Lynch on transcendental meditation

Started by MacGuffin, February 02, 2005, 04:16:47 PM

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The Sheriff

anyone into meditation, id like to hear your thoughts after this:

"Spirituality" Cements Childhood Blindness
by Barbara Rogers
Wednesday September 12, 2007
Part 1 – How we learn to judge human feelings – the most vital messengers of our souls with a protective purpose

Human feelings are vital messengers that are meant to have a protective function. They convey important information as our bodies and souls respond to the world around us, to the actions and attitudes of others and to the experiences that we make, most powerfully to traumatic experiences. But many people do not try to contact and understand all their feelings – instead they judge some of them as "negative" or "bad." This manipulative distortion of unwelcome feelings begins in childhood. Parents, teachers and religious authorities, among others, want "good" – uncomplicated, obedient and pleasing children that display "good feelings" – but no criticism and protest stemming from feelings of pain, discontent, doubt and anger. Children who speak up and express their feelings are often ignored, condemned and punished, even physically, and the child that suffers and rebels does not encounter respect and compassion.

For adults, this attitude lives on in spiritual concepts. People who learned as children to suppress their feelings will go on to discard their "bad" feelings as "negative emotions." They continue to present to the outside world the likeable, pleasing facade that their earliest experiences forced upon them. By the time they have grown up, many people are deeply afraid of their feelings, especially if they feel anger and hatred; and the condemnation of their "negative emotions" enters their philosophical, religious or spiritual beliefs.

whole thing here
id fuck ayn rand

Sleepless

From www.independent.co.uk

The Big Question: What is transcendental meditation, and is it the cure for society's ills?
By Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor
Published: 24 October 2007

Why are we asking this now?

Film director David Lynch and Sixties pop star Donovan have teamed up to launch a campaign to encourage children to meditate in school. In a series of talks , the pair will promote the technique of transcendental meditation practised by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and popularised by the Beatles 40 years ago.Another TM convert to have just emerged is Joaquim Chissano, the former president of Mozambique, who has been honoured with the Achievement in African Leadership award.

Has David Lynch done this before?

Yes. Lynch is reported to have persuaded 20,000 US pupils to take twice daily transcendental meditation lessons with their teachers. He has also donated millions to the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education. He said: "The technique of transcendental meditation has seen a drop in stabbings, violence, depressions, suicides and the use of illegal drugs in some of the worst schools in the US you can imagine." Lynch has also spoken of the benefits he has gained from TM: "When I started meditating I had a real anger in me, and I would take this out on my first wife. Two weeks after I started meditating, this anger lifted."

The rest is just about TM in general, no Lynch.

What does Donovan say about TM?

He claims it is the secret of his success as a musician. Last year the Scots-born troubadour, famous for hits such as "Mellow Yellow" and "Jennifer Juniper", said he was planning a world tour to reawaken people to the mind-expanding wonders of meditation. "I had all the western trouble of the psyche: anxiety, anger, stress and fear which all cause illness. Over the past 40 years I have experienced the way this system has absolute healing benefits."

How many people practise TM, and what does it involve?

About 6 million people worldwide, according to the official TM website. The technique involves a form of concentrated attention in which the mind is turned inward and focused on a single point of reference. This is achieved by uttering the mantra, a word given to the student during the initiation ceremony which is chanted silently over and over. The aim is to empty the mind of thoughts, feelings and fantasies, not by blocking their intrusion, which is impossible, but by observing them as they intrude and then always returning to the central task of attending to the mantra. In this way a state of inner peace is achieved.

With practice, it is said, the mind can transcend thought, is no longer bound by feelings or fantasies, and experiences "awareness of itself alone." Hence "transcendental" meditation.

Is there evidence that it is beneficial?

Yes. Scores of scientific studies have been published since the 1970s, a number of which have shown benefits in lowering stress, blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking, drinking and anxiety. In 2005, the American Journal of Cardiology reported that among 202 patients with raised blood pressure who were followed for 18 years, those who practised TM had a 23 per cent lower death rate. In 2006, a study in Archives of Internal Medicine found patients who practised the technique for 16 weeks had improved blood pressure, insulin resistance and nervous system. The National Institutes of Health in the US has found that people practising meditation have lower breathing and heart rate yet "higher EEG coherence" indicating greater concentration and alertness. Long-term practitioners speak of an experience of "unboundedness."

Why was TM so popular in the 1960s?

