The TM Technique: David Lynch and the Spiritual Marketplace

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session and Reception
  In Interactive Paper Session: Popular Communication Interactive Paper Session

Abstract

David Lynch is currently the most visible and vocal proponent for Transcendental Meditation (TM), a meditative practice brought to the United States by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the late 1950s. This paper explores the media platforms on which the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace operates and asks the question: What do the communicative strategies deployed by Lynch and his foundation reveal about the state of the American spiritual marketplace? Three strategies are analyzed in depth: firstly, how the organization brands Transcendental Meditation as techné (Foucault, 1984/1986), secondly, how it has replaced the founder of the movement, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi with a new spokesperson, David Lynch, and thirdly, how the foundation deploys Lynch and other celebrities as a means to trade in on the allure of the creative class.

Author

• Corrina Laughlin, The Annenberg School for Communication/ The University of Pennsylvania