[Occupymendocino] Ram Dass RIP

[Richard Karch]

The spiritual teacher and psychologist, Ram Dass, died on December 22 <https://www.ramdass.org/statement-from-the-love-serve-remember-foundation-on-ram-dasss-passing/>, 2019 in Maui, Hawaii. He was 88.

Born Richard Alpert, Ram Dass was known as a devotee of Eastern religion and for his spiritual teachings that drew from a variety of traditions including Buddhism, Hinduism, Sufism, and Jewish mystical studies. He first gained notoriety as a psychedelic pioneer, having worked in the Harvard University psychology department with Dr. Timothy Leary in the early 1960s, where the two researched the potentially therapeutic and mind-altering effects of LSD and psilocybin. He was the author of over a dozen books, including the classic Be Here Now, published in 1971.

Born in 1931 in Newton, Massachusetts, he began his PhD studies at Stanford in the 1950s. In 1958, he joined Harvard University as an assistant clinical psychology professor. In 1961, he began researching psychedelic chemicals, and co-authored two books on the subject. The research was seen as controversial, and in 1963, Ram Dass and Leary were formally dismissed from Harvard. They continued to research the religious use of psychedelic drugs through the International Federation for Internal Freedom (IFIF), a non-profit they co-founded in 1962.

 <https://www.lionsroar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/800px-Neem_Karoli_Baba_Sculpture_in_Ram_Dass_Library.jpg>
Neem Karoli Baba’s sculpture in Ram Dass Library, Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, Rhinebeck, New York. Photo: Smokestack Basilisk

Ram Dass traveled to India for the first time in 1967, where he met Neem Karoli Baba, the Hindu spiritual teacher known as Maharaj-ji, who would become his guru. It was Neem Karoli Baba who gave the then Dr. Richard Alpert the name “Ram Dass,” meaning “Servant of God.”

When he returned to America, he stayed at the Lama Foundation, a counterculture spiritual community he had helped co-found in Taos, New Mexico. There, he created a manuscript for a book titled From Bindu to Ojas, which residents from the community edited and illustrated. The book told Ram Dass’ story of his spiritual journey and included eastern-influenced spiritual guidelines and quotes. It was published in 1971 with the name Be Here Now, and went on to become a popular and influential book for spiritual seekers from varying traditions.

Throughout the 70s, Ram Dass focused on teaching and writing, building a community of students in the West. He founded the Hanuman Foundation, a nonprofit service organization in 1974 “meant to embody the spirit of service that inspired his Guru.” The foundation created the Prison-Ashram Project, now called the Human Kindness Foundation, and the Dying Project, which brought awareness to conscious aging and dying. The Love Serve Remember Foundation  <https://www.ramdass.org/>was later organized to preserve Ram Dass’s teachings.



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