It started with the Beatles. George Harrison had become intrigued by a sitar he had seen on the set of the film Help! and flew to India for lessons from the master, Ravi Shankar. His wife, Patti, who accompanied him, learnt of the Maharishi's work, who by then had spent a decade on the road promoting the technique around the globe in an effort to "spiritually regenerate the world". After the Harrisons' visit, the Maharishi travelled to Bangor in north Wales where he was visited by the Beatles, among other celebrities.

The Maharishi had already learnt that a few pop-star converts could help his crusade to raise the world's consciousness and later he invited Donovan to visit him in Los Angeles. Donovan was initiated a few days later. Later in 1968 he visited the Maharishi at his ashram in India with the Beatles, Mia Farrow and Mike Love of the Beach Boys – and a global movement was born.

Has it all been peaceand love since then?

No. John Lennon soon fell out with the Maharishi and wrote a a song "Sexy Sadie" about his allegedly materialistic ways. It did not dampen enthusiasm for the technique and in the 1970s, the Maharishi launched a "World Plan" to establish a teaching centre for each million of the world's population. He also founded a political party, The Natural Law Party, which fielded candidates in elections in several countries including the UK but is now mostly defunct.

Since 1990, the Maharishi has co-ordinated his global activities from his headquarters in Vlodrop, a town in the Netherlands. In 2005, he ordered his followers to stop teaching the technique in Britain in protest against Tony Blair's support for the US in the Iraq war and the British electorate's failure to unseat him at the general election. He said there was no point in wasting the "beautiful nectar" of TM on a "scorpion nation." The ban has since been lifted.

Is it expensive to learn TM?

A course costs £1,280 in the UK. This includes four consecutive days of instruction (90 minutes a day) with "as much follow-up as is required for the first three to six months." Whether that is expensive depends on the benefits it brings. Ozzy Osbourne thought it a waste of time. He said: "I tried TM but gave it up and smoked a joint instead."

Some TM teachers have become concerned about the cost and have left the organisation to offer instruction on their own. In the UK there are 80 official TM teaching centres. Instruction begins with a short ceremony and then the student learns and begins practising the technique.

Should we all bedoing it?

The Maharishi, now aged 90, would wish it so. He believes the spiritual wellbeing of the world would be transformed if everyone spent 20 minutes each day meditating.

So should children be encouraged to practise TM?

Yes...

* It helps reduce stress and anxiety and offers a way of dealing with unpleasant emotions

* Medical evidence shows it can lower blood pressure and cholesterol and benefit the heart

* Spending 20 minutes each day in quiet contemplation can increase peace in the world

No...

* It is mindless, time consuming and offers little benefit to those who cannot empty their minds

* Children should not be encouraged to indulge in quasi-religious practices until they are old enough to choose

* Greater benefits can be obtained by spending 20 minutes cycling, singing or reading
He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.

I Don't Believe in Beatles

From TIME:

Why David Lynch Should Learn German
Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007 By ANDREW PURVIS/BERLIN

David Lynch is no stranger to weird confluences. But the U.S. filmmaker, known for such works as Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks, failed to anticipate the reception his latest project got in Germany this week. Lynch, whose new-age beliefs are sometimes as quirky as his movies, is touring Europe to help establish a network of so-called "invincible universities" to teach the philosophy of transcendental meditation. The idea is to engender world peace. But at a meeting this week at a culture center in Berlin, Lynch triggered a less than peaceful exchange with German onlookers when Emanuel Schiffgens, his partner for establishing such a "university" in the German capital, suddenly veered into dangerous waters.

"We want an invincible Germany!" intoned Schiffgens, the self-styled Raja of Germany. The flap those words created, with their echoes of the Third Reich, reveals both the deadly seriousness with which Germans view their wartime past and the gulf separating Lynch's new-age agenda from that of some hard-bitten Berliners with a more historical mind-set.

"What do you mean by this concept of invincibility," asked an onlooker from the audience, made up mainly of film students with a smattering of meditation devotees. "An invincible Germany is a Germany that's invincible," replied a Delphic Schiffgens, who was dressed in a long white robe and gold crown. "Adolf Hitler wanted that too!," shouted out one man. "Yes," countered Schiffgens. "But unfortunately he didn't succeed." At that the crowd began shouting epithets at the speaker: "You are a charlatan! This is bad theater!" Lynch, who does not speak German, looked on in incomprehension.

