# data[].attributes.body
This is a picture that I took outside of my house at 8:00 pm on December 15th. This picture shows what, in my mind, many true transcendentalists would've seen before they went to sleep. This is a picture of the night sky right after sunset but with just a bright enough moon to show the trees as completely black. This also shows how nature is compared to humanity as it is considered an equal under the mind of a transcendentalist so no tree would be cut down unless dying, and nothing would intentionally be done to hurt nature as it was considered to have a "divine spark".

# data[].attributes.headline
Original #1 (Not my own work but my own thoughts on the matter of a book)

# data[].attributes.subject
Original #1 (Not my own work but my own thoughts on the matter of a book)

# data[].attributes.body
This isn't technically my own work, however one literary novel that I believe goes under the radar to support the transcendental ideas is the book "1984" by George Orwell. This is a book that describes the horrors of living in a society where everyone has decided to conform to society and the struggles of non-conformity. The main character is forced to give up a life of safety, security, and a modest living in order to try to find the other important parts of life such as love and knowledge. However, he ends up doing all of this is vain as he is caught by those forcing him to conform and making him forget all about his desires and his thirst for the truth. He is forced to be a puppet even though he knows there is a puppet master that he cannot control .However, whenever he realizes this he is simply spun around and forced back into his life of negligence and forgetfulness about who he really is and what he really wants in life. I understand if this doesn't get points but I think that this justification of the 1984 could possibly take the place of my first original work.

# data[].attributes.body
This is a poem by Donald Davie about the struggles of nonconformity and of being different than the crowd. He does this through language describing how "His fathers suffered rankle in his blood," due to the "crimes" he  has committed. He also references how "When to conform is easy, to dissent;

And when it is most difficult, conform?" it is incredibly difficult to dissent from the other points of view, or the points that society deems unworthy or not as good as their own. This shows how he sees non-conformity as a courageous act and an extremely difficult act.

# data[].attributes.body
The final song that I decided to use for this Padlet is "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin. This is because this song shows how people can be very self-reliant and are able to do thing for themselves rather than what others want them to do. The lines that I feel reflect this are, "There's a lady who's sure
All that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to heaven
When she gets there she knows
If the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for". This can be interpreted as a woman becoming empowered so much that she is able to "buy a stairway to heaven." which is an idea that many transcendentalists would find amazing as she is being self-reliant.

# data[].attributes.body
The second song I decided to go with is "Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac. This is because the song is very much about self-reliance with lines such as, "
If I could
Baby I'd give you my world
How can I
When you won't take it from me?"
This shows how the writes believe that the individual should "go their own way" and not worry about where someone else thinks you should go.

# data[].attributes.body
One of the points hit most hard by transcendentalists was the act of non-conformity. Conforming to society was considered to be a bad thing to do because you are not showing your true self for matters of public opinion. If you truly believe in the transcendental beliefs, you should be willing to stand apart from the crowd and find where you truly stand rather then where you think you should be. This shows how you then become self-reliant by not conforming to society and becoming your one true self. Waldo is a good example of a hypocrite of this, as during his time in TNTSIJ(The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail) he never practiced what he preached. He would call for action and then not speak in order to collect this thoughts.

# data[].attributes.body
Many, if not all, of the transcendentalists supported freedom in as many ways as possible. Just a simple example was in "The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail", when Thoreau met a runaway slave. This was in the times of the fugitive slave law where if a slave was caught in the North, they would be sent back South to work. However, Thoreau instead gives the runaway slave some food and a new name, Williams. This shows how he is willing to break the law if the law is not promoting freedom or is unjust.

# data[].attributes.body
This is a collection of podcasts by Psychology doctorate Jordan B. Peterson. He is an award winning author, a renowned speaker, and sometimes a political commentator. His most well acclaimed book is "12 Rules for Life" which was a New York Times bestseller. In his books, podcasts, and speeches Dr. Peterson expresses the need for self-reliance especially in today's crazy and chaotic world. This is an idea that was echoed by many transcendentalists of the late 1800s and early 1900s who often turned to self reliance to help find their true selves and to try to find a path for themselves in the world.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Jordan B Peterson Podcast All Episodes This podcast is a collection of interviews & lectures, some of which are recorded specifically for this podcast, and some that are from his university courses, public lectures, documentary interviews, and YouTube videos from his channel: Jordan Peterson Videos.

# data[].attributes.body
This is an article about how self-reliance has been lost upon humanity. We as a people have turned to simply "googling" everything and just trusting whatever the computer tells us rather than checking the information for ourselves. This relates to the transcendentalists because their philosophy was one of self-reliance and living on the minimum to be happy and not worrying about someone too far away to care about you.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
healthy living self confidence self-reliance self improvement personal growth self-awareness personal development

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We would do well then to honor and evolve the reliance on our own inner sense. This self-reliance process is the subjective approach to understanding...

