Comedian Russell Brand joins celebrities at David Lynch benefit concert

Donovan headlined the concert, performing alongside his daughter, Astrella Celeste, to raise money to teach Transcendental Meditation to at-risk youths throughout the world, including the UK. After the show he posed for photos with Lynch and guests, including Russell Brand -- looking healthy, lean and relaxed -- who has recently relocated from London to L.A.

Brand learned Transcental Meditation on a 4-day course in the USA in 2009 (as reported in The Sun newspaper) and told the Sunday Times in November that daily practice was putting distance between himself and  addiction.

“I’m living in a disciplined way, doing lots of yoga, exercise and Transcendental Meditation. It’s not half good. They give you a mantra … You feel attuned to a consciousness that is beyond your identity and beyond life.”

Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Jerry Seinfeld, Moby and Sheryl Crowe are amongst other celebrities who have talked about the benefits of Transcendental Meditation. In April 2009 they, and others, took part in another David Lynch Foundation fundraiser, the Change from Within concert, in New York to raise enough money to teach one million youths children and teenagers to meditate (see video, Home page).

Research published last year shows that regular Transcendental Meditation practice reduces symptoms of ADHD in schoolchildren and relieves stress, anxiety and high blood pressure amongst university students.

The David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace was founded in July 2005 by award-winning filmmaker David Lynch with the immediate goal of teaching one million at-risk youth to meditate. The foundation has already provided more than 100,000 scholarships for students to learn the Transcendental Meditation technique, as well as inmates and guards in prisons, formerly homeless men in re-entry programs, soldiers with PTSD returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, and American Indians suffering from diabetes.