On a meditation retreat in India in 1968, the Beatles wrote around 40 new songs in less than two months.

The most inspired creativity is often transpersonal, in that it comes from beyond the personal conscious mind.

Meditation can soften the boundaries of the conscious mind, opening us to transpersonal creativity.

In August 1967, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney sat together in the front row at a lecture by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at the London Hilton Hotel (their drummer Ringo Starr couldn’t come due to the birth of his second child). The Beatles felt so enthusiastic about the Indian sage that they canceled the following week’s recording session and immediately decamped to Bangor, Wales, where the Maharishi was holding a 10-day transcendental meditation training course. Tragically, the sudden death of their manager Brian Epstein meant that they couldn’t complete the course. However, the following February—after completing work on the Magical Mystery Tour project—all four Beatles traveled to India for a longer meditation retreat.

Research has found that meditation benefits creativity.1 It promotes psychological qualities such as openness to experience and cognitive flexibility, both of which are strongly associated with creativity.2 It also enhances mental clarity and attention, which helps us to express the........

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