He put his disease in me

David Lynch is doing a medicine show tour for the TM people with a stop in my town. Lynch is a great film director and a fascinating weirdo, and just watching him talk is a delight. I can’t stand TM, though.

Meditative techniques I think are awesome. Transcendental Meditation®, though, was the original expensive New Age cult that sold basic meditation through an authoritarian hierarchy. It faded from public notoriety after the 1970s but a core group carried on. Most notably, a physicist named John Hagelin ran for president in 2000 as the candidate of the “Natural Law Party”, which is a TM creation. Hagelin believes that world problems like war and terrorism must be solved by broadcasting peace consciousness from our brains while gathered in large peace-causing assemblies that will send loving energies everywhere. The best part of this is that it’s accomplished by “Yogic Flying” which is done by hopping into the air while sitting cross legged. His other plans for saving the nation and the world include legislating Vedic architecture for all buildings to bring us into harmony with Natural Law.

The Maharishi himself recently excommunicated the entire country of England from training and support because he… …didn’t like them. He is meanwhile planning a Peace Palace on a couple of islands off Nova Scotia that he recently bought.

I think David Lynch is a cool guy. I love his movies. I’m honored to have been the guy who took dictation for his comic strip 20 years ago. But I can’t go to this lecture. It’s like Tom Cruise shilling for Scientology almost. Sticks in my craw.

9 thoughts on “He put his disease in me

  1. Lynch is awesome. I miss that comic strip! “Angriest Dog In The World”, right? You took dictaion – so how did that work? He told you what to put in each cartoon panel?

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    1. it was indeed cool
      The Reader was where it ran. He’d call up once a week and dictate it like that: “First panel blank. Second panel, voice from inside house…”
      Whoever took the call would write it down and give it to Geoff Gans, the production guy, who actually wrote it into the cartoons. The writing in all those cartoons is Geoff’s. He’s a big producer/art director guy at Rhino now.
      The best part was answering the phone and hearing Lynch say “Hello, I got a dog for you.”

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      1. A David Lynch Story for you
        I used to know a cinematographer that worked on Dune. Lynch was always fascinated with how things worked, even organic things. One day (I think his name was) Bill walked into Lynch’s trailer and Lynch had disected a fly and taped the pieces to a board that said “fly kit”.
        A day or two later someone saw a board with pieces of a chicken tacked to it called “Chicken Kit”.
        Apparently a few days later someone saw an aborted foetus in a jar sitting on his desk and half the crew demanded it be removed or they would walk.
        True? Dunno. Great story, tho.

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  2. Oh man, weird shit.
    Since it’s free, and I’m not giving any actual money to said TM weirdos, I will just go and be entertained and keep in mind what you’re written here.
    That said; I would go see Tom Cruise speak about Scientology. I’m a sucker for a trainwreck.

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