Works by
Ram Dass
(aka Richard Alpert)
(Writer)

Audio

• Cosmix (2008, CD) by Ram Dass and Kriece
  Music, sound, chanting etc. 
  See also other work by Ram Dass & Kriece.

• The Ram Dass Audio Collection (2007, CD, Audiobook)
  Beginning with his controversial psychedelic research at Harvard in the sixties, the life of Ram Dass has served as an "experiment in truth," encompassing paths from both East and West, and shaping the spiritual landscape of America like no other teacher of our time. After three decades, and despite a life-threatening stroke, Ram Dass continues to move us with his example of compassion in action, and the true joy that comes with living in the present. Now, in a unique audio publishing event, the great moments -- and great truths -- of this important spiritual elder's long career are preserved together for the first time on the Ram Dass Audio Collection.
  
   Join the bestselling author of such spiritual classics as Be Here Now! and How Can I Help -- for three life-changing audio sessions including:

  • Conscious Aging -- Ram Dass calls for us to move beyond our youth-fixated culture, to see that the final years of life are the culmination of our spiritual journey.

  • The Path of Service -- In our era of individualism, Ram Dass teaches, the path to internal freedom still begins with external action, in the service of others.

• Conscious Aging (2006, CD, Audiobook)
  Conscious Aging is an unforgettable learning session with Ram Dass, the former Harvard professor whose teachings about love, compassion, and sacrifice have received international acclaim. On this live recording, Ram Dass brings into focus one of the great issues of our day: the fear of aging and death. Exhaustively probing both Eastern and Western spiritual traditions, he offers wisdom tempered with reality. His point --when you lose your fear of death, you gain a love for life -- holds profound meaning for the young and old. Here is a spiritual discussion about moving beyond our youth-fixated culture, to a place where we can see clearly that the final years of life can be just as creative and fulfilling as the early years. Conscious Aging is a masterwork that will speak to you personally about living each day with an open heart, knowing that the most incredible stage of your experience has yet to come.

• A Spiritual Journey by Ram Dass (2005, CD, Audiobook)
  Part One: Finding and Exploring your Spiritual Path, Ram Dass speaks from the heart with wisdom gained from a lifetime spent on the path to enlightenment about the often rocky yet profoundly transforming road to living the spiritual life.

• Here We All Are (2005, CD, Abridged)
  Telling his story in “three chapters,” Ram Dass explains how he moved from the structured academic world to wide-open experiences with psychedelics (and Timothy Leary). This thirst for knowledge led him to India, where he encountered a man who taught him to “just be here now.”
  
  Ram Dass shares with us how we can all attain a state of well-being. The result is that we’ll become more centered, and we’ll learn to see the God in each other, which ultimately leads to an overwhelming sense of oneness with, and love for, our fellow humans.

• Ram Dass: Evolving Wisdom Four Decades of Spiritual Wisdom (The Middle Decade 1975-1985, Volume 2) (2005, Audio CD)

• Meditations on the Gita by Ram Dass (2004, CD, Import)

• The Chord of Love (2002, CD)

• In Their Own Words (2001, Audio Cassette, Abridged)

• Experiments in Truth: Sounds True Learning Course (1998, 8 CDs)
  In February of 1997, Ram Dass suffered a debilitating stroke that left him struggling to speak again to the generation that he so inspired. For over 30 years his life has served as a spiritual laboratory, where he has explored many paths from both East and West in his attempt to understand the nature of consciousness. Along the way, Ram Dass has touched thousands of seekers with his personal search for greater truths. From the beginning, this respected teacher's retreat talks and lectures have been meticulously recorded and archived. Experiments in Truth is a historic collection of Ram Dass' most important recordings, hand-picked and presented here together for the first time. In the early '60s, a young Harvard professor known then as Richard Alpert sought truth and a way to inner consciousness through renegade psychedelic explorations. Disappointed with the short-lived results, Alpert traveled to India where he met his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, who instructed him to love everyone and tell the truth. Richard Alpert returned to America as Ram Dass to share the fruit of his search, teaching that through the practice of love and service, it is possible to awaken to an awareness of what our lives are truly about. Stepping beyond the Mind through Love and Service On Experiments in Truth, you will join this pioneer of engaged spirituality in America and master storyteller for eight inspiring lectures, each one a gem of humor, insight, and intelligence about the spiritual journey today. Here is real-life wisdom for people of all faiths and all walks of life.

