It was the ultimate 60s scene: the ashram in Rishikesh, India where the Beatles, Donovan, Mia Farrow, a stray Beach Boy and other 60s icons gathered along the shores of the Ganges-amidst paisley and incense and flowers and guitars-to meditate at the feet of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The February 1968 gathering received such frenzied, world-wide attention that it is still considered a significant, early encounter between Western pop culture and the mystical East.

But what went on inside the compound has long been the subject of wild speculation and rampant rumor. The Beatles, for example, have said they wrote some of their greatest songs there . . . and yet they also came away bitterly disillusioned.

While dozens of reporters from around the world flew to the remote location to camp out at the entrance of the retreat, only one journalist was allowed inside: Lewis Lapham, now the esteemed editor of Harper's Magazine, then a reporter for the Saturday Evening Post who was seen--along with Tom Wolfe--as one of the progenitors of the hip "New Journalism."

Lapham's wry take on what he found inside the ashram won acclaim at the time, but here he includes some surprising material he's never written about before-from hysterically funny descriptions of the Maharishi's daily press conferences . . . to the high style demands of certain stars upon the hapless local tailor . . . to impromptu jam sessions . . . and the true story behind the scandal that drove the Beatles out of Rishikesh, and led to Lapham's eight-hour cab ride with Ringo.

In Lapham's deft and vivid prose, it is, in the end, an exhilarating and surprisingly intimate look at one of the pivotal moments of popculture, and some of its leading figures.

Lewis Lapham is the editor-in-chief of Harper's Magazine and the author of numerous books of political and cultural commentary, including, most recently, last year's Gag Rule.