Catching the Big Fish
Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity
by David Lynch (Tarcher/Penguin, $19.95)
Quirky film and TV director David Lynch, of “Eraserhead,” “Blue Velvet” and “Twin Peaks” fame, has been practicing Transcendental Meditation for more than three decades. In this book he muses on TM, creativity, life and filmmaking.
1. Meditation isn’t selfish, despite its inward focus. Compassion, appreciation and the ability to help others are all enhanced by its practice.
2. Lynch isn’t a director who screams at his actors. “If I ran my set with fear, I would get 1 percent, not 100 percent, of what I get. And there would be no fun in going down the road together.”
3. “Inside every human being is an ocean of pure, vibrant consciousness. When you `transcend’ in Transcendental Meditation, you dive down into that ocean of pure consciousness. . . . And it’s bliss.”
4. Lynch won’t do director’s commentary on his DVDs. “We’ve got to guard the film itself. It should stand alone.”
5. Light can make all the difference in a film or character, writes Lynch. “So even if the room isn’t perfect, you can work with the light and get it to feel correct, so that it has the mood that came with the original idea. . . . I love seeing people come out of darkness.”
