3/15/2008

in

Surreal filmmaker David Lynch plans to donate millions towards a scholarship in meditation arts.

Heather Chin

David Lynch is most well known for directing the "Twin Peaks" TV series and surreal, dream-like films like "The Elephant Man, "Blue Velvet," and "Mulholland Drive," but *AP* reports report that now the 62-year-old filmmaker is donating $1 million to fund scholarships for students of a particular meditation technique, which Lynch himself has practiced for a long period.  
  
The technique, called Transcendental Meditation, is taught at the Maharishi University of Management, which was founded in 1971 in Fairfield, Iowa. The school is open to undergraduate and graduate students and offers degree programs in art, business, computer science, design, and sustainable living.  
  
Lynch says that his $1 million donation will be made through his non-profit foundation, the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace. It is intended to support the learning of TM and to hopefully increase the number of students who meditate on the Fairfield campus to 2,000.  
  
The university will host "David Lynch Weekend" on April 25-28, where performances by Donovan, Moby and Chrysta Bell are scheduled.  
  
In a recent statement, Lynch explained that "America urgently needs at least one university to teach the science of peace -- and to actually promote peace in the world."