The Love Serve Remember Foundation (LSRF) is

dedicated to preserving and continuing the teachings of

Neem Karoli Baba and Ram Dass. The foundation
facilitates the continuation of these teachings through
online courses, blog content, films, podcasts, social
network channels and collaborative projects with
conscious artists and musicians.
Richard Alpert / Ram Dass

Biography
Ram Dass first went to India in 1967. He was still Dr.
Richard Alpert, a prominent Harvard psychologist and
psychedelic pioneer with Dr. Timothy Leary. He
continued his psychedelic research until that fateful
Eastern trip in 1967, when he traveled to India. In India,
he met his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, affectionately
known as Maharajji, who gave Ram Dass his name,
which means “servant of God.” Everything changed
then – his intense dharmic life started, and he became a
pivotal influence on a culture that has reverberated with
the words “Be Here Now” ever since. Ram Dass’ spirit
has been a guiding light for three generations, carrying
along millions on the journey, helping to free them from
their bonds as he works through his own.
Since 1968, Ram Dass has pursued a panoramic array
of spiritual methods and practices from potent ancient
wisdom traditions, including bhakti or devotional yoga
focused on the Hindu deity Hanuman; Buddhist
meditation in the Theravadin, Mahayana Tibetan, and
Zen Buddhist schools, and Sufi and Jewish mystical
studies. Perhaps most significantly, his practice of
karma yoga or spiritual service has opened up millions
of other souls to their deep, yet individuated spiritual
practice and path. Ram Dass continues to uphold the
boddhisatva ideal for others through his compassionate
sharing of true knowledge and vision. His unique skill
in getting people to cut through and feel divine love
without dogma is still a positive influence on many
people from all over the planet.
Richard Alpert Transforms into Ram Dass
In 1961, while at Harvard, explorations of human
consciousness led him, in collaboration with Timothy
Leary, Ralph Metzner, Aldous Huxley, and Allen
Ginsberg, to pursue intensive research with psilocybin,
LSD-25, and other psychedelic chemicals. Out of this
research came two books: The Psychedelic Experience
(co-authored with Leary and Metzner, and based on The
Tibetan Book of the Dead, published by University
Books); and LSD (with Sidney Cohen and Lawrence
Schiller, published by New American Library). Because
of the highly controversial nature of their research,
Richard Alpert and Timothy Leary became personae
non-grata and were dismissed from Harvard in 1963.
Tim Leary and Alpert then went to Mexico, ate
mushrooms, and went from being academics to counter-
culture icons, legends in their own time, and young at
that. For Ram Dass psychedelic work turned out to be a
prelude to the mystical country of the spirit and the
source of consciousness itself. Mind expansion via
chemical substances became a catalyst for the spiritual
seeking. This naturally led him eastward to the
traditional headwater of mystical rivers, India. Once
there, a series of seeming coincidences led him to Neem
Karoli Baba and the transformation from Richard Alpert
to Ram Dass.
Ram Dass’ Works and Seva (Spiritual Service)
In 1974, Ram Dass created the Hanuman Foundation, a
non-profit foundation meant to embody the spirit of
service inspired his Guru. The Hanuman Foundation
developed the Prison-Ashram Project, directed by Bo
and Sita Lozoff, which helped prison inmates grow
spiritually during their incarceration and the Dying
Project, conceived with Stephen Levine, which helped
many bring awareness and compassion to the encounter
with death. Also as part of the Hanuman Foundation,
Dale Borglum founded and directed the Dying Center in
Santa Fe, the first residential facility in the United
States whose purpose was to support conscious dying.
The Prison-Ashram Project, now called the Human
Kindness Foundation, continues under Sita Lozoff in
North Carolina and the Living/Dying Project, now a
separate non-profit headed by Dale Borglum in the Bay
Area, provides support for transforming the encounter
with life-threatening illness into an opportunity for
spiritual awakening.
Be Here Now, Ram Dass’s monumentally influential
and seminal work, still stands as the highly readable
centerpiece of Western articulation of Eastern
philosophy, and how to live joyously a hundred percent
of the time in the present, luminous or mundane. Be
Here Now continues to be the instruction manual of
choice for generations of spiritual seekers. Forty years
later, it’s still part of the timeless present. Being here
now is still being here now.
Ram Dass was a co-founder and advisory board
member of the Seva Foundation (“seva” means
“spiritual service” in Sanskrit), an international service
organization. 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, along with other nations.
Ram Dass In the Here and Now
In 1996, Ram Dass began a talk radio program called
“Here and Now with Ram Dass.” Seven pilot programs
were aired in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay
Area, and Ram Dass planned to launch the show on a
nationwide basis the following year, but it was not to
be. On February 19th 1997, Ram Dass suffered a near-
fatal stroke, which left him paralyzed on the right side
of his body and expressive aphasia limiting his ability
to speak, along with other challenging ailments. Though
the radio show did not last, his Here and Now
podcast (over 100 episodes) lives on today at Ram
Dass’ Be Here Now Network.
The after-effects of the stroke once again changed his
life, but he was able to resume teaching, writing and
sharing his heart. In 2004, following a life-threatening
infection, Ram Dass was forced to curtail travel and
focus on recovering his health.
Ram Dass moved to Maui in 2004, and began hosting
personal and public retreats and events for spiritual
seekers, continuing his long-standing legacy of sharing
his heart and life with anyone who wanted to access his
teachings and his heart. He accessed people through
weekly Skype sessions and through a vast library of his
teachings hosted on RamDass.org and through social
media, books, online courses and podcasts. His most
recent books included Be Love Now (2011), Polishing
the Mirror: How to Live from Your Spiritual
Heart (2013), Cookbook for
Awakening (2017), Walking Each Other
Home (2018), Changing Lenses: Essential Teaching
Stories from Ram Dass (2018), and Being Ram
Dass (2021).

