Ram Dass#Foundations and Living/Dying Project

{{Infobox person

| image = Ram Dass.jpg

| caption = Ram Dass in February 2008

| alt = Zalman Schachter-Shalomi & Ram Dass

| name = Ram Dass

| birth_name = Richard Alpert

| birth_date = {{birth date|1931|4|6}}

| birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|2019|12|22|1931|4|6}}

| death_place = Maui, Hawaii, U.S.

| occupation = Spiritual teacher in the lineage of Neem Karoli Baba, writer

| children = 1

| alma_mater = {{plainlist|

}}

Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert; April 6, 1931 – December 22, 2019),{{Cite web |url=https://tricycle.org/trikedaily/ram-dass-dies/ |title=Ram Dass, Beloved Spiritual Teacher, Has Died |first=Joan Duncan |last=Oliver |date=December 23, 2019 |newspaper=Tricycle: The Buddhist Review}} also known as Baba Ram Dass, was an American spiritual teacher, guru of modern yoga,{{cite book |last=Charet |first=F. X. |year=2013 |chapter=Ram Dass: The Vicissitudes of Devotion and Ferocity of Grace |editor1-last=Gleig |editor1-first=Ann |editor2-last=Williamson |editor2-first=Lola | title=Homegrown Gurus: from Hinduism in America to American Hinduism |publisher=State University of New York Press |location=Albany, New York |pages=15–40 |isbn=978-1-4384-4792-6 |oclc=862746284}} psychologist, and writer. His best-selling 1971 book Be Here Now, which has been described by multiple reviewers as "seminal",{{cite news |last=Romancito |first=Rick |title='Be Here Now' turns 40 |newspaper=Taos News |url=https://www.taosnews.com/tempo/reviews/be-here-now-turns-40/article_14d9d52e-5b0e-5ef9-bee6-28bd4876509c.html |date=July 19, 2010 |access-date=November 19, 2021}}{{cite news |first=Amy |last=Wallace |date=December 20, 2012 |title="I Have a Great Idea, Maybe Like the Best Idea I've Ever Had" |work=GQ |url=https://www.gq.com/story/judd-apatow-profile-gq-january-2013 |access-date=2021-11-19}}{{cite journal |title=Time-rich: 1960s counterculture and time as affluence in a dropout community in Hawai'i |first=Lucy |last=Pickering |journal=Journal of Ethnographic Theory |volume=8 |number=3 |date=Winter 2018 |pages=625–639 |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/701025 |publisher=University of Chicago |doi=10.1086/701025 |s2cid=149534872 |access-date=2021-11-19}} helped popularize Eastern spirituality and yoga in the West. He authored or co-authored twelve more books on spirituality over the next four decades, including Grist for the Mill (1977), How Can I Help? (1985), and Polishing the Mirror (2013).

Ram Dass was personally and professionally associated with Timothy Leary at Harvard University in the early 1960s. Then known as Richard Alpert, he conducted research with Leary on the therapeutic effects of psychedelic drugs. In addition, Alpert assisted Harvard Divinity School graduate student Walter Pahnke in his 1962 "Good Friday Experiment" with theology students, the first controlled, double-blind study of drugs and the mystical experience. While not illegal at the time, their research was controversial and led to Leary's and Alpert's dismissal from Harvard in 1963.

In 1967, Alpert traveled to India and became a disciple of Hindu guru Neem Karoli Baba, who gave him the name Ram Dass, meaning "Servant of Ram," but usually rendered simply as "Servant of God" for Western audiences. In the following years, he co-founded the charitable organizations Seva Foundation and Hanuman Foundation. From the 1970s to the 1990s, he traveled extensively, giving talks and retreats and holding fundraisers for charitable causes. In 1997, he had a stroke, which left him with paralysis and expressive aphasia. He eventually grew to interpret this event as an act of grace, learning to speak again and continuing to teach and write books. After becoming seriously ill during a trip to India in 2004, he gave up traveling and moved to Maui, Hawaii, where he hosted annual retreats with other spiritual teachers until his death in 2019.

Early life

Ram Dass was born Richard Alpert in 1931. His parents were Gertrude (Levin) and George Alpert, a lawyer in Boston.{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/23/obituaries/baba-ram-dass-richard-alpert-dead.html |title=Baba Ram Dass, Proponent of LSD Turned New Age Guru, Dies at 88 |last=Martin |first=Douglas |date=December 23, 2019 |website=The New York Times |access-date=March 1, 2021}} He considered himself an atheist{{cite journal |journal=Ramparts |volume=11 |page=38 |title=Baba Ram Dass |quote=He was, at this time, an atheist, and had difficulty even pronouncing 'spiritual'.}} during his early life. Speaking at Berkeley Community Theater in 1973 he said, "My Jewish trip was primarily political Judaism, I mean I was never Bar Mitzvahed, confirmed, and so on."{{cite web |author=Ram Dass |title=Ram Dass on Judaism |url=https://www.ramdass.org/ram-dass-on-judaism/ |date=March 7, 1973 |place=Berkeley Comm. Theater |via=RamDass.org}} In a 2006 article in Tufts Magazine he was quoted by Sara Davidson, describing himself as "inured to religion. I didn't have one whiff of God until I took psychedelics."{{cite journal |last=Davidson |first=Sara |title=The Ultimate Trip |journal=Tufts Magazine |date=Fall 2006 |url=http://www.tufts.edu/alumni/magazine/fall2006/features/ultimate-trip.html |access-date=November 23, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304021804/http://www.tufts.edu/alumni/magazine/fall2006/features/ultimate-trip.html |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |url-status=dead }} He was also interviewed by Arthur J. Magida at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, who published the interview in 2008, quoting Ram Dass as saying "What I mostly remember about my bar mitzvah was that it was an empty ritual. It was flat. Absolutely flat. There was a disappointing hollowness to the moment. There was nothing, nothing, nothing in it for my heart."{{cite book |last=Magida |first=Arthur J. |year=2008 |title=Opening the Doors of Wonder: Reflections on Religious Rites of Passage |publisher=University of California Press |page=147 |isbn=978-0520256255}}

=Education=

Alpert attended the Williston Northampton School, graduating cum laude in 1948.{{cite web |last=Adolph |first=Jonathan |title=Be Here Then|work=Williston Northampton School |date=July 2, 2020 |url=https://www.williston.com/news/be-here-then/ |access-date=December 5, 2021 }} He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Tufts University in 1952. His father had wanted him to go to medical school, but while at Tufts he decided to study psychology instead. After earning a master's degree in psychology from Wesleyan University in 1954, he was recommended to Stanford University by his mentor at Wesleyan, David McClelland. Alpert wrote his doctoral thesis on "achievement anxiety", receiving his Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford in 1957. Alpert then taught at Stanford for one year, and began psychoanalysis.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/ram-dass-spiritual-seeker-who-brought-eastern-mysticism-to-the-masses-dies-at-88/2019/12/23/aff7b7a0-2576-11ea-b2ca-2e72667c1741_story.html |title=Ram Dass, Spiritual Seeker who Brought Eastern Mysticism to the Masses, dies at 88 |last=Barnes |first=Bart |date=December 23, 2019 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=October 2, 2021}}

=Harvard professorship=

McClelland moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to teach at Harvard University, and helped Alpert accept a tenure-track position there in 1958 as an assistant clinical psychology professor.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/04/25/us/leary-lectures-at-harvard-for-first-time-in-20-years.html|title=Leary Lectures at Harvard for First Time in 20 Years|date=April 25, 1983|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=February 16, 2018}}{{cite web |last=Mattei |first=Matt |url=https://www.meetmindful.com/articles-mindful-men-mindful-man-of-the-month-ram-dass/|title=Mindful Man of the Month: Ram Dass|date=October 2014 |publisher=Meet Mindful|access-date=February 16, 2018}} Alpert worked with the Social Relations Department, the Psychology Department, the Graduate School of Education, and the Health Service, where he was a therapist. He specialized in human motivation and personality development, and published his first book Identification and Child Rearing.

McClelland did work with his close friend and associate Timothy Leary, a lecturer in clinical psychology at the university. Alpert and Leary had met through McClelland, who headed the Center for Research in Personality where Alpert and Leary both did research. Alpert was McClelland's deputy in the lab.

==Harvard projects==

After returning from a visiting professorship at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1961, Alpert devoted himself to joining Leary in experimentation with and intensive research into the potentially therapeutic effects of hallucinogenic drugs such as psilocybin, LSD-25, and other psychedelic chemicals, through their Harvard Psilocybin Project.{{cite news |last=Hiatt|first=Nathaniel J.|url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/5/23/trip-down-memory-lane/|title=A Trip Down Memory Lane: LSD at Harvard|date=May 23, 2016|newspaper=The Harvard Crimson|access-date=September 24, 2017}} Alpert and Leary co-founded the non-profit International Federation for Internal Freedom (IFIF) in 1962 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in order to carry out studies in the religious use of psychedelic drugs, and were both on the board of directors.{{cite web|url=http://www.timothylearyarchives.org/international-federation-for-internal-freedom-statement-of-purpose/|title=International Federation For Internal Freedom – Statement of Purpose|work=timothylearyarchives.org|date=March 21, 2009|access-date=September 24, 2017|archive-date=August 23, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170823073645/http://www.timothylearyarchives.org/international-federation-for-internal-freedom-statement-of-purpose/|url-status=dead}}{{cite book |last1=Lee |first1=Martin A. |last2=Shlain |first2=Bruce |date=1992 |title=Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD : The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_oq8djFLFL0C |publisher=Grove Press |page=96 |isbn=978-0802130624}}

Alpert assisted Harvard Divinity School graduate student Walter Pahnke in his 1962 "Good Friday Experiment" with theology students, the first controlled, double-blind study of drugs and the mystical experience.

==Dismissal from Harvard==

Leary and Alpert were formally dismissed from Harvard in 1963. According to Harvard President Nathan M. Pusey, Leary was dismissed for leaving Cambridge and his classes without permission or notice, and Alpert for allegedly giving psilocybin to an undergraduate.{{cite news|last1=Russin|first1=Joseph M.|last2=Weil|first2=Andrew T.|url=http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=495775|title=The Crimson takes Leary, Alpert to Task: 'Roles' & 'Games' In William James|date=May 28, 1963|newspaper=The Harvard Crimson|access-date=August 8, 2011}}

=Millbrook and psychedelic counterculture (1963–1967)=

In 1963 Alpert, Leary, and their followers moved to the Hitchcock Estate in Millbrook, New York, after IFIF's New York City branch director and Mellon fortune heiress Peggy Hitchcock arranged for her brother Billy to rent the estate to IFIF.{{cite book |last1=Lee |first1=Martin A. |last2=Shlain |first2=Bruce |date=1992 |title=Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD : The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_oq8djFLFL0C |publisher=Grove Press |page=97 |isbn=978-0802130624}} Alpert and Leary immediately set up a communal group with former Harvard Psilocybin Project members at the estate (commonly known as "Millbrook"), and the IFIF was subsequently disbanded and renamed the Castalia Foundation (after the intellectual colony in Hermann Hesse's novel The Glass Bead Game).{{cite web |last=Chevallier |first=Jim |url=http://www.chezjim.com/ovum/castalia2.html |title=Tim Leary and Ovum – A Visit to Castalia with Ovum |date=March 3, 2003 |work=Chez Jim/Ovum}}{{cite book |last1=Lee |first1=Martin A. |last2=Shlain |first2=Bruce |date=1992 |title=Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD : The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_oq8djFLFL0C |publisher=Grove Press |page=98 |isbn=978-0802130624}}{{cite web |url=http://wrldrels.org/profiles/LeagueForSpiritualDiscovery.htm |title=League for Spiritual Discovery |last= Lander| first=Devin |date=January 30, 2012 |work=World Religions and Spiritualities Project}}

The core group at Millbrook, whose journal was the Psychedelic Review, sought to cultivate the divinity within each person. At Millbrook, they experimented with psychedelics and often participated in group LSD sessions, looking for a permanent route to higher consciousness. The Castalia Foundation hosted weekend retreats on the estate where people paid to undergo the psychedelic experience without drugs, through meditation, yoga, and group therapy sessions.

Alpert and Leary co-authored The Psychedelic Experience with Ralph Metzner, based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, published in 1964.{{cite book| last1 = Leary | first1 = Timothy| last2 = Alpert | first2 = Richard|last3 = Metzner | first3 = Ralph|title = The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead| publisher = Penguin Classics| date = 2008| isbn = 978-0141189635}} Alpert co-authored LSD with Sidney Cohen and Lawrence Schiller in 1966.{{cite book|last1 = Alpert |first1 = Richard |last2 = Cohen | first2 = Sidney|title = LSD| publisher = New American Library| date = 1966| isbn = 0453001351}}

In 1967 Alpert gave talks at the League for Spiritual Discovery's center in Greenwich Village.{{cite book|last=Graboi|first=Nina|title=One Foot in the Future: A Woman's Spiritual Journey|date=May 1991|publisher=Aerial Press|pages=222–224|isbn=978-0942344103}}

Spiritual search and name change

In 1967, Alpert traveled to India where he met American spiritual seeker Bhagavan Das, and later met Neem Karoli Baba.

= Neem Karoli Baba =

In 1967, Bhagavan Das guided Alpert throughout India, eventually introducing him to Neem Karoli Baba, whom Alpert called "Maharaj-ji",{{cite book|last=Graboi|first=Nina|title=One Foot in the Future: A Woman's Spiritual Journey|date=May 1991|publisher=Aerial Press|pages=267–270|isbn=978-0942344103}} who became his guru at Kainchi ashram. Neem Karoli Baba gave Alpert the name "Ram Dass", which means "servant of God",{{cite web |title=Biography: Richard Alpert/Ram Dass |url=http://www.ramdass.org/RD/bio/ |work=Ramdass.org |publisher=Ram Dass / Love Remember Serve Foundation |access-date=July 1, 2013 |archive-date=June 23, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130623082948/http://www.ramdass.org/RD/bio |url-status=dead }}{{cite news |last=Almereyda|first=Michael|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/24/movies/film-a-sober-documentary-about-an-intoxicating-life.html?mcubz=0|title=Film; A Sober Documentary About an Intoxicating Life|date=February 24, 2002|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=September 24, 2017}} referring to the incarnation of God as Ram or Lord Rama. Alpert also corresponded with Indian spiritual teacher Meher Baba and mentioned Baba in several of his books.{{cite book|last= Kalchuri |first=Bhau|title=Lord Meher|publisher=Meher Mownavani Publications|year=2005|edition=Second (India)|volume=8|page=6412ff}}

Alpert was curious about the guru's take on LSD. The day after their first meeting, Neem Karoli Baba asked Alpert to give him the "medicine". Alpert gave him one dose of "white lightning", but he asked for 2 more tabs (915 μg or 9 times the average dose); after trying them, the LSD seemed to have no psychotropic effect on Neem Karoli Baba, but instead told him that the same state could be achieved through meditation and that he could live in that state. After this, Neem Karoli Baba became Richard Alpert's guru, and gave him the name "Ram Dass", which means "servant of God",{{cite web |title=Biography: Richard Alpert/Ram Dass |url=http://www.ramdass.org/RD/bio/ |work=Ramdass.org |publisher=Ram Dass / Love Remember Serve Foundation |access-date=July 1, 2013 |archive-date=June 23, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130623082948/http://www.ramdass.org/RD/bio |url-status=dead }} referring to the incarnation of God as Ram or Lord Rama. Ram Dass called his new guru "Maharaj-ji", and studied with him the following four years.

=''Be Here Now''=

After Alpert returned to America as Ram Dass, he stayed as a guest at the Lama Foundation in Taos, New Mexico. Ram Dass had helped Steve Durkee (Nooruddeen Durkee) and Barbara Durkee (Asha Greer or Asha von Briesen) co-found the countercultural, spiritual community in 1967, and it had an ashram dedicated to Ram Dass's guru. During Ram Dass's visit, he presented a manuscript he had written, entitled From Bindu to Ojas. The community's residents edited, illustrated, and laid out the text, which ultimately became a best-selling book when published under the name Be Here Now in 1971.{{cite web|title=Lama Foundation Oral History Project|url=http://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6tv0p96|publisher=Social Networks and Archival Context Cooperative|access-date=October 29, 2017}}{{cite news|last=Romancito|first=Rick|title=Lama at 50|url=http://www.taosnews.com/stories/lama-at-50,41339|newspaper=The Taos News|date=June 22, 2017}}{{cite news|last=Boyle|first=Molly|title=A time to every purpose: Voices of Counterculture in the Southwest|url=http://www.santafenewmexican.com/pasatiempo/art/museum_shows/a-time-to-every-purpose-voices-of-counterculture-in-the/article_24c3dbdf-619a-52f7-9c99-0666e16e6ea6.html|newspaper=Santa Fe New Mexican|date=May 12, 2017}}{{cite web |last=Tomasko|first=Felicia M.|url=https://layoga.com/community/teacher-profiles/sitting-down-with-ram-dass/|title=Sitting Down With: Ram Dass|date=December 8, 2010|publisher=Layoga|access-date=February 16, 2018}} The 416-page manual for conscious being was published by the Lama Foundation, as Ram Dass's benefit for the community. Be Here Now contained Ram Dass's account of his spiritual journey, as well as recommended spiritual techniques and quotes. It became a popular guide to New Age spirituality,{{Cite news|date=2019-12-23|title=US psychedelic pioneer and guru Ram Dass dies aged 88|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50896206|access-date=2021-11-19}} selling two million copies.{{Cite news|title=Ram Dass, spiritual seeker who brought Eastern mysticism to the masses, dies at 88|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/ram-dass-spiritual-seeker-who-brought-eastern-mysticism-to-the-masses-dies-at-88/2019/12/23/aff7b7a0-2576-11ea-b2ca-2e72667c1741_story.html|access-date=2021-11-19|issn=0190-8286}} The proceeds helped sustain the Lama Foundation for several years, after which they donated the book's copyright and half its proceeds to the Hanuman Foundation in Taos.

Be Here Now is one of the first guides for those not born Hindu to becoming a yogi. For its influence on the hippie movement and subsequent spiritual movements,{{cite web |last=Davidson |first=Sara |title=The Dass Effect |url=http://www.saradavidson.com/articleA6.html |work=The New York Times Magazine |date=May 21, 2000 |access-date=August 5, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716005939/http://www.saradavidson.com/articleA6.html |archive-date=16 July 2011 |url-status=dead }} it has been described as a "countercultural bible" and "seminal" to the era.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/books/08book.html | work=The New York Times | first=Dwight | last=Garner | title=Tune In, Turn On, Turn Page | date=January 8, 2010}}{{cite book |last1=Harvey |first1=Andrew |last2=Erickson |first2=Karuna |title=Heart Yoga: The Sacred Marriage of Yoga and Mysticism |publisher=North Atlantic Books |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-58394-291-8}} In addition to introducing its title phrase into common use, Be Here Now has influenced numerous other writers and yoga practitioners, including the Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs,{{cite news| url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2011-11-02/steve-jobs-faith-buddhism/51049772/1 | work=USA Today News | first=Daniel | last=Burke | title=Steve Jobs' private spirituality now an open book | date=November 2, 2011}} the self-help writer Wayne Dyer,{{cite web |last=Dyer |first=Wayne |title=BE HERE for him, NOW: Wayne Dyer talks about spiritual teacher and friend Ram Dass |url=http://www.drwaynedyer.com/articles/be-here-for-him-now |work=DrWayneDyer.com |access-date=August 5, 2011| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110716083711/http://www.drwaynedyer.com/articles/be-here-for-him-now| archive-date= 16 July 2011 | url-status= live}} and the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti.{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/06/magazine/06questions.html | work=The New York Times | first=Deborah | last=Solomon | title=The Beat Goes On | date=November 6, 2005}}

The first section of the book inspired the lyrics to George Harrison's song "Be Here Now", written in 1971 and released on his 1973 album Living in the Material World.{{cite book |first=George |last=Harrison |title=I Me Mine |publisher=Chronicle Books |location=San Francisco |year=2002 |page=252}}

Foundations and Living/Dying Project

During the 1970s, Ram Dass taught, wrote, and worked with foundations. He founded the Hanuman Foundation, a nonprofit educational and service organization that initiated the Prison-Ashram Project (now known as the Human Kindness Foundation), in 1974. The Hanuman Foundation strives to improve the spiritual well-being of society through education, media and community service programs.

In 1978, Ram Dass co-founded the Seva Foundation with public health leader Larry Brilliant and humanitarian activist Wavy Gravy. The foundation joined with health-care workers to treat the blind in India, Nepal, and developing countries. It has become an international health organization.

In the early 1970s, Ram Dass taught workshops on conscious aging and dying around the United States. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was one of his students.{{cite web |last=Matsushita |first=Liz |url=http://blog.sevenponds.com/professional-advice/an-interview-with-dale-borglum|title=What is Spiritual Healing? – An Interview with Dale Borglum|date=September 15, 2012|publisher=Seven Ponds|access-date=February 16, 2018}} Ram Dass helped create the Dying Project with its Executive Director Dale Borglum, whom he had met in India. At the time, Borglum was also executive director of the Hanuman Foundation. The Living/Dying Project, based in Marin, California, starting in 1986, was initially named the Dying Center and located in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Dying Center was the first residential facility in the U.S. where people came to die "consciously".

In 1981, he appeared on an Australian radio documentary about death and near-death experiences that aired on the ABC, And When I Die, Will I Be Dead?{{cite news |last1=Hill |first1=Barry |title=Breathing new life into death |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-age-and-when-i-die-will-i-be-dead/155772554/ |access-date=22 September 2024 |work=The Age |date=8 April 1982}} It was adapted into a book in 1987.{{cite book |last1=Elder |first1=Bruce |title=And when I die, will I be dead? |date=1987 |publisher=ABC Books |location=Crows Nest, NSW |isbn=0642527210}}

Ram Dass also served on the faculty of the Metta Institute where he provided training on mindful and compassionate care of the dying.

The Love Serve Remember Foundation was organized to preserve and continue the teachings of Neem Karoli Baba and Ram Dass.

Over the course of his life, since the inception of the Hanuman Foundation, Ram Dass donated his book royalties and profits from teaching to his foundation and other charitable causes. The annual estimate of the earnings he donated ranges from $100,000 to $800,000.{{Cite web|title = Bold Giver Story: Ram Dass|url = http://boldergiving.org/stories.php?story=Ram-Dass_8|website = Bolder Giving|access-date = October 3, 2015|first = Platform|last = Strategy}}

Later life

His guru, Neem Karoli Baba, died on 11 September 1973.

Timothy Leary and Ram Dass, who had grown apart after Ram Dass denounced Leary in a 1974 news conference, reconciled in 1983 at Harvard (at a reunion for the 20th anniversary of their controversial firing from the Harvard faculty), and reunited before Leary's death in May 1996.{{cite news |last=Fosburgh |first=Lacey |title=Leary Scored as 'Cop Informant' By His Son and 2 Close Friends|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/09/19/archives/leary-scored-as-cop-informant-by-his-son-and-2-close-friends.html |newspaper=The New York Times |location=New York, NY |date=September 10, 1974 |access-date=February 16, 2018 }}{{cite web |last=Horowitz |first=Michael |title=Psychedelia: Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) Harvard Reunion |url=https://archive.org/details/PsychedeliaLa15-leary-alpert-harvard-reunion-3parts |publisher=Timothy Leary Archives |access-date=February 17, 2018 }}{{cite news |last=Turan|first=Kenneth |title='Dying to Know: Ram Dass & Timothy Leary' documents two men and their trip of a lifetime |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-dying-to-know-review-20160613-snap-story.html |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=June 16, 2016}}

Ram Dass explored Judaism seriously for the first time when he was 60 years old. He wrote, "My belief is that I wasn't born into Judaism by accident, and so I needed to find ways to honor that", and "From a Hindu perspective, you are born as what you need to deal with, and if you just try and push it away, whatever it is, it's got you."{{cite news |url=http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1992-03-27/features/9201300673_1_torah-jewish-law-judaism |title=Ram Dass Exploring Judaism |first=Ira |last=Rifkin |work=SunSentinel.com |date=March 27, 1992 |access-date=November 23, 2011 |archive-date=July 19, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130719153916/http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1992-03-27/features/9201300673_1_torah-jewish-law-judaism |url-status=dead }}

In February 1997, Ram Dass had a stroke that left him with expressive aphasia, which he interpreted as an act of grace. He stated, "The stroke was giving me lessons, and I realized that was grace—fierce grace ... Death is the biggest change we'll face, so we need to practice change."

After he almost died from a second stroke during a trip to India in 2004, Ram Dass moved to Maui. In 2013, Ram Dass released a memoir and summary of his teaching, Polishing the Mirror: How to Live from Your Spiritual Heart. In an interview about the book, at age 82, he said that his earlier reflections about facing old age and death now seem naive to him. He said, in part: "Now, I'm in my 80s ... Now, I am aging. I am approaching death. I'm getting closer to the end. ... Now, I really am ready to face the music all around me."{{cite web |author=David Crumm | title=Ram Dass Interview on 'Polishing the Mirror' |url=http://www.readthespirit.com/explore/the-ram-dass-interview-on-polishing-the-mirror-you-cant-help-but-smile-hes-still-teaching-us/ |work=ReadTheSpirit.com | date=July 14, 2013 |access-date=July 16, 2013}}

Ram Dass did not leave the Hawaiian Islands until July 2019, when he attended the consecration of a new Hanuman Mandir in Taos, New Mexico, on July 13, 2019,{{cite web |title=Sri Neem Karoli Baba Hanuman Mandir and Ashram |url=https://newmandir.nkbashram.org/secure/cause_pdetails/NDQ1NTI= |access-date=2022-11-11}} after which he returned to Hawaii and continued to make public appearances and to give talks at small venues; held retreats in Maui; and continued to teach through live webcasts.{{cite web |author=Ram Dass | title=Ram Dass Love Serve Remember |url=http://www.ramdass.org/ |work=RamDass.org |access-date=August 8, 2011}}{{cite web |title=Retreats |url=http://ramdass.org/retreats |work=RamDass.org |access-date=August 8, 2011 |archive-date=August 16, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110816231534/http://www.ramdass.org/retreats |url-status=dead }}

Ram Dass died in Maui, on December 22, 2019, at the age of 88.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/23/us/baba-ram-dass-death-trnd/index.html|title=Baba Ram Dass, psychedelic pioneer and New Age guru, is dead at 88|author=Scottie Andrew|website=CNN.com|date=December 22, 2019|access-date=December 22, 2019}}

Personal life

In the 1990s, Ram Dass discussed his bisexuality.{{cite journal |last=Davidson |first=Alan |title=Holy Man Sighted at Gay Porn House: Ram Dass talks about his life as the leading teacher of Eastern thought in America ... who nobody knew was gay |journal=OutSmart |date=April 2001|url=https://throughyourbody.com/ram-dass-talking-about-being-gay-being-soul-friends-and-just-being/}}{{cite magazine |last=Maines |first=Donalevan |title=PastOut: 9 Years ago in 'OutSmart' |url=http://outsmartmagazine.com/2010/04/pastout-april-2010/|date=April 1, 2010 |magazine=OutSmart |access-date=August 8, 2011}}{{cite web |last=Thompson |first=Mark |title=Ram Dass: A Life Beyond Labels |url=http://gaytoday.badpuppy.com/garchive/people/090297pe.htm |publisher=Gay Today |date=September 2, 1997 |access-date=August 8, 2011}} He stated, "I've started to talk more about being bisexual, being involved with men as well as women," and added his opinion that for him, his sexuality "isn't gay, and it's not not-gay, and it's not anything—it's just awareness."

At 78, Ram Dass learned that he had fathered a son as a 24-year-old at Stanford, during a brief relationship with history major Karen Saum, and that he was now a grandfather. The fact came to light when his son, Peter Reichard, a 53-year-old banker in North Carolina, took a DNA test after learning about his mother's doubt concerning his parentage.{{cite journal |last1=Sidon |first1=Rob |last2=Grossman |first2=Carrie |title=Common Ground Interviews Ram Dass |url=http://www.sopdigitaledition.com/archive/commonground1110/#/46/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110618100059/http://www.sopdigitaledition.com/archive/commonground1110/#/46/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 18, 2011 |journal=Common Ground |date=November 2010 |pages=46–51 |access-date=August 8, 2011 }}{{cite web | title=Ram Dass Has a Son! But Has This Revelation Changed His Conception of Love?| website=Huffington Post| url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ram-dass-has-a-son_b_777452| access-date=28 December 2019 | first=Sara | last=Davidson | date=3 November 2010}}

Works

= Books =

Identification and Child Rearing (with R. Sears and L. Rau) (1962) Stanford University Press
The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead (with Timothy Leary and Ralph Metzner) (1964) {{ISBN|0-8065-1652-6}}
LSD (with Sidney Cohen) (1966) {{ISBN|0-453-00120-3}}
Be Here Now or Remember, Be Here Now (1971) {{ISBN|0-517-54305-2}}
Doing Your Own Being (1973) {{ISBN|978-0854354917}}
The Only Dance There Is (1974) {{ISBN|0-385-08413-7}}
Grist for the Mill (with Stephen Levine) (1977) {{ISBN|0-89087-499-9}}
Journey of Awakening: A Meditator's Guidebook (1978) {{ISBN|0-553-28572-6}}
Miracle of Love: Stories about Neem Karoli Baba (1978) {{ISBN|0-525-47611-3}}
How Can I Help? Stories and Reflections on Service (with Paul Gorman) (1985) {{ISBN|0-394-72947-1}}
Compassion in Action: Setting Out on the Path of Service (with Mirabai Bush) (1991) {{ISBN|0-517-57635-X}}
Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing and Dying (2000) {{ISBN|1-57322-871-0}}
Paths to God: Living The Bhagavad Gita (2004) {{ISBN|1-4000-5403-6}}
Be Love Now (with Rameshwar Das) (2010) {{ISBN|1-84604-291-7}}
Polishing the Mirror: How to Live from Your Spiritual Heart (with Rameshwar Das) (2013) {{ISBN|1-60407-967-3}}
Walking Each Other Home: Conversations on Loving and Dying (with Mirabai Bush) (2018) {{ISBN|1-68364-200-7}}
Being Ram Dass (with Rameshwar Das) (2021) {{ISBN|9781683646280}}

=Recordings=

The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead (with Timothy Leary & Ralph Metzner) (1966) (reissued on CD in 2003 by Folkways)
Here We All Are, a 3-LP set recorded live in Vancouver, BC in the summer of 1969.
Love Serve Remember (1973), a six-album set of teachings, data, and spiritual songs (ZBS Foundation) (released in MP3 format, 2008)
The Evolution of Consciousness (1973), a 3-LP set recorded live in NYC, March 1969 (Noumedia Co - Harbinger Records Ltd.)
Cosmix (2008), a video enhanced CD of Ram Dass messages mixed with work by Australian DJ and performer Kriece, released on Waveform Records.{{Cite web|url=https://www.waveformrecords.com/cosmix.html|title=Waveform | Ram Dass & Kriece (Cosmix)|website=waveformrecords.com}}
Ram Dass (2019) collaborative album with musician East Forest featuring the final recorded teachings of Ram Dass.{{Cite web |url=https://www.lionsroar.com/ram-dass-lives-on-in-collaborative-album-with-east-forest/ |title=Ram Dass lives on in collaborative album with East Forest |last=Greenblatt |first=Lilly|date=January 20, 2020 |website=Lion's Roar|access-date=March 1, 2021}}
Colorscapes Volume Two (2021), a Progressive House/Trance compilation album mixed by Praana, Dezza & Matt Fax with audio from Ram Dass.{{Cite web |last1=Praana |last2=Dezza |author3=Matt Fax |date=2021 |title=Colorscapes Volume Two |url=https://www.discogs.com/master/2324824-PRAANA-Dezza-Matt-Fax-Colorscapes-Volume-Two |access-date=11 July 2024 |website=Discogs}}

=Films=

A Change of Heart, a 1994 one-hour documentary directed by Eric Taylor and hosted by Ram Dass and shown on many PBS stations. It examined taking social action as a meditative act.
Ecstatic States, a 1996 interview on VHS, by Wiseone Edutainment Pty.
Ram Dass, Fierce Grace, a 2001 biographical documentary directed by Micky Lemle.[http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/ramdass/ PBS]
Ram Dass – Love Serve Remember, a 2010 short film directed by V. Owen Bush, included in the Be Here Now Enhanced Edition eBook.
Dying to Know: Ram Dass & Timothy Leary, a 2014 documentary dual portrait.
Ram Dass, Going Home, a 2017 documentary portrait of Ram Dass in his later years, directed by Derek Peck.[https://www.woodstockfilmfestival.com/festival2017/details.php?id=36335 2017 Woodstock Film Festival]
Ram Dass, Becoming Nobody, a 2019 documentary portrait of Richard Alpert becoming Ram Dass and Ram Dass becoming nobody. The slogan of the film is: You have to be somebody to become nobody. Directed by Jamie Catto.[https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2019-09-04/becoming-nobody-ram-dass-documentary Los Angeles Times review]

References

External links

{{sisterlinks|d=Q290536|c=category:Ram Dass|n=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|wikt=no|s=no|species=no}}

{{Official website}}
[http://www.seva.org/ Seva Foundation] (Organization founded by Ram Dass)
[http://www.livingdying.org/ The Living/Dying Project] (an outgrowth of the Hanuman foundation, which was created by Ram Dass)
{{IMDb title|0310951|Ram Dass, Fierce Grace}}