoning of an alternative site south of Interstate 275 to public facilities use, and allowed construction to go forward there.


title: Creation Museum

text: In May 2000, AiG purchased land for an undisclosed price and expected to begin construction in March 2001. At the time, AiG planned a museum, which they believed would cost 14 million and would open by mid-2002. After market research projected more visitors to the museum than AiG had initially anticipated, plans for the museum were altered, expanding it to and pushing the cost estimates to approximately 25 million and later to 27 million when more favorable visitor projections led them to add another to the museum. AiG staff moved into the Creation Museum's office space in late 2004. All funds for the museum were privately raised, and the organization received donated architectural and construction services.


title: Creation Museum

text: Approximately 4,000 patrons and 200 protesters visited the museum on opening day, and the event was covered by international media outlets. The "Orlando Sentinel" wrote that the majority of the media coverage had a "mocking" undertone, similar to that found in reporting on the 2001 opening of Orlando's Holy Land Experience theme park.


title: Creation Museum

text: Across the street from the museum, scientists, educators, students, and atheists protested at a "Rally for Reason" organized by Edwin Kagin, the Kentucky state director of American Atheists. Kagin told the "Kentucky Post" that the purpose of the rally was to send a message that there are "plenty of people who don't agree with the so-called science of creationism." The Reverend Mendle Adams, a protest participant, said, "my brothers and sisters in the faith who embrace [the creationist] understanding call into question the whole Christian concept" and "make us a laughing stock".


title: Creation Museum

text: The Northern Kentucky Convention and Visitors Bureau used the museum's opening as part of their overall strategy to attract religious group conventions, which accounted for significant amounts of visitor spending in the area.


title: Creation Museum

text: In October 2007, the Kentucky Department of Transportation erected four signs along highways near the museum bearing Kentucky's "Unbridled Spirit" logo and directing motorists to the museum's location, prompting concern from some residents about the separation of church and state. "The Cincinnati Post" reported that AiG paid $5,000 each for the signs, which are available to any "cultural, historical, recreational, agricultural, educational or entertainment center". The "Post" quoted Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, as saying it was a "close call" as to whether the signs violated the separation of church and state.


title: Creation Museum

text: In April 2016, the Boone County Fiscal Court approved a development plan that will add a three-level, museum building, among other expansions that will total between $15 million to $20 million.


title: Creation Museum

text: In November 2019, the Creation Museum opened a $3 million expansion which includes a 4D theater and a large area with several exhibits.


title: Creation Museum

text: In October 2021, the Creation Museum announced plans to refurbish the Legacy Hall auditorium and create the Eden Teaching Center, an addition to the museum’s animal space and petting zoo which will include a new animal facility, conservatory and greenhouses, classroom, and interactive dig site.


title: Creation Museum

text: AiG had projected that the museum would have 250,000 visitors in its first year of operation, but officials said that number was achieved in just over five months. In its first year of operation, 404,000 people visited the Creation Museum. In 2012, "Cincinnati CityBeat" reported that, from July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2012, Museum attendance had dropped to 254,074, a 10 percent drop from the previous year and the fourth straight year of declining attendance. AiG officials cited the poor economy and high gas prices as reasons for the decline. By mid-2015, 2.4 million people (about 300,000 visitors average over 8 years) had visited the museum.


title: Creation Museum

text: In 2016 Slate.com reported that public schools were taking students on field trips to the museum, citing planned or completed trips to the museum by schools in Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) wrote letters to the schools in question, demanding that the trips be cancelled, or in cases where they had already occurred, not be repeated. In July 2016, in response to FFRF's letters to schools, Ham posted on his blog that student groups would be admitted at $1 per child and no charge for accompanying teachers."


title: Creation Museum

text: In 2017, AiG reported that in the year since its other attraction, the Ark Encounter, opened, the Creation Museum saw over 800,000 visitors, nearly triple the annual average of 300,000 visitors. In April 2021, the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter were preparing to welcome their 10 millionth visitor altogether.


