Sorry for being dated, but I just came across this February Guardian article
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/jan/27/david-lynch-meditation where it says: "Beloved of hippie celebrities everywhere since the 1960s, TM's expensive teaching courses risked it being priced into oblivion until Lynch was credited with persuading Maharishi Mahesh Yogi - to whom he became close in 2003 after paying $1m to participate in the guru's four-week "Millionaire's Enlightenment Course" - to radically reduce the TM learning fee so that more younger people could learn the practice." I was unaware that David Lynch had persuaded Maharishi to "radically reduce the TM learning fee". Actually, I first heard of the fee sales last January - to $1500 until September for now. Does anybody have more information about this? When did it start? And what fees are agreed upon by the David Lynch Foundation and the movement for the scholarship initiations of students? I didn't know about David Lynch being in the Millionaire's Enlightenment Course either. That explains a few things. So that's how Lynch managed to represent the meditators at the top circles of the movement, where normally you have to be a governor or more to participate. It's nice to know that there is someone representing the meditators' point of view up there. As for "TM's expensive teaching courses risked it being priced into oblivion" it was clear. It is not surprising what John Hagelin in his recent email writes: "The number of adults learning the Transcendental Meditation® technique this year has almost tripled â" and this month more people learned than in any month in the past 15 years!" What *is* surprising is that he goes on to say that: "The new TM.org website, the national media from our April Change Begins Within Benefit Concert with Paul McCartney and friends, and our reduced course fees have produced a sharp rise of interest." The new TM.org website! What was wrong with the old one in the first place? Whom is he trying to fool? I would bet that the new website played nil role in the sharp rise of interest. And the Concert without the reduced fees would have produced much less impressive results in initiation numbers. emf
