Learn Filmmaking and Meditation David Lynch-Style

For fans of all things strange and surreal comes a new advanced filmmaking program inspired by cult filmmaker David Lynch. Called the “David Lynch MA in Film,” the Masters program advertises itself as “the first and only Consciousness-Based film education available anywhere”—and is accepting applications until November 1. 

Lynch, who directed cult classics like Eraserhead (1977) and Mulholland Drive (2001), as well as the TV show Twin Peaks, isn’t actually teaching the program. Rather, it’s being offered by the Maharishi University of Management, in Fairfield, Iowa, which was founded in the '90s by Lynch’s Transcendental Meditation instructor. 

The program uses Transcendental Meditation techniques to teach filmmaking, promising to expand students’ consciousness—and therefore, their creative potential. According to Lynch, who supports the program (and meets with students on a group trip to Los Angeles), the meditation-based approach to filmmaking gives students the ability to “transcend and experience that unbounded ocean of pure consciousness which is unbounded intelligence, creativity, happiness, love, energy, power, and peace.”

Whether or not you think filmmaking and meditation go hand in hand, the program takes an undeniably creative approach to film education. Check out David Lynch’s lecture on consciousness and creativity for the University below:

[h/t Criterion]