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Eternal Stories from the Upanishads in The Return

“I thought when I started meditation that I was going to get real calm and peaceful and it's going to be over. It's not that way; it's so energetic. That's where all the energy and creativity is.”  - David Lynch David Lynch makes no secret of the fact that he is a deeply spiritual man. He’s a long-time practitioner of, and vocal advocate for, transcendental meditation. He believes the technique can bring enlightenment, inspiration, happiness and peace. Threads of this spirituality have always been woven into Twin Peaks , especially Cooper’s ideas about Tibet and his belief in intuitive investigation. Part 14 of The Return put spiritual ideas firmly back in the spotlight, with a quotation from a philosophical Sanskrit text, part of which formed the episode title. As Cole related “another Monica Bellucci dream” (I love the idea that these are a recurring thing for him), he reported the Italian model and actress spoke a memorable phrase: “We are like the drea...
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“Between two worlds” – portals, doorways and channels in Twin Peaks

“And now we’ve arrived at what the veil is. It’s the ethereal curtain between the everyday illusion of separation and the divine truth of eternity and oneness with all that is. When we meditate or perform ritual, or when we have a mystical experience of any variety, this curtain parts and we are able to gaze into the place of power, the place between the worlds.” Tess Whitehurst, “The Veil Between the Worlds is Thin” The disparate strands of Twin Peaks: The Return appear to be gradually coming together. And it seems they are converging to a single (or perhaps double) point of space and time. The location is identified by Major Briggs’ coordinates, a perfect McGuffin that has cost many lives and caused much intrigue. The time is also named by Briggs in his time capsule message to the Twin Peaks sheriffs – 2:53 on the first and second of October. But why there? And why then? It feels like this time and place might represent an opening – a rare moment where parallel paths unexpect...
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“This rough magic” – comparing Twin Peaks: The Return to The Tempest.

Every episode of The Return left my mind reeling under an electrical storm of ideas, connections and questions. That’s part of what made watching this new incarnation of Twin Peaks such a unique and compelling experience. Nothing else on TV does this. As I watched Part 11, in which the FBI agents visit Bill Hasting’s entrance to The Zone, I was left with one thought that just wouldn’t go away: David Lynch’s Deputy Director Gordon Cole is equivalent to William Shakespeare’s ageing sorcerer Prospero. And, in many ways The Return is Lynch’s version of The Tempest . The seed of this idea was planted by the image of Cole, arms aloft, under the whirling vortex of the sky – looking like an archetypal sorcerer. That idea mushroomed into something quite different and took me to places both wonderful and strange. Now, fair warning, there are going to be some leaps and stretches in this essay, so please bear with me. Some of what you’re about to read may seem a little tenuous. But, wit...
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