Paul McCartney Can't Figure Out His Notes on the Meaning of Life

The only thing worse than not knowing the meaning of life, as Paul McCartney can tell you, is having the answer but being unable to decipher your own transcription.

Seems McCartney attained this seemingly unreachable intellectual plateau one night in a hotel room with Bob Dylan. So the former Beatles star quickly found a piece of paper to scratch out notes to read later. The next morning, as McCartney revealed in a recent episode of his new virtual reality documentary, he discovered that he had only written: "There are seven levels."

Asked if the whole thing was drug-induced, McCartney admitted that, yes, maybe. "I think it was our first pot experience," he told Noisey. Still, he's returned to the note's simple message often over the years. So have many others, as he's learned since the Dylan story spread.

"I never quite knew what I meant that night, but the weird thing is, I’ve run into people who have said they got something from it," McCartney said. "They start going into scriptures and ancient texts and stuff, and apparently, there are people who say that, about levels."

What he remembers most clearly today is the desire to get the word out about this new revelation.

"All I know is, it seemed very definite to me at the time," McCartney said. "And because it was my first pot experience, my overriding concern was telling everyone back home. You know how you do that? If you do something great, you can’t wait to tell your mates? Like, 'I’ve just been there!' or 'I’ve just met this person!' or 'I've just been to Disneyland!'

"Well, I thought I’d cracked the meaning of life," he added, "so I couldn’t wait to tell everyone back home. Who knows? Maybe 'There are seven levels' is right. It certainly seemed very right that night."