"Ram Dass lived a full life and then some. His final statement is
thorough and, yes, enlightening." --Kirkus Reviews
Perhaps no other teacher has sparked the fires of as many spiritual
seekers in the West as Ram Dass. If you've ever embraced the phrase "be
here now," practiced meditation or yoga, tried psychedelics, or
supported anyone in a hospice, prison, or homeless center--then the
story of Ram Dass is also part of your story.
From his birth in 1931 to his luminous later years, Ram Dass saw his
life as just one incarnation of many. This memoir puts us in the
passenger seat with the one-time Harvard psychologist and lifelong
risk-taker Richard Alpert, who loved to take friends on wild rides on
his Harley and test nearly every boundary--inner or outer--that came his
way.
Being Ram Dass shares his life's odyssey in intimate detail: how he
struggled with issues of self-identity and sexuality in his youth,
pioneered psychedelic research, and opened the doorways to Eastern
spiritual practices. In 1967 he trekked to India and met his guru, Neem
Karoli Baba. He returned with a perspective on spirituality and
psychology that changed millions.
Featuring 64 pages of color photographs, this intimate memoir chronicles
the cultural and spiritual transformations Ram Dass experienced that
resonate with us to this day, a journey from the mind to the heart, from
the ego to the soul.
Before, after, and along these waypoints, readers will encounter many
other adventures and revelations--each ringing with the potential to
awaken the universal, loving divine that links us to this beloved
teacher and all of us to each other.