title: Creation Museum

text: The Creation Museum proper encompasses . In the museum's planetarium, visitors view a presentation written by AiG's staff astrophysicist that presents creationist cosmologies as alternatives to the Big Bang theory of the origins of the Universe. The planetarium underwent a $1.2 million renovation in 2020 while the museum was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic; the renovations expanded the planetarium's capacity, upgraded its display equipment, and improved its acoustics. In the 200-seat theater—which features special effects such as seats that vibrate and jets that spray the audience with mist—a film depicts two angelic beings who proclaim, "God loves science!" The museum also includes a restaurant and a medieval-themed gift shop. Outside the main structure are walking trails and a lake.


title: Creation Museum

text: Patrick Marsh, who designed the "Jaws" and "King Kong" attractions at Universal Studios Florida, led the design of the exhibits for the Creation Museum. Kurt Wise was hired as scientific consultant and also played a major role in designing the exhibits, including the 52 professionally made videos. In 2009, AiG added an exhibit about natural selection, featuring models of finches, which Charles Darwin observed before proposing the theory of evolution in 1859. A 2013 expansion project added a lobby display suggesting that ancient stories of monsters and dragons may have been accounts of human encounters with dinosaurs. An animatronic character depicting a science professor in a research lab, dubbed "Dr. Crawley", tells visitors that, due to the variation and complexity of bug species, they could not have evolved naturally but must have been created by God.


title: Creation Museum

text: Dinosaurs are prominently featured in many areas of the museum. Prior to the museum's opening, Ham stated, "We're putting evolutionists on notice: We're taking the dinosaurs back... They're used to teach people that there's no God, and they're used to brainwash people. Evolutionists get very upset when we use dinosaurs." While some of the museum's dinosaur models are animatronic, many were sculpted from fiberglass by a taxidermist. Near the museum's lobby, a diorama depicts two ancient-age children playing near a stream, unmolested by nearby dinosaurs.


title: Creation Museum

text: Since 2014, the museum has displayed the skeleton of a long, wide "Allosaurus" dubbed "Ebenezer". Over half of the skeleton, including a nearly-complete long skull with 53 teeth, was recovered from the northern Colorado portion of Morrison Formation. The Elizabeth Streb Peroutka Foundation of Pasadena, Maryland, purchased the skeleton and donated it to the museum, and AiG paid an anonymous expert based in Utah to restore it before displaying it. The skeleton is presented as evidence of Noah's Flood. In 2021, Brian William Delafayette was indicted for making a bomb threat after posting on an AiG-affiliated web page that a bomb had been planted under the "Allosaurus" display at the museum; no bomb was found at the site.


title: Creation Museum

text: The museum is also critical of evolutionary theory that links dinosaurs with bird evolution. The second room of the Creation Museum, for example, displays a model prehistoric "Utahraptor", stating that the species was featherless and had no connection to birds, referring to Genesis 1, which states that birds were created before the advent of land animals.


title: Creation Museum

text: Visitors to the museum follow a sequential series of rooms. Casey Kelly and Kristen Hoerl explain that "the museum constructs an argument chain in which claims from previous rooms provide support for subsequent claims". The first room in the sequence contains a diorama of two paleontologists uncovering the skeletal remains of an indistinct creature. Two actors meant to represent the paleontologists are displayed on television screens mounted nearby; one explains that he believes that the creature died in a local flood millions of years earlier, while the other surmises that the creature died in the biblical Great Flood about 4,300 years earlier. This room is immediately followed by a second room of placards explaining various natural phenomena using two distinct "starting points"—mainstream science and the biblical narrative. From here, visitors enter an L-shaped corridor that begins with mannequins representing the Old Testament prophets Moses, David, and Isaiah, while audio recordings of passages from the Book of Psalms are played nearby. Further down the corridor, placards detail historical arguments against a literal interpretation of the Bible and conclude that "The elevation of human reason above God's word is the essence of every attack on God's word." The walls near the corridor's exit contain existentialist questions such as "Am I alone?", and "Why do I suffer?", paired with illustrations of human conflict and suffering.


