David Lynch's "invincible university" effort off to bad start in Germany
Dave says:
"Film director and Transcendental Meditation devotee David Lynch was lecturing in Berlin, and decided to invite his friend Raja Emanuel Schiffgens to address the audience. The audience goes nuts when Schiffgens starts promising [in German, which Lynch does not understand] an 'invincible Germany' which 'unfortunately,' Hitler failed at creating."
David Lynch later responded on his foundation website by stating: "David Lynch here. I don't want to have anything to do with Hitler. We all know he was not a good person who did terrible things.""We want an invincible Germany! Invincible Germany" exclaims the "Raja of Germany", dressed in a white robe and golden little crown.
"What do you mean?" cries the audience. "Hitler wanted an invincible Germany as well!"
"Yes, but unfortunately he didn't succeed!"
Link to part 1 | Link to part 2 | Time article
Previously on Boing Boing:
• David Lynch starts a new foundation based on meditation
• Donovan to open meditation-based college
• Twin Peaks 10 DVD set
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I think if David wants to be taken seriously, and to succeed, he should separate himself from the weird little guys who wear golden crowns, for starters. What the heck is that about? Just looking at the guy, and not knowing anything about him, screams loooooonie.
I understand his plans for a German championship bracket-style marathon series fell through as well.
Apparently he was going to hold a bunch of qualifying rounds, or "apprentice races", and then the winners of those rounds would compete in a final "master race".
Lynch should consider himself vinced.
The crazy really gets rolling at around 1:30, right after the crowd starts mocking the unbelievably phallic design for the Raja's "Invincible University".
Hitler was "not a good person who did terrible things." Was he a good person who did good things? How about a bad person who did good things? Sorry, can't help it... ;-)
JAY LEVITT: LOL.
The Raja also said something about wanting more "good Germans." This is another tripwire.
maybe the robe & crown was a tip-off. rolling on the floor, laughing my a$$ off.
Gee, you know who else wore a crown? JUGHEAD!
Maybe if Lynch had a little person beside him talking backwards/forwards he would have had a better response?
This is hilarious - poor old Lynch. I'm a great fan, but it never ceases to amaze me that a man who dreams up such bizarre and sometimes disturbing images for his films somehow remains gullible and innocent in his persona.
I can't say that I expected his talking about TM to go particularly well, though. I once recorded a delightful interview of his where he was asked about his famous "eye of the duck" scene reference. Having claimed that every one of his films has some such iconic scene, he then failed to be able to remember or cite that scene in any one of his films, resorting to mumbling and "...I used to know"!
I couldn't have predicted this, though. I was half expecting the little man from another place to emerge through the curtain, and explain it all, forwards-backwards!!!
I live in germany and I can tell: He can be lucky that he didn't get LYNCH-ED! HA HA!
For people here this is REALLY a delicate issue. You can't say such things...
Seriously, I think that if you are at a certain level of transcendental whatsitsname, it's all argueing about semantics. Those people should be really careful how to verbalize their 'visions'...
Oh yes, and to forecome any misconceptions:
I don't share any aspect of Rajas thinking or of anybody like him. (If that hasn't become clear enough for everybody.)
Dear Milarepa,
To me this Schiffgens person seemed to be clearly angling to have his proclamations laughed at. Has anyone checked that it wasn't a hoax on his part?
http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/feature/2004/09/16/bleep/index1.html?pn=1
If I were lampooning the kind of pseudo-science professed by Lynch, those might be the kind of things I'd say in Yes-Men fashion. The phallic-shaped building and shiny duds ought to be a dead-giveaway.
The offensive one was Lynch, who expected to comfortably sleepwalk through the event without really knowing the people he introduces and sanctions (much less the local language). What a stereotypical American boobie. His invincible (read: carefree and irresponsible) self has apparently been knocked down a peg or two by a deftly-orchestrated lampoon.
Of course most would hope so. But I had a brief stint with TM many years ago and have to say that it's full with clowns like that, and they could not be more serious.
This concept of improving entire countries seems to be a popular one amongst hardcore meditation groups. I remember one actually forming a political party in Germany with its policy establishing full-time "meditation bases" across the country to bring on the bliss nation-wide due to the generated positive energy shield.
But hey, I probably just don't get it and am being negative...
"I remember one actually forming a political party in Germany with its policy establishing full-time "meditation bases" across the country to bring on the bliss nation-wide due to the generated positive energy shield."
There's a similar party that runs candidates in Canada's national elections. They've never gotten a seat in Parliament, however.
"I remember one actually forming a political party in Germany with its policy establishing full-time "meditation bases" across the country to bring on the bliss nation-wide due to the generated positive energy shield."
"There's a similar party that runs candidates in Canada's national elections. They've never gotten a seat in Parliament, however."
You're probably both referring to the Natural Law Party, which was founded and run by TMers in countries all over the world, including the U.S. The party was disbanded a year or two ago.
FWIW, "invincible" in TM-speak means having no enemies, not having the ability to crush your enemies. It's a term of peace, not a term of war. TM's goal is to make every country invincible, i.e., to achieve world peace.
Once Lynch figured out what the problem with the term was--Hitler had used it in the military sense as something to be achieved by Germany alone--he did a pretty good job of explaining it from the TM perspective, and the audience did seem to get it, or at least to realize it was meant very differently than they had initially understood it.
Why the guy in the crown and robe, who is apparently German, didn't realize how inflammatory the term would be is incomprehensible.