The bulk of the weekend, though, I spent in a big room — something very much like a hangar, in fact — attending a conference on "Creativity, Consciousness and the Brain," listening to talks on the relationship between quantum physics and peace-creating energy fields, and watching the brain waves of a young student of meditation hooked up to an EEG as a group of bald men stood around beaming.

The conference constituted the last leg of a 12-campus tour introducing college students to TM and promoting Lynch's new scholarship program, "The David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace." If the need for meditation scholarships sounds strange, considering the ease with which meditation instruction can be obtained, you should know that the formal four-day TM instruction and a personal mantra (plus future adjustments) will run you $2,500.

Early on Saturday morning, Lynch graciously took questions from the conference-goers, who were encouraged to ask him about anything, whether it be meditation or movie-making. Judging from the questions, what many of the young attendees sought were grand unifying answers.

They worried, perhaps prematurely, about how to retain their integrity and creativity in Hollywood, an industry known for its bone-headedness and venality. They wanted to know should they shoot on film or digital video? They wanted to understand what releases creativity, what its limits are.

"The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi talks about an ocean of creativity and consciousness," Lynch replied. "Then modern science says it's true — everything that is emerges from this thing. Quantum physics and the unified field."

Etc.

Susan