title: Creation Museum

text: After leaving the corridor, visitors enter a room designed to resemble a decaying urban alley full of graffiti and littered with newspaper clippings about the legalization of abortion, same-sex marriage, and euthanasia. An accompanying placard concludes: "Scripture abandoned in the culture leads to... relative morality, hopelessness and meaninglessness." In the final room in this series, video screens depict the purported results of abandoning a literal interpretation of the Bible. In one, a teenage girl is on the phone with an abortion clinic. In another, a teenage boy rolls a joint while staring at a computer screen; a narrator informs the viewer that the boy is looking at pornography. In the center of the room, a wrecking ball labeled "Millions of Years" damages the foundation of a church building. Nearby stands a Ken Ham mannequin pushing a wheelbarrow full of bricks, symbolizing the reparative work of AiG.


title: Creation Museum

text: The second series of rooms depict a literal interpretation of the Book of Genesis, arranged around the concept of "The Seven C's of History": creation, corruption, catastrophe, confusion, Christ, cross, and consummation. At the entrance to this area, a flat panel television displays a computer-generated imagery (CGI) animation of millions of particles converging to create an adult human male, the biblical Adam. Subsequent creation dioramas show Adam naming animals in the Garden of Eden and Eve being created from Adam's rib. Accompanying placards maintain that the special creation of Adam and Eve conveys God's desire for families to consist only of opposite-sex couples and their offspring.


title: Creation Museum

text: The exhibit on corruption shows Adam and Eve eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, resulting in the fall of man. Further exhibits depict the aftermath of this event: animals being killed to make garments for Adam and Eve, Cain killing Abel, and Methuselah warning of God's coming judgment. Black-and-white photographs also show examples of modern suffering, such as the Holocaust and the explosion of an atomic bomb. According to accompanying placards, after the fall, some animals became meat-eaters, and competition for resources drove some creatures to extinction. An April 2006 report in the "Chicago Tribune" noted that this area also features noxious odors and increased temperatures, and AiG general manager Mike Zovath told the paper that the intent was to make it "the most uncomfortable place in the museum to show how original sin has corrupted the universe".


title: Creation Museum

text: The "catastrophe", an allusion to the Great Flood recounted in Genesis chapters 6 through 9, is represented by animatronic figures constructing Noah's Ark and an interactive exhibit that allows visitors to select frequently asked questions about Noah's Ark and have them answered audibly by an animatronic Noah. Kelly and Hoerl describe the interactive Noah as "remarkable", noting: "Noah is imbued with human affect and individuality, including complex physical features and detailed bodily movements; his speech patterns, facial expressions, and bodily gestures are in near-perfect sync with his eye, mouth, and head movements; and his hair, skin tone, and musculature closely imitates real human features." The catastrophe displays are further enhanced by CGI animations of the Great Flood covering the Earth as observed from both outer space and a period-specific settlement.


title: Creation Museum

text: The post-flood world is presented in the next room as a time when man began to rely solely on human reasoning, resulting in "confusion". Displays argue that dependence on human reasoning leads to racism and genocide, with one sign bearing a quote from Stephen Jay Gould noting that racism increased exponentially following the acceptance of the theory of evolution. A diorama claims that the Tower of Babel explains the dispersal of people after the flood and the rapid divergence of languages during that period.


title: Creation Museum

text: The final three C's—Christ, cross, and consummation—are presented in a single room where visitors wait before entering a theater to view "The Last Adam", a film where actors representing Mary, the mother of Jesus, and an unnamed Roman soldier describe their experiences during the crucifixion of Jesus. After the Seven C's area, a video introduces the next section of the museum by stating that "Scientists are developing a series of models to explain how the Flood and its aftermath could have shaped the world today." Large fossils displayed in glass cases are purported to have been formed as a result of the Great Flood. Large placards illustrate geological models developed by creation scientists at AiG, the Discovery Institute, and the Institute for Creation Research.


title: Creation Museum

text: The tour continues in the "Dinosaur Den", which contains models of dinosaurs with attached signage explaining their lives from the YEC viewpoint. The Dragon Theater, the last exhibit space on tour, posits the relatively recent extinction of dinosaurs and speculates that Medieval dragon legends may have been inspired by actual encounters with dinosaurs. Visitors exit the tour through the museum's gift shop, which contains both souvenirs and AiG print and multimedia publications.


