• Memorial services will be announced shortly. The estimated amount of earnings he gave away annually ranges from $100,000 to $800,000. [3][25][27][28][29][30] The 416-page manual for conscious being was published by the Lama Foundation, as Ram Dass's benefit for the community. He passed away in Maui, Hawaii. [4][18] 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. Dass was personally and professionally associated with Timothy Leary at Harvard University in the early 1960s. I didn't have one whiff of God until I took psychedelics. [12], McClelland did work with his close friend and associate Timothy Leary, a lecturer in clinical psychology at the university. Moreover, he also learned that he was a grandfather. However, Ram Dass learned that he had fathered a son of 24 years old at Stanford during a brief affair with a history major named Karen Saum. [email protected], or post with the hashtag #lovingramdass. His best known book, Be Here Now (1971), has been described as "seminal", and helped popularize Eastern spirituality and yoga with the baby boomer generation in the West. 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.

Ram Dass, the spiritual leader, died on December 22, 2019. He relearned to speak and continued to teach online and host retreats from Maui, Hawaii.

For other uses, see, American spiritual teacher and author of the 1971 book Be Here Now, Millbrook and psychedelic counterculture (1963–1967), Private school equivalent of the National Honor Society, The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, "Ram Dass, Beloved Spiritual Teacher, Has Died", "A Trip Down Memory Lane: LSD at Harvard", https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/23/obituaries/baba-ram-dass-richard-alpert-dead.html, "Leary Lectures at Harvard for First Time in 20 Years", "International Federation For Internal Freedom – Statement of Purpose", "The Crimson takes Leary, Alpert to Task: 'Roles' & 'Games' In William James", "Tim Leary and Ovum – A Visit to Castalia with Ovum", "Film; A Sober Documentary About an Intoxicating Life", "A time to every purpose: Voices of Counterculture in the Southwest", "What is Spiritual Healing? Sadly, the spiritual leader took his last breath, and the world was left a bit darker. … Now, I really am ready to face the music all around me.”. [11] Alpert was McClelland's deputy in the lab. He had a severe stroke in 1997. [4][12][5] 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. ", https://www.lionsroar.com/ram-dass-lives-on-in-collaborative-album-with-east-forest/, Association for Research and Enlightenment, Hatha Yoga: The Report of a Personal Experience, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ram_Dass&oldid=984029326, University of California, Berkeley faculty, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles prone to spam from November 2013, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 17 October 2020, at 18:54. I am approaching death. He died on Sunday night at age 88. In 2003, Wayne Dyer published a plea for donations for Ram Dass's support due to his declining health following the stroke, Now it is our turn … Ram Dass's body can no longer endure the rigors of travel. [5] 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.

His best known book, Be Here Now (1971), has been described as "seminal", and helped popularize Eastern spirituality and yoga with the baby boomer generation in the West. He is currently living in a home on Maui, which he doesn’t own and is currently in jeopardy of losing.


[6] Alpert had a bar mitzvah but was "disappointed by its essential hollowness". I speak with him frequently and I am often humbled by the tears in his beautiful 73-year-old eyes as he apologizes for not having prepared for his own elderly health care—for what he now perceives as burdensome to others. [31] Ram Dass helped create the Dying Project with its Executive Director Dale Borglum, whom he had met in India. [31] 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. Maui is healing—Maui is where Ram Dass wishes to stay for now! “ With tender hearts we share that Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert) died peacefully at home in Maui on December 22, 2019 surrounded by loved ones. Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert; April 6, 1931 – December 22, 2019),[1] also known as Baba Ram Dass, was an American spiritual teacher, psychologist, and author. "My belief is that I wasn't born into Judaism by accident, and so I needed to find ways to honor that", he says. 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.

Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert; April 6, 1931 – December 22, 2019), also known as Baba Ram Dass, was an American spiritual teacher, psychologist, and author. (CNN)Baba Ram Dass, psychedelic research pioneer, best-selling author and New Age guru who extolled the virtues of mindfulness and grace, has died. [31] At the time, Borglum was also Executive Director of the Hanuman Foundation. [4][5], 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. [2][3] 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? He was 88.

[12][21], In 1967 Alpert gave talks at the League for Spiritual Discovery's center in Greenwich Village. He died at home in Maui, surrounded by loved ones, according to his Instagram. As the research made controversy, he was tossed out of Harvard academia. In the early 1970s, Ram Dass taught workshops on conscious aging and dying around the United States. • He was a guide for thousands seeking to discover or reclaim their spiritual identity beyond or within institutional religion. I’m getting closer to the end. "[4] He lived on Maui and did not leave the Hawaiian Islands from 2004 until his death in 2019, after he almost died from an infection during a trip to India. "[33], 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. 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 God". ... Now, I really am ready to face the music all around me. 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. Richard Alpert aka Ram Dass was born on April 6, 1931, in Boston, Massachusetts. The book became a New Age treatise on mindfulness and positivity. "The stroke itself was not grace, but my reaction to the stroke was grace," he told the, "Soul doesn't have a fear of dying," he said. [19], Alpert and Leary continued on to co-author a book entitled The Psychedelic Experience with Ralph Metzner, based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and it was published in 1964. To live out what Ram Dass has practiced with his actions.

[42], In 2013, Ram Dass released a memoir and summary of his teaching, Polishing the Mirror: How to Live from Your Spiritual Heart.

• We are grateful for the heart to heart connection we have cultivated here and appreciate all the love that has poured out today. Ram Dass’s life changed when he met Neem Karoli Baba while on a meditative trip to Eastern India in 1967. Whitey Ford Wiki: Facts About New York Yankees Hall of Famer | Death Cause, Funeral, Wife & Net Worth. Ram Dass' fans mourn his death. – An Interview with Dale Borglum", "Leary Scored as 'Cop Informant' By His Son and 2 Close Friends", "Psychedelia: Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (Ram Dass) Harvard Reunion", "Dying to Know: Ram Dass & Timothy Leary", "Baba Ram Dass in the realm of Visionary Artist Martina Hoffmann: in the end there's only one spirit and one humanness", "Ram Dass Interview on 'Polishing the Mirror, "Baba Ram Dass, psychedelic pioneer and New Age guru, is dead at 88", "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", "Ram Dass Has a Son! His second spiritual life started when he met a Hindu Guru during his India visit. The soul is infinite.". [26], After Alpert returned to America as Ram Dass, he stayed at the Lama Foundation in Taos, New Mexico, as a guest. "Ego has very pronounced fear of dying. He said, in part: "Now, I’m in my 80s ... Now, I am aging. He held American nationality and came from Jewish ethnicity. But Has This Revelation Changed His Conception of Love? The ego, this incarnation, is life and dying. But he didn't become Ram Dass until a fateful trip to India in 1967. Likewise, his death was confirmed by his Instagram page. ... according to his Instagram. [4] Alpert's mentor at Wesleyan, David McClelland, recommended Alpert to Stanford, where he received his PhD. At age 82, Ram said he was ready for his death, realizing his old age. [44], In the 1990s, Ram Dass discussed his bisexuality. [12][30] The Hanuman Foundation is focused on the spiritual well-being of society through education, media and community service programs.