• Finding and Exploring Your Spiritual Path: An Exploration of the Pleasures and Perils of Seeking Personal Enlightenment (1989, Audio Cassette)
  Discover and Live a Life of Spiritual Fulfillment
  
  With wisdom gained from his personal 30-year search for enlightenment, Ram Dass speaks from the heart about the often rocky yet profoundly transforming road to living the spiritual life.
  
  With personal anecdotes and commentary, Ram Dass illuminates a wide variety of ancient and contemporary philosophies, drawing from such sources as the Buddha, Russian philosopher Gurdjieff, Mahatma Ghandi, Zen master and many others. Here is down-to-earth advice from both the East and West on the experiences awaiting those on the path to spiritual fulfillment.

  • The stages along the spiritual journey

  • The pleasures and pitfalls you might encounter en route

  • The value and potential dangers of teachers and gurus

  • The importance of following your intuitive heart

  If you are a serious seeker of the spiritual path, here is advice and encouragement on finding the one that is right for you. If your interest lies in the people and ideas that shape the way we think, here is an introduction to one of the most influential contemporary philosophers.

• Baba Ram Dass At The University of Florida (1973, 3 Audio Cassettes)

Books

• Paths to God: Living the Bhagavad Gita by Ram Dass (2005)
  For centuries, readers have turned to the Bhagavad Gita for inspiration and guidance as they chart their own spiritual paths. As profound and powerful as this classic text has been for generations of seekers, integrating its lessons into the ordinary patterns of our lives can ultimately seem beyond our reach. Now, in a fascinating series of reflections, anecdotes, stories, and exercises, Ram Dass gives us a unique and accessible road map for experiencing divinity in everyday life. In the engaging, conversational style that has made his teachings so popular for decades, Ram Dass traces our journey of consciousness as it is reflected in one of Hinduism's most sacred texts. The Gita teaches a system of yogas, or "paths for coming to union with God."
  
  In Paths to God, Ram Dass brings the heart of that system to light for a Western audience and translates the Gita's principles into the manual for living the yoga of contemporary life.
  
  While being a guide to the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita, Paths to God is also a template for expanding our definition of ourselves and allowing us to appreciate a new level of meaning in our lives.

• One-Liners: A Mini-Manual for a Spiritual Life by Ram Dass (2002)
  Ram Dass has always been a master of the one-liner. Here is the nitty-gritty by the author of Be Here Now—more than 200 penetrating observations and pithy spiritual instructions on such topics as How It All Is, Love and Devotion, Suffering, Aging, Planes of Consciousness, Death and Dying, Service and Compassion, Psychedelics, Social Awareness, and Liberation.
  
  “This book is a kind of spiritual brandy, a distillation of the lectures I’ve given over the course of the past decade or so. These quotes are the little “aha!” moments, the cameos that have been served up out of our collective consciousness from time to time that seem to summarize something about our human journey. I think of this book as something you might have next to the coffeepot to pick up in the morning, or as something you might tuck into your backpack to pull out during your bus ride to work, in order to reframe the way you look at your day.” —Ram Dass

• Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing, and Dying by Ram Dass (2001)
  More than thirty years ago, an entire generation sought a new way of life, looking for fulfillment and meaning in a way no one had before. Leaving his teaching job at Harvard, Ram Dass embodied the role of spiritual seeker, showing others how to find peace within themselves in one of the greatest spiritual classics of the twentieth century, Be Here Now. Now, as many of that generation enter the autumn of their years, the big questions of peace and of purpose have returned, demanding answers. And once again, Ram Dass blazes a new trail, inviting all to join him on the next stage of the journey.

• Compassion in Action: Setting Out on the Path of Service (1995) with Mirabai Bush
  Featuring an eye-catching new cover, this classic guide is for those ready to commit time and energy to relieving suffering in the world. No two people are better qualified to help us along this path than Ram Dass, who has spent more than 25 years teaching and writing on the subject of living consciously, and Mirabi Bush, who succeeded him as chairperson of the Seva Foundation.