The director was in Berlin attempting to buy a large swath of land on a hill known as Teufelsberg, or "Devil's Mountain," on the city's outskirts. The hill is made up of some 12 million cubic meters of rubble cleared away after Berlin was destroyed in World War II; the site was later used as a U.S. listening post during the Cold War. Lynch and Schiffgens are followers of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who founded the concept of transcendental meditation. Schiffgens says that with Lynch's help he plans to build a gleaming new "university" on Teufelsberg in order to provide "knowledge to students but also give them the chance to be enlightened." The university would form part of a network of similar institutions in Austria, France and elsewhere. Shortly after Lynch laid a foundation stone this week, however, a senior official in the regional government told German radio that it had not granted permission for construction of the university on Teufelsberg and possibly never would. A manager at the Berlin culture center where Lynch and Schiffgens spoke conceded that the flap did not reflect well on his center. "It's all a bit embarrassing," he said.

Near the end of the meeting, Schiffgens tried to explain his use of language to a restive crowd: "Invincible means no more negativity. No more enmity. We want to make Germany invincible so they cannot defeat you!" Lynch, who by this time had availed himself of a translator, then stood up and took the microphone: "You all have a history and Raja Emanuel has triggered some things. I would say, 'Deal with it.' Have it out with Raja Emanuel. But he's a great human being."

The American director, a bit of a cult figure himself in Europe, regretted that the real message of transcendental meditation, which he calls an "ancient eternal knowledge verified by Western science," was being lost in the furor. "Mankind was not made to suffer," he said. "We are all one. Bliss is our nature ... But somehow tonight this beautiful gift has gotten perverted. Let's march boldly toward a bright and shining future!" The strangeness of the whole affair was not lost on film students in the audience, one of whom caught it on film. At the very least, the evening was suitably Lynchian: disturbing but good theater nonetheless.




Director David Lynch and Emanuel Schiffgens display a plan for a transcendental university.
"A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later." --Stanley Kubrick

Pubrick

Quote from: Ginger on November 17, 2007, 02:28:49 PM
one of whom caught it on film.

that first clip was fucking disturbing. these germans are smart ppl. those are very powerful words this idiot Raja Emannuel Schiffgens was saying, and without CLARIFYING them, he just kept repeating them. here's the problem:

"this is the wrong man" -- the germans said this about RE. it's true. everything about this TM business is tragically wrong for basically RIGHT reasons. the frustration in the room was palpable and it goes further than the words he used. they want to educate everyone while in a higher state of consciousness.. well i submit to them that we CANNOT function or communicate realistically in that state, as proven by this disconnected douche.

what he was saying would probably not shock "enlightened" ppl. maybe they would understand that "invincibility" is meant as a collective ideal on a global scale and with the goal of progress towards increasing positivity. but the way he presents it is MADNESS in the real world. he claims to be connected to some ineffable state of truth and consciousness, but at what cost? he appears completely disconnected from reality.

frankly, RES, david, donovan and all other followers of this crap sound like goddamn POD PEOPLE when they speak. our world has a history, not least of which is the specific history of GERMANY and the lessons we have learned through it (the hard way). the most disturbing fact is that Germany was not the first time such horror swept the world. ideals are corrupted even now, ppl are exploited with the hope of a greater future. the raja, and whoever is truly in charge of the spread of TM, should be acutely aware of all this.

i believe there is some truth in the cause, as with all religions at heart, it is noble, and peaceful. but institutions are NOT infallible.. and keep in mind that TM is supposedly not a religion but simply a "method". there are problems with its expansion and they need to be addressed. if not completely dismantled.

one thing is certain, as lynch said to the crowd, "this is bound to come up again". and as one german said to Lynch about the dumb cunt raja "he's destroying what you built up so beautifully". lynch should heed this warning. he needs to leave this crowd.

this is not the way.
under the paving stones.

socketlevel

ya it's ironic (or not at all) because Hitler would use the same semantic tactics in his speeches.  talking in circles and instilling a false sense of intelligence (yet there is no logic in the arguments), all the while conveying a strong emotion; the very thing that people latch on to.  now obviously this guy is a Nazi sympathizer, and he let it slip, but this similar type of speech is used on any political platform.  the only reason why this gets notable recognition is the fact that it ties into a horrible past event.  on a smaller yet equally destructive means, every political agenda preys on people's sense of patriotism and emotions instead of laying out a logical blueprint of their platform.  they don't do this, because doing so would be open for criticism of their agenda; and because that is boring, it is made to look like drama instead of reality.

i do agree with you though pubrick, and the germans have become very smart people because of the usurped government's in their past.  hell they're the only ones that won't let tom cruise in their country to shoot his films, because they're fucking smart.  i did about a year of research about Scientology and that is some fucked up crazy shit, really insane when you get the nitty gritty.  germany is like one of the only countries that outlaws this insane cult, so i'm proud at the fact they took this guy head on.  the news clip never states what lynch thought of all this after the fact when get got all the info, i'd like to know if he was like "wtf, this guys fucking nutz on a Messiah kick" or if he's so down the rabbit hole that he would defend him.  scary stuff, that's for sure.
the one last hit that spent you...