title: Creation Museum

text: In addition to exhibits, the museum hosts a variety of special programs and events. Many focus on creationist concepts or more broadly on Christian themes and teachings. Some of the museum's events have met with controversy. In December 2008, the Cincinnati Zoo discontinued a cross-promotion it had planned with the Creation Museum after offering the deal for less than three days, citing "numerous complaints".


title: Creation Museum

text: In February 2011, the museum denied a same-sex couple entry to its after-hours "Date Night". It refused to reimburse the cost of their tickets (about ), stating it was clear from the advertisements that the event was about Christian marriage, which is between a man and a woman, and that one of the men had made a statement in a blog post a month earlier that gave the museum the impression that the couple was planning to be disruptive. The blog requested donations to send a "flamboyantly gay" couple to the event. Later one of the men admitted he wasn't gay and said that he was curious to see if the museum would let them in.


title: Creation Museum

text: The Bill Nye–Ken Ham debate was one of the most publicized events at the museum. It took place in February 2014, and featured a debate between Ken Ham and Bill Nye, a science educator known for the television series "Bill Nye the Science Guy". Ham challenged Nye to come to the museum to debate YEC and whether creationism is a viable model of origins. CNN's Tom Foreman moderated the debate. The museum's 900-seat Legacy Hall was sold out within minutes of tickets going on sale. It was estimated that nearly 3 million people viewed the debate online and C-SPAN rebroadcast the debate on February 19. Publicity generated by the debate spurred fundraising for AiG, allowing construction to begin on the Ark Encounter, an AiG theme park intended to center on a full-scale interpretation of Noah's Ark.


title: Creation Museum

text: The museum is controversial and has received much criticism from the scientific and religious communities, as well as cultural commentators. In her 2013 book, "Sensational Devotion: Evangelical Performance in Twenty-First Century America", Jill Stevenson, an associate professor of theatre arts at Marymount Manhattan College, wrote that "The Creation Museum prompts more questions from friends and colleagues than any of the other venues I examine in this book. It is not simply the museum's anti-evolution message that fascinates people. Even more compelling is how the Creation Museum actually conveys that message. By coupling the physical form of a traditional natural history museum with a radical community-based agenda, the Creation Museum empowers and gives public voice to a community that perceives itself as threatened, disenfranchised, and misrepresented by mainstream culture."


title: Creation Museum

text: In the introduction to their 2016 book "Righting America at the Creation Museum", Susan and William Trollinger noted: "the Creation Museum lies squarely within the right side of the American cultural, political, and religious mainstream... it represents and speaks to the religious and political commitments of a large swath of the American population." Jonathan Gitlin, reviewing the museum for "Ars Technica" in 2007, said the museum's displays were "on a par with the better modern museums I've been to". He added that the museum was "designed for a fundamentalist Christian crowd" and was "no friend to those who do not hold to its creationist tenets", also containing "what can only be described as a house of horrors about the dangers of abortion and drugs and the devil's music". Trollinger and Trollinger called the museum "an impressive and sophisticated visual argument on behalf of young Earth creationism and a highly politicized fundamentalism". Hemant Mehta has said that the "layout at the Creation Museum really is beautiful. However, the quality of information is worthless, which makes the 'museum' nothing more than an expensive way to confuse and indoctrinate children."


title: Creation Museum

text: A. A. Gill, a British writer and critic, described the museum as "battling science and reason since 2007", writing: "This place doesn't just take on evolution – it squares off with geology, anthropology, paleontology, history, chemistry, astronomy, zoology, biology, and good taste. It directly and boldly contradicts most -onomies and all -ologies, including most theology." Lisa Park, a professor of paleontology at University of Akron said, "I think it's very bad science and even worse theology... and the theology is far more offensive to me. I think there's a lot of focus on fear, and I don't think that's a very Christian message... I find it a malicious manipulation of the public."


title: Creation Museum

text: The Creation Museum's promotion of YEC has garnered criticism from individuals who adhere to old Earth creationism or theistic evolution. In a press kit released in connection with the Creation Museum's opening, geologist Greg Neyman, founder of Old Earth Ministries, wrote that "The non-Christians (...) will see the museum, and recognize its faulty science, and will be turned away from the church." Catholic theologian John Haught, a theistic evolutionist, said, "It's theologically problematic to me, as well as scientifically problematic" and that the museum would cause an "impoverishment" of religion. Theistic evolutionist Michael Patrick Leahy, editor of the online magazine "Christian Faith and Reason", said that the museum "undermines the credibility of all Christians".


