Katy Perry Latest Celebrity Fundraising for a Cult Like Group
Katy Perry — why shouldn’t she have the same opportunities as other celebrities? The “Fireworks” singer, raised by evangelicals, is now stumping for the cult like world of Transcendental Meditation. She’s sent out a Tweet this morning to her 28 million “followers” urging them to donate money to the David Lynch Foundation.
Created in 2005 by the director of “Blue Velvet” and “Twin Peaks,” the DLF raises money for something called the Center for Wellness and Achievement in San Francisco. It also sends most of its money to the Maharishi University in Fairfield, Iowa, which promotes and teaches fundraising for meditation.
Meditation in and of itself is just great. If Perry were just asking her fans to meditate, the world would be a better place. But there’s money involved, just as with Tom Cruise and his pals for Scientology, Madonna and Kabbalah, and all the other little cults raising money for their “religions.” After all, the beauty of meditation is that it shouldn’t cost anything.
In Perry, TM and David Lynch have found a perfect celeb: massive following, young, and a role model for her impressionable fans. In TM, Perry has found a way to be just like her parents.
Transcendental meditation changed my life. For my birthday I would love to pay it forward. In lieu of gifts, donate
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.
Steve Pritchard
What crappy misleading article! DLF is not a cult nor religion. Meditation is commonly used by athletes and musicians before a game or show.The people that wrote this article must wch fox news way to much! U r a bunch of right wing morons This foundation has helped countless kids and adults with real problems! What makes u think meditation is a religious thing anyway? This is a horse shit written article! Besides how ironic u post this crap after she publicaly endorsed Obama. David Lynch has more accolades than u can ever stream and has earned the right to start a charity or foundation of his choosing. Vanity fair u suck.!leave eraser head alone.Go pick on Matt Damon or grove clooney like the rest of right wing media
Steven
http://changebeginswithin.org/
Steven
What a Line-up!!!
HERBIE
HANCOCK
WYNTON
MARSALIS
WAYNE
SHORTER
CORINNE
BAILEY
RAEESPERANZA
SPALDING
TERRI LYNE
CARRINGTON
HOSTED BY
DAVID LYNCH/GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS
Robert H.
I am glad you are honest enough to admit that your article is poor propaganda Roger.
Good of Stephen to inject a degree of balance.
Mary Maude Henry
I agree with Roger, Katy Perry has plenty of money- let her donate to this BS cult but I don’t want to hear about it! MMH
Sam
Sorry to say that this is a disappointing and misleading article. I checked this out. 100% of the funds go to pay for TM scholarships for those in need, not to a university or “cult”. Katy Perry and her team doesn’t make these choices without due diligence. Please be more careful. This is one program that is really helping our kids in school and shouldn’t be mistaken for something else. Thanks.
Tom
Friedman, What kind of a sentence is this?: “It also sends most of its money to the Maharishi University in Fairfield, Iowa, which promotes and teaches fundraising for meditation.” ???
Are you seriously claiming that Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa exists to promote “fundraising?!” Gimme a break. You lose a lot of credibility right there. Your article is obvious, biased mudslinging.
The DLF raises money for a lot of great causes and at-risk youths, not just the Center for Wellness in SF as you imply.
You are a terrible journalist. Do your research next time rather than just slinging mud and making things up.
Wheeler
Are you kidding—You think charging a tuition to learn makes TM a cult? How do you pay your rent?
Blaze Compton
Why not?
The National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, The AMA (American Medical Association), the American Psychological Association, and a list of agencies, universities, and research facilities across the globe (too many to list) have contributed to or published research studies (close to 600 studies to date) that document the holistic value of the regular practice of Transcendental Meditation.
It lowers blood pressure, reduces heart disease, decreases depression and anxiety, and is a stellar treatment for PTSD – among 100′s of other documented benefits.
To call the David Lynch Foundation, one of the organizations that raises money to fund projects that make TM available to at-risk children and adults throughout the world at no-cost, a “cult like group” is a gross misrepresentation.
Thank you,
Blaze Compton
503.342.0026
bcompton@tm.org
Certified Transcendental Meditation Instructor
On-site Director of The Oregon Prison Project
Watch 5 short prison videos @
The Maharishi Foundation: A Non-Profit Educational Organization
http://TM.org
http://DoctorsOnTM.org
http://TM-Business.org
http://TM-Education.org
http://DavidLynchFoundation.org
Theodore
Very interesting. Katy Perry’s goal is to raise money for a religion. She is a popular music star and kindly appeals to her millions of fans for donations. She is assisted by David Lynch to promote the Maharishi University. Rule from history: All religions that depend on money and real estate end up losing both. Perry is supporting an eccentric film maker and a foreign guru who contradict Western Civilization and its universities, cathedrals, human rights and global markets. This is a clear case of “biting the hands that feeds.”
tam
RIGHT ON KATY!!!! and thank you.
PS: see: Myth #7: Yikes! It’s a cult! http://meditationasheville.blogspot.com/2010/12/myth-yikes-its-cult.html
tam
I wonder if the editors of this site have ever thought about doing something called RESEARCH before writing such a lame headline: Transcendental Meditation is about as far from a cult as you can get. The organization that teaches the meditation technique is not a “cult like group.” It’s a philanthropic non-profit educational organization that does just one thing: teaches effective meditation that helps millions of people. What a weird negative mindset such articles as this are based on…
Roger Friedman
This is propaganda.