RAM DASS

Richard Alpert (born April 6, 1931), also known as Baba Ram Dass and later simply as Ram Dass, is a contemporary spiritual teacher who wrote the 1971 bestseller Remember, Be Here Now. He was born to a prominent Jewish family in Newton, Massachusetts. His father, George Alpert, was one of the most influential lawyers in the Boston area and president of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, as well as one of the leading founders of Brandeis University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

The youngest of three boys, Richard started out his high school career at the Williston Northampton School graduating in 1948 as a part of the Cum Laude association. He then went on to receive a bachelor's degree from Tufts University, a master's degree from Wesleyan University, and a doctorate from Stanford University. His doctorate was in psychology.

After returning from a visiting professorship at the University of California, Berkeley, Alpert accepted a permanent position at Harvard, where he worked with the Social Relations Department, the Psychology Department, the Graduate School of Education, and the Health Service, where he was a therapist. Research contracts with Yale and Stanford followed. Perhaps most notable, however, was the work he was doing with his close friend and associate, Dr. Timothy Leary.

Soon after obtaining his pilot's license, Alpert flew his private plane to Cuernavaca, Mexico, where Leary first introduced him to teonanácatl, the "magic" mushrooms of Mexico. By the time Alpert made it back to America, Leary had already consulted with Aldous Huxley, who was visiting at M.I.T., and through Huxley and a number of graduate students they were able to get in touch with Sandoz, which had produced a synthetic component of ergot rye fungus called LSD. Alpert and Leary brought a test batch of both substances back to Harvard, where they conducted the Harvard Psilocybin Project and experimented with LSD relatively privately.

Harvard formally dismissed Leary and Alpert from the university in 1963. According to Harvard President Nathan M. Pusey, Leary was dismissed for leaving his classes without permission or notice, and Alpert for allegedly giving psilocybin to an undergraduate. By this time, however, Alpert had already become disillusioned with academia and even described himself as feeling trapped in a meaningless game. Leary had already left the university some weeks earlier.

The two soon relocated and continued their experiments, unsupervised, at a private mansion in Millbrook, New York owned by Billy Hitchcock, an heir to the Mellon fortune. Famous poets, musicians and intellectuals of the time, such as Allen Ginsberg, Maynard Ferguson, the Grateful Dead, Marshall McLuhan and Ken Kesey, came from across the country to be part of what was going on there.

While they remained life-long friends, Leary and Alpert eventually parted ways spiritually and philosophically. Leary continued to spread his mantra of "turn on, tune in, drop out", while Alpert increasingly found his purpose in the Hindu ethic of serving others.

In 1967 Alpert traveled to India, where he met the American spiritual seeker Bhagavan Das. As he guided Alpert barefoot from temple to temple, Bhagavan Das began teaching him basic mantras and asanas, as well as how to work with meditation beads. After a few months, Bhagavan Das led Alpert to his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, or as he was better known in the West, Maharaj-ji.

Maharaj-ji soon became Alpert's guru and gave him the name "Ram Dass," which means "servant of Lord Rama." Under the guidance of Maharaj-ji, Ram Dass was instructed to receive teaching from Hari Dass Baba. Hari Dass Baba taught in silence using only a chalkboard. While in India, Ram Dass also corresponded with Meher Baba. His primary focus, though, was on the teaching of Hari Dass Baba.

Among other things, Hari Dass Baba trained Ram Dass in raja yoga and ahimsa. It was these life-changing experiences in India that inspired Ram Dass to write the contemporary spiritual classic, Remember, Be Here Now, in which he teaches that everyone is a manifestation of God and that every moment is of infinite significance.

In 1969, Alpert decided to return to the United States, where he founded several humanitarian organizations including the Hanuman Foundation and Seva Foundation. He went on to tour for many years, giving lectures to raise funds for both of these organizations. His talks inspired conversation about a wide variety of spiritual traditions and practices, including guru kripa (grace of the guru); bhakti yoga focused on the Hindu spiritual deva Hanuman; meditation in various schools of Buddhism such as Theravada and Mahayana (including Tibetan and Zen); karma yoga; and Jewish studies.

Ram Dass was awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award in August 1991.

In February 1997, he suffered a stroke which left him with expressive aphasia. However, he interprets his stroke as an act of grace and continues to travel giving lectures, as his health permits.

When asked if he could sum up his life's message Ram Dass replies, "I help people as a way to work on myself, and I work on myself to help people... To me, that's what the emerging game is all about."

Ram Dass is a vegetarian, and has also acknowledged his bisexuality. In the 1990s, he became more forthcoming about sexuality but avoided labels. He pointed out that who we are "isn't gay, and it's not not-gay, and it's not anything—it's just awareness."

"Ram Dass Fierce Grace" is a 2002 American biographical film, directed by Micky Lemle. It tells the story of Dr. Richard Alpert's transformation from Harvard psychology professor to spiritual student/devotee and back again to teacher, a spiritual teacher this time, in spite of his debilitating stroke. It was named by Newsweek as one of the Top Five Non-fiction Films of 2002.

In his autobiography In My Own Way, Alan Watts comments on Ram Dass. His remarks are circa 1970. He talks about Alpert and his associate Timothy Leary who had continued to explore psychedelics and had subsequently gotten into much trouble with the law, resulting in his escaping to Europe. Watts writes, "Richard Alpert, who in all this had played a much quieter role, also went into exile, but in another way. While visiting India he realized that he had come to the end of his identity as a psychologist which he had thus far played, so much so that he could not envisage any normal role or career for himself in the United States. Furthermore, he felt as I did that he had learned all that he could get from psychedelics, and that what remained was actually to live out the life of freedom from worldly games and anxieties. He therefore took the name of Baba Ram Dass, and came back as a white-robed and bearded sannyasin, full of laughter and energy, dedicated simply to living in the eternal now. And, as might be expected, people raised their eyebrows and shook their heads, saying that the old showman was playing another game, or, alas, what drugs had done to such a promising young scientist, or that it was just great to be a sannyasin with an independent income. But I felt that he had done just the right thing for himself. I spent many hours with him and sensed that he was genuinely happy, that his intelligence was as sharp as ever, and that he was confident enough in what he was doing not to try to persuade me to follow his example. Certainly he was having a great pleasure in the multitudes of young people who came to listen to him, but in this respect he and I are alike, for we enjoy thinking out loud with an appreciative and intelligent audience just as we enjoy landscape or music. But would he be going about it in a white robe if he were really sincere? Indeed, yes. For in a country where a philosopher's sincerity is measured by the ordinariness of his dress, I too will sometimes wear a kimono or sarong in public, lest, like Billy Graham, I should attract an enormous following of dangerously serious and humorless people."