The David Lynch Foundation
The David Lynch Foundation provides scholarships for students to participate in the Quiet Time Program. The Quiet Time program, by counterbalancing the crippling effects of psychosocial stress, provides a strong beneficial influence in the lives of vulnerable inner-city students. The effects of the Quiet Time program are foundational and systemic. By introducing a whole new experience of consistent quietness and peacefulness in the daily lives of all of the students in a school, a healthy balance between deep rest and stress-inducing activity is achieved with profound academic and behavioral results. By experiencing Quiet Time on a regular basis, students start to rebalance and release the impact of the environmental stresses they experience. They also start to develop a more centered, grounded state of mind and thereby tend to engage in their activities with greater focus and more energy, creativity, intelligence, confidence, and joy. As a result, students are more successful. The program impacts the daily lives of these vulnerable students, and provides an experience and a tool that they can take with them after they graduate and use throughout their lives.
The Quiet Time program is evidenced-based. The TM meditation technique is used in the Quiet Time program because it has been extensively validated, including over $24 million of NIH-funded research. The research indicates that TM: 1) produces a state of physiological rest deeper than deep sleep; 2) reduces anxiety, depression, blood pressure, and drug and alcohol use; 3) enhances physical brain functioning, as indicated by increased brain wave coherence and increase in blood flow to the brain; 4) increases intelligence, creativity, and problem-solving ability; 5) improves self-concept and self-actualization; 6) reduces ADHD symptoms. Overall, this program reduces children’s vulnerability by strengthening their intellectual potential and behavioral coping mechanisms from within.
