N SATURDAY THE 4th of April, Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr performed onstage together for the first time in seven years at the Change Begins Within benefit in aid of the David Lynch Foundation (the Guardian's sarky article on the evening features a short video of the pair performing Beatles classic With A Little Help From My Friends).

This jogged my memory back to a crazy late October morning in 2007 when David Lynch and Donovan Leitch appeared on BBC Radio 4's Today programme where they were interviewed by (as The Independent put it) a "sceptical" Edward Stourton as they explained the benefits of bringing transcendental meditation to millions of school children around the world.

Below is a transcript of that interview. Also linked is an MP3 so you can experience the surreal-ness of the occasion for yourself:

MP3: David Lynch and Donovan on Radio 4
Tuesday, 23rd October 2007
Radio 4, Today programme

Edward Stourton: The time's twenty-one minutes past eight. The filmmaker David Lynch and the folk singer Donovan are embarking on a speaking tour to encourage the use of transcendental meditation in schools. They're both in our radio car. Morning to you both.

David Lynch: Good morning Ed.

Edward: And I understand-

Donovan Leitch: Good morning Ed, it's Donovan here.

Edward: I understand, I'll begin with you Donovan, that TM has made a big difference in your own life and career?

Donovan: Yes it has, from 1968 when the Beatles and I [audio skips] yeah.

Edward: What does it do for you, exactly?

Donovan: Well, it centres you. I'd read about it, George Harrison and I had talked about it, there is a place inside all of us, and if we could only contact it, it would bring forth our full potential. As an artist it has done for me. To describe it, maybe David would describe a little bit of it.

Edward: David Lynch.

David: I'd be happy to Ed. Ed, there's a treasury inside each one of us human beings, and it's called, modern science calls it the Unified Field at the base of all matter and mind. It's pure bliss consciousness. Anyone, any human being can learn its simple, easy, effortless technique. A ten-year-old child can do it, to dive within, transcend and experience this field which is pure bliss, pure creativity, infinite intelligence, love, energy, power, the engine that runs the universe, and it's our field and when children get a chance to have this technique it transforms their life. Children are suffering more and more with stress at a younger and younger age and this gets rid of stress. All negativity begins to lift by experiencing this deepest level of life.

Edward: I won't ask you to demonstrate because presumably we'd be in for a few moments of total silence on the radio.

David: A few blissful moments.

Edward: A few blissful moments! Well we don't really do bliss on the Today programme very often I'm afraid.

David: You should do bliss Ed, you should do bliss.

Edward: [laughing] Okay, well it's something we'll maybe consider.

David: It'll change your life, man.

Edward: David Lynch, just being a little bit serious for a moment-

David: We're being very serious.

Edward: You were being very serious, I know, I'm sorry, but perhaps asking a slightly provocative question-

David: Sure.

Edward: Do you think it squares, this sense of bliss that you've been talking about, with the style of your films which have a reputation-

David: I get this question, I get this question-

Edward: You don't even need me to finish it, you can finish it for yourself, alright.

David: Stories have conflict. Music, stories, books, they reflect the world in which we live. They always have conflict, that's what makes a good story, but the artist doesn't have to suffer to show suffering. Understanding grows when you experience this deepest level, appreciation grows, intelligence, creativity flows, and the negativity lifts.

Edward: Just the conflict I was thinking of, they're very dark your films, aren't they?

David: Yeah, but there's beauty and light and bliss floating in there too. The world is as you are, they say. There's plenty of great things floating in there with the darkness, with the contrast, but the artist doesn't have to suffer to show suffering.

Edward: Well let's turn to this question of schools. Donovan, you were born in Glasgow weren't you?

Donovan: I certainly was.

Edward: Can you imagine a Glasgow secondary school practising transcendental meditation twice a day?

Donovan: Well this is exactly why we're here, David & I, to introduce such an extraordinary thing, and it has shown enormous success in every school around the world where it has been used. Can I imagine it? Not when I was growing up, but amazingly so it's now available. Had I had it then I would have excelled, I believe, more as a child.

Edward: You don't think it's something that perhaps, um, how can I put this, will find greater, easier reception in the United States perhaps than it would in this country where we perhaps are a little bit, how shall I say, sceptical about these things?

Donovan: Well, yeah, maybe on the surface, but once a school that tries it, once you see the actual results, and they are available if you want to check into it on the davidlynchfoundation.org site you see these results, it's extraordinary. It's easy, it's effortless, it's available.

Edward: [laughs] Since you've got to the advertising bit perhaps we should end it, but would you care to play us out? I believe you've got a guitar with you.

Donovan: I've got a guitar here, and it's the shortest song on radio.


Edward: Beautiful and beautifully short. Donovan, David Lynch, thank you both very much indeed.

David: It's a real thing Ed, give it to the kids!

Donovan: Yeah here it comes!

David: Thanks a lot.

Edward: Thank you.