title: Creation Museum

text: In his review of the museum for "The New York Times", columnist Edward Rothstein wrote, "It is a measure of the museum's daring that dinosaurs and fossils—once considered major challenges to belief in the Bible's creation story—are here so central, appearing not as tests of faith, as one religious authority once surmised, but as creatures no different from the giraffes and cats that still walk the earth." Authors Casey Kelly and Kristen Hoerl wrote that "By adopting the formal structure of the nature and science museum, including the display of dinosaur fossils, the Creation Museum provides a site where young-Earth creationists can take their children to "see the dinosaurs" without compromising their beliefs."


title: Creation Museum

text: Before the museum's opening, about 2,000 educators signed a statement written by the Campaign to Defend the Constitution (DefCon) calling the museum part of a "campaign by the religious right to inject creationist teachings into science education". The National Center for Science Education collected over 800 signatures from scientists in the three states closest to the museum (Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio) on a statement calling the museum's exhibits "scientifically inaccurate materials" and expressing concerns that students who accept its premises as scientifically valid would be "unlikely to succeed in science courses at the college level". Lawrence Krauss, who signed the DefCon statement; Eugenie Scott, executive director of NCSE; and Alan Leshner, chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, each told the Associated Press (AP) that AiG was within its rights to open the museum, but expressed concerns about its effects on science education. Leshner said, "We're not talking about free speech. We would not protest the museum. However, we are concerned that we not mislead young people inadvertently or intentionally about what science is showing." Krauss has called on media, educators, and government officials to shun the museum and says that its view is based on falsehoods.


title: Creation Museum

text: Dinosaurs were featured prominently in AiG's 2012 billboard advertising campaign, which targeted metropolitan areas in 25 states. Commenting on the ad campaign, Steven Newton of the National Center for Science Education said, "I think it's a real shame that there aren't science museums that are competing in the same way, with the same sort of advertising with the same sort of budgets." After viewing a display claiming that the Grand Canyon could have been carved in a matter of hours by receding floodwaters, just as volcanic mudslides carved canyons in softer rock in the aftermath of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, chemist William Watkin declared, "Everything they said about sediment deposition, about Mount St. Helens... anyone in first year geology would say 'wrong from top to bottom'".


title: Creation Museum

text: In August 2007, Daniel Phelps, president of the Kentucky Paleontological Society, criticized the Northern Kentucky Convention and Visitors Bureau for describing the museum on its web site as a walk through history' museum that will counter evolutionary natural history museums that turn countless minds against Christ and Scripture". The bureau initially defended its use of the language, saying that they used whatever language was supplied by each attraction featured on the site. Still, Phelps complained that, as a tax-supported institution, the bureau should not use language that claimed other museums turn people against religion. Within a week of the complaint, the bureau had updated the museum's description on the web site to read, "A walk through history via the pages of the Bible—exploring how scripture provides an eyewitness account of the beginning of all things." Commenting on the museum's efforts to attract classes of public school students, Zack Kopplin wrote: "At Ham's Vision conferences, he's free to teach children that "T. Rex" was a vegetarian that lived with Adam and Eve. No matter how ludicrous it is, that's a legitimate exercise of religious freedom. These creationist field trips, however, are not. No matter how steep the discount, public schools can't afford to miseducate our kids with religious pseudoscience like creationism."


title: Creation Museum

text: Writing in the journal "Argumentation and Advocacy", authors Casey Kelly and Kristen Hoerl point out that "physical remnants are not available as evidence for events described in the Book of Genesis ... Consequently, the Creation Museum demonstrates the materiality of creationist thinking through its display of objects that are, by and large, created for the museum or manufactured recently." Because many of the articles on display at the Creation Museum are manufactured, "The Guardian" called it "quite possibly ... one of the weirdest museums in the world". Krauss stated that "[On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being best], I'd give [the museum] a 4 for technology", but added he'd also give it "5 for propaganda" and "As for content, I'd give it a negative 5."


