McCartney Times

NEW YORK, NY – DECEMBER 19: Sir Paul McCartney, MBE attends “This Beautiful Fantastic” screening at SVA Theatre on December 19, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Noam Galai/WireImage)

Paul McCartney has revealed just how swinging the 1960s really were.

The Beatle is generally thought to have been the most sensible among the Fab Four, yet this still didn’t stop him experimenting with psychedelic drugs, such as strong hallucinogen Dimethyltryptamine (DMT).

“There was the gallery owner Robert Fraser, me, a couple of others,” McCartney, 76,  – who’s 17th studio album Egypt Station will be released on Sept. 7 – told the Sunday Times. “We were immediately nailed to the sofa. And I saw God, this amazing towering thing, and I was humbled.”

McCartney added, “It was huge. A massive wall that I couldn’t see the top of, and I was at the bottom. And anybody else would say it’s just the drug, the hallucination, but both Robert and I were, like, ‘Did you see that?’ We felt we had seen a higher thing.”

This incident has helped shaped McCartney spiritual belief that “there is something higher” – although he admitted he has “no idea” what that might be.

“Having lost both my parents and Linda, and having experienced people close to me dying, you often hear this from others when you say you’re missing a person so much,” McCartney also told the Sunday Times. “‘Don’t worry,’ they say. ‘They’re here, looking down on you.’ And there’s part of you that thinks there is no proof of that. But there’s part of you that wants to believe it.”

For the Beatle, this most intensely occurred while grieving the death of his late wife Linda, who died of breast cancer in 1998 at age 56.

“I like to allow myself to think that happens, rather than stopping myself thinking of the possibility,” McCartney shared. “I was in the country once, and I saw a white squirrel. So, this was Linda, come back to give me a sign.”

He continued, “It was a great moment. It thrilled me. Goosebumps! Obviously, I have no proof it was her at all, but it was good for me to think that.”

Paul McCartney and Linda Eastman

C. Maher/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Image

It also provides a fascinating insight into the tear-jerking comment the “Hey Jude” singer made during a recent Carpool Karaoke in his native Liverpool.

Midway through, Late Late Show host James Corden turned to McCartney and said he would have dearly loved for his late grandad to be with them. To which McCartney replies, “He is.”

Yet McCartney’s decades-long career hasn’t entirely been about spirituality, music and wild drug experiences with bandmates John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Throughout his life, there has been one constant that has never changed: Queen Elizabeth.

Paul McCartney and Queen Elizabeth

Tim Graham Picture Library/Getty

“She is the glue,” McCartney, who was made a Companion of Honour at Buckingham Palace in May, said. “I’m a fan. I think she does a hell of a job and I’m proud to be alive during her reign, and one of her subjects.”

With typically cheeky Beatles charm, he then adds “I say, in history, where Queen Elizabeth I had Walter Raleigh, Queen Elizabeth II had the Beatles.” Not many would disagree.

Sir Walter Raleigh was an English explorer and soldier, who became a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I after serving in her army in Ireland.

Source: Paul McCartney Reveals He ‘Saw God’ on a Drug Trip | PEOPLE.com