Is Paul McCartney Religious? From Catholic Baptism to "I Saw God"

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Paul McCartney was baptized Catholic, meditated with a guru in the Himalayas, and once described seeing “this amazing towering thing” that he called God — and he still won’t settle on a single word for what he believes.

Full name	Sir James Paul McCartney
Born	June 18, 1942, Liverpool, England
Raised	Catholic (mother), Protestant/agnostic (father)
Practice	Transcendental Meditation since 1967

A Mixed, Unstrict Household

McCartney was baptized Roman Catholic after his mother Mary, who was of Irish Catholic descent. His father Jim, by contrast, had drifted from Protestantism into agnosticism, and reportedly kept Paul and his brother Mike out of Catholic schools specifically because he felt they overemphasized religion. The result was a home where faith existed but wasn’t enforced.

The Beatles and the Maharishi

In August 1967, McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and their partners met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at a lecture in London and were taught Transcendental Meditation soon after. They went further in early 1968, studying with the Maharishi at his ashram in Rishikesh, India. McCartney has practiced TM on and off ever since.

“Mother Mary” Was Literal

Few McCartney lyrics get read as religious as often as “Let It Be” — and he has confirmed the “Mother Mary” of the song came from a dream about his own late mother, Mary, who died of cancer when he was 14. He has said he was aware of the Virgin Mary double meaning when he wrote it, and has accepted fans’ religious interpretations without disputing them.

“I Saw God”

In a 2018 Sunday Times interview, McCartney described a decades-earlier DMT experience with art dealer Robert Fraser: “I saw God, this amazing towering thing, and I was humbled.” He has been careful to frame it as one input among many rather than a conversion, telling The Independent in 2012 only that he has “a kind of personal faith in something good.”

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