Hacker News Reader

Comment by adultSwim | Hacker News Reader

David Lynch is not just a fan of meditation, but of the organization Transcendental Meditation (TM). TM engages in many similar questionable practices as Scientology, including recruiting early career celebrities. Jerry Seinfeld is another famous member. I consider it a cult.

View on HN

If the similar practices are many, perhaps you could share with us a selection of them? Celebrity endorsements isn't really exclusive to cults.

You imply harm is being done. Who is harmed, and how?

Are you saying that their claims that they can teach people to levitate are true?

https://www.npr.org/2016/06/13/481845003/a-childhood-of-tran...

There are plenty of online resources about the cult aspects of TM if you actually look.

All religions have claims of supernatural happenings; almost all religions request donations from their followers.

Cults are distinct from normal religious organizations. What makes the TM-as-promoted-by-David-Lynch a cult?

The link talks about a religious organization that asked for money on a regular basis from followers. Who is being harmed there, and how? People willingly donating their money to religious organizations is not alone evidence of abuse.

They aren't exactly passing the collection plate around. It's much more transactional:

"So you had to have a special kind of paste before you went to go practice your Yogic Flying, and the paste cost, like, $150, and the Yogic Flying cost thousands of dollars to learn, and then your badge to get into the dome to practice the group meditation cost $100 a month."

"It cost thousands of dollars because Maharishi said that Americans don't value things unless they pay a lot of money for them."

The sutras name the same claim, it's not meant to be literal afaik.

You obviously cannot levitate but you may be able to convince your brain you are. Meditation is an avenue to do that.

It costs a lot of money to participate, similar to Scientology. On the whole it seems more benign than the latter though, but I do think you can spend a lot of money on it.

Also, a cool documentary, not about TM but somewhat related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urMxgevzd4c

Well TIL! I only knew about it generally from watching Lynch's stuff, but had no idea it was a cult.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com