• Miracle of Love (1995)
  "There can be no biography of him. Facts are few, stories many. He seems to have been known by different names in many parts of India, appearing and disappearing through the years. His western devotees of recent years knew him as 'Neem Karoli Baba,' but mostly as 'Maharajii'--a nickname so commonplace in India that one can often hear a tea vendor addressed thus. Just as he said, he was 'Nobody.'
  
  He gave no discourses; the briefest, simplest stories were his teachings. Usually he sat or lay on a wooden bench wrapped in a plaid blanket while a few devotees sat around him. Visitors came and went; they were given food, a few words, a nod, a slap on the head or back, and they were sent away. There was gossip and laughter for he loved to joke. Orders for running the ashram were given, usually in a piercing yell across the compound. Sometimes he sat in silence, absorbed in another world to which we could not follow, but bliss and peace poured down on us. Who he was was no more than the experience of him, the nectar of his presence, the totality of his absence--enveloping us now like his plaid blanket. --Anjani
  
  In 1967 I met Neem Karoli Baby, a meeting which changed the course of my life. In the depth of his compassion, wisdom, humor, power and love I found human possibility never before imagined...an extraordinary integration of spirit and form.
  
  I was with him only briefly for he left his body in 1973, still he entered my heart as living truth, and his presence continues to enrich and guide my life. -- Ram Dass

• Journey of Awakening: A Meditator's Guidebook (1990)
  Ram Dass is an American psychologist and spiritual teacher who has studied and practiced meditation for many years.  Here he shares his understanding and explores the many paths of meditation--from mantra, prayer, singing, visualizations, and "just sitting" to movement meditations such as tai chi--and suggests how you can find methods suitable for you.  He illuminates the stages and benefits of meditative practice, and provides wise and often humorous advice on overcoming difficulties along the way.

• How Can I Help? Stories and Reflection on Service (1985) with Paul Gorman
  Not a day goes by without our being called upon to help one another--at home, at work, on the street, on the phone. . . . We do what we can. Yet so much comes up to complicate this natural response: "Will I have what it takes?" "How much is enough?" "How can I deal with suffering?" "And what really helps, anyway?"
  
  In this practical helper's companion, the authors explore a path through these confusions, and provide support and inspiration fo us in our efforts as members of the helping professions, as volunteers, as community activists, or simply as friends and family trying to meet each other's needs. Here too are deeply moving personal accounts: A housewife brings zoo animals to lift the spirits of nursing home residents; a nun tends the wounded on the first night of the Nicaraguan revolution; a police officer talks a desperate father out of leaping from a roof with his child; a nurse allows an infant to spend its last moments of life in her arms rather than on a hospital machine. From many such stories and the authors' reflections, we can find strength, clarity, and wisdom for those times when we are called on to care for one another. How Can I Help? reminds us just how much we have to give and how doing so can lead to some of the most joyous moments of our lives.

• Journey of Awakening (1982)
  "Everyone has experienced a moment of pure awareness. Such moments bring a sense of rightness, of clarity, of being at one. Such moments are the essence of meditation."--Ram Dass
  
  Why meditate? To live in the moment. To dwell in the harmony of things. To awaken. Those moments in your life when there was an openness, a spacious quality to your existence-- those are the moments that truly make life remarkable. Creating those moments is the focus of this program. Introducing you to practices that increase those meditative moments in your life, until ultimately your entire life is meditation-in-action.
  
  Meditation can be a path to deeper spiritual understanding. It can also be a method by which anyone can handle the chaos and stress of everyday life. In this remarkable program, one of the best-known explorers of human consciousness offers his unique view of and approach to the timeless art of meditation.
  
  A spiritual teacher who has studied and practiced meditation for many years, Ram Dass shares his deep understanding of the meditative experience and explores a variety of techniques. You will also hear guidance on finding a method of meditation that best suits your goals and your lifestyle.

