Talk:David Lynch Foundation

Coatrack

This article appears to be a WP:COATRACK for material on TM. Many of the sources make no reference to the DLF, and there are some long quotations that don't mention it either. I'm going to trim the article down to material on the foundation itself.   Will Beback  talk  10:01, 18 September 2010 (UTC)

Parked Sources

Here are two sources which did not support the text that cited them. Also the first one has a dead link. Maybe they can be used elsewhere in the article in future:

• The Daily Collegian location=Penn State|title= Trend of Mediation Remedies Grows on Campuses|first=Rachel|last=Spivak|date=December 9, 2005
• Springen, Karen "The Magic of Meditation"-- — Keithbob • Talk • 17:54, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Parked sentence with no current source

• According to the foundation itself, it has funded over $3.5 million in school programs aiding over 55,000 students in 26 countries.Source:"David Lynch Foundation", retrieved July 17, 2009

I've parked this sentence here because the web site cited for the sentence does not contain said information AND the sentence contradicts other text which is cited to reliable secondary sources. So I thought best to park it here so as to not confuse the reader. If a proper source is found, the info can be re-added to the article. -- — Keithbob • Talk • 21:45, 22 February 2012 (UTC)

Lead Tag

I've tagged the article as its lead does not adequately summarize the article per WP:LEAD. Any help improving it is appreciated.-- — Keithbob • Talk • 22:05, 17 September 2012 (UTC)

Here's my suggestion for an expanded lead.

The David Lynch Foundation For Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace (DLF) is a global charitable foundation based in Fairfield, Iowa.[1] DLF was founded by film director and Transcendental Meditation (TM) practitioner David Lynch in 2005 to fund the teaching of TM in schools,[2] and for other "at-risk" populations, including veterans with PTSD, homeless individuals, American Indians, and male prisoners. The foundation funds research to evaluate the effects of TM on academic performance, learning disorders, emotional disorders, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. DLF’s fundraising activities include two “Change Begins Within” benefit concerts in New York City. The concerts and DLF’s other fundraising efforts have reportedly raised millions of dollars. The foundation has sponsored TM courses for 150,000 individuals, mostly students, worldwide.

Coaster92 (talk) 23:27, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

I like it except this sentence DLF’s fundraising activities include two “Change Begins Within” benefit concerts in New York City. could be expanded as he has organized several concerts and seem to remember a comedy benefit with Jerry Seinfeld as well. -- — Keithbob • Talk • 21:15, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

Nice lead. It's good that this is getting fixed. Given that there have been so many benefit events now, and in various cities, maybe we should leave it more general. But perhaps name a few names. "DLF's fundraising activities includes concerts and other benefits featuring individuals such as Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Jerry Seinfeld, and Wynton Marsalis." TimidGuy (talk) 15:51, 27 January 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the input KB and TG. I have not found anything about a comedy benefit with Jerry Seinfeld and it is not in the current article. I'll look at adding a few names to the lead of event participants.Coaster92 (talk) 23:00, 28 January 2013 (UTC)

Here's some sources:

• Photo credit: AP | Jerry Seinfeld performs at the David Lynch Foundation: A Night of Comedy honoring George Shapiro in Beverly Hills, Calif. (June 30, 2012) [2]
• Jerry Seinfeld on Importance of Meditation for PTSD Comedian reveals how meditation influences his life and benefits veterans. [3]
• Herbie Hancock led an all-star band — including Wayne Shorter, Terri Lyne Carrington and Esperanza Spalding — at a gala for the David Lynch Foundation, which promotes meditation for at-risk youth, veterans and others. But the night of jazz, plus meditative themes, didn’t make things too mellow for fans of Lynch’s usually edgy film fare. Hancock and company played some truly avant-garde arrangements in front of curtains slowly changing colors from deep red to moody purple. (Unlike Lynch’s “Twin Peaks,” no dancing little people emerged, sadly.) Singer Corinne Bailey Rae also performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center for and guests including Jerry Seinfeld, Liv Tyler, George Stephanopoulos and Dr. Oz. --[4]
• DLF Benefit [5]
• Barron's [6]
• DLF comedy benefit [7]
• -- — Keithbob • Talk • 19:21, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

I've expanded the lead and removed the tag. Please make further additions to the lead as needed. Cheers! -- — Keithbob • Talk • 01:08, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

I've added the sources above as appropriate and as needed.-- — Keithbob • Talk • 17:47, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

