“Elephant Man” director longtime practitioner of Transcendental Meditation
Filmmaker David Lynch says his nonprofit foundation will donate $1 million to fund scholarships for students who want to learn a meditation technique taught at the Maharishi University of Management. Lynch, who directed such films as “The Elephant Man,” “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Dr,” and the TV series “Twin Peaks”, is a longtime practitioner of Transcendental Meditation.
Students practice TM as part of their course of study at Maharishi University, which was founded in Fairfield, Iowa, in 1971. The school offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in computer science, art, design, business and sustainable living.
The school was founded by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the one-time guru to the Beatles, who died last month at his home in the Netherlands. The Maharishi started teaching transcendental meditation in the 1950s, based on an ancient Hindu practice of mind control.
The goal of the scholarships is to increase the number of students who meditate on the Fairfield campus to 2,000.
Lynch, 62, started the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace in 2005.
“America urgently needs at least one university to teach the science of peace and to actually promote peace in the world,” the filmmaker said in a statement Thursday.
The university will host “David Lynch Weekend” on April 25-28. It will feature performances by Donovan, Moby and Chrysta Bell.
-with a report from CP