Be Here Now

One of the best spiritual books I have come across is Ram Dass’s “Be Here Now.”

“Be Here Now” illustrates the journey of Richard Alpert, Ph.D., as he transformed into Ram Dass and became a spiritual teacher. His journey started as a social scientist, then moved to psychedelics, and finally the Yogi stage, as he calls it.

During the 1950s and ’60s, Richard Alpert, Ph.D., had a very successful academic career. He was associated with several universities such as Harvard, UC Berkeley, Yale, and Stanford. He was a psychologist/researcher/professor who had a high income and many material possessions. But even with all of this, he knew something was missing and that something was true wisdom.
He admits that much of his work was theoretical.
The impending dissatisfaction and feelings of uneasiness led to the psychedelic stage of his life. 

Ram Dass says that around the time he began to become uneasy about his career and lifestyle, he became acquainted with Timothy Leary. This led to new experiences with psychedelics. He began experimenting with a synthetic form of magic mushrooms called Psylocybin (Psilocybin). These experiments led to hallucinations but awakenings as well.
He came to a point where he could no longer explain his experiences because a person would need to experience it him/herself. Several years later, he began to experiment with LSD. 

One experience led to another, until one day, he decided to visit India to seek out holy men. Initially, he hoped to discover exactly what LSD was. But after several months, he still had not made any great discoveries. 

During his journey, he began to follow a man named Bhagwan Dass, who taught him to “Be Here Now.” The idea of being here now is to avoid thinking about the past or the future and just be in the moment. It was during this time that he began to learn yoga poses.

After we learn about Ram Dass’s transformation, there are many lessons on sleeping, eating, studying, transmuting energy, and several other principles. In my opinion, this latter portion of the book is the most impactful. I especially enjoyed the information on transmuting energy. Focusing on our higher chakras is the key. 

Have you read the book? I would love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to comment below! And as always, thanks for reading today!

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