David Lynch to make documentary on meditation guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
David Lynch is making a movie about meditation guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is best known as the Beatles’ spiritual guide during their visit to India in the late 1960s. The filmmaker known for films such as ERASERHEAD, LOST HIGHWAY, BLUE VELVET, and MULHOLLAND DRIVE will be traveling to India this December to start filming.
The movie won’t be a narrative, but it won’t be a traditional documentary either. “It won’t be a so-called David Lynch film, really; it will be about Maharishi and the knowledge he brought out,” Lynch told New York Magazine. “It’ll have to go in the documentary department, I think. I don’t think it’ll be a ‘talking heads’ kind of thing, but we’re going to do a lot of interviews with people. We’ll interview — I hope — in India, a 97-year-old man who was with Maharishi from the beginning and get stories of times that weren’t so well recorded.”
The Beatles attended Maharishi’s meditation classes and made references to him in songs like “Sexy Sadie” and “Jealous Guy.” John Lennon wrote the song “Sexy Sadie” about the guru’s alleged sexual advances on actress Mia Farrow. The Beatles later renounced these accusations, saying the incident had been a misunderstanding. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi died in February of 2008.
Transcendental meditation is a topic very important to Lynch, who founded the David Lynch Foundation For Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace. According to Wikipedia, the organization ”funds at-risk students learning to meditate using the Transcendental Meditation program. Additionally, it funds wellness programs in hospitals, and independent research on Foundation programs and their effects on creativity, intelligence, academic performance, substance abuse, diabetes, hypertension, and learning disorders.” Supporters of the organization include Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Donovan, Moby, Jerry Seinfeld, Sheryl Crow, and Russell Simmons, all of whom performed or appeared at a 2009 benefit concert for the foundation earlier this year.
Source New York Magazine, via NME
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