John Lennon and George Harrison were having dinner at the home of their dentist in March 1965 when their host informed them that he’d put something special in the coffee they had just drunk: LSD. 

At the time, the acronym meant little to them. “I seem to recall that I'd heard vaguely about it,” Harrison admitted during the 1995 Anthology documentary, “but I didn't really know what it was.” In all likelihood, neither did the dentist. While his precise motives for dosing his famous guests with a powerful hallucinogen are unknown, the Beatles themselves had their suspicions. “I'm sure he thought it was an aphrodisiac,” Harrison continued. Lennon shared similar sentiments in a 1970 interview with Rolling Stone: “We thought he was trying to keep us for an orgy in his house and we didn’t want to know!”

So began the first psychedelic trip undertaken by any of the Fab Four. Horrific ethical violations aside, the experience was an overall pleasant one, and by the end of that year, all of the Beatles had experimented with LSD. These explorations of the mind had a marked influence on their music and, as a result, the culture at large. Within a few years, the drug was embraced as a kind of rite of passage by young people — encouraged by self-proclaimed experts like ex-Harvard professor Dr. Timothy Leary and spiritualist Ram Dass, who touted its liberal use as a universal panacea. 

By 1967, LSD had spread throughout campuses and bohemian neighborhoods around the globe, yet by the end of the semi-mythical Summer of Love, the Beatles had become disillusioned with the substance. Rather than enlightenment in a bottle, they began to see it as just another drug. “It does open a few doors, but it isn’t the answer,” Harrison continued in Anthology. “You don’t just take it and that’s it — you’re enlightened. It just showed a lot of people that there’s a God-consciousness. But it can wear off and you can be back at square one, and you don't know how to get back there without it. That’s why I got into meditation.”

On Aug. 24 of that year, the Beatles attended a London lecture given by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who outlined the practice of Transcendental Meditation — then virtually unknown outside of Eastern cultures. The band were so taken by his teachings that they made the spontaneous decision to attend his 10-day retreat in North Wales the very next day. Within weeks, Lennon and Harrison were on the British chat show hosted by the legendary broadcaster David Frost, preaching the benefits of TM across the airwaves. 

Frost was likely one of the few interviewers who would seriously engage the pair on a topic that was still viewed with skepticism by the British public. After becoming a household name earlier in the decade with his groundbreaking satire program That Was the Week That Was (which featured future members of the Monty Python team), Frost made the jump from comedy to journalism with his chat show on the ITV network, where he distinguished himself with his thoughtful questions, good humor, unerring sense of showmanship and (when warranted) relentless probing. So began a 50-year career, during which he performed thousands of interviews with the likes of Muhammad Ali, Mikhail Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher, Elton John, Jane Fonda and — most famously — Richard Nixon. 

David Frost Vs, a new six-part docuseries detailing Frost’s most famous sit-downs, premieres on MSNBC on Sunday, April 27. The debut episode looks at his numerous interviews with members of the Beatles. Though the Fabs guested on his show many times over the years, arguably the most fascinating appearances are a pair made by Lennon and Harrison in the fall of 1967. 

It was a transitional era for the Beatles, who were coping with the consequences of all their dreams becoming reality. Having come into their own as mature artists with the release of their crowning creative achievement, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, earlier that summer, they were now mourning the death of their manager and confidant, Brian Epstein — a father figure who exerted a sense of guardianship over the group. After achieving success on nearly every metric, they were distressed to discover that this isn’t the key to happiness. Questions like “What’s it all about?” and “Is that all there is?” lingered in their minds. 

Meditation helped them in their search for answers, or at least gave them a sense of peace amid the ambiguity. Lennon and Harrison were eager to share what they learned, particularly with a host like Frost, who was guaranteed to keep an open mind — especially concerning psychedelics, which were still largely taboo. 

“This feeling that meditation gives is a sort of permanent version of what drugs can give temporarily, is that true?” he asked the duo. 

“We’d had enough acid,” Lennon responded with characteristic frankness. “It had done all it could do for us. There was no going any further. It only does so much…. What it does mainly is more [to do with] finding out about yourself and your ego — and that kind of scene. If you have acid, it’s just all about yourself. [Meditation] is a bit gentler.”

Frost pressed on, asking how their relationship to material wealth had evolved since their meditation studies.

“By having all that money we found money wasn’t the answer because we had lots of material things that people spent their whole lives trying to get,” Harrison, who was only 24, observed. “We managed to get them at quite an early age. It was good, really, because we learned that wasn’t it. We still lacked something.” 

Frost moderated a Q&A with the studio audience, who peppered the two Beatles with cynical queries about their newfound spirituality.  One argued that the practice of meditation was “tremendously self-involved and tremendously selfish.”

“I don’t see how it’s selfish,” Lennon shot back. “We’ve no need to be here. We don’t dig doing TV for the fun of it. We’re here just because we believe in meditation.”

Harrison added, “And maybe we can help a few other people understand that it’s easy.” 

Frost stepped in and asked Lennon to characterize the difference he noticed in himself before and after a few weeks of practicing daily meditation  

“I’ve got more energy and more happiness,” he replied, before adding with a wry grin. “I don’t know about intelligence…. I’m just happier and a better person. And I wasn’t bad before!”

“I’ll second that,” Harrison deadpanned. 

The Beatles’ endorsement provided many in the West with their first serious exposure to TM. Their conversation with Frost helped alter the public perception of meditation from a niche spiritual pursuit into a practical tool for personal growth. By demystifying the practice and speaking candidly about its benefits, Lennon and Harrison opened the door for millions to explore meditation as a means of achieving inner peace, resilience, and self-understanding. The effect is still felt today, as meditation and mindfulness have become essential parts of modern wellness culture.

David Frost Vs premieres Sunday, April 27, on MSNBC.