title: Creation Museum

text: Gretchen Jennings, editor of "Exhibitionist", wrote that creationist museums like the Creation Museum are not museums at all, and said that if they applied for accreditation as museums, their applications should be denied. As of 2014, no creationist museums have been accredited by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM). National Center for Science Education (NCSE) director Eugenie Scott characterized the Creation Museum as "the Creationist Disneyland". Writing for the NCSE, Daniel Phelps called the Creation Museum "the Anti-Museum", while PZ Myers called it "Ken Ham's fabulous fake museum" in a 2007 post on his "Pharyngula" blog; other mainstream scientists derisively dubbed it the "Fred and Wilma Flintstone Museum". In a 2013 blog post, Ken Ham responded to such criticisms by writing that the Creation Museum is a true museum, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary and the AAM's website.


title: Creation Museum

text: The museum operates as a division of Answers in Genesis. In 2007 about 160 people including a chaplain worked at the museum, and another 140 people worked at the attached Answers in Genesis headquarters. Each permanent employee of AiG, including people who work at the museum, must sign a statement of faith indicating that he or she believes in young-Earth creationism and the other teachings of Answers in Genesis, "in order to preserve the function and integrity of the ministry". The statement of faith includes "Scripture teaches a recent origin for man and the whole creation", "the only legitimate marriage is the joining of one man and one woman", "the great Flood of Genesis was an actual historic event", and "no apparent, perceived or claimed evidence in any field, including history and chronology, can be valid if it contradicts the Scriptural record". When applying for work, a written statement of one's beliefs is required along with a résumé and references. In 2007, "The Kentucky Post" reported that the Creation Museum employed between 10 and 20 security guards, armed with .40 caliber Glock handguns and three certified law enforcement canines.


title: Creation Museum

text: In 2015, the Creation Museum and AiG were recognized on "The Cincinnati Enquirer"'s list of top 100 workplaces in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky region. The determination was made based on a confidential survey of employees conducted by Workplace Dynamics, an independent research firm.


title: Creation Museum

text: A three-part documentary titled "The Story of God", hosted by Robert Winston, aired on BBC One in December 2005. The third part of the documentary featured footage of the museum during its construction, as well as brief interviews with Ken Ham and Patrick Marsh. After these interviews, Winston states, "It was alarming to see so much time, money and effort being spent on making a mockery of hard won scientific knowledge. And the fact that it was being done with such obvious sincerity, somehow made it all the worse." The documentary also featured excerpts from an hour-long debate between Winston and Ham over the relative merits of creationism and evolution that was aired on radio station 700 WLW in Cincinnati.


title: Creation Museum

text: In February 2007, a crew filming footage for comedian Bill Maher's anti-religious documentary "Religulous" toured the museum and arranged for Maher to interview Ken Ham without Ham knowing in advance that Maher would be the interviewer. In an August 2008 interview with "Los Angeles Times" columnist Patrick Goldstein, Maher said he used similar tactics to secure interviews with other people shown in the film: "It was simple: We never, ever, used my name. (...) We even had a fake title for the film. We called it 'A Spiritual Journey'." Maher continued: "The hour is getting very late to be able to indulge in having key decisions made by religious people. By irrationalists, by those who would steer the ship of state not by a compass, but by the equivalent of reading the entrails of a chicken."


title: Creation Museum

text: In July 2007, the radio show This Week in Science, broadcast by the University of California, Davis, published a website promoting a fictional "Unicorn Museum", a parody of the Creation Museum. According to the Unicorn Museum web site, "... many Christian adherents still maintain that the Bible is a wholly accurate historical account. By focusing on the more implausible aspects of this reputed infallible document, the Unicorn Museum seeks to illustrate the $27 Million charade that is the Creation Museum and highlight the intellectual laxity that characterizes Creationism and Intelligent Design."


title: Creation Museum

text: A 2008 episode in the first season of the TLC reality series "17 Kids and Counting" (now known as "19 Kids and Counting") features the Duggar family's trip to the museum, including a personal tour they were given by Ken Ham. Jim Bob Duggar, the family patriarch, said, "We wanted to bring our family here to teach our children about creation and to show them all these great exhibits of how the world was created, and also to reinforce to them the fallacies of evolution and how it was impossible for this world just to all happen by chance." "The Washington Times" reported that the episode's airing "sparked reaction on both sides of the cultural debate" on Internet message boards.