I Don't Believe in Beatles

Oh, I forgot to post this.

These clips were uploaded to and Lynch commented on them in three posts:

David Lynch here. (PART 1 of 3) I don't want to have anything to do with Hitler. As we all know he was not a good person who did terrible things.

I want to support Invincible Universities to develop the full potential of the student, which is enlightenment, and to have students meditating together in a group to enliven and radiate the unified field—the field of peace—into the atmosphere, into the collective consciousness of every nation.

David Lynch here. (PART 2 of 3) Invincibility in this case means dynamic peace. It means a situation where no harm can come from within the country and nothing destructive can come from the outside to harm the country.

Sometimes misunderstandings are troublesome. So I want to make perfectly clear that the university for enlightenment and peace will make this a peaceful world — a peaceful world family — where anyone can travel anywhere in the world and meet a friend, not an enemy.

David Lynch here. (PART 3 of 3) Dynamic peace is not just the absence of war—it is the absence of negativity, which is the seeds of war. These universities, established on a permanent basis, will put an end to thousands of years of war and oppression, and prevent a man like Hitler from ever arising again.

David Lynch
"A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later." --Stanley Kubrick

Pubrick

Pubrick here (Part 1 of 1) then tell your nazi sympathizer leader of invincible germany to learn how to explain his terminology. you think a few posts on youtube is gonna clear up the whole thing? it's gonna come up again because the ppl in charge of this stuff are CRAZY.

Pubrick
under the paving stones.

socketlevel

ya i guess the biggest moment in question is when he states that Hitler did not successfully achieve his goals, just being the devil's advocate for a second, maybe me meant that Hitlers ideologies and meathods were the failure rather than trying to suggest that Hitler was an underachiever.  i don't know, what do you think?  i have sometimes even read posts on this site and later thought "oh shit, that's the opposite of what i meant" just from my choice of diction.

think this is a possibility?  or is he just a bad guy?

-sl-
the one last hit that spent you...

MacGuffin

David Lynch Talks Transcendental Meditation, Red Ants In Space, By Kurt Loder
Moby, Donovan also perform at Maharishi University's weekend honoring 'Blue Velvet' director.

FAIRFIELD, Iowa — You know you've arrived in Fairfield, a town of some 9,000 souls situated amid the flat corn and soy fields of southeastern Iowa, when you see two great golden domes swelling up into the sky. These mark the site of the Maharishi University of Management, the educational center of the Transcendental Meditation movement founded by the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, an Indian spiritual entrepreneur who died in the Netherlands in February. Beneath the domes, separated into contingents of men and women, hundreds of TM adherents array themselves around the floors, practicing group meditation. A TM veteran told me that the domes were also once said to offer vertical maneuvering room for those adepts who achieved a state of levitation, although the possibility of actually rising up into the air, which is still as improbable as ever, is something that's downplayed nowadays.

We arrived in Fairfield just in time for David Lynch Weekend, a tribute to TM's highest-profile exponent. "Transcendental Meditation" (like "TM," a trademarked term) became famous in the 1960s when it attracted such celebrity spiritual seekers as the Beatles and Donovan, both of whom traveled to India to meet the Maharishi in person. The Beatles soon fell out with him, and moved on in a huff; Donovan stuck with it, but today his vintage hits, like "Hurdy Gurdy Man" and "Sunshine Superman," are most widely heard on movie soundtracks. And so now it is Lynch, the director of such singular films as "Eraserhead" and "Blue Velvet," who is the movement's most energetic proselytizer, traveling the world to talk it up, and even publishing a book recently — "Catching the Big Fish" — about his 33 years of TM practice.

We spoke to Lynch on April 26 at the typically cheery little bed-and-breakfast inn where we were staying. (Fairfield is an intensely cheerful town, but it has no hotels, and as best we'd been able to ascertain the previous evening, there's only one bar.) The director arrived wearing his usual black suit, its lapels endearingly dotted with cigarette ash. Since he's lately become committed to the use of low-end video cameras in making his movies (the most recent being 2006's "INLAND EMPIRE"), one of our group had brought along a tiny new vid-cam in the hope that Lynch might shoot some footage for us. Which he did, bless him. And since one of the reasons he loves this new digital technology is because it allows him to get right in among his actors with performance suggestions and dialogue adjustments while he's shooting, we shot him, too, while conducting the interview. All pretty exciting. Well, for us.

