© Robert Altman
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© Robert Altman
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Ram Dass was born, Richard Alpert, on April 6, 1931 in Boston, Mass., the son of a wealthy lawyer (George Alpert) who was the president of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad and founder of Brandeis University. As Richard Alpert he received a B.A. from Tufts College in 1952, an M.A. in motivation psychology from Wesleyan University in 1953, and a Ph.D. in human development from Stanford University in 1957. He was an instructor at Stanford from 1957-58. He taught and conducted research at the Department of Social Relations and the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University from 1958 to 1963.
While at Harvard, his explorations of human consciousness led him to conduct intensive research with LSD and other psychedelic elements, in collaboration with Timothy Leary, Aldous Huxley, Allen Ginsberg, and others. Because of the controversial nature of this research, Ram Dass and Leary were dismissed from Harvard in 1963. In 1967, he traveled to India where he met his spiritual teacher, Neem Karoli Baba (there is a beautiful picture of Maharaj-ji here. Here he was given the name Ram Dass (Servant of God). While in India and after his return to North America he has studied yoga and meditation and a variety of spiritual practices, including Hinduism, karma, yoga and Sufism. In 1974, Ram Dass created the Hanuman Foundation, which has developed many projects, including the Prison-Ashram Project, designed to help inmates grow spiritually during incarceration. He also helped develop the "Living/Dying Project", with Stephen Levine which provides support for the conscious dying. In 1978 Ram Dass co-founded and became a board member of the Seva Foundation, an international organization dedicated to relieving suffering in the world. Seva supports programs designed to help wipe out curable blindness in India and Nepal, restore the agricultural life of impoverished villagers in Guatemala, assist in primary health care for American Indians, and to bring attention to the issues of homelessness and environmental degradation in the United States, among others. 
On 19 February 1997, Ram Dass suffered a stroke which left him paralyzed on the right side of his body and limited his ability to speak. For more information, go to the Ram Dass Tapes web site and click on "Ram Dass" and then "Health News". Bob Watson also has a site with lots of information and a Ram Dass Community Satsang page.
To read one of the first media reports of his stroke check out this article at the San Fransisco Examiner on February 26, 1997. On Monday, May 26, 1997 Ram Dass gave his first interview to Don Lattin, Chronicle Religion Writer, (San Fransisco Chronicle) since his stroke. In this interview titled "Stroke Teaches Ram Dass Anew to `Be Here Now': Spiritual teacher slowly recovering" we can hear Ram Dass' struggle to communicate with words since his stroke. We can also, however, experience some of the "eloquence to silence" which has become a tool for Ram Dass since his stroke. On March 11th, 1998 Ram Dass gave his first public lecture since his stroke. He was invited to speak at Don Holmlund's class on "America in the '60s" at the College of Marin. Ram Dass spoke about the many ways psychedelics had shaped the social and spiritual values of a generation, and he told stories of the Harvard psychedelic experiments and of his adventures with Tim Leary. Ram Dass has begun to travel and offer satsang again. If you go to the Hanuman Foundation and check out "Ram Dass - Events & Lectures" you will find his teaching schedule. Ram Dass has written a number of books on spiritual topics. The Ram Dass Tape Library offers copies of those books, as well as tapes and videos of his talks, for sale. As someone who has used the books and tapes extensively I highly recommend them to you. |
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Produced and Directed by Markings. All written non-ascribed contents © Markings |
E-mail me at sher@markings.bc.ca 
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