Consciousness and Filmmaking
“If filmmaking was intellectual you could learn to make a film from a book. There is something else going on. And that something else going on is fed by diving within.”
– DAVID LYNCH
Amine Kouider reflects on his film career and why he chose to join the David Lynch MFA in Film
As an artist, you draw upon a creative well filled with images, sounds, and ideas gleaned from your daily life. Every artist has felt the well run dry and had to spend time rejuvenating or seeking out new inspirations to fill it. Consciousness-Based℠ Film Education helps you extend that well, tapping into an inexhaustible ocean of creativity within yourself—pure consciousness.
David calls this “catching the big fish.” The deeper you go into that infinite ocean, the bigger the fish you can find, giving you greater understanding of life. Free from negative and stressful constraints, you create with more happiness and energy. The colors of city streets are more vivid, and your senses are razor sharp—you’re more empowered as an artist. As a conscious filmmaker you can communicate universal truths of human life through even the simplest expressions.
The Signal and the Noise
Think of your brain as an incredibly sophisticated radio. It receives many signals from the outside, and also sends out its own signals. The creative impulse underlies all these signals, often hidden by the static between them. This creates confusion. If there isn’t clarity in your awareness, you can’t tune in properly to any particular station.
How to Amplify the Signal
Consciousness-Based Education gives you the chance to dive deep into the clear, silent pool of your awareness via the Transcendental Meditation® (TM) technique. When you come back into activity you have more clarity and are better able to tune in to the radio station of your choice. It’s a very concrete experience, and lays the groundwork for the creative experience in the studio and classroom.
Effortless Creativity
You do not have to do anything special to become more creative. You don’t have to struggle or go through dark nights of the soul. All you have to do is get rid of the “stuff” (stress, unruly emotions, and noisy thoughts) that hide your creativity.
The David Lynch MA in Film class of 2014 with David Lynch
More on Consciousness
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on Consciousness and Creativity
The founder of Maharishi University of Management was Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the well-known founder of the TM technique. His message was that the purpose of life is the expansion of happiness, and that every human being can effortlessly unfold his or her infinite potential.
“Something cannot come out of nothing. A river is never seen flowing out of a desert. There must be some water from which the river can flow. There must be something out of which something else can come. From the fullness of creative intelligence the streams of life come out. From the unbounded the boundaries spring.”
Source: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, “Art and the Artist”, [A lecture given at Kossen, W. Germany]. In M. Cain, Art and the Science of Creative Intelligence: Interdependence of Part and Whole, 1970, pp. vii-viii.
“A small wave on the surface of the ocean would not be a very powerful wave, but the same wave becomes powerful when it connects with deeper levels of water. So, the art of improving and strengthening a wave is to enable it to contact directly deeper levels of water.”
Source: Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Science of Being and Art of Living: Transcendental Meditation. New York: Penguin, 2001.
David Lynch on Consciousness
“Intuition is seeing the solution–seeing it, knowing it. It’s emotion and intellect going together. That’s essential for the filmmaker… Personally, I think intuition can be sharpened and expanded through meditation, diving into the Self.”
“Meditation is not a selfish thing. Even though you’re diving in and experiencing the Self, you’re not closing yourself off from the world. You’re strengthening yourself, so that you can be more effective when you go back out into the world. It’s like they say on airplanes: ‘First put your mask on, and then help those next to you put theirs on.’ “
Source: David Lynch. Catching the Big Fish. New York: Penguin, 2006, pp. 45 and 169.