• Grist for the Mill (1981) with Stephen Levine

• The Only Dance There Is (1974)
  This book is based on talks by Ram Dass at the Menninger Foundation in 1970 and at the Spring Grove Hospital in Maryland in 1972. The text grew out of the interaction between Ram Dass and the spiritual seekers in attendance at these talks. The result of this unique exchange is a useful guide for understanding the nature of consciousness--useful both to other spiritual seekers and to formally trained psychologists. It is also a celebration of the Dance of Life--which, in the words of Ram Dass, is the "only dance there is."

• Remember, Be Here Now (1971)
  Describes one man's transformation upon his acceptance of the principles of Yoga and gives a modern restatement of the importance of the spiritual side of man's nature.

• Be Here Now (1971)

Video/DVD

• A Certain Kind of Beauty (2008)
  Liz Witham and Nancy Aronie, directors with Dan Aronie, Nancy Aronie, Joel Aronie, and Ram Dass
  Dan Aronie was a model and aspiring actor when he was diagnosed with a severe and progressive case of Multiple Sclerosis at 23. At an age where most people are just starting their lives, Dan is faced with contemplating an unsure future. With the support of family and friends, what Dan uncovers is a profound and inspirational inner strength - a certain kind of beauty he never knew he had.
  
  His mother, writer Nancy Aronie recalls, "One hand numb, the other with tremors, Dan was looking so broken and vulnerable -- his macho, motorcycle-mechanic, pool-shark persona crumbling. I said, 'Dan do you want to make a video of this? That way we can track this disease.' He nodded with the first smile I had seen in months." The pact was made.
  
  Nancy called family friend Gerry Storrow, who had a video camera, and the journey of filming began. Over six years, as seasons change on their island home of Martha's Vineyard, Dan, too, undergoes profound changes. A fighter by nature, Dan attempts every available treatment to beat his MS, from brain surgery to alternative therapies that included Native American blessings and bee stings along the spine - that in Dan's words --"didn't do jack." Ironically, the more Dan loses, the more he evolves. The more he evolves, the more he is able to transcend his disease. On both sides of the camera, the Aronies discover how to cope, but more than that, how to struggle, laugh, grieve, and endure as a family.
  
  When Nancy first showed filmmakers Liz Witham and Ken Wentworth some of their footage, it struck a personal note. Both Witham and Wentworth have close family members who have struggled with disabilities and degenerative illness, and they recognized the serious therapeutic power such an honest film could have. Says Liz: "Neither Gerry nor Nancy are filmmakers by profession, but their instinct to capture the raw emotion of facing a seriously debilitating disease was right on. This is something that most of us will face in this lifetime, yet no one knows how to talk about." They took the project on and it began to take shape as a documentary. Liz and Ken continued filming the Aronies and weaving Nancy's and Gerry's footage with their own.
  The result was an intimate documentary about how Dan Aronie remakes his life, his relationships, his whole world. Much more than an account of the progression of an illness, A Certain Kind of Beauty is an altogether beautiful film about frailty and strength, the devotion of friends, endurance of family, and the perseverance of a will so powerful and moving, you will never take anything for granted again. Not love. Not life. Not even tying your shoe. Indeed, you will come to know a man who is no longer built like a rock, but whose soul could move a mountain.

• Aliens from Spaceship Earth (2006, DVD)
  Don Como, director with Rennie Davis, Ram Dass, Raymond Burr, and Yogi Bhahan
  While the "aliens" in this film may seem to be quite human, one must realize that this film is dealing with close encounters of the fourth kind.
  
  An inner space journey triggered by the drug culture and rebellion of the sixties, and the non-violent search for self that continues among people in today's culture. Could this be due to some influence from a "higher spiritual consciousness"?
  
  The world's alien leaders are well represented in this film: Baba Muktananda, Swami Satchidananda, A. C. Bhaktivedanta, Guru Maharaj Ji, Yoga Bhahan, Sri Sathya, Sai Baba, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Father Yod, Baba Ram Das, and well-known personalities who present their views on seeking their own terrestrial individuality.
  
  Whether inspired by a more highly evolved race than earthlings, or from a visit millions of years ago by space aliens, "Aliens from Spaceship Earth" are causing great changes on our planet today.

