Byline: SIMON HOUPT

NEW YORK -- Tom Cruise and Madonna aren't the only celebrities promoting an alternative approach to raising consciousness these days. American filmmaker David Lynch, best known for creating anxiously entertaining rides through the darker recesses of human psychology, is in the midst of a university tour across the United States to promote the calming benefits of Transcendental Meditation.

As part of the tour, Lynch is publicizing a planned $20-million study on the effects on students of Transcendental Meditation, or TM, supported by a foundation he recently unveiled known as the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace.

Lynch recently led two evening demonstrations of TM at New York University, where students seemed more interested in talking about his films than about meditation. The following day, he spoke at a luncheon conference designed to promote the workplace benefits of TM. On both occasions, Lynch told the audience that he began practising...