"David Wants to Fly" is a documentary film that is at times hilarious, frustrating and enlightening. Bourgeoning filmmaker David Sieveking takes us on his path to filmmaking, as he peaks behind the Maharishi's curtain, that wonderful wizard of "Ohm." While Maharishi's teachings of Transcendental Meditation spread to the world through the likes of the Beatles, Sieveking tapped the unlikely source of David Lynch.
The widely influential films of David Lynch such as "Eraserhead", "The Elephant Man", "Blue Velvet" and "Mulholland Drive" are transcendentally macabre, more than meditative. Yet, Sieveking idolized Lynch and jumped a plane to Iowa to see the master speak about creativity through Transcendental Meditation (TM). Iowa is of course the unlikely home to Maharishi University and its Golden Dome of Pure Knowledge.
Throughout the course of Sieveking meeting Lynch and embracing his assigned TM Mantra, the documentary traces the realization of true filmmaking. Sieveking knows he is his own subject, playing the protagonist on the yellow brick road of self-discovery. Though, David doesn't want to go home, "David Wants to Fly."
Inspired by his idolization of Lynch, Sieveking learns some essential lessons in documentary filmmaking and the deconstruction of Idols. Sieveking comes to odds with Lynch, challenging how he has become a spokesman for a multibillion dollar industry. Through Sieveking's deconstruction of Lynch, he obsessively questions the TM movement itself, thus deconstructing Maharishi.
Sieveking comes to the potent realization that Transcendental Meditation has done the exact opposite of what Lynch promised him. The documentary lens zooms in on the unraveling of Sieveking's personal life. He runs into the open arms of the TM community, but is banished once he questions that it is industry, rather than community. As his girlfriend leaves him, his filmmaking career seems to be blackballed by Lynch's disapproval and Sieveking's mantra chanting starts to sound more like a Country song.
Yet, the young filmmaker's journey is in essence transcendental as he finds his true path. He becomes a filmmaker, not by blindly following Lynch's advice to close his eyes in meditation. Instead he opens his eyes to the blind following of a movement and shines light on the dirt swept under the rugs they meditate on.
Catch it where you can, people, because this is a picture that contains a damn good lesson for everyone:
"A sprightly docu about finding your own artistic inspiration, 'David Wants to Fly' follows German writer-helmer David Sieveking on his road to enlightenment, a journey that involves David Lynch, various headquarters of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) movement and the icy source of the Ganges. Both tongue-in-cheek and seriously questioning (particularly as pertains to TM's financial empire), this entertaining, globe-trotting pic already has bigscreen release dates in co-production countries. It could take off for further niche theatrical play, maybe even Stateside, before making a landing at broadcasters.
Both star and narrator of his five-years-in-the-making project, Berlin-based Sieveking begins his tale as a recent film school grad wondering how to take the next step. When he learns that his idol, American helmer David Lynch, is toplining a conference on the source of creativity, he packs his bags for Fairfield, Iowa.
Fairfield is home to Maharishi U, one of many 'consciousness-based' education centers launched by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the TM movement. In the mattress-lined Golden Domes of Pure Knowledge, students (separated by gender) practice 'yogic flying.'
For those who don't know Lynch is an avid practitioner of TM, it may be a bit disconcerting to hear him hold forth on avoiding the 'suffocating rubber clown suit of negativity' and the joys of finding the tranquility within. He's even established a foundation to fund the study of TM in all public schools.
Back in Germany, Sieveking signs up for TM lessons. On the first day, he's required to bring some unusual items -- plus a check for E2,380.
While covering the Maharashi's funeral in India and a subsequent convening of his successors (the 'Maharajah' and 'Rajas') in the Netherlands, Sieveking witnesses a battle for power within the TM empire. He also spotlights some of the organization's questionable plans for world peace (for which they raise millions of dollars) including the fascist-sounding Invincible German and Bramasthan, where 10,000 pandits are supposed to be chanting 24/7.
However, it's when he begins talking to renegade former TMers who spill the beans about the Maharashi's multiple affairs and the way he bled followers for cash (e.g., raja training is available for $1 million), that emails start to fly and lawsuits are threatened."
"FAIRFIELD, Iowa (AP) - A trial is scheduled to begin next month in a nearly 5-year-old case of a Maharishi University student stabbed to death in the school's dining hall.
The family of Levi Butler filed the federal lawsuit, accusing the school of gross negligence in not preventing Butler's death. Butler was stabbed to death in March 2004 by fellow student Shuvender Sem, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity. In the lawsuit, Butler's family notes that Sem had attacked another student earlier in the day but that the matter wasn't reported to police. Instead, Sem was taken to an administrator's apartment, where he stole a knife while the official was meditating and later stabbed Butler.
