Of all the many spiritual masters who transplanted themselves from India in the 1960s, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is perhaps the most lauded, and indeed, successful. His easy-to-learn technique of transcendental meditation is everywhere with millions gaining great benefits from the ageless technique today.

In 1992 Geoffrey Giuliano was asked if he would do an exclusive interview with the Maharishi in Switzerland. The author readily agreed as the reclusive spiritual master almost never met the press and he was embarking on an ambitious program of mass meditation to try to purify vast areas of the United States. After a great deal of negotiation, the two finally got together on Christmas Eve and had a prolonged, stirring conversation that is documented here. In addition, the Maharishi was joined by the late world-class magician Doug Henning.

Susan Shumsky is a successful author in the new age/spirituality field, writing books on meditation, intuition, prayer, auras, chakras, and the like. But in the 1970s, she was one of only a handful of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s personal attendants and administrators, in India, Switzerland, and elsewhere. Following the teachings of Maharishi displaced Susan’s devotion to the hippie lifestyle, as she learned about meditation and grew spiritually self-aware. Maharishi founded the spiritual movement TM (Transcendental Meditation).

David Lynch’s Catching the Big Fish provides a rare window into the internationally acclaimed filmmaker’s methods as an artist, his personal working style, and the immense creative benefits he has experienced from the practice of meditation.

Every day, we face a growing epidemic of stress, one that is damaging our physical and emotional health at younger and younger ages. Billionaire CEOs, moms managing households, college students, people of every race, age, and income all make the same confession: "I am so stressed." It is literally killing us. While there is no one single cure, there is a simple practice that dramatically changes how we respond to stress and life's challenges: the Transcendental Meditation technique.