http://www.projo.com/yourlife/content/projo_20050930_lynch.1bc6171a.html
Director David Lynch at Brown 01:00 AM EDT on Friday, September 30, 2005 BY MICHAEL JANUSONIS Journal Arts Writer Director David Lynch has startled, shocked and kept moviegoers guessing for more than a quarter century in films ranging from Eraserhead to Blue Velvet to Mulholland Drive, not to mention his quirky 1990s TV series Twin Peaks. But now Lynch is on a cross-country mission to promote the merits of Transcendental Meditation to college students. His tour will bring him to Brown University Sunday in a question-and-answer session that will be open to students only. Lynch interrupted filming Inland Empire, a movie he's shooting with Laura Dern and Jeremy Irons, to travel to such far-flung places as the University of Pennsylvania, American University in Washington, D.C., Yale, Emerson College in Boston and Brown as part of a weeklong East Coast tour. Over the phone, while riding in a car to Philadelphia, Lynch is enthusiastic about TM, which he has been practicing every day for the past 32 years. "There are a lot of people waiting to hear some good news and learn about something they can do to make life better." Lynch is a follower of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the octogenarian Hindu monk who became famous in the 1960s as "The Beatles' guru." On July 21, Lynch started the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education, which he hopes will raise enough money to train any U.S. child who wants to learn how to practice TM. "It's not just sitting in a room trying to be calm and thinking about life," says Lynch who meditates twice a day for about 20 minutes each. "It's more than prayer, which on the surface isn't so powerful, although on a deeper level prayer is answered instantaneously," he added, explaining that meditation is not a religion. In fact, it is practiced by members of all major faiths and even non-believers, says Lynch, who affirms strongly that he believes in God while describing himself as a "lapsed Presbyterian." But, he points out, "You've got to be trained to meditate properly. The key is the word 'transcend.' You've got to go all the way in." He believes TM can be a key to "permanent world peace . . . not just an end to warfare, but to amplify inner peace to affect the entire world. It's a holistic experience, a feeling of totality that opens you up to all avenues of life." He'd like to raise $7 billion to foster his foundation's goal, from big donors and small. But for now, he's doing it one step at a time on college campuses, talking about how TM has helped rid him of his anger, anxiety and negativity. "Once you dive in, the negativity starts to recede and inner happiness starts to grow." __________________________________ Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005 http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/