The Smiley Smile Message Board

I am wondering if Mike, and Al, too, for that matter, are still active practitioners of TM. Or if that was a passing fad in their lives. I'm also curious if anyone knows if they got into yoga, which is closely related to TM.

I think Mike still follows TM.   I'm pretty sure he mentioned that when he introduced All This is That at a show I attended this past winter.

I think both practice it, but Mike is very public about it and Al not so much.

I bet Brian stills practices TM but talks about it even less than Al, he was a devotee more than a year before any of the other Boys.

I would be surprised if Brian has done TM since sometime in the 70's. Certainly never hear him talk about it. It would be interesting if someone would chronicle the spiritual journeys of the Beach Boys. For the most part, they were very quiet about it, except for Mike. Carl must have practiced some sort of meditation or something, to keep as calm as he appeared to be all those years.

Yet for the volumes of blabbering he spews about TM, it readily appears that it has been a dismal failure for myKe luHv. Chemicals that help control the brain would have been far better for the clownster, like maybe Lexepro or something along that line. And he wouldn't have to give up the "lifestyle".  ;)

I remember hearing a Brian interview in which he was pretty animated and extroverted, and he said something along the lines of "I tried everything!  I tried meditation, sure.  I meditated my ass off and it didn't work."  Looooove candid Brian.

Those answers can always change though.  People pick up and put down wellness exercises often throughout their lives.  Like playing center field, TM, healthy eating, jogging, and walking around the park every day. 

I think in the SMiLE documentary he mentioned meditating before the 2004 London show.

I believe i seen a inverveiw from somewhere in the 2000s and Brian said he practiced into the later 70s but he is too busy to do it anymore. Mike Love still does it twice a day for 20 minutes.

Mike mentions he meditates in virtually every interview he gives.

A few random things:

If Brian (or anyone) refers to having meditated or meditating, it doesn't necessarily mean it's "TM."

Al doesn't go on about TM in every interview like Mike does, but he has done some public events and whatnot, like his Rubin Museum gig in early 2014 which was a benefit for David Lynch's foundation which supports TM. I believe Al even performed both "TM Song" and "Transcendental Meditation" at that gig.

For those interested in the dichotomy between Mike practicing TM and his general demeanor these days (e.g. being disgruntled, bitter, etc.), the Rolling Stone piece from a few months back very interestingly went into this. The interviewer directly asked Mike why, if he meditates every day, does he still seem to harbor such negative feelings and get so worked up about stuff. Mike's answer is quite interesting, and I appreciate both that the interviewer asked those questions and that Mike actually, to some degree, answered them.

Carl was initiated into TM, but switched to another meditation practice.

For what it;s worth, TM isn't like an all consuming religious thing (though I know Mike has spouted like it was at times).  It's just a very simple meditation technique and a little course to help with the discipline, at least generally speaking.  I've utilized it for over 40 years now.  Not "cosmically conscious" yet though. 

Mike could be a lot worse if he wasn't meditating every day. Food for thought.