Owner and Managing Director of Watkins Publishing and Watkins Books Etan Ilfeld had the honour of interviewing much acclaimed visual artist and film maker David Lynch on his experience on Transcendental Meditation.
Transcendental Meditation (TM) is a non-religious meditation system developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the mid-1950s aimed at reaching higher states of consciousness and promote a stress-free lifestyle. From The Beatles to Nick Cave, and many more international stars and members of the public, this movement has become increasingly popular and has centres all over the world. Among the many involved we find David Lynch, who, in his chat with Etan, states the incredible potential of meditation in relation to creativity.
"So let me ask you" asks Etan in his interview with Lynch "during Transcendental Meditation you're not supposed to take notes - and I assume you don't - but if you have ideas, usually they come after, or how does it work?"
"Okay, here's the thing. John Lennon was with Maharishi in 1968. And he said [Maharishi], sometimes I get an idea in the meditation. What do I do? And Maharishi said, look, meditation isn't to get ideas. You don't do it like that. You know what I mean? You're going to get ideas outside of meditation and that's fine.
And you're going to get more ideas if you meditate regularly. Better ideas, bigger idea. But if you get an idea while you're meditating and it's really a good idea, you're going to be thinking about that idea, not be meditating, right? So Maharishi said, keep a little note pad near you when you meditate with a pen or pencil. And if you get a really good idea when you're down there, come gently out, write the idea down in such a way that you won't forget it when you read it later. Put the notebook down and then go gently back in. Because sometimes down in there, you'll get an idea and you'll say, I'll never forget this. I'll never forget this idea, but down in there, it's a different world. (...)"
Lynch stated in multiple interviews the incredible benefits of the practice - he started in 1973, never missing his 20 minutes sessions twice a day - which contributed to the creation of some of his most significant work.
I'm trying to remember which film it was where you had something similar. Blue Velvet was from a dream, but there was something else when you had...
"Mulholland Drive, this was a sensational thing. What I think was happening during the past year, before this meditation, I'd been thinking about these things in the back of my brain. But anyway, it came to pass that I got the green light to finish Mulholland Drive as a feature. And that night, I was down to meditate. And before I sat down, I didn't have any ideas of how I was going to change this open-ended pilot to a feature film. I sat down to meditate. And as I say, like a string of pearls, the ideas came, one after another. And when I came out of meditation, I had every idea I needed to finish".
In 2005, the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace was created to offer meditation classes to curious children interested in the practice. Today the foundation offers classes to both adults and children, and is run thanks to the unwavering support of many practitioners and philanthropists. Moreover, among the world-renowned work of Lynch you can find Catching the Big Fish
(2006), in which he discusses his life-long commitment to TM, and Room to Dream (2019), an autobiography where he opens up about his creative process and struggles.
You can read the rest of the article in our Summer (#78) issue of Mind Body Spirit, available at your local WHSmith or directly from us. You can also subscribe to MBS Magazine and get it on your doorstep by calling us at 020 7836 2182.
You can also listen to the interview here.
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