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A Ph.D in Transcendence

Kal Cobalt

Folk singer Donovan and film director David Lynch have campaigned to introduce transcendental meditation into schools and colleges as a crime and stress prevention tool. Now, the duo plan to open the Invincible Donovan University in Scotland.

The pair expect big results: "For a country the size of Scotland it would take only 250 students meditating to protect Scotland from its enemies and to bring peace, to stop violence and drug abuse," says Lynch.

Donovan and Lynch are currently seeking accreditation for the university.

Update: David Lynch's recent Invincible University presentation in Berlin with business partner Emanuel Schiffgens took a sour turn.  When Schiffgens' concept of an "invincible Germany" caused an audience member to note that Hitler wished the same thing, Schiffgens replied, "But unfortunately he did not succeed."  Bilingual pandemonium at the presentation ensued (video: part one and part two), with Schiffgens attempting to clarify: "Invincible means no more negativity. No more enmity."  In the online fallout, Lynch reassured the YouTube audience that "I don't want to have anything to do with Hitler."

While it appears that this may have been a case of linguistic confusion paired with a touchy topic, it may all be moot; TIME reports that an official stated the government "had not granted permission for construction of the university on Teufelsberg and possibly never would."

 

Photo of Buddha statue by Katie Tegtmeyer; image of meditation by adhiwus, both under Creative Commons license.

11-14-07

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cool stuff

Submitted by Adam Elenbaas on Wed, 11/14/2007 - 15:12.
THIS---is interesting. Can you imagine how it might affect the rest of the University the program lives in? Adam Elenbaas
Picture of <em>Kal Cobalt</em>

no kidding

Submitted by Kal Cobalt on Wed, 11/14/2007 - 16:54.

I'd love to know! This seems to have all the makings of a quantifiable, repeatable experiment....fascinating stuff.

Picture of <em>Dak</em>

who wants to be a scapegoat?

Submitted by Dak on Wed, 11/14/2007 - 21:15.
who wants to be a scapegoat? i wonder if the subject matter would be strong enough to keep the program from getting political... i think this should be taught to kids everywhere... along with music, poetry and painting...

Lynch!

Submitted by Maladroit on Fri, 11/16/2007 - 18:02.
Right on! I love this idea. The David Lynch Foundation is my favorite non-profit by a huge margin. I think that it's impportant to note that while other charities seek to treat the sympotms of our the world's troubles, the David Lynch Foundation seeks to treat the root cause! By promoting the utilization of transcendental meditation, Lynch is promoting general wellness and peace for individuals as opposed to a "target group". Anyone and everyone can benefit from this technique, so instead of targeting teenage girls to treat anorexia or targeting urban youth to reduce violent crimes, his program targets the human race. Also, I like how the technique offered is not anti-anything. It's not anti-violence, anti-cruelty etc. Instead it's pro. Pro-peace, pro-creativity and pro-positivity.
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TM

Submitted by ignelius on Tue, 11/20/2007 - 12:05.

There have been a few experiments done on this exact thing, mostly led by a very interesting chap called John Hagelin. He's professor of physics at the Maharishi University and his work is linked to David Lynch's.

There was a little controversy over the results of the experiments, though the researchers published a pretty good rebuttal.

Hagelin has been working a lot on the effects of group meditation on the unified field and through that, society.

You can hear him give a great wee talk about consciousnesshere

Picture of <em>Diamond Jim</em>

Meditation in Academia

Submitted by Diamond Jim on Mon, 12/17/2007 - 16:35.

Just in case this idea is lighting anyone's fire, I am enrolled in a Masters Progam in NY State which also focusses on meditative work. In our case, the emphasis is on developing the capacities for Insight, Imagination and Intuition as methods of research. We chose our own thesis topic (which is left very open), and apply the meditative techniques we have learned to deepen our study, and develop new insights. Regular research is required as well of course. In my case, it certainly seems to be working. Oh, the work is mostly online (timewise) with a two-week intensive every summer and a 3 day retreat in January. You can email me if you like, or check it out at Barfield.org

Diamond Jim

Revolution in Mind Sciences?

Submitted by Darakshan on Tue, 12/18/2007 - 21:38.
B. Alan Wallace, Ph. D., founder of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies, gave a talk at Google about this last summer. He compares modern science's ban on introspection to the church's fear of Galileo and Darwin, and makes a strong case for accepting meditation as a valid and complementary form of scientific inquiry. Watch the whole fascinating lecture here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhntEOGslbs