Join Guadalupe Arellanes for Life Inside the Dream: The Black Lodge, Tulpas, and the Hauntings of David Lynch -- an interactive lecture!

Places Wonderful and Strange: A Cinemyth Lecture Series on Lynch’s LA & the Mysteries of Twin Peaks

“We are like the dreamer who dreams, and then lives inside the dream. But who is the dreamer?" This lecture explores the spiritual and philosophical frameworks and symbols found within David Lynch's filmography and art through a discussion of Indigenous cosmologies, Tibetan Buddhism, occult folklore, and more. Together, we will navigate the liminal spaces of dreams, doppelgängers, hauntings, and migration to question how time, place, and memory construct the mythos of Twin Peaks and beyond.

Guadalupe Arellanes, PhD is an artist, researcher, and educator. Her PhD research, (Im)migrant Ecologies: Relating Beyond Borders, examines the centrality of “place” and relationality within (im)migrant-led environmental struggles in Southern California in order to consider the abolition of borders and nations. She has lectured at various California universities and presented at numerous conferences, including American Studies Association and the National Women’s Studies Association. She is one of the first fellows of the Crossing Latinidades Mellon Foundation initiative.

Her art explores existential questions while also often centering ecological themes and elements of surrealism. As an oil painter, she is mentored by Chicana muralist Margaret Garcia. Her visual poem, “Ungrounded Silhouettes of Desire” is an official selection of the 2025 International Poetry Film Festival. As a PRS 2025 Contributing Artist, she organized Well-Beings, a monthly gathering for existential souls and wandering minds to explore ways of living well together, and has organized Meditating with Chaos and Uncertainty, a meditation & somatic yoga series designed to intentionally incorporate elements of perceived chaos or disarray into the sonic experience.