SoWal Local Prudence Farrow Bruns new book is rated 5 stars. Dear Prudence: The Story Behind the Song is available locally at Sundog Books. You just might see her there among the shelves. Also available at a bookstore near you, and on Amazon.
In 2012, Prudence was part of a film crew who traveled to India to film Kumbh Mela, a festival that takes place for several weeks every 12 years, and attracts millions of visitors. She has given several talks in the SoWal area about this amazing event and some of her group's experiences there.
At the young age of 18, Prudence, the daughter of actress Maureen O'Sullivan and writer/director John Farrow, became interested in yoga and transcendental meditation, which she studied at UCLA. Two years later she went to India to study with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and became a T.M. teacher. At that time her fellow meditators included the Beatles, who wrote the song “Dear Prudence” about her. Over the years Bruns studied with various noted Indian swamis.
From teaching T.M. in Manhattan and Boston in 1968, Bruns has continued to study and teach it in many places. She estimates she has taught T.M. to thousands of people in the U.S. and Canada.
Since 1980, Bruns has also been involved in various aspects of show business, including writing screenplays and producing movies. In 2007 she received her Ph.D. in South Asian Studies, Sanskrit, from the University of California, Berkeley. She has published a book on Ayurvedic pulse diagnosis along with articles on South Asian studies, world religions, Ayurvedic medicine and healthy living for academic journals and magazines. She founded the Dear Prudence Foundation in 2012 to create scholarships for the programs of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
In 1969 she married Albert Bruns, also a T.M. teacher. They raised three children and have four grandchildren, and now live in Seagrove Beach. Those who know Albert know he is just as interesting a human as his lovely wife. Many years ago Albert sketched the portrait of Prudence that is now the cover of her book.
“The sun is up, the sky is blue, it’s beautiful, and so are you…”
Those simple lines from the Beatles’ ballad, “Dear Prudence,” are easily recognizable by anyone who lived through the 1960s, as well as by the millions of people who continue to enjoy the Beatles’ music today.
But who was Prudence? Did she ever come out into the sunshine and greet the new day, as John Lennon beseeched her to do? What’s the real story behind the song?
Prudence finally sets the story straight. Her memoir speaks to her three-month self-imposed meditative seclusion in India in 1968, while also carefully examining the universal experience of the 1960s youth movement.
Farrow honestly and unflinchingly explores how music, drugs, the Vietnam War, and eastern mysticism and philosophy changed millions of young people’s worldviews during one of America’s most tumultuous decades. She also touches on her own famous family’s heartaches and triumphs, even as she voices the experiences of an entire generation through a single iconic song.
In 2012, Prudence was part of a film crew who traveled to India to film Kumbh Mela, a festival that takes place for several weeks every 12 years, and attracts millions of visitors. She has given several talks in the SoWal area about this amazing event and some of her group's experiences there.
At the young age of 18, Prudence, the daughter of actress Maureen O'Sullivan and writer/director John Farrow, became interested in yoga and transcendental meditation, which she studied at UCLA. Two years later she went to India to study with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and became a T.M. teacher. At that time her fellow meditators included the Beatles, who wrote the song “Dear Prudence” about her. Over the years Bruns studied with various noted Indian swamis.
From teaching T.M. in Manhattan and Boston in 1968, Bruns has continued to study and teach it in many places. She estimates she has taught T.M. to thousands of people in the U.S. and Canada.
Since 1980, Bruns has also been involved in various aspects of show business, including writing screenplays and producing movies. In 2007 she received her Ph.D. in South Asian Studies, Sanskrit, from the University of California, Berkeley. She has published a book on Ayurvedic pulse diagnosis along with articles on South Asian studies, world religions, Ayurvedic medicine and healthy living for academic journals and magazines. She founded the Dear Prudence Foundation in 2012 to create scholarships for the programs of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
In 1969 she married Albert Bruns, also a T.M. teacher. They raised three children and have four grandchildren, and now live in Seagrove Beach. Those who know Albert know he is just as interesting a human as his lovely wife. Many years ago Albert sketched the portrait of Prudence that is now the cover of her book.
“The sun is up, the sky is blue, it’s beautiful, and so are you…”
Those simple lines from the Beatles’ ballad, “Dear Prudence,” are easily recognizable by anyone who lived through the 1960s, as well as by the millions of people who continue to enjoy the Beatles’ music today.
But who was Prudence? Did she ever come out into the sunshine and greet the new day, as John Lennon beseeched her to do? What’s the real story behind the song?
Prudence finally sets the story straight. Her memoir speaks to her three-month self-imposed meditative seclusion in India in 1968, while also carefully examining the universal experience of the 1960s youth movement.
Farrow honestly and unflinchingly explores how music, drugs, the Vietnam War, and eastern mysticism and philosophy changed millions of young people’s worldviews during one of America’s most tumultuous decades. She also touches on her own famous family’s heartaches and triumphs, even as she voices the experiences of an entire generation through a single iconic song.