That night there was a concert in Lynch's honor in a gymnasium on the university campus that had been fitted out with very professional video, audio and stage-lighting rigs. The show opened with a brief set by a remarkable singer named Chrysta Bell, a sleek blond woman whose lushly atmospheric songs recall the whispery sound of an earlier Lynch collaborator, Julee Cruise. (Bell sang on an "INLAND EMPIRE" track called "Polish Poem.") Bell was followed by Moby, another TM practitioner, who did an acoustic set assisted by a second guitarist and a powerful female singer whose voice was reminiscent of Janis Joplin. (After the show, Moby and company headed over to the local high school's prom — which was being upstaged by the Lynch-fest — to perform some more, unannounced.) Topping the bill was Donovan, who has retained the trademark vocal vibrato that featured on his old hits, which he ran through at length, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar.

Earlier, Lynch himself had come out onstage to address the crowd — if "address" is the word. Actually, the director had no set speech to give; he only took questions from the audience. This brilliant stratagem allowed him to talk about whatever he wanted, pretty much, and he used his answers to the various inquiries to extol TM's usefulness in relieving stress and unleashing what would probably have to be called positive consciousness. ("Negativity blocks creativity," he said. And "Know everything within and you'll know everything without.") TM has its detractors — killjoys who call it an exploitative cult. (You can Google them.) Lynch, however, has clearly found the practice of meditating for 20 minutes, twice a day, to be valuable in his work, and he would like to see TM taught in schools — as it is, of course, at Maharishi University.

Unsurprisingly, he got no arguments from the students on hand for his address, who were uniformly adoring. A girl in the audience, an aspiring filmmaker, asked Lynch to free-associate some characteristic Lynchian imagery. He came right up with a bunch, including "a bowling ball in space filled with red ants" and "a Buick with 16 15-year-old girls." (Very D.L., that last one.) The girl was impressed. "Awesome," she said.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

MacGuffin



'The pleasure of life grows'
Film-maker David Lynch hasn't missed a day of meditation in 34 years. He explains how one experience changed his quality of life forever
Source: The Guardian

When I first heard about meditation, I had zero interest in it. I wasn't even curious. It sounded like a waste of time.
What got me interested, though, was the phrase "true happiness lies within". At first, I thought it sounded kind of mean because it doesn't tell you where the "within" is, or how to get there. But, still, it had a ring of truth. And I began to think that maybe meditation was a way to go within.

I looked into meditation, asked some questions, and started contemplating different forms. During my research, my sister called and said she had been doing Transcendental Meditation for six months. There was something in her voice. A change. A quality of happiness. And I thought: "That's what I want."

So, in July 1973, I went to the Transcendental Meditation centre in Los Angeles and met an instructor. I liked her. She looked like Doris Day. She taught me this technique. She gave me a mantra, which is a sound-vibration-thought. You don't meditate on the meaning of it, but it's a very specific sound-vibration-thought. She took me into a little room to have my first meditation. I sat down, closed my eyes, started this mantra, and it was like I was in an elevator and they cut the cable. Boom! I fell into bliss - pure bliss. And I was just in there.

Then the teacher said: "It's time to come out; it's been 20 minutes." "IT'S ALREADY BEEN 20 MINUTES?!" I replied, shocked. And she told me to "shhhh!", because there were other people in the centre meditating.

It seemed so familiar, but also so new and powerful. After that, I said the word "unique" should be reserved for this experience. It takes you to an ocean of pure consciousness, pure knowingness. But it's familiar, it's you. And, right away, a sense of happiness emerges - not a goofball happiness but a thick beauty.

I have never missed a meditation in 34 years. I meditate once in the morning and again in the afternoon, for about 20 minutes each time. Then I go about the business of my day. And I find that the joy of doing increases. Intuition increases. The pleasure of life grows. And negativity recedes.

Some forms of meditation are just contemplation or concentration; they'll keep you on the surface. You won't transcend: you won't get that fourth state of consciousness and you won't get that bliss. You'll stay on the surface.