title: Creation Museum

text: On the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species", in February 2010 "Vanity Fair" magazine published British critic A. A. Gill's negative review of the museum under the title "Roll Over, Charles Darwin!", with photographs by actor Paul Bettany (who had portrayed Darwin in the film "Creation"). Jill Stevenson noted that although most press coverage of the museum occurred around its 2007 opening, continuing coverage in "Vanity Fair" and elsewhere "tesif[ied] to people's ongoing curiosity about the venue."


title: Creation Museum

text: The Creation Museum ranked second in the Best Religious Museum category of the 2020 USA Today/10Best.com Readers Choice Awards; the top spot went to its sister attraction, the Ark Encounter.


title: Efflorescence

text: In chemistry, efflorescence (which means "to flower out" in French) is the migration of a salt to the surface of a porous material, where it forms a coating. The essential process involves the dissolving of an internally held salt in water, or occasionally in another solvent. The water, with the salt now held in solution, migrates to the surface, then evaporates, leaving a coating of the salt.


title: Efflorescence

text: In what has been described as "primary efflorescence", the water is the invader and the salt was already present internally, and a reverse process, where the salt is originally present externally and is then carried inside in solution, is referred to as "secondary efflorescence".


title: Efflorescence

text: Efflorescences can occur in natural and built environments. On porous construction materials it may present a cosmetic outer problem only (primary efflorescence causing staining), but can sometimes indicate internal structural weakness (migration/degradation of component materials). Efflorescence may clog the pores of porous materials, resulting in the destruction of those materials by internal water pressure, as seen in the spalling of brick.


title: Efflorescence

text: Primary efflorescence is named such, as it typically occurs during the initial cure of a cementitious product. It often occurs on masonry construction, particularly brick, as well as some firestop mortars, when water moving through a wall or other structure, or water being driven out as a result of the heat of hydration as cement stone is being formed, brings salts to the surface that are not commonly bound as part of the cement stone. As the water evaporates, it leaves the salt behind, which forms a white, fluffy deposit, that can normally be brushed off. The resulting white deposits are referred to as "efflorescence" in this instance. In this context efflorescence is sometimes referred to as "saltpetering." Since primary efflorescence brings out salts that are not ordinarily part of the cement stone, it is not a structural, but, rather, an aesthetic concern.


title: Efflorescence

text: For controlling primary efflorescence, formulations containing liquid fatty acid mixtures (e.g., oleic acid and linoleic acid) have commonly been used. The oily liquid admixture is introduced into the batch mix at an early stage by coating onto the sand particles prior to the introduction of any mix water, so that the oily admixture is distributed uniformly throughout the concrete batch mix.


title: Efflorescence

text: Secondary efflorescence is named such as it does not occur as a result of the forming of the cement stone or its accompanying hydration products. Rather, it is usually due to the external influence of concrete poisons, such as chlorides. A very common example of where secondary efflorescence occurs is steel-reinforced concrete bridges as well as parking garages. Saline solutions are formed due to the presence of road salt in the winter. This saline solution is absorbed into the concrete, where it can begin to dissolve cement stone, which is of primary structural importance. Virtual stalactites can be formed in some cases as a result of dissolved cement stone, hanging off cracks in concrete structures. Where this process has taken hold, the structural integrity of a concrete element is at risk. This is a common traffic infrastructure and building maintenance concern. Secondary efflorescence is akin to osteoporosis of the concrete.


title: Efflorescence

text: For controlling secondary efflorescence, admixtures containing aqueous-based calcium stearate dispersion (CSD) are often added at a later stage of the batching process with the mix water. In a typical batching process, sand is first charged into the mixer, then the oil-based primary anti-efflorescence admixture is added with constant mixing to allow the oil to coat the sand. Then coarse aggregates, colorants, and cement are added, followed by water. If CSD is used, it is then introduced usually at this point during or after the addition of the mix water. CSD is an aqueous dispersion wherein fine solid particles of calcium stearate are suspended in the water uniformly. Commercially available CSD has an average particle size of about 1 to 10 micrometres. The uniform distribution of CSD in the mix may render the resulting concrete masonry unit water repellent, as CSD particles are well distributed in the pores of the unit to interfere with the capillary movement of water.