# data[].attributes.body
My final quote is another fantastic one by Margaret Fuller, "Very early, I knew the only object in life was to grow." This represents the movement very well, as many involved with the transcendental movement try to gain as much knowledge as they can during their lifetime. They attempt to seek knowledge wherever it can be found and do not trust any "authority" to tell them if their knowledge is good or not.

# data[].attributes.body
This is a quote by another famous author and poet, Margaret Fuller. "Men for the sake of getting a living forget to live." This is a pillar of the transcendental movement as many of the transcendental movement considered themselves to be "hermits" or people who didn't care how much money they made but simply how they lived. They cared about living, not making a living.

# data[].attributes.body
Another fantastic quote by the amazing author Walt Whitman that truly shows how he relates to the transcendental movement. "I have learned that to be with those that I like is enough." That simple quote by Walt Whitman is another excellent example of the transcendental movement, where Whitman only cares about the opinion of those around him rather than the group. Another character who exemplified those characteristics is Henry Thoreau, who famously in "The Night Thoreau Spend in Jail" by Robert Lee, was completely unafraid of how others thought of him, only caring how those closest to him thought of him.

# data[].attributes.body
This is a video that I did not create that explains how transcendentalism is alive and well in Pop Culture. The most notable example to me if the use of Rocky, which shows how hard work and pushing yourself using natural resources can force you to find your true self. It also shows the power of the individual due to showing how the man, Rocky, can beat an entire nation and show them that there is another way to live.

# data[].attributes.body
Transcendentalism has now began to grow, not as a religion, but merely as a way of meditation. Many people, such as acclaimed Hollywood actors and other have claimed that the meditation has helped them tremendously in trying to calm themselves after a stressful day, or just to try too help them get through the day.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Transcendental Meditation program attributes the spike to a series of recent studies that suggest TM can help reduce blood pressure and stress, and to the relatively recent affordability of TM. (The adult course, which had ballooned from $75 in the '60s to $2,500 in 2007, dropped, because of the economy, to $1,500 in 2008.) No less important has been Mr. Lynch's foundation, started in 2005, for which enlisted celebrities like Mr. Brand, interrogated often by news outlets about their diets and alternative lifestyle remedies, have been preaching about the technique.

"It's like, imagine the ripples on top of an ocean," Dr. Mehmet Oz, who meditates in an armchair in an enclave off his bedroom, said at Mr. Lynch's benefit. "And I'm in a rowboat, reactively dealing with the waves and water coming into my boat. What I need to do is dive into the deeper solace, the calmness beneath the surface."

The actress Susan Sarandon meditates once a day for 20 minutes in bed. "It helps me chill out and focus," she said. (Ms. Sarandon said she doesn't practice TM specifically, but was at the benefit to gather insight.)

The singer Moby, another guest, has meditated in the back of a taxicab. "Transcendental Meditation has given me a perspective on agitation," he said. "That it's a temporary state of mind and I don't necessarily need to take it that seriously." Moby said the technique helped him quit drinking more than a year ago. "I used to think that TM was for weird old hippies," he added. "But then I heard that David Lynch was involved, and that made me curious."

ON the afternoon before the benefit, Mr. Lynch, 65, arrived at the museum, holding hands with his wife, Emily Lynch, 32, and was escorted by a museum employee to a green room downstairs. Mr. Lynch, like a cartoon character, has maintained the same uniform for decades: a pressed white shirt under a boxy black suit and a hedge of gray hair. He scooped up a soggy egg- salad sandwich from a tray and explained what brought him to the practice.

"I was not into meditation one bit," Mr. Lynch said, in his laconic Missoula, Mont., drawl that years of living in Los Angeles has failed to dilute. "I thought it was a fad. I thought you had to eat nuts and raisins, and I didn't want any part of it."

Mr. Lynch was persuaded by his sister, Martha, when he began having marital difficulties with the first of his four wives, Peggy, in the early '70s. "I had a whole bunch of personal anger that I would take out on her," he said. "I think I was a weak person. I wasn't self-assured. I was not a happy camper inside. Two weeks after I started, my wife comes to me and says, 'This anger, where did it go?' I felt a freedom and happiness growing inside. It was like - poooft! - I felt a kind of smile from Mother Nature. The world looked better and better. It's an ocean of unbounded love within us, so it's real hard to get a conflict going." (Still, a year later, the couple divorced.)

