David Lynch and Donovan Bring Stress-Meditation to America’s Stressed-Out Youth

In New York for a Benefit Talk and Concert
at Lincoln Center

Major Health Study at American University in D.C.
with 250 Meditating Students Under Way

America’s stressed out youth just got two unlikely allies: award-winning filmmaker David Lynch and legendary singer/songwriter Donovan Leitch. The two iconic artists are raising money to fund research studies on the effects of stress-reducing meditation for the growing numbers of students suffering from acute levels of stress, anxiety, depression, drug dependency, and ADHD and other learning disorders.

Lynch (Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive) will be in New York City January 11 and 12 to discuss his new book, Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity (Tarcher/Penguin) and his new film, INLAND EMPIRE.

On Friday, January 12, Lynch, who has been practicing Transcendental Meditation for 33 years, will be joined by fellow long-time meditator Donovan (Sunshine Superman, Mellow Yellow, Jennifer Juniper) for a benefit talk and concert at Lincoln Center, Alice Tully Hall, at 8 p.m. The event will raise awareness and support for his David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace (www.davidlynchfoundation.org), which is funding in-school Transcendental Meditation programs for at-risk youth.

During the past 18 years, the National Institutes of Health has provided more than $24 million to study the effects of Transcendental Meditation on stress and heart disease—disorders afflicting an increasing number of young people. One recent NIH-funded study, published in June 2006 in the American Medical Association’s Archives of Internal Medicine, found TM practice reduced the risk factors for high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity.

Another study, now in its second year at American University in Washington, D.C., is monitoring the effects of Transcendental Meditation on the academic performance and mental and physical health of 250 meditating university students from American, Georgetown, George Washington, Howard, and the University of the District of Columbia (www.au-tm-study.org).

The Lynch Foundation was established 18 months ago, and has already provided more than $3 million for thousands of students, teachers, and parents to learn Transcendental Meditation as part of anti-stress/wellness programs in schools throughout the country. Lynch says there are hundreds of new schools ready to participate in the program.