title: Efflorescence

text: Calthemite is also a secondary deposit derived from concrete, mortar or lime, which can be mistakenly assumed to be efflorescence. Calthemites are usually deposited as calcite which is the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO).


title: Efflorescence

text: The only way to completely and permanently prevent (both primary and secondary) efflorescence in cementitious materials is by using special admixtures that chemically react with and bind the salt-based impurities in the concrete when hydrogen (H) is present. The chemical reaction in these special additives fuses the sodium chloride on a nanomolecular level, converting it into non-sodium chemicals and other harmless matter that will not leach out or migrate to the surface. In fact, the nanotechnology in these additives can be up to 100,000 times smaller than even the smallest cement particles, allowing their molecules to literally pass through cement minerals or sand particles and ultimately become part of the cement or sand with which they react. And since they require the presence of hydrogen they stop reacting as the concrete dries out and begin reacting again when the concrete is exposed to moisture.


title: Efflorescence

text: It is also possible to protect porous building materials, such as brick, tiles, concrete and purely against efflorescence by treating the material with an impregnating, hydro-phobic sealer. This is a sealer that repels water and will penetrate deeply enough into the material to keep water and dissolved salts well away from the surface. However, in climates where freezing is a concern, such a sealer may lead to damage from freeze/thaw cycles. And while it will help to protect against efflorescence, it cannot permanently prevent the problem.


title: Efflorescence

text: Efflorescence can often be removed from concrete using phosphoric acid. After application the acid dilution is neutralised with mild diluted detergent, and then well rinsed with water. However, if the source of the water penetration is not addressed efflorescence may reappear.


title: Efflorescence

text: Common rebar protective measures include the use of epoxy coating as well as the use of a slight electrical charge, both of which prevent rusting. One may also use stainless steel rebar.


title: Efflorescence

text: Certain cement types are less resistant to chlorides than others. The choice of cement, therefore, can have a large effect upon the concrete's reaction to chlorides.


title: Efflorescence

text: Today's water repellents help create a vapor permeable barrier; liquid water, especially from wind driven rains, will stay out of the brick and masonry. Water vapor from the interior of the building, or from the underside of pavers can escape. This will reduce efflorescence, spalling and scaling that can occur from water being trapped inside the brick substrate and freezing during cold weather. Years ago, the water repellents trapped moisture in the masonry wall creating more problems than they solved. Condensation in areas that experienced the four seasons were much more problematic than their counterparts.


title: Druzhba pipeline

text: The Druzhba pipeline (; also has been referred to as the Friendship Pipeline and the Comecon Pipeline) is one of the world's longest oil pipelines and one of the largest oil pipeline networks in the world. It began operation in 1964 and remains in operation in 2022. It carries oil some from the eastern part of European Russia to points in Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria and Germany. The network also branches out into numerous smaller pipelines to deliver its product throughout Eastern Europe and beyond.


title: Druzhba pipeline

text: The name "Druzhba" means "friendship", alluding to the fact that the pipeline supplied oil to the energy-hungry western regions of the Soviet Union, to its "fraternal socialist allies" in the former Soviet bloc, and to western Europe. Today, it is the largest principal artery for the transportation of Russian (and Kazakh) oil across Europe.


title: Druzhba pipeline

text: On 18 December 1958, the 10th session of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon), held in Prague, adopted a decision and an agreement was signed on construction of a trunk crude oil pipeline from the USSR into Poland, Czechoslovakia, GDR and Hungary. The construction of the initially proposed long pipeline commenced in 1960. Each country was to supply all necessary construction materials, machinery and equipment. Czechoslovakia received first oil in 1962, Hungary in September 1963, Poland in November 1963, and the GDR in December 1963. The whole pipeline was put into operation in October 1964. The first oil pumped through the Druzhba pipeline originated from the oil fields in Tatarstan and Samara (Kuybyshev) Oblast. In the 1970s, the Druzhba pipeline system was further enlarged with the construction of geographically parallel lines.