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August 3, 2025 15 mins
Original Air Date: July 27, 2025

I swear by it: transcendental meditation: TM. Bob Roth  heads the David Lynch Foundation and explains  how it works




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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, Conversations about issues that matter.
Here's your host, three time Grasie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
I want to reintroduce you because he has been on
Sunstein Sunday several times to Bob Roth. He's the chief
executive officer of the David Lynch Foundation. And the reason
I have Bob Roth on periodically is because I just
want the audience to know how transcendental meditation changed my life.

(00:34):
I mean, it absolutely changed my life. I cannot explain it.
Bob Roth can explain it. But here's the background. My
husband and I always watch sixty Minutes and CBS this morning,
I think it was CBS this morning, and we saw
this report several years ago, it could have been ten

(00:55):
years ago about transcendental meditation and who was using it
and how it impacted their lives, including Howard Stern. And
one of the things that was mentioned was that it
helps with depression. And my husband at that point wasn't
severely depressed, but you know, he was kind of depressed,

(01:16):
and he said, I want to try this, and I said,
you know what, I'm going to go with you. And
long story short, we had two training sessions.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
That was it.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
I have been doing it almost every day ever since.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
My husband is like off and on.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Here's what I notice about my life with transcendental meditation.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
My highs aren't as high, my.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Lows aren't as low, but things just kind of roll
off my back. I am more even, I am more settled.
And many times when I do the TM, which is
a twenty minute session, you're supposed to do it twice
a day, I can only do it once a day.

(02:02):
Sometimes I fall asleep and I was told, well, that's
the best sleep you'll ever have. And all right, So
first of all, Bob Roth, welcome, welcome, welcome. Explain what
the David Lynch Foundation is.

Speaker 4 (02:17):
First of all, I want to say, there's no supposed to.
You're supposed to do it as often as you can.
Ever you can do it. That's the nice thing. This
is a guilt free meditation.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
Okay, they say guideline.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
Yeah, we like to do it in the morning as
a preparation for the day. We do it in the
afternoon to get rid of the stress of the day.
But really whenever you can. If you can do it
once a day, that is spectacular. You do it twice
a day. That's spectacular. So it's a wonderful thing. So
the David Lynch Foundation was started twenty years ago July

(02:50):
twenty first, twenty twenty five, I mean yeah, two thousand
and five. And purpose of the foundation as a nonprofit
was to bring the evidence based stress reducing transcendental meditation
to at risk populations, to kids who live in poverty,

(03:11):
to veterans who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, to
frontline doctors and nurses who are in hospitals and high crime,
high violence, even war torn areas. And to first responders,
firefighters and police officers who suffer incredible experience, incredible amounts

(03:33):
of trauma and yet have nowhere to process it to
get rid of it. Well that's why we started it.
But now the whole world is pretty much filled with stress.
The whole world is pretty much traumatized. So the Foundation
has expanded its scope to let's bring the technique to it,
and let's do it to the healthcare system. Let's get

(03:53):
coverage by insurance carriers, so when a person wants to
learn transcendental meditation, it's covered by their third party payer.
So that's where we are today.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
Wow, I didn't even know about that.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
Now it's her, that's her focus.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
That's unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
Explain how TM is different from other forms of meditation,
because people will say to me, oh, I downloaded this
app and they tell me to clear my mind, and
I can't clear my mind. And we were trained with TM.
Of course, you can't clear your mind. It's impossible. But
you have a mantra. You're given a mantra and you

(04:34):
try to focus on that mantra and your mind may drift,
but then you bring it back to the mantra. But
how is TM different from other meditation and why do
you think that makes it more effective?

