Personal Life Media

British playwright, composer, actor, author and musician John Maxwell Taylor is perhaps best known in America for his portrayal of Carl Gustav Jung in his self penned, award-winning 20-character one-man play Forever Jung, based on the life of the famed Swiss psychologist. In Europe Taylor is best remembered as a European rock star. In 1962, following a near riot causing appearance in Paris singing as Johnny Taylor with his band The Strangers, Taylor enjoyed a career as a recording artist in France, touring widely and appearing in bands that opened for The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. By 1966, Taylor was living in California earning a living playing guitar with top Hollywood session musicians while writing songs for major-label artists.
Throughout this time he harbored an interest in theater. At the age of fifteen he wrote and produced one-man-shows in which he impersonated many then-stars of stage, screen and radio, from Peter Sellers to Laurence Olivier.

A natural actor, Taylor constantly developed his skills in this area while maintaining his life as a musician, becoming adept in a wide range of styles from Shakespeare to Shaw. In 1969 he was "discovered" in London by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. The duo were then record producers with plans to make an ambitious album of Taylor singing his theatrically oriented pop songs. When their concept album Jesus Christ Superstar took off, Lloyd Webber and Rice were rushed off to America to create a live show based on the album. With plans for his album now permanently on hold, Taylor took some time off to explore the growing interest in spirituality he had contracted while living in California.

In 1973 he spent nine months in an eclectic theater group at The Findhorn Community in Northern Scotland. There he helped pioneer "Transformational Theater," using music, drama and multi media to create works that could facilitate a shift in consciousness for the audience.

After leaving Findhorn to move permanently back to the United States, Taylor spent several years trying to bring together his various talents in forms of "Transformational Theater" that could touch the general public. Finally, in 1993, his first musical Faustorama, reached the semifinals of the American Muscial Theater contest and enjoyed a seven-week extended run at the Hahn Cosmopolitan Theater in San Diego. Three years later he was touring to international critical acclaim as star of his one-man play Forever Jung, which has now had over 250 performances.

His second musical, CRAZY WISDOM, based on the controversial life of Russian mystic George Gurdjieff, had premiere performances in California in 1993. CRAZY WISDOM was released on CD to unanimous international acclaim and has been selling steadily around the world since its release.

While fully engaged in the above creative activities, John Maxwell Taylor also found large audiences eager to attend workshops based on his 40 years of experience in spiritual and personal self-development. First came "Secrets of Sociological Aikido: The Invisible Art of Spiritual Self Defense" and "Living from I AM Consciousness," which contained the seed ideas that gave birth to the book The Power of I AM. Other workshops that followed included "Blending Soul and Sexuality for Health and Happiness," "Speaking from the Soul," and "Presenting Yourself with Power and Presence." John also presented live music concerts such as "An Evening with John Maxwell Taylor and Friends" and "Poets Resounding," a solo performance featuring dramatic readings from the world's greatest writers of all times and places.

Taylor is now writing three new books at the same time.

When asked how he can do this, he quotes one of his heroes, the multi-talented, multi-faceted writer/actor/playwright/director Peter Ustinov, who liked to say (when questioned about wearing so many hats), "One activity refreshes me for the next."

"The Universe is expanding and so must the consciousness of the human race," says Taylor. "We are the only known human representatives of the force that has created all we see and know of the vastness of possibility around us. So we too must expand. When we fully exercise our creative abilities, no matter what the result in terms of what other people make of what we create, we fulfill our potential in terms that are no doubt satisfying to That which has created us. For the chance to express so fully I personally can only remain deeply grateful."

Read Enneagram Monthly's in-depth interview of John Maxwell Taylor.