Some other ideas for this article

• The description section is a bit redundant and I think the reports from the DLF website and the independent sources could be summaized into a 3-4 sentences.
• The programs section should contain details about the programs DLF offers (maybe allowing the DLF website to self report on the programs it offers). Most of the content there now should be moved to the History section IMO.
• What do others think?-- — Keithbob • Talk • 04:22, 9 February 2013 (UTC)

Since no one has responded I assume that there are no objections to me doing some reorganizing of the article. So I'll just jump in. If something concerns you please tell me and I'll stop for a discussion :-) thanks! -- — Keithbob • Talk • 22:23, 21 February 2013 (UTC)

Referencing question

I have tried to post this sentence and reference at the end of the History section but the reference shows up as number 12 instead of number 31: "DLF has donated towards research on the health benefits of TM to be conducted at the University of Connecticut and the University of Michigan." I can't figure out what is going wrong. Thanks for any input. This is the reference but with "<" at the beginning and ">" at the end: ref name = “Veterans”/. This is the previous full reference two paragraph before. I took out the < at the beginning and > at the end: ref name = "Veterans">"Filmmaker David Lynch Introduces Meditation to Veterans" Wall Street Journal, November 26, 2010, Retrieved February 22, 2012</ref Coaster92 (talk) 07:47, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

That was odd. I removed the quotation marks and spaces, and it worked. It might have been seeing the space as the ref name, or some other similar issue. TimidGuy (talk) 11:59, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

So you took out the spaces before and after the = sign? I was not sure if there should be spaces but I won't put them in any more. Thanks so much TG.Coaster92 (talk) 23:37, 16 February 2013 (UTC)

Yes. It's hard to know what the cause was, but that seems to have fixed it. TimidGuy (talk) 12:12, 19 February 2013 (UTC)

Parking text and source

• In an interview, Lynch told ABC News: "Kids come to school and they meditate together for 15 minutes in the morning. And before they go home they meditate for 15 minutes. A lot of them come from, you know, bad situations, and so this gives them this thing you know, at the beginning and the end of the day, the rest of the time you just watch the violence stop."
• I've removed the above text. It seems gratuitous to me. If anyone disagrees they can add it back in or we can discuss. Thanks! -- — Keithbob • Talk • 23:39, 21 February 2013 (UTC)

• Since implementing the program, truancy and suspension rates have dropped substantially and student GPAs have increased school-wide. Students have expressed greater satisfaction and learning ability has improved. One eighth grade girl reported that since starting the program, she remains calm enough to focus in spite of the ever present sound of gun shots on the streets.--States News Service, February 22, 2012, “Risking peace at a troubled school”, San Rafael, CA Center for Wellness and Achievement in Education official website, retrieved February 16, 2013
• I removed the above text because its cited by a news service. Don't we need research reviews to substantiate these benefits? Comments?-- — Keithbob • Talk • 00:53, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

IMO the first statement elucidates Lynch's motivation for setting up the foundation, which seems relevant to me. As I recall, the second statement comes from the school personnel. They would be qualified to discuss their own records. The statement refers only to that school. The eighth grader's statement is her own experience. She does not need a research study to talk about that. Interested to hear other editors' input.Coaster92 (talk) 01:01, 24 February 2013 (UTC)

Note that the source being used to support the second instance is a self-published source -- a website created by the David Lynch Foundation. In which case this guideline likely applies: WP:SELFPUB. A self-published source can be used for basic facts but probably shouldn't be used to support claimed benefits. I believe that any representation of benefits will have to wait until research is published and covered in research reviews. TimidGuy (talk) 11:57, 26 February 2013 (UTC)

The info in the second item came from States News Service. Is that a self-published source?Coaster92 (talk) 06:52, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

Oops. My mistake. The Center for Wellness and Achievement is a self-published source, but States News Service isn't. I found the original report on HighBeam. It turns out, States News Service simply picked up a press release: "The following information was released by the George Lucas Educational Foundation." And that press release was taken from a blog post by David Markus on the Edutopia website.[8] In general, my impression is that any claimed benefits should be supported by peer-reviewed studies. A blog post may not suffice. Also, one has to be cautious about sounding promotional. TimidGuy (talk) 11:50, 27 February 2013 (UTC)

