Russell Brand talks about Transcendental Meditation at Operation Warrior Wellness launch

Hello. I really enjoy being at a press conference of any description, but such a worthwhile cause is particularly gratifying. But firstly, I'm behind a podium now and that gives me a certain degree of authority. Plus, I'm part of a press conference with esteemed veterans, laudable military men, brilliant doctors, wonderful designers, and one of the worlds greatest ever filmmakers. In a way, this sort of validates me as a human and my apparently formerly secret brilliance. Let's get that message out there. Can't keep my light under a bushel, there's not a bushel big enough. Yeah, I'm honored to be part of the David Lynch TM Foundation. My personal experiences, which are really all I'm qualified to speak about and I'm enormously qualified to speak about them, don't really talk about anything else, to be honest. Ah, The Resilient Warror. Which, actually I was going to call Booky Wook 3. The Resilient Warrior. Thank heavens you stepped in. My personal experiences with Transcendental Meditation began about 14 months ago. I was making, and indeed am making, it's taking ages, a documentary about the pursuit of happiness in our contemporary culture saturated as we are with consumerism and obsession with commercialism and fame. Transient pleasures, superficial pleasures that provide little nutrition. I used to be poor, now I'm not. And I didn't used to be famous, now I am. And I thought that both of these significant transitions might bring a certain amount of satisfaction. They did, a bit initially. I was a devoted drug addict for a long while. I really, really committed to that drug addiction. And in fact today, on the launch of this initiative, and on the day of tonights event which I'm honored to be part of, is serendipitously eight years exactly to the day since I gave up drugs and alcohol. Thanks. One never likes to assume there will be an applause there, but I knew that I was in America and it was likely. In England, there would have been a roll of the eyes. You don't get applauded for giving up drugs, just sort of... you might be offered tea. So, I began...so I met Bob Roth, who's been floating about the place, not literally, his meditation practice isn't that good, just... his transcendence is still, I don't know sort of psychological as opposed to physical, but some people think he might float in his private time and what he does is up to him. Who are we to judge? So I met Bobby Roth, wanted to learn about Transcendental Meditation due to to my dissatisfaction with some of the pleasures that I talked about: drugs, the fame, the celebrity, the consumerism, the wealth, all of these things that pledge happiness but deliver so little of substance. And in learning about Transcendental Meditation I found very quickly access to a deeper state of happiness which is very profound and absolute. See, like as I said I can only talk about my personal experiences, what it felt to me was like the dissolution of my idea of myself, like I felt like separateness evaporated, I felt this tremendous sense of oneness. I find it hard, I'm quite an erratic thinker, quite an adrenalized person, but through meditation I felt this absolute sort of beautiful serenity and selfless connection. You know my sort of tendency towards selfishness I felt like a... I felt that kind of exposed as a superficial and pointless perspective to have. I felt a very relaxed sense of oneness. I felt that... I felt love. You know sort of love for myself, but also love for everybody else. A constant sense of absolute love between all of us. This for me is a beautiful thing. My recovery is contingent upon a spiritual component and whilst I know the foundation likes to necessarily focus on the practical and pragmatic aspects of this wonderful process, for me the spiritual element has been valuable. I'm particularly happy to learn that it is applicable to people that have endured such phenomenal and extreme experience as some of the military speakers that we've heard today. Because, for me, they exist on a promontory of such phenomenal and terrifying experience with such courage and bravery, it's difficult I think to have legitimate empathy for people that have gone through so much and if there's anything we can do to assist people, if there is any technique that can make their suffering temporarily or permanently alleviate, than this is something we have to research and learn more about, because, for me, what I've discovered is that Transcendental Meditation is useful to me not because of a unique set of circumstances, not because of my formerly secret brilliance, no. But, because I am a human being. And it is applicable to all human beings. And what's really good about that, is literally everyone in this room is one. And in fact I believe, David will have to confirm this, that all human beings on our planet are human. And beings. So, we're laughing. We're in hysterics. It's a good thing, because this technique is applicable to all human beings in all situations no matter how extreme, trivial or mundane, someone, everyone, can draw from it. It's been incredibly useful for me. The other day, as I was just telling David as a matter of fact, while I was still sitting on the podium before I got seduced by the Clint Eastwood video and then subsequent speakers, it made me think of a brilliant idea. I think it creates space in my mind for... I had a really wonderful moment of creativity during TM. So, it's like you know, there are privileges and luxuries that are accessible, but also people that, as we've heard today, are in extreme states of suffering can benefit from it too. So I'm very, very grateful to be involved, I'm very grateful to you, David, and to you Bob, and everyone who has spoken today, and to all of you for attending. Thank you very much. Cheers.