"Obama was set to spend the day on a campaign crush across the Midwest, with a quick stop home in Chicago to see his kids. He makes his first stop back where his run began, in Des Moines, Iowa, where he upset Hillary Rodham Clinton in the campaign's first contest."
Why's Barack going BACK to Iowa? He's clearly got Iowa locked up, so what's the point? Click here (and pay attention to the video you find there) to understand what's up with meditation, New Age, and politics.
Now, let's go back in time a little bit, to see how Obama chooses what may become our nation's new "friends" (all underlines are mine):
"Sen. Barack Obama drew his heartiest welcome of a two-day swing through Iowa in the state's capital of inner peace.
To the frustration of the cameramen in the Fairfield town square, Obama delivered his remarks facing east, with the setting sun behind him blotting out their shots. [He's willing to frustrate the cameras? A guy running for president? - TMR]
But here, there’s a power even higher than the television networks: Obama had positioned himself in alignment with the rotation of the earth, in accordance with the teachings of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, whose followers moved en masse to this small Iowa city more than 30 years ago.
The Maharishi’s transcendental meditators, along with vacationing pilgrims from the East Coast, turned out in large numbers in the town’s traditional green square to hear the Illinois senator deliver his stump speech on the night of July 3 — more people, Fairfield’s sheriff said, than had come out to greet a sitting president.
"I saw him and I thought, ‘Oh my god, this is somebody who could lead us into a new era,’” said Nancy Watkins, an international student adviser at the Maharishi University of Management.
The meditators cheered Obama heartily — not at his occasional gestures toward political red meat, but at the lines that sometimes leave other audiences in silence.
They were responding to the senator’s call for national renewal that, though perhaps more Christian than New Age in concept, fit comfortably into a town square hemmed by shops with names like “Revelations” and the “Healthy Inspiration.”
— Ben Smith, who almost "got" it, writing for Politico.com.
“John McCain is a personal friend, a great friend, and I would be honored to run with or against John McCain, because I think the country would be better off, be well off no matter who...”
--Biden on The Daily Show - August 2, 2005
“I don’t recall hearing a word from Barack about a plan or a tactic.”
--Biden, New York Observer interview - 2007
"It's a bad idea and should be shut down and dismantled."
--Joe Biden, on the Alaskan pipeline - 1973
"A tragic mistake."
--Joe Biden, on the surge of troops in Iraq - 2006
”I think he can be ready, but right now I don’t believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.”
--Joe Biden, on Barack Obama - 2007
“The only guy on the other side who’s qualified is John McCain.”
--Biden, post-debate appearance, MSNBC - October 30 2007
“Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran."
--Joe Biden, to staff three weeks after September 11, 2001
“If you want to know where Al Qaeda lives, you want to know where Bin Laden is, come back to Afghanistan with me. Come back to the area where my helicopter was forced down, with a three-star general and three senators at 10,500 feet in the middle of those mountains. I can tell you where they are.”
----Joe Biden, addressing the National Guard, Baltimore 9-22-08 about the time his helicopter had to make a landing due to a sudden snowstorm.
“We must be clear with the American people that we are committing to Iraq for the long haul; not just the day after, but the decade after.”
--Biden, October 2002
"I think we should divide the country into three regions, just like we did in Bosnia."
--Joe Biden, radio Interview - August 2007
“I’ve been calling for more troops for over two years, along with John McCain and others subsequent to my saying that.”
--Biden, Meet the Press - November 27 2005
“My impression is [Obama] thinks that if we leave, somehow the Iraqis are going to have an epiphany” of peaceful coexistence among warring sects. “I’ve seen zero evidence of that.”
--Biden, on Obama’s Iraq plan - September 13 2007
“When this campaign is over, political slogans like ‘experience’ and ‘change’ will mean absolutely nothing. The next president has to act.”
--Biden Iowa campaign ad - December 2007
“We can call it quits and withdraw from Iraq. I think that would be a gigantic mistake. Or we can set a deadline for pulling out, which I fear will only encourage our enemies to wait us out — equally a mistake.”
--Biden at the Brookings Institution - 2005
“Sen. Obama said he would do everything possible to end the war in Iraq and emphasized the need for a political solution yet he failed to show up to vote for Sen. Biden’s critical amendment to provide a political solution in Iraq."
--Luis Navarro, Biden for President Campaign Manager - September 26, 2007
“He’s a long term threat and a short term threat to our national security… “We have no choice but to eliminate the threat. This is a guy who is an extreme danger to the world.”
