David Lynch Forms Meditation Foundation

August 4, 2005

By Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Film director David Lynch, a longtime practitioner

of Transcendental Meditation, has formed a foundation that will

encourage schools to use the technique in the classroom. "It's

knowledge in terms of the self and it works wonders in the kids," he

said.

The David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and

World Peace will raise money for TM peace groups and provide

scholarships for students taking part in meditation programs.

He met some of those students during a visit to Maharishi Vedic City in

rural southeast Iowa, considered the spiritual center of the TM

movement in the United States.

"I'm convinced there are hundreds or thousands of kids who will see the

truth of this and want to take part in one way or another," he said.

The meditation technique involves sitting comfortably with the eyes

closed for 20 minutes, twice a day, according to the Web site of the

Transcendental Meditation Program. It helps students overcome stress

and perform better in the classroom by using their entire brain, rather

than just a portion of it, Lynch said.

Barry Markovsky, a sociologist at the University of South Carolina, has

spent years studying the Maharishi movement and Transcendental

Meditation. Although he said meditating can be good for students, he's

skeptical of the group's insistence that only their method is beneficial.

Lynch, who directed such films as "Mulholland Drive,Elephant

Man,Blue Velvet," and "Wild At Heart," is currently working on a film

in Los Angeles called "INLAND EMPIRE."

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On the Net:

University of South Carolina: http://www.sc.edu/

Transcendental Medication Program: http://www.tm.org

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