• The Gift of Suffering (2006, DVD)

• The Tibetan Book of the Dead (A Way of Life / The Great Liberation) (2004, DVD)
  Barrie McLean, director with Leonard Cohen and Ram Dass
  Death is real, it comes without warning and it cannot be escaped. An ancient source of strength and guidance, The Tibetan Book of the Dead remains an essential teaching in the Buddhist cultures of the Himalayas. Narrated by Leonard Cohen, this enlightening two-part series explores the sacred text and boldly visualizes the afterlife according to its profound wisdom.

  • Part 1: A Way of Life reveals the history of The Tibetan Book of the Dead and examines its traditional use in northern India, as well as its acceptance in Western hospices. Shot over a four-month period, the film contains footage of the rites and liturgies for a deceased Ladakhi elder and includes an interview with the Dalai Lama, who shares his views on the book's meaning and importance.

  • Part 2: The Great Liberation follows an old lama and his novice monk as they guide a Himalayan villager into the afterlife using readings from The Tibetan Book of the Dead. The soul's 49-day journey towards rebirth is envisioned through actual photography of rarely seen Buddhist rituals, interwoven with groundbreaking animation by internationally acclaimed filmmaker Ishu Patel.

• Ram Dass: Fierce Grace (2003)
  Mickey Lemle, director with Bhagavan Das, Larry Brilliant, Ram Dass and William Alpert, Ram Dass

• Timothy Leary's Dead (2003)
  Paul Davids, director with Mark Bernheimer, Michael Bowen, Ram Dass, and Todd Mills

• The Sacred Unconscious (2000) by Huston Smith
  At the height of his extraordinary career, a man who exemplifies the virtues of the spiritual path speaks of some of his own transforming experiences and insights.
  
  With anecdotes, humor, radiance, and a twinkle in his eye, a giant in the field of world religions shares profoundly personal experiences which have changed his life. Speaking at Kentucky's Cathedral Heritage Foundations' Festival of Faiths 2000, Professor Huston Smith observes that the Festival's theme, Healing Mind, Body, and Soul "comes down to who we "are"-the recovery of the original divine station." Professor Smith describes what he considers to be the "deep lying elements" for understanding the healing of mind, body, and soul. He answers the basic questions of "who we are" by providing an insightful analysis of the four levels of the unconscious, the most important being the sacred which, he maintains, is linked with God as our "imago Dei." And, he recounts his own transforming experience of this place of Beauty, Bliss, and Joy, which each of us knows in dreamless sleep. Were the mind, body, and soul not re-charged or "healed" every night by direct contact with the Divine, we could not endure our lives. Professor Smith believes we must think more highly of our "selves." Additional treats are his mention of a personal hero: Wendell Berry, and his moving tribute to Ram Dass/Richard Alpert (Be Here Now), whose paralyzing stroke gave him the "gift of suffering": closeness to God and the dismantling of the "persona." But what is most moving about this precious footage is the wise and luminous presence of Huston Smith himself, a man who clearly embodies the virtues of the spiritual path.

• Open to the Infinite: Ram Dass at the Inner Directions Gathering (1999)
  After a major stroke, Ram Dass returns with a vibrant joy and deepened wisdom, resulting from a profound encounter with Silence. In this video, he joins with singer Krishna Das for a very special presentation.

• Flashing on the Sixties a Tribal Document (1994)
  Wavy Gravy; Graham Nash; Peter Fonda; T.A. Price; Viola Spolin; Dennis Hopper; Craig Preston; Michelle Phillips; Carl Gottlieb; Paul Krassner; Allen Ginsberg; Ram Dass; Taj Mahal; David Crosby; Johnny Rivers; Timothy Leary; Johanara Romney; Peter Coyote; Carolyn Garcia; Pilar Law; Rick Klein

Other

• The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead (1963) by Ralph Metzner, Richard Alpert, and Timothy Leary

See also:

• The Harvard Psychedelic Club: How Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, Huston Smith, and Andrew Weil Killed the Fifties and Ushered in a New Age for America (Jan 19, 2010 release) by Don Lattin

