Lauren LeBritton has accomplished a feat few other undergraduate students have: she has written, directed, and co-edited a 30-minute film that was nominated for the Iowa Motion Picture Association’s 2019 awards.

Lauren created The Playhouse during a four-month module with a crew of four fellow film students and a cast of about 15 MUM and Maharishi School students and alumni. The light-hearted comedy is about a group of high school thespians fighting to keep their performance space from being sold to a villainous buyer.

Lauren came to MUM from New Hampshire with her best friend, Haley Spitzfaden. Haley’s two older sisters both attended MUM, so Lauren had known about the university growing up. She wanted a non-traditional education and was drawn to the health benefits of the Transcendental Meditation^® technique.

She had suffered from anxiety and insomnia, which both gradually improved after she learned the TM^® technique. “I didn’t even realize how bad it was until I came here,” she said. “TM has definitely helped my mental state.”

Lauren began songwriting as a child and sang in numerous choirs and a cappella groups. She has also been interested in photography, so she decided to major in media and communications. In addition to making a short film, she has taken classes in music production.

“Before I came here, I wanted to make music and also do film work,” said Lauren. “I didn’t realize that I would be graduating with all this knowledge to do it on my own. Everything is so accessible at MUM because it’s smaller, more centralized. You have time with the teachers and the equipment, unlike in other schools with huge programs.”

Lauren is currently working on recording her first album as part of her senior project as well as producing her first music video. She will be publishing her work via online streaming platforms such as Spotify and YouTube.

Jesse Holubeck was running a successful house-painting business in St. Louis, Missouri, when in 2006 he saw Dr. John Hagelin in a movie discussing consciousness. His curiosity led him to discover MUM, and he says he “dropped everything and moved to Fairfield.”

He enrolled at MUM, and a year later he learned the TM^®-Sidhi technique. Jesse fell in love with the Yogic Flying^® program and soon joined the Invincible America Assembly for a year.

He then returned to St. Louis and started a computer support and repair business. He had been fixing computers for friends and family, so he decided to turn his hobby into a business.

But Jesse realized that he missed living in Fairfield and attending the Golden Domes, so he moved back in 2012. “TM has given me a purpose in life,” he said. “When I am here serving people and follow my heart, things start to go my way and opportunities open up. I am part of a community and I am growing spiritually.”

Jesse has gradually built up his clientele by word of mouth. He recently teamed up with fellow alumnus Matthew Lindberg-Work in order to expand the enterprise. Named 2 Geeks and a Computer, the business offers a variety of services, including fixing corrupted systems, purging viruses, and repairing hardware.

Jesse’s aim is to be mindful of his customer’s needs and adapt his business accordingly. For example, based on his own experience and the public’s growing concerns for safety, he has thoroughly researched the effects of electromagnetic radiation and discovered that Wi-Fi routers emit signals powerful enough to cover the size of a football field. With the help of Matthew, he found an eco Wi-Fi solution that reduces this effect up to 90 percent.

Student Dylan Hanneman grew up in the small town of Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Although not from a family of farmers, Dylan spent several years studying organic agriculture and sustainable building techniques through internships around the country. Driven by a desire for independence, he wanted to learn how to feed and house himself.

Then he saw an ad for MUM’s Regenerative Organic Agriculture Program and decided to get a degree. Dylan wants to graduate with a double major in regenerative organic agriculture and sustainable living. His mission to become self-sufficient has now become a calling to teach others the variety of farming and building techniques he has been learning.

“Simple methods of agriculture could be taught to a wide range of people all over the world so that they could have food and shelter,” Dylan said. “Building up the topsoil and having more reserves of clean water are also a focus of mine.”

Dylan says he likes MUM because he doesn’t feel like he is in America. The presence of all the international students makes him feel he is all over the world. He thinks the TM^® technique is the easiest and most effective meditation technique and, within a year of enrolling at MUM, he learned the TM-Sidhi^®program.

“I get more energy from practicing TM,” he said. “It helps me focus when I go into activity and it helps me get rid of stress; that’s the biggest benefit of TM.”

Last May Dylan was asked to join MUM Student Government, and he took the opportunity to serve as vice president. In December, he stepped up to become president when the position became vacant. His desire is to help students accomplish their goals and improve their experience. He also enjoys listening to his peers with caring and empathy. In his free time, Dylan likes playing music, acting, and writing.

MUM guest lecturer Peter Farrelly won two Oscars at the 2019 Academy Awards. He took home the statues for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay for his film Green Book.

Joanna Plafsky, a founder of MUM’s David Lynch Graduate School of Cinematic Arts, was executive producer of the film Skin, whose co-producers Guy Nativ and Jaime Ray Newman won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short.

Mr. Farrelly was a founding adviser for the David Lynch MFA in Screenwriting, MUM’s low-residency program. He visited campus in February of 2017 and helped launch the program. “We are so fortunate to have had such a talented filmmaker as Peter Farrelly share his expertise with our students,” said Dorothy Rompalske, program creator and director.

During his time on campus, Mr. Farrelly spoke about his films and about how learning the Transcendental Meditation^®technique in recent years has affected his work. Students in the program met again with the director this past December during their final residency in Los Angeles.

Together with his brother Bobby, Peter Farrelly is known for writing, directing, and producing quirky comedies such as Dumb & Dumber, Shallow Hal, and Me, Myself & Irene.

Mr. Farrelly co-wrote and directed Green Book. The film is based on a true story of a working-class Italian-American bouncer who was hired as a chauffeur and bodyguard for an African-American classical and jazz pianist in the early 1960s as he gave a concert tour in the Deep South.

Joanna Plafsky is an international film producer, film distributor, and philanthropist. She was co-founder of Nu Image Films (now Millennium Films), which went on to become one of the biggest independent film producers in the world. With the David Lynch Foundation, she produced the inspiring documentary Saving the Disposable Ones about Father Gabriel Mejia.

Ms. Plafsky is a teacher of the Transcendental Meditation technique and has collaborated with David Lynch Foundation TV on several projects. She also serves on the board of the David Lynch Foundation to help bring the TM^® technique to schools and the less fortunate members of society.

A new study conducted at MUM’s partner school, Maharishi Institute in South Africa, found that the Transcendental Meditation^® technique reduced students’ symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“A high percentage of young people in South Africa, especially those in the townships, suffer from PTSD,” said coauthor Michael Dillbeck, researcher at MUM’s Institute for Science, Technology, and Public Policy. “To become successful students and productive members of society, they absolutely need help dealing with the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Our study shows that after three months of meditation this group, on average, was out of PTSD. It offers a way for others to effectively deal with this problem.”

Published in Psychological Reports, the study found that after 3.5 months of practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique, most of the 34 Maharishi Institute students who participated in the study – all of whom were initially diagnosed with PTSD by mental health professionals – went below clinical thresholds. The students also experienced relief from depression.

An international research team of seven scientists and psychologists conducted the study. At the start, the students had a score of 44 or more on the PCL-C test (a standardized self-report rating scale for PTSD). A score above 44 indicates likely PTSD and below 34 indicates that one is below the PTSD threshold.

Symptoms included nightmares, flashbacks to traumatic events, anxiety, fear, and hypervigilance. They also reported emotional numbness, anger, and violent behavior. At the conclusion of the study, the average group score of the MI students was below the PTSD threshold.

A comparison group of 34 students from the University of Johannesburg suffering from PTSD and depression received no treatment and continued to show no change in their symptoms throughout the study.

This is the first study of its kind to show how the Transcendental Meditation technique can reduce PTSD in college students.

Learn more about other PTSD research and projects here.