WORK|OUT European Students’ Review

BLISS!

Movie-maker David Lynch talked with us about his foundation of a peace university, meditation and quatum creatures. An Interview by Gabriel Pol

> What is the intention of the “David Lynch Foundation”?

> LYNCH: The intention of my foundation for consciousness-based education and world peace is to raise money to establish the basis for seven non-commercial universities of peace and to build contact with future students. <

> What will the students learn at a university of peace and what does consciousness-based education mean?

> LYNCH: It is the same knowledge as being taught at normal universities. There will be all the classical subjects from physics, biology, literature to painting or filmmaking and so on. But normally we don’t learn about our selves, so consciousness-based education will allow the students to dive within to experience the pure consciousness within themselves and to expand it. In a university of peace the students will do their meditating and advanced techniques together as a group. The scientists found that the group practice is quite radically more powerful than the same practice done by the same number of people individually. Now what we have is a university of knowledge and a peace creating factory — so two birds with one stone. <

> What is meditation? Is it a religious ritual?

> LYNCH: Meditation is not a religion but it is practiced by people from all religions. There is no religion involved in the universities of peace, but every religion is welcome. Meditation is a mental technique, it takes me to the unbounded ocean of pure consciousness. It’s a way to dive within and develop the full potential, to transform things for the better and to get more creativity, energy, clarity, understanding and peace — all these things can be experienced by meditation. Negative things start to disappear from your life like anger, depression, sorrow, fear or stress. Before I started meditating 32 years ago, I had so much fear, stress and anxiety inside me. I could never have spoken in public. In my first interview I could not say anything else than four words, “I painted it black,” that was my entire interview. Now, there are many forms of meditation, you meditate twice a day and then you just go back to business. <

> What do you experience during a meditation?

> LYNCH: There is a beautiful field of unity at the base of all matter and all minds and this is the Unified Field, as it is taught by modern science. It’s pure consciousness. Everything that exists emerges from the Unified Field. In the old Indian Vedic tradition this field of pure consciousness is called “Atma” — the Self. The enjoyment of creating increases so much when you start expanding your consciousness, real pure consciousness is the ability to understand the world’s nature. Now if you understand the human condition this much, it’s fine but if you can expand that understanding by meditation then the characters get deeper, the story can go deeper and this is so beautiful for me as a filmmaker and for telling stories. And it is for everybody. <

> How can the reality of transcendental experience ever be proved by objective science and how can you convince people who still remain on the basis of reasoning?

> LYNCH: LYNCH: Look at all the people who started without any proof, just with an inner feeling that this somehow makes sense to them. If there is some reason, you either know somebody who meditates, and see the change in them — that’s proof to a certain degree — or you read things and it rings bells of truth inside you. And now with brain research, it’s going to get easier and easier. You want to see what this kind of meditation does? Let’s plug this meditator into an EEG-machine and say “oh, it’s very beautiful, but there is no transcending, there’s no diving to the depth, to the ultimate — you know: absolute. This meditation does so much for the brain in the area of concentration, but there is no transcending.” With the scienti. c methods of transcendental meditation we will achieve better results. You can scan someone who is meditating for one week with transcendental meditation — and: bingo, bingo, bingo — the transcending. So, more and more the proof will be the brain research and probably other kinds of things too, because science is raising forward and it’s all scientific. <

> What do you think about our real nature or in the terms of modern physics, could we say, we are quantum-creatures?

> LYNCH: Well, I don’t know but I do feel like a quantum-creature. (laughs) But our real nature is bliss. To me this is the most beautiful thing. Mankind was not made to suffer. Bliss is our nature, bliss. I say that sounds very, very good to me and I just want maximum, unbounded, infinite, eternal bliss! <

> How is the response from young people in all the countries you’ve been to? Is it positive?

> LYNCH: The atmosphere is getting softer, more positive, minds are opening up more and more. Your generation is different to the last generation — it’s going to happen. <<

| www.davidlynchfoundation.org