--Biden about Sadaam Hussein, Meet the Press - December 26, 2002
“Well, the point is, it turned out they didn’t, but everyone in the world thought he had them. The weapons inspectors said he had them. He cataloged — they cataloged them. This was not some, some Cheney, you know, pipe dream. This was, in fact, cataloged.”
--Biden, about Sadaam Hussein's Weapons of Mass Destruction, Meet the Press - 2007
“I don’t want him [my son] going there [to Iraq]. But I tell you what, I don’t want my grandson or my granddaughters going back in 15 years and so how we leave makes a big difference. There’s no political point worth my son’s life. There’s no political point worth anybody’s life out there. None.”
--Biden on Iowa Radio about Barack Obama's votes against Iraq funding bills - August 2007
“I don’t think John Edwards knows what the heck he is talking about," [when he calls for immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq.] "John Edwards wants you and all the Democrats to think, ‘I want us out of there,’ but when you come back and you say, ‘O.K., John, what about the chaos that will ensue? Do we have any interest, John, left in the region?’ Well, John will have to answer yes or no. If he says yes, what are they? What are those interests, John? How do you protect those interests, John, if you are completely withdrawn? Are you withdrawn from the region, John? Are you withdrawn from Iraq, John? In what period? So all this stuff is like so much Fluffernutter out there."
We've covered this documentary before but, since it's finally coming to the United States, we think "David Wants To Fly" deserves all the exposure it can get:
The widely influential films of David Lynch such as "Eraserhead", "The Elephant Man", "Blue Velvet" and "Mulholland Drive" are transcendentally macabre, more than meditative. Yet, Sieveking idolized Lynch and jumped a plane to Iowa to see the master speak about creativity through Transcendental Meditation (TM). Iowa is of course the unlikely home to Maharishi University and its Golden Dome of Pure Knowledge.
Throughout the course of Sieveking meeting Lynch and embracing his assigned TM Mantra, the documentary traces the realization of true filmmaking. Sieveking knows he is his own subject, playing the protagonist on the yellow brick road of self-discovery. Though, David doesn't want to go home, "David Wants to Fly."
Inspired by his idolization of Lynch, Sieveking learns some essential lessons in documentary filmmaking and the deconstruction of Idols. Sieveking comes to odds with Lynch, challenging how he has become a spokesman for a multibillion dollar industry. Through Sieveking's deconstruction of Lynch, he obsessively questions the TM movement itself, thus deconstructing Maharishi.
Sieveking comes to the potent realization that Transcendental Meditation has done the exact opposite of what Lynch promised him. The documentary lens zooms in on the unraveling of Sieveking's personal life. He runs into the open arms of the TM community, but is banished once he questions that it is industry, rather than community. As his girlfriend leaves him, his filmmaking career seems to be blackballed by Lynch's disapproval and Sieveking's mantra chanting starts to sound more like a Country song.
Yet, the young filmmaker's journey is in essence transcendental as he finds his true path. He becomes a filmmaker, not by blindly following Lynch's advice to close his eyes in meditation. Instead he opens his eyes to the blind following of a movement and shines light on the dirt swept under the rugs they meditate on.
Catch it where you can, people, because this is a picture that contains a damn good lesson for everyone:
Do not follow. 
"FAIRFIELD, Iowa (AP) - A trial is scheduled to begin next month in a nearly 5-year-old case of a Maharishi University student stabbed to death in the school's dining hall.
"Obama was set to spend the day on a campaign crush across the Midwest, with a quick stop home in Chicago to see his kids. He makes his first stop back where his run began, in Des Moines, Iowa, where he upset Hillary Rodham Clinton in the campaign's first contest."
"Sen. Barack Obama drew his heartiest welcome of a two-day swing through Iowa in the state's capital of inner peace.
"I saw him and I thought, ‘Oh my god, this is somebody who could lead us into a new era,’” said Nancy Watkins, an international student adviser at the Maharishi University of Management.
“John McCain is a personal friend, a great friend, and I would be honored to run with or against John McCain, because I think the country would be better off, be well off no matter who...”
“The only guy on the other side who’s qualified is John McCain.”
“My impression is [Obama] thinks that if we leave, somehow the Iraqis are going to have an epiphany” of peaceful coexistence among warring sects. “I’ve seen zero evidence of that.”
“Well, the point is, it turned out they didn’t, but everyone in the world thought he had them. The weapons inspectors said he had them. He cataloged — they cataloged them. This was not some, some Cheney, you know, pipe dream. This was, in fact, cataloged.”
