Ram Dass’s Iconic Book “Be Here Now” Caused a Spiritual Earthquake
Read it. It Will Blow Your Mind.
Ram Dass wrote Be Here Now in 1971. It was an immediate phenomenon, giving those on the spiritual path an actual path to travel. It’s known as one of the most influential spiritual books ever written.
After reading it recently for the first time, I now know why. It continually blew me away.
The book is comprised of three discrete sections: A short description of Ram Dass’s life journey, a compendium of what I can only describe as wacky, insightful spiritual observations accompanied by illustrations and, lastly, a specific manual for traveling the spiritual path. It ends with a lengthy recommended reading list.
Regurgitating the entire book here is not only inadvisable, but impossible. So what I’ll do is briefly summarize each of those three main sections and then go deep on one story of his journey that particularly blew me away.
Section 1: Ram Dass’s Life Journey
Growing up in Boston as Richard Alpert, Ram Dass’s upbringing was relatively privileged. After attending private schools, he got his BA from Tufts, his master’s from Wesleyan and his PhD in psychology from Stanford. From 1958–1963 he taught at Stanford and then Harvard.
