Have you been enlightened?

I’m not enlightened, I have to tell you. But on the way to enlightenment, the good news is: every day gets better. When you experience this consciousness, this ocean of consciousness has qualities. And those qualities are bliss. They call it sometimes “bliss consciousness.” And you can dive in and get wet with this bliss consciousness. And it expands. Inner happiness

How has your meditation evolved over the years—from a different experience each time, or gone back to the same thing?

 With Transcendental Meditation, it’s been my experience, and talking to others their experience as well, you’re an expert from your first meditation.

And we could start talking about consciousness. Consciousness is this quite abstract thing. And it’s—yet the number one

How did you get interested in meditation?

When I first heard about meditation, I had zero interest in it. And I’d hear it, but I wasn’t even curious about it. I was not for it nor against it; I just didn’t care to know about it.

And I had these phrases coming that we all hear, that “True happiness doesn’t exist out there; true happiness lies within.” And that phrase always got me. But in that

When I listen to you talk about Transcendental Meditation, I like everything about it. But I am a devout Christian, and Transcendental Meditation comes from a tradition totally different from Christianity—Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was a Hindu monk. I feel I’m ready to learn TM, but I can do it only I reconcile it with my beliefs.

I was raised Presbyterian. I respect people who are religious, and I

Most of your movies are full of negativity, violence—the more shadowy things in life. And yet you promote Transcendental Meditation, which seems to give you so much bliss. How are these opposites reconciled in your mind?

There are many, many dark things flowing around in this world now, and most films reflect the world in which we live. They’re stories. Stories are always going to have conflict.