DAVID WANTS TO FLY

Germany, 2010, 95 minutes, Colour.
David Sieveking, Marie Pohl, David Lynch.
Directed by David Sieveking.

Quite a journey. No, that's an understatment! This is a very significant journey. I am glad that I saw the film without knowing anything about the journey and where it led. But, the word is out now. This is a movie expose of Transcendental Meditation. And quite a piece of movie investigative research it is.

David Sieveking, a German, looks almost the cliched description of a nerd – a touch gangly, bespectacled and with a face that shows everything is being absorbed seriously. He is also more than a bit of an extrovert.

At film school, David Lynch was his cinema idol. Discovering that Lynch meditated and was, in fact, a strong supporter of the Maharashi and TM, as well as a celebrity fund-raiser for them, he traveled to the US to interview Lynch on film and fell even further under his spell and began to learn to meditate himself, being given his own personal mantra. This was the foundation for a documentary film, enhanced by the footage of the Maharishi, his enthusiastic followers, testimony from Donovan, Paul McCartney? and Ringo Starr. And he went to India to film the rituals of the Maharishi's funeral.

He had on-and-off support from his partner, Marie Pohl.

Buoyed with enthusiasm and spiritual zest (though he could not emulate the strange phenomenon of the Flying Yogists who, to facilitate focus and intuition, could bounce and bounce and bounce along in the lotus position). But, at the grand assembly following the death of the Maharishi, he begins (as does the audience) to wonder. Pompous crowned kings vie for power. Ideological clashes break out – and David is requested to stop filming.

What follows is a journey of doubt and disillusionment, the realisation that TM had developed the characteristics of a cult, that money (lots of it) had become paramount, that projects were ambitious, buildings and peace centres in India, US and Germany, and many were not achieved, that rumours about the mores of the Maharishi and inconsistencies about his celibacy needed to be followed up. There are meetings and interviews with a woman who had had a relationship with the Maharishi, his 'skin-boy' (whose title referred to his solemnly preceding the Maharishi into meetings holding a deer skin) had been ousted by a peevish boss, and a Colorado financier who had contributed over $150,000,000 and found it had gone nowhere – or to a family in India.

David Sieveking brings this phase of his quest to a close at the Ganges and the search for the source of the river as well as at the monastery from the Maharishi came and made his claims – which were not endorsed by the current leadership there.

The film is always interesting, increasingly intriguing and challenging to attitudes to faith, spirituality and double standards. At the time of the film's release, David Lynch, a staunch disciple of TM, was in India making a movie about the Maharishi.

1.Audience knowledge of transcendental meditation? David’s journey, discovery, detecting? The expose?

2.The personal perspective, the opening, David Lynch as David’s idol, film school, wanting to make a dark film? The posters in his room? His relationship with Marie, her pedantic response to him, writing her novels, living in New York? His being caught up with David Lynch and transcendental meditation? Going to Iowa, crossing the United States? Meditation, the flying yogists? The variety of projects that transcendental meditation supported?

3.The Maharishi and his impact, the 1960s, the world of transcendental meditation, The Beatles, Donovan, Mia Farrow, the testimony of Donovan, Paul McCartney?, Ringo Starr?

4.The celebrities, the Maharishi flourishing in India, transferring to Switzerland and discovering the Swiss economy, the ceremonies held in Switzerland, financial support? The transition to Holland, building the huge centre? Creating an empire? The money, Fairfield in the United States, the project for India, the peace program, the issue of teaching children meditation at school and the later view of the Fairfield students and their meditation and their flying?

5.David as a person, bright, the film student, his life, relationship with Marie, admiration for Lynch, starting his film, the lead in America, the footage? Lynch’s interview, his support of transcendental meditation? The death of the Maharishi, David going to India? The veneration of the Maharishi and sympathy for him? His own personal journey and meditation, his personal mantra, his practice of meditation?

6.The successors of the Maharishi, the huge congress, the pomp, the rituals, the public relations, the kings and their crowns and robes, their speeches, power, accused of being charlatans? David Lynch defending the German king? The buying of the Devil’s Mountain in order to make the university? The German king and his going away in a stretch limo?

7.The buying of Devil’s Mountain, the Invincible German University, people’s reaction, the indiscreet words about Hitler? The various interviews that David did, the PR, the platitudes, the secrecy – and the issue of nobody ever having seen anyone flying despite the Maharishi’s promotion of flying as a greater form of meditation?

8.Fairfield, Lynch and his speech, the digging of the foundations? The PR people wary of interviews with David? David Lynch and his defence of the Maharishi, of the business side, everything being a blessing and bliss?

9.The testimonies against the Maharishi and transcendental meditation? The skin boy as his role of carrying the skin before the Maharishi, the photos, his testimony against the moods of the Maharishi, his being ousted? The relationship with the young woman, her explanations? Her being rejected? Earl and the one hundred and fifty million dollar donation? The psychologist and his doing the brain test on David?

10.The Maharishi and his personal life, especially the issue of celibacy? Finance? Discarding friends when they could no longer supply money?

11.David going to India, the Ganges experience, the crowds? Travelling into the mountains, the wise men, smoking, singing When the Saints Go Marching In? His plunge into the icy waters at the source of the Ganges?

12.His visit to the monastery, his talking with the guru, Maharishi identified as the guru’s secretary, a trader caste, not authorised to preach the meditation techniques?

13.David’s return, the reconciliation with Marie, walking on the beach, going to Devil’s Mountain, imagining the building as his house?

14.David and his respectful search for the truth? The nature of the investigation? Transcendental meditation organisation as a cult? The repercussions?