Speaker 4 (04:50):
Well, I like to use the analogy of an cross
section of an ocean, where you have choppy waves on
the surface, and yet the depth of the ocean, by
its nature is pretty darn silent, and that can be
seen the mind. The mind is the same the surface
of the mind. Some people call it a monkey mind.
I like to call it that. God of God, of
God of God of God, gotta goda mind, I gotta
do this, I gotta do that. I gotta call him,

(05:12):
I got to all. The God is busy, busy, busy.
Other forms of meditation. Just about every other form of
meditation is what's called a cognitive approach to meditation is
to do something to manipulate or stop or or suppress
the thoughts. Like if you want to have a calm ocean,

(05:34):
what disrupts a calm ocean. That is waves, So if
you could stop the waves, you'll have a calm otion.
Very it's close to impossible. But the ocean has a
vertical dimension, and the ocean is, as I said, naturally
silent at its depth. Mind is the same way. So
there are types of meditation that can clear your mind

(05:55):
of thoughts. Focus on thoughts, focus on a part of
your brain or your body to quell thoughts. Transcendental meditation,
we have this vertical dimension in the mind. We understand
that the surface of the mind may be active, but
deep within every human being right now, there's a level
with your mind. And you don't even believe in this.
It's just deep within everyone right now. Your mind is

(06:18):
already calm and settled and peaceful and wide awake, and
we've lost access to it. And transcendental meditation is a simple, natural,
effortless technique that just simply comfortably allows your mind to
be drawn inward to dive within, and we experience what
they call a source of thought, or we move in

(06:39):
that direction, quieter level of the mind. That process of
diving within is completely effortless and anyone can do it.
And that's how it differs from other forms of meditation,
other forms of meditation hard work, stop waves, stop thoughts.
Transcendental meditation. We understand waves are a part of the
ocean and thoughts are part of the mind. You'll never

(07:02):
stop them. Better to settle down, transcend settle down and
experience calmer, quieter levels. And when we do that, number one,
it's effortless. Number two, it's completely enjoyable. And number three,
it produces a constellation of health benefits that you don't
see in any other form of meditation. And that includes
reducing stress, reducing anxiety, reducing cortisol levels, increasing what's called serotonin,

(07:28):
which is your well being neurotransmitter, lowering high blood pressure,
but also waking up the creative networks in the brain.
So it's great. It has nothing to do with other
forms of meditation.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
I'm speaking with Bob rothy Is, the chief executive officer
of the David Lynch Foundation. Are there certain insurance companies
that are now covering the cost of TM.

Speaker 4 (07:54):
We are very close to that happening, I think in
er or two. But what is happening is hospital for example,
where David Lynch Foundation has brought TM to over one
hundred hospitals in the US, forty six in New York
City alone. And now hospitals have their own wellness funds,
their own their their self insured, so they have their
own wellbeing funds. So now they're paying for their employees,

(08:17):
to their doctors and nurses to learn TM. So we
have one hospital in New York that just gave a
quarter million dollars to teach frontline nurses DOT. You would
never have seen this a few years ago. And Brown
University Medical School has a hospital to pay for all
of their doctors and nurses to learn TM. And I

(08:38):
have a colleague, colleagues Vin de Cresenzo and Adam Friedman,
that are now bringing TM large numbers of firefighters and
police departments around the country and now in New York City,
for example, the New York Fire Department Foundation given over
one hundred thousand dollars for their firefighters to learn TM,

(08:59):
some of them part of a recovery program because there's
high levels of addiction. And also the police department who
to thunk ten years ago that the New York Police
Department is paying for their officers to learn TM and
they're doing it for two reasons. One, the problem of
stress and trauma is out of control with first responders.

(09:20):
More firefighters and police officers die of suicide than die
from the line of duty. So that's one reason why.
And the second reason is so much research now that
shows that transcendental meditation more than any other approach, reduces stress,
heals trauma, and can restore vitality and resilience to anyone.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
You have a special program for veterans. Are there special
discounts for veterans?

Speaker 5 (09:48):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (09:48):
Yeah. As a matter of fact, if anyone is listening
to this and you're a veteran or you know a
veteran who suffers from PTSD, you can email Vin Vin
at David Lynchfoundation dot org. Vin Vin at David Lynch
Foundation dot org, and Vin will help arrange a full

(10:11):
scholarship for anyone for any veteran to learn TM.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
Okay, so again that's Vin at David Lynchfoundation dot org.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
V I N Right, yes, got it right.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
VI I n at David lynchfoun Foundation dot org.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
What is the cost?