• Graceful Passages: A Companion for Living and Dying (2006) by Ram Dass with works by Alan Jones, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Gary Remal Malkin, Lew Epstein, Maximillian Mizzi,  Michael Stillwater, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

• Higher Wisdom: Eminent Elders Explore The Continuing Impact Of Psychedelics (2005), Charles S. Grob and Roger Walsh, eds.
  Psychedelics have been a part—often a central and sacred part—of most societies throughout history, and for half a century psychedelics have rumbled through the Western world, seeding a subculture, titillating the media, fascinating youth, terrifying parents, enraging politicians, and intriguing researchers. Not surprisingly, these curious chemicals fascinated some of the foremost thinkers of the twentieth century, fourteen of whom were interviewed for this book. Because no further human research can be done, these researchers constitute an irreplaceable resource. Higher Wisdom offers their fascinating anecdotes, invaluable knowledge, and hard-won wisdom—the culmination of fifty years of research and reflection on one of the most intriguing and challenging topics of our time.  Includes interviews with Albert Hofmann, Alexander T. Shulgin, Ann Shulgin, Betty Eisner, Gary Fisher, Huston Smith, James Fadiman, Laura Archera Huxley, Michael Harner, Myron J. Stolaroff, Peter T. Furst, Ram Dass, Stanislav Grof, and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

• Passion For Life (Quest Passion for Life Series, V. 1) (2002)
  Four programs featuring Caroline Myss, Deepak Chopra, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Jean Houston, Joan Borysenko, John O'Donohue, Judith Orloff, Marianne Williamson, Ondrea Levine, Ram Dass, Richard Carlson, Sam Keen, Sarah Ban Breathnach, Sir John Templeton, Stephen Covey, Stephen Levine, Thomas Moore, and Wayne Muller

• Timothy Leary: Outside Looking In: Appreciations, Castigations, and Reminiscences (1999) by Robert Forte
  A memorial volume to one of this century's most colorful and pioneering figures in the consciousness movement
  
  A wide array of individuals from all stages of Leary's life provides a comprehensive view of the man and his impact on American culture
  
  One of the most influential and controversial people of the 20th century, Timothy Leary inspired profound feelings--both pro and con--from everyone with whom he came into contact. He was extravagant, grandiose, enthusiastic, erratic, and an unrelenting proponent of expanding consciousness and challenging authority. His experiments with psilocybin and LSD at Harvard University and Millbrook, New York, were instrumental in propelling the nation into the psychedelic era of the 1960s. From the 1980s until his death in 1996 he fully embraced the possibilities of freedom offered by the developments in computer technology and the instant communication made possible by the Internet.
  
  The essence of Leary's life has often been reduced to the celebrated formula of "Turn On, Tune In, and Drop Out." The wider implications of this esoteric call to communion have been lost, just as the multifaceted nature of Leary's personality was obscured by the superficial spin put on his life and ideas. In this book a wide array of individuals from all stages of Leary's life, friends and foes alike, provides a more complete view of the man and his impact on American culture.
  
  It is still too early to know how posterity will judge the man and his ideas, but Timothy Leary: Outside Looking In shows that Leary was often so far ahead of his time that few could follow the extensive range of his thought.
  
  Includes Appreciations, Castigations, and Reminiscences by Allen Ginsberg, Andrew Weil, Hunter S. Thompson, Huston Smith, Ram Dass, William Burroughs, Winona Ryder, and Others.

• Voices from the Edge: Conversations With Jerry Garcia, Ram Dass, Annie Sprinkle, Matthew Fox, Jaron Lanier, & Others by David Jay Brown and Rebecca McClen Novick (Paperback - Nov 1995)

• Paths beyond Ego: The Transpersonal Vision (1993), Frances Vaughan and Roger Walsh, eds.
  Aldous Huxley, Bill Devall, Charles Tart, Christina Groff, the Dalai Lama, Daniel Goleman, Fritjof Capra, Georg Feuerstein, Huston Smith, Jack Kornfield, Jayne Gackenbach, John Welwood, Ken Wilber, Kenneth Ring, Michael Murphy, Ram Dass, Sri Aurobindo, Stanislav Grof, Stephen LaBerge, William James and many, many more.