Back to Jerusalem, where Tony Blair faces an unlikely rival in his efforts to bring peace:
David Lynch, on a five-day visit to Israel to encourage transcendental meditation, met with Israeli President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shimon Peres…”Real peace is not just the absence of war, but the absence of all suffering, all negativity,” Lynch said…”Change comes from within. From the first meditation, boom, you’re there.”
Peres showed he keeps up with the movies:
“Lynch is one of the greatest directors of our generation and a giant artist on his own, and it is a great honor for the state of Israel to host you and listen to you…”
Alas, Peres did not share with us his favourite Lynch film.
Lynch has been an enthusiast of TM for many years, and practitioners have been concerned with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for some time; the Jerusalem Post reported in 2002 that
A small number of meditators can stop terrorism in the Middle East, a leading US scientist told a Tel Aviv news conference yesterday.
“We have an important message for the people of the Middle East,” said Dr. John Hagelin, a quantum physicist and author, and recipient of the prestigious Kilby Award for scientific research.
“If the square root of 1 percent of the population regularly practice Transcendental Meditation (TM) techniques in a group, the wave effect of calm will eventually halt terrorism,” he claimed.
There is also apparently a small Natural Law Party of Israel, connected to the movement. A 2006 report notes how the TM practice of Yogic Flying was used to counter Hezbollah:
Reuven Zelinkovsky was a colonel in the Israeli army, but now he has renounced military might to join a squadron of yogic flyers at the Sea of Galilee to throw a “shield of invincibility” around the Jewish state.
…Here in Israel, according to a formula that says the square root of one percent of a country’s population is the number needed to tap into a collective consciousness robust enough to create a “shield of invincibility,” 265 people are needed.
But Zelinkovsky’s squadron, which includes architects, health workers and pensioners, many of whom are also teachers of TM, now numbers only about 20 after falling from a peak of 65 last week.
However, other New Religious Movements also feel they have something to offer the region: we’ve noted plans by Rev Moon to establish a peace centre in Galilee, and the promotion of a booklet by L. Ron Hubbard. And let’s not forget the famous plans of the Raelians to build an embassy in Jerusalem for the benefit of visiting extra-terrestrials.
(Hat tip: Cult News Network)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a comment »