Relaxation techniques can take you a little way in. That's beautiful, but it's not transcending. Transcending is its own unique thing. And why is transcending so easy? Because it's the nature of the mind to go to fields of greater happiness. It naturally wants to go. And the deeper you go, the more there is, until you hit 100% pure bliss. Transcendental Meditation is the vehicle that takes you there. It's the experience that does everything.

One of the main things that got me talking publicly about Transcendental Meditation was seeing the difference it can make to kids. Kids are suffering. Stress is hitting them at a younger and younger age. And there are all these different learning disorders that I never even heard about before.

At the same time, I saw the results of schools where the students and teachers practise transcendental meditation - where the student learns to dive within and unfold the self, that pure consciousness. Grades go up and test scores improve; students and teachers have less stress, less anxiety. The joy of learning and the joy of teaching increase.

My foundation, the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace, was set up to help more kids get that kind of experience. We've raised money and given it to schools throughout the world to allow tens of thousands of students to learn to meditate. It's amazing to see kids who do this. Stress just doesn't catch them; it's like water off a duck's back.

I am doing this not only for the students' sake, for their own growth of consciousness, but for all of us, because we are like lightbulbs. And like lightbulbs, we can enjoy that brighter light of consciousness within, and also radiate it. I believe that the key to peace is in this.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

MacGuffin

David Lynch Foundation World Harmony Concert

Paul McCartney, Donovan, Eddie Vedder, Sheryl Crow, Paul Horn, Moby and more will perform a global benefit concert at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Saturday, April 4, 2009, in support of the David Lynch Foundation's international initiative to teach one million children the Transcendental Meditation technique—and change the world overnight. Find out more over at: http://www.davidlynchfoundation.org/concert.html
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

jenkins

jb
and others,

didn't know about this and i'm excited!

Dir. David Lynch, 2012, digital presentation, 71 min


"Meditation Creativity Peace" is David Lynch Foundation Television's (http://dlf.tv/) compelling new documentary film featuring exclusive, candid footage from David Lynch's 16-country tour around the world when he spoke to government leaders, film students, and the press during 2007 and 2008. David's unique, free-styling demeanor grabs your attention from the very beginning of the film. David has also selected deeply insightful quotes from great thinkers and revered texts throughout history, which reveal how the practice of meditation, developing creativity, and enjoying true inner peace are the birthright of everyone. As David says in the documentary, "Transcendental Meditation is for human beings—it doesn't matter where you live."

jenkins

you can guess. none of the us visits were included, and since i saw him during that period and in the us, i got to see a whole bunch of different places in kinda the same way (except through low-midrange cameras). i was excited when:

  • fernando pessoa was quoted by name
  • lynch on kafka, as happens: gregor samsa is an excellent character, and the metamorphosis is so fascinating and reaches truth things
  • atma means self
  • i noticed that (when creating a picture to explain trans med) lynch wrote in normal print for the beginning of his list of negative attitudes, but wrote "depression" in cursive (he'd used cursive for previous lists) and following depression he wrote one or two more words in cursive. i noticed lynch thinks the word depression marks the beginning of the need for cursive handwriting
  • lynch's inland empire response was: the movie isn't the unconscious because unconsciousness means a lack of knowing, so inland empire is a conversion of lynch's expanded consciousness, which trans med helped him reach
  • lynch asked a person to come onstage while he told a funny recurring dream story, and his story ended with an action. he's funny sometimes and he knows it
he responded to questions about consciousness and religion and other things. he doesn't seem resistant to the ideas of people finding sublime totality through other venues, he just thinks trans med is the best and gives you an arrow into a realm beyond the surface (bliss). starting with: first lesson, go sign up today. he's on a mellow mission for peace, it's true, and based even on what he's saying (about totality) this view isn't portrayed as obligatory understanding for peace. he's just all about it

lynch is all about peace. i got no probs with that

Pubrick

What's his recurring dream and what was the action.
under the paving stones.

jenkins

she asks lynch if he's ever had recurring dreams. he asks her to come on stage next to him, which of course she does. seems like maybe he needs a friend while he tells a personal story

the dream is about being in a desert... a normal kind of desert, but lynch describes it his style and (probably) wiggles his fingers. he sees a man who is his father. he has two kinds of father, a good and a bad one, and he can't tell which father it is. he says in the dream he walks toward the father. NOW he lurches at the girl. she's shocked. it's an old horror story gag. the audience laughs and lynch smiles because he knows he's being funny. he holds the girl's arm while she recovers from being surprised

then, not done. the girl calms down and there's quieter audience laughter. lynch's smile gets bigger. punchline: "and that was my nice father." everyone erupts with laughter. end scene