On Friday 29 September 1967, John Lennon and George Harrison appeared as guests on The Frost Programme, whose host David Frost had just interviewed Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, with whom the Beatles were then prominently associated in the press. They discussed their newfound practice of transcendental meditation and the public were interested enough that the two appeared again, five days later, on Wednesday 4 October to continue the discussion, this time in front of a questioning audience of academics and doctors.
We discuss first how remarkable it is that pop stars were given a platform like this to debate theology, and how different the environment was compared to today's discussion programmes, in that everyone was given time to make their points without interruption, and the two Beatles weren't condescended to or shouted down. It's interesting too to note the group dynamic: George is the much-more serious leader here and John takes a back seat, adding humour but not undermining their points.
Watch the interviews
The Friday 29 September 1967 broadcast
Note the YouTube video is mislabelled as 4 October.
The Wednesday 4 October 1967 broadcast
Note the YouTube video is mislabelled as 29 September.
Links
Dr John Allison's paper, Respiratory Changes During Transcendental Meditation, published in The Lancet on 18 April 1970
Details of the BBC Third Programme broadcast of King Lear from 29 September, which the Beatles mixed live into I Am The Walrus