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Film director David Lynch addressed a capacity audience in Kane Hall last night as part of his nationwide university lecture tour to speak on “Consciousness, Creativity and the Brain.” Lynch highlighted the need for stress-reducing meditation within universities in order to foster world peace.
Film director David Lynch addressed a capacity audience in Kane Hall last night as part of his nationwide university lecture tour to speak on “Consciousness, Creativity and the Brain.” Lynch highlighted the need for stress-reducing meditation within universities in order to foster world peace.
By NATE ROBINSON
At first glance, one wouldn’t expect David Lynch, the director of dark films such as Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, to be the poster child for harmony and bliss.
But last night, before a capacity crowd in Kane Hall, that’s precisely what Lynch was.
Lynch’s visit to the UW was just the latest in a series of stops for the director, who is on tour to promote the newly established David Lynch Foundation, created to help spread the teachings of transcendental meditation.
“[Transcendental meditation] is an ocean of creativity, intelligence, love, harmony, coherence and power and energy,” said Lynch. “It’s the most beautiful ocean to dive into and it’s within every human being.”
Transcendental meditation is a technique developed by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi that has been followed by Lynch for more than 32 years. Lynch meditates twice daily to “dive” deeply into his consciousness to find ideas – ideas he uses creatively in films and other outlets.
“I desire human beings being able to truly reach their full potential,” said Lynch, who spent a large portion of the lecture discussing his hopes for transcendental meditation and what kind of effect it could have on the world’s population. “And I desire human beings to live in peace on Earth.”
Lynch, 59, spoke candidly, answering a multitude of questions about the source of his creativity, filmmaking and how the two intertwine.
“The special features that Lynch brings to filmmaking are a sense of the mysterious and the dream world that lie beneath everyday, mundane reality,” said cinema studies professor Albert Sbragia.
Aside from its use as a stress-management technique, [speakers] Hagelin and Travis emphasized its ability to deal with abuse, addiction and mental disorders like ADD and ADHD. Hagelin compared a normal mind’s functions to that of a symphony warming up. Only when in tune and directed by a conductor — in this case, meditation — will the mind function as a conscious, cohesive whole, he said.