Lynch was 66 years old at the time.
Beyond the tinted windows, Los Angeles floated by blue skies all around.
But there was something about our conversation that felt high-stakes almost life or death.
Lynch, speaking about meditation at a press conference in Bethesda, Maryland, in 2003.Alex Wong/Getty Images
Ive been circling it ever since.
In 1984, my filmDunewas released, and meditation saved my life, he said matter-of-factly.
Because if I hadnt been meditating, I probably wouldve committed suicide.
I didnt have final cut onDune.
It was released and it got terrible reviews and it didnt make a nickel.
So I died the death twice.
I didnt make the film I wanted to make, because I didnt have final cut.
Meditation really saved me.
If you have that happiness built up inside, it’s possible for you to withstand some heavy things.
And if you dont, theyll knock you down.
For decades, Lynch said, meditation was a private thing for him.
He would leave the set and quietly excuse himself, diving within, as he called it.
But otherwise he forged his own path.
He got married and divorced, a few times.
He drank red wine and smoked his cigarettes.
Lynch took the leap and went to the Netherlands.
He had just finished filmingMulholland Drive, he told me, and he thought, I could swing this.
Still, like all things Maharishi did, Lynch says, his absence made sense.
When I play it back in my mind, he was right there, he said.
Its a strange thing.
He was right above us but came through the television.
But it was as if there was no television.
And thats the way it was.
But for Lynch, the time with Maharishi was transformative.
He left with a new sense of purpose: He wanted to help the world meditate.
That month was extremely blissful, he told me.
And I wouldnt have given it up for anything.
But at the same time, when I left there, I did not care one bit about enlightenment.
I just loved the people.
I didnt care if I got enlightened or not.
To that end, in 2005, he started the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace.
The foundation held star-studded fundraisers, and young Hollywood began coming to Lynchs house for meditation sessions.
With Lynchs advocacy, hundreds of thousands of children learned to meditate.
But he was equally powerful in bringing celebrities to T.M.
Lynch began to travel the globe, speaking out about his practice of T.M.
and its positive benefits.
I think he was responsible for more people learning T.M.
than any other figure since Maharishi, says Roth, an author and a teacher of T.M.
for the past 53 years, who has launch the foundation since its inception.
He wasnt just an actor who put his name on something, some cause.
He went everywhere, he traveled around the world, worked long hours and weeks and months.
We would be nowhere without David Lynch and his energy and his focus and his conviction.
Now, Claire, Lynch said, his bright blue eyes suddenly focused intently on me.
When I first met you, I felt that you had doubts.
Is that a real feeling?
I winced when Lynch said this.
While everything Lynch was describing sounded straightforward and so obviously good, I had some baggage around the subject.
We all understood that Maharishis way of being in the world was better, more elevated.
In his absence, our world got a little strange and insular.
At school, administrators asked us to emulate Maharishi in every aspect.
Negative thinking was a no-no.
He said he was just a messenger, but I pushed him.
It could be argued that youarethe T.M.
I said, hoping to lighten the mood.
He didnt like this.
Old news, he told me when I first brought up questions about religiosity and T.M.
Like I told you, he said, testily, I love Maharishi.
I love what he taught.
If youre part of the Movement, youre on some salary or whatever.
Im not part of the Movement in that way.
But I am 100 percent for Maharishi and his programs.
The most important thing to me is the technique.
And without that, it just is totally meaningless.
Its just, like, an intellectual thing.
But the technique showed me that peace and happiness and all these positive things are really possible.
They really do exist within.
I was disappointed about that.
I wouldnt have chosen that headline and didnt like being a bad thing that happened to David Lynch.
He went on to makeTwin Peaks: The Returnand to continue to work on music and art.
I wrote a book about the Transcendental Meditation Movement and raised my two daughters.
Weirdly, I became friends with Lynchs wife Emily and watched our daughters play together.
For me, meditation was a simple and effective practice that helped me navigate the world better.
I get annoyed by this, ironically.
But I know at some point they will have the tool if they need it.
As Lynch said to me, Hello, it works.
Claire Hoffman is the author ofGreetings From Utopia Park.
Her new bookSister, Sinnercomes outin April.
