At its most basic, though, TM is a silent, mantra-based meditation practice. Practitioners are given a mantra by a teacher, not to be shared with others, then meditate on that mantra for 20 minutes, twice a day. Derived from the Vedic tradition, the fundamentals of TM are thousands of years old, but the modern version that Lynch practiced and propagated dates to 1955, when the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi began teaching the meditation style in India. What started as a technique evolved into a movement as the Maharishi toured the world and inspired a global following.
Part of that following was driven by celebrity. The most famous example is the Beatles, who first met the Maharishi at a conference in Wales in 1967 and subsequently promoted TM as a superior alternative to psychedelics. In 1968 they joined Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at his ashram in Rishikesh, along with Beach Boy Mike Love, which led to the Maharishi joining the Beach Boys on a US tour. Ever since, TM has had a steady stream of famous practitioners and advocates: Jerry Seinfeld, Howard Stern, Sky Ferreira, and Katy Perry, to name a few.
This hasn’t always served TM well. Whether your game is politics or enlightenment, celebrities can veer off message, bring their own baggage, grow disillusioned, or become embroiled in scandal. Mike Love, still a proud TM practitioner, has fully decamped to MAGA-land, while Russell Brand, another vocal supporter, has been embroiled in sexual assault allegations. While the Beatles have supported TM over the decades, John Lennon did write one of history’s first diss tracks, “Sexy Sadie,” about the Maharishi.
Lynch was a spokesperson of a different caliber: measured, consistent, unproblematic. It certainly helps that his work has a natural affinity with TM‘s general vibe: the dreamlike qualities of movies like Blue Velvet or Mulholland Drive chime with TM‘s focus on transcendental consciousness. But he was also balanced in how he spoke about the practice, shouting out the practical benefits with a dash of the esoteric. He was adamant that TM is not a religion. “I’m an artist, I don’t want to belong to any kind of sect,” he said in one interview. “It’s not a sect, it’s a technique that fuels all fantastic things.”
Most importantly, though, Lynch was in it for the long haul, not the hype. Lynch started meditating in ‘73 but didn’t start his foundation until 2005. “He was a really reluctant advocate,” said Roth. “But he saw the response—people were really drawn to what he had to say.”
The DLF emerged from a chance encounter with Roth in Washington DC, where Roth was working on a TM study at American University for the effectiveness of TM on students with anxiety and depression and substance use disorder. Roth invited Lynch to speak to some students, and the event was such a hit that they decided to do similar events, giving talks from Brazil to Estonia about Lynch’s work and experience with meditation. Lynch and Roth decided to create a foundation to formally support the work, without much of a vision beyond spreading TM awareness.