It's easy to shrug off such utterances as hokey, New Age prattle - who can forget Jeff Goldblum's flaky character in "Annie Hall" on the phone, complaining that he'd forgotten his mantra? - but less so when the person reciting it has dreamed up his most widely admired, vivid films on the days when he was dropping out of consciousness for at least 30 minutes a day.

"Artists like to say, 'I like a little bit of suffering and anger,' " he said. "But if you had a splitting headache, diarrhea and vomiting, how much would you enjoy the work and how much work would you get done? Maybe suffering is a romantic idea to get girls, but it's an enemy to creativity."

As he continued to explain the practice, Mr. Lynch was becoming excited. And he was making sound effects again. "It's like a key that opens the door to the treasury within," he said. "Here's an experience - poooft! - total brain coherence. It's what's missing from life today: unbounded intelligence, creativity, bliss, love, energy, peace. Things like tension, anxieties, traumatic stress, sorrow, depression, hate, rage, need for revenge, fear - poooft! - all this starts to lift away. You see life getting better and better and better. Give the people that experience and - poooft. Man, it's beautiful."

Sharing that experience is the purpose of Mr. Lynch's foundation. Money raised at the December benefit - along with private contributions - pay TM program fees to teach the technique in schools and prisons and to other groups that apply for a grant. (Some public school parents have resisted on the premise that TM is believed by some to be rooted in Hinduism; the organization maintains that it's not a religion and that there is no inherent belief system.)

In the last decade, independent studies have found that the technique may reduce hypertension, obesity and diabetes in patients with coronary heart disease (Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles) and can be beneficial to brain function and cognitive development (American University). But Sara Weber, the chairwoman of the Contemplative Studies Project of New York University's postdoctoral program in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, expressed some skepticism.

"Believe me, it's a great relaxation and everyone needs to relax, and probably relaxing makes everyone feel better and promotes some of those things," Dr. Weber said. "And some people can deal with what arises just by calming down. But other people who have been through trauma disassociate and go into a deadened space where they don't feel. So what happens if that breaks down in the middle of one of those bliss sessions?"

In her experience, Dr. Weber said, the technique could even have adverse side effects. "Some people report falling apart," she said. "They can have very intense and bad emotional experiences."

Back at Mr. Lynch's benefit, Robert Roth, the vice president of Mr. Lynch's foundation - known to TM's celebrity clients as, simply, Bobby - was sharing a table with Mr. Brand and Ms. Perry. Mr. Roth insisted that the celebrity muscle of the evening was for fund-raising purposes and wouldn't have much sway over bringing in clients. "No one is going to meditate twice a day because a Hollywood filmmaker is doing it," Mr. Roth said.

Though it helps with publicity, the Hollywood community's embrace of the technique could in theory cheapen TM's message, in light of that particular group's capricious spiritual tastes - Madonna and the kabbalah or Tom Cruise and Scientology.

Indeed, at least one guest at the benefit had already moved on from TM.

"I tried it 10 years ago," said Rose McGowan, the actress. "It was fantastic, but now I do fight training. For me, personally, it's the only thing that gets me out of my mind. I think even David Lynch would approve."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Transcendental Meditation Has New Devotees

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Transcendental Meditation program attributes the spike to a series of recent studies that suggest TM can help reduce blood pressure and stress, and to the relatively recent affordability of TM. (The adult course, which had ballooned from $75 in the '60s to $2,500 in 2007, dropped, because of the economy, to $1,500 in 2008.)

# data[].attributes.body
One of the most famous American Authors and Poets of transcendentalism, Walt Whitman is well respected and had many great quotes about the life style. However, the simplest is most often the best, and he put his thoughts very simply, “Resist much, obey little.”. This is very much symbolic of how Whitman and other transcendentalists lived their lives, as they were "non-conformists." Thoreau was an excellent example of this, as he refused to pay taxes for a war that he though was not just, and was thrown in jail for it. This shows how many people of that group believe that defiance is a great act of courage and sometimes, a necessary act to be taken.

# data[].attributes.body
The same transcendentalists that were mentioned in the post on Nature's Beauty would most likely have very much appreciated the song, "Rocky Mountain High", by John Denver. The song describes someone leaving their home for a new life, "He was born in the summer of his 27th year",  showing how the man was truly born when he was 27 years old. He went to go to the mountains to find his true self in all of the world, "He left yesterday behind him, you might say he was born again".

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
John Denver - Rocky Mountain High (Official Audio)

# data[].attributes.body
The transcendentalists talked about in our class had a high view of how nature was respected. They believe that everything has the "divine spark", so therefore everything was a part of god. Those men and women, such as Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, and others would've found this picture to be representative of the beauty of the world around them, not just in human connections but in natural forms.