Speaker 4 (10:32):
Oh, I'm just going to say that, Yeah, what.

Speaker 5 (10:34):
Is the cost of TM for the regular person? So
a regular person, there's a sliding scale. For example, there's
a lot of apps on the market they cost you know,
twenty dollars a month or something, or they don't do anything.

Speaker 4 (10:49):
I mean from a from a medical standpoint. The two approaches.
The two there's one that's called well Transcendental Meditation. The
other one is called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, which is
an eight week course and it costs about the same
as Transcendental Meditation four dollars three four hundred dollars at
the people who don't have much money eight or nine

(11:12):
hundred dollars people who do have the resources. But what
TM organization does and the David Lynch Foundation does is
it will provide for people and need a complete scholarship
so no one is turned away. So there's a course fee,
and people say, well, why does it cost so much
money to learn TM, Well, the fact of the matter

(11:32):
is it's a four to one hour four two hour sessions,
but then you have a very complete lifetime follow up
of follow up program. Once you've learned it, you have
access to a teacher for the rest of your life.
And so we pay teachers. I want people who work
for the foundation. I want the teachers who teach it
to be a living wage. You know, they can raise

(11:54):
a family, they can take their get insurance, they get
their kids on vacation. So we pay our teacher a
good salary, but I mean an appropriate salary, nothing exorbitant.
But we don't want money to stand in the way.
That's why we're going for this coverage by insurance carriers.

Speaker 3 (12:11):
Is there still a discount if you get a doctor's note.

Speaker 4 (12:14):
Yeah. Just what you do is you go to boy
you have a good memory, you go to TM dot org,
tm dot org and you can find out the tmcenter
nearest you. And then you can say that you heard
an interview on your show with Bob Roth and that
he talked about a scholarship fund, and that they could

(12:35):
they'll know me this tmcenter could contact me Bob Roth
about how to arrange that.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
We only have about two and a half minutes left. So, Bob,
what have we not touched on that you would like
to impart to the audience.

Speaker 4 (12:49):
I would say this, we're hearing this, and you're so eloquent,
and you're always so eloquent about transcendental meditation and its benefits.
I want to say, don't let this go in one
ear and out the next. A few years ago, we
could have said, okay, meditation taking fifteen twenty minutes out
twice a day to access this deep inner calm and

(13:11):
wake up your full creative potential. It's a luxury. You know,
it's a luxury. It's not for me. I got to
tell you. We are living in increasingly stressful traumatic times
and is only going to accelerate with the advent of AI.
And it is a smart person who will take the
time out first of all, research trans and elementitation and

(13:34):
then you know, learn it if you want to, but
do something, do it. Don't just think oh I'm going
to be fine. None of us are going to be fine.
The human nervous system wasn't built for this kind of
trauma and stress. And so my advice to you is
go to TM dot org, find out about it, listen

(13:54):
to your wonderful host here who's just delightful, delightful, and
do something. Just do something now, because it's not going
to get any better.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
All I can tell you, you know, to reiterate the
days that I do TM are better days. And we
are all under stress, and we live in a very
stressful world. I mean even just getting together with friends
and family, which used to be an oasis, now that's

(14:30):
a different form of stress and any and this really
really helps. Like I say, there are things that just
it just doesn't bother me. I just am more settled.
I am just a more settled, calmer person. And I

(14:50):
want to thank you Bob Roth also, And you're a blessing.

Speaker 4 (14:53):
You're a blessing that you have this platform and you
bring this to your to your audience. This is great.
I appreciate you so much.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
Well, I appreciate you, and I appreciate TM TM dot
org or you can contact the David Lynchfoundation dot org.
Just try it, just explore. I bet you even AI
is for it.

Speaker 3 (15:18):
I bet you it is.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
You've been listening to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, a production
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