OKTimidGuy. Thanks for the info. IMO it would be all right for a school to discuss its own observations regarding test scores and their students. I thought it could be interesting and informative to have some feedback on how the projects are doing. But if you think it sounds promotional, I don't object to its removal.Coaster92 (talk) 07:00, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, Coaster. I wish I could find a policy that clearly addresses this. My notion is based on feedback I've received and, by analogy, the WP:MEDRS guideline, which disallows claimed benefits that aren't supported by research reviews. There's also the WP:EXCEPTIONAL section of WP's core policy of verifiability. TimidGuy (talk) 11:59, 1 March 2013 (UTC)

References

Potential sources

• KQED
• DLF web site archive
• DLF web site archive
• -- — Keithbob • Talk • 00:53, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

Question about accuracy

This article says that Visitacion school received a $175,000 grant from DLF. Here's what the source says: "Most of the annual $175,000 funding for the program is provided by the New York-based David Lynch Foundation, founded by the TV and movie director." So we don't know what the actual size of the grant was. Does this matter? Should we change it? Thanks. TimidGuy (talk) 21:33, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

Might as well be accurate. What about just adding "nearly" to the current version: ...the DLF provided nearly $175,000 in funding to the Visitacion Valley Middle School in San Francisco, U.S.Coaster92 (talk) 06:15, 4 March 2013 (UTC)

Thanks. I ended up rewriting and using language similar to the source. And since Visitacion was mentioned in two different places, I consolidated to one spot and put the grant info there. TimidGuy (talk) 11:54, 5 March 2013 (UTC)

Location

I looked at several articles today that say that the Foundation is based in New York, including the quote in the thread above in The Examiner. The lead of this article says Fairfield, citing the incorporation information on the website of the Iowa Secretary of State, which lists the Dreier Building on campus as the home office -- the same address as the reserving agent. Should we change the location to New York? I suppose we could say "incorporated in Fairfield, Iowa, and based in New York." TimidGuy (talk) 21:51, 22 February 2013 (UTC)

I looked at the DLF website. There are two job announcements on the site. One refers to the foundation's NY offices in midtown manhattan. The other refers to the foundation's offices in NY, LA, San Francisco, and Fairfield, IA. The lead could say: The David Lynch Foundation For Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace (DLF) is a global charitable foundation with offices in Fairfield, Iowa and New York City. What do you think?Coaster92 (talk) 06:42, 4 March 2013 (UTC)

Hi Coaster. Could you give me the link that you're referring to? I used your wording and also added Los Angeles, based on this DLF link.[9] TimidGuy (talk) 11:58, 5 March 2013 (UTC)

This is the site I was looking at: [[10]].Coaster92 (talk) 22:50, 10 March 2013 (UTC)

Thanks, Coaster. The syntax of that sentence is a bit unclear. I think it means that there are offices in New York City, and that the position occasionally requires travel to DLF-sponsored events in LA, SF, and Fairfield. TimidGuy (talk) 10:38, 11 March 2013 (UTC)

Removing Unsourced Sentence

I have removed the sentence below from the history section, there does not appear to be a proper source corroborating it:

and a total of 25 public, private, and charter schools in the United States had offered Transcendental Meditation to their students.

The entire paragraph read:

By 2006, six public schools in the U.S. had been awarded $25,000 by the David Lynch Foundation and a total of 25 public, private, and charter schools in the United States had offered Transcendental Meditation to their students. --Luke Warmwater101 (talk) 06:30, 15 November 2013 (UTC)

References

Storing text and citation till we get a stronger source

That month an article in Bullett Media said the Foundation had sponsored the teaching of TM to approximately 250,000 students.--cite web |url=http://bullettmedia.com/article/david-lynch-taught-me-to-chill-hard-transcendental-meditation/ |title=David Lynch Taught Me to Chill Hard: One Woman’s Journey Into Transcendental Meditation |publisher=Bullett Media |date=July 2013 |author=Surnow, Rose |deadurl=no |accessdate=6 September 2013..-- — Keithbob • Talk • 21:17, 18 December 2013 (UTC)

I'm deleting the "Literature" section, here's why:

[Edited to add signature]] This page is really well written and all, but I'm confused as to why there's a section titled "Literature," underneath which is (just) the following citation: "Siegel, Aryeh; Transcendental Deception: Behind the TM curtain; Los Angeles 2018 (JanReg); ISBN 978-0-9996615-0-5" I wrote a whole paragraph about why I was going to wait for consensus to delete it, but I've decided to follow the "Be Bold" rule because I can see no possible reason to warrant that being there. If I'm somehow wrong, my apologies, and that citation is right here to be re-added...but it seems to me that citation neither adds nor could add anything. Thanks. FireWalkWithMe27♣(talk) 23:09, 18 November 2020 (UTC)