Home Celebrity 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.

Katy Perry@katyperry

Transcendental meditation changed my life. For my birthday I would love to pay it forward. In lieu of gifts, donate

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Author
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
21 replies to this post
  1. 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

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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

  5. 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.”

  6. 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…

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