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BY STEVEN SAWADA
David Lynch, who will be speaking in Eugene next week, emerged in the late 1970s as one of America’s foremost independent, art film directors. From his foray into major motions picture with Eraserhead, to his immensely popular Twin Peaks television series, Lynch has shaped popular culture as well as redefined the way art cinema can pervade the mainstream motion picture industry. Well known for his macabre and abstract subject matter, esoteric dialogue, and non-linear storytelling evident in such films as Lost Highway, Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart and Mulholland Drive, Lynch has also dabbled with the likes of Walt Disney for his G-rated, albeit sophisticated and endearing film, The Straight Story. He is currently directing a new film, Inland Empire, and says he isenjoying the freedom of working in digital video instead of celluloid.
Lynch is a reclusive filmmaker, photographer, furniture designer, sculptor, painter and song writer. He has an aversion to public speaking, but is re-entering the public realm to promote the launching of his new foundation, the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace, whose goal is to promote the use of Transcendental Meditation (TM) to supplement students’ traditional education. As a technique, TM is a form of meditation meant to clear the mind and thus wipe away negative states of being such as depression. According to Lynch, a practitioner of TM for the past 30 years, TM can help students often plagued by stresses from school and society, develop their creativity and delve into their consciousness by meditating several times a day between regular daily routines.
Let’s start off by talking about TM. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the same Maharishi who was the spiritual guru to the Beatles, is also credited for developing the methods of TM?
Right, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, brought TM here about 50 years ago this year.
Have you ever met him and how were you first introduced to TM?
I’ve met Maharishi and I was introduced first to TM by my sister. I was looking into different forms of meditation after I had gone through a period of not being interested in any kind of mediation. It rang a bell of truth … that true happiness lies within. And I began thinking maybe meditation is a way of truly diving within.
I’ve read that it tries to be neither religion nor philosophy, yet there has to be some tenets behind it?
TM is a mental technique: A very specific yet profound technique that allows any human being to dive within. Pure consciousness, pure bliss, it’s all right within every human being. It’s not out there, it’s within. There’s a whole bunch of knowledge behind it. And Maharishi Mahesh Yogi from the beginning said he wanted to look at it from every single angle. And it’s not a religion. People from every religion practice TM. It’s about consciousness and bliss. People that practice TM say they have a greater understanding of their religion.
I’ve read where you say something along the lines of humans should not have to go through suffering ... Essentially, we don’t need to stress over our art and education, and that great art does not need such conditions in order to develop. Can you explain this?
I understand a hundred percent. Now if you were really depressed, if you were clinically depressed you couldn’t create, you couldn’t even get out of bed. If you really have anger and anxiety you can’t even do your job. You can understand depression but you don’t need to live it ... You can show things, you can intuit things, and you yourself don’t have to suffer from those. When this stuff starts lifting, the enjoyment of doing it — creating art — begins to increase. This (TM) is money in the bank for creating. Why not get a bunch more of that growing and see how ideas flow and see how intuitions grow? When you have anger, I think what your saying is you have a strong opinion about something, but that’s not a crippling anger — that’s a strong opinion.
Whatever form the idea comes in, that idea tells you everything and you either fall in love or you don’t. And if you can see the way the cinema can translate those ideas, you’re off and running. When you start expanding consciousness and understanding, you have a chance to get more of a depth to a thing.
I find it really interesting that you practice this because I can watch something like Lost Highway and feel really no connection to anything calm and serene. But then watching the Straight Story, although there is strife, the scenes and the relaxed demeanor of all the characters makes me feel at ease. Since practicing TM, how come the more chaotic seeming aspects to your movies have gone unaffected? Or why aren’t you making movies that reflect calmness and serenity, something the general public would expect from someone who practices TM?
Well, because I think what some do in painting and books, they reflect the world in which we live. And a lot of these ideas come from the world, and stories come from the feeling of the world. And I can see the way cinema can tell the stories of the world. These are stories that I liked for one reason or another — they are cinematic ideas, and it’s the way cinema can tell these ideas that fires me up.
In a general manner of speaking, how do you compose a timeline for your brand of non-linear storytelling? How do you lay that out and why has it been such a frequent theme for you?
It’s not an intellectual process, it comes out of the ideas and the ideas tell you everything, and ideas are sort of like seeds. It’s all there and you get to translate it and you get to go in a world and feel it and translate it simultaneously.
Down the road, what do you hope to achieve with The David Lynch Foundation Center in Eugene?
It’s a way for human beings to unfold their full potential. Consciousness-based education is for students but it’s also for human beings. It’s a beautiful process in developing full potential. Every day gets better, and negativity starts receding. It’s full potential of the human being and world peace right from Eugene.