Honoring Ram Dass into the Future

Ram Dass passed away at his home on Maui on
December 22, 2019. Leading up to his passing, he
continued to teach at his semi-annual retreats with other
esteemed Bhakti and Buddhist thought leaders.
In the spirit of his wishes, the Love Serve Remember
Foundation plans to continue and expand many of the
programs, content and offerings you’ve come to know
and love. More specifically, we plan to —
 continue the bi-annual retreats on Maui and in Ojai
with teachings from Ram Dass and friends;
 expand our Immersion Retreats to other parts of the
country;
 nurture the growing Ram Dass fellowship
communities across the country;
  initiate educational programs and curricula at
universities and colleges;
 continue and expand our commitment to diversity,
equity, and inclusion overall and to expand
scholarship programs to include diverse cultural
groups in all of our offerings;
 create a traveling exhibit of Ram Dass’s life work
and personal library;
 expand the Be Here Now podcast network to
include teachers and thought leaders from diverse
spiritual traditions;
 in alignment with Ram Dass’ essential work on
service, engage with other service organizations to
support and expand their impact.
The Jewel of Maharaji
Since returning from India in 1968, Ram Dass has
shared what he called “the jewel of Maharaji”. Love
Serve Remember Foundation aspires to carry on these
teachings of unconditional love and deep wisdom, as
Ram Dass did until his last breath.

Works

Books
 The Only Dance There Is (Anchor/ Doubleday)
(1974)
 Grist For The Mill (with Stephen Levine,
Harper Collins) (1977)
 Journey of Awakening: A Meditator’s
Guidebook (with Dwarka Bonner and Daniel
Goleman) (1978)
 Miracle of Love: Stories of Neem Karoli
Baba (Hanuman Foundation) (1978)
 How Can I Help? Stories and Reflections on
Service (with Paul Gorman, Knopf) (1985)
 Compassion in Action: Setting Out on the Path
of Service (with Mirabai Bush, Bell Tower
Press) (1991)
 Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing and
Dying (Riverhead Books) (2000)
 One-Liners: A Mini-Manual for a Spiritual
Life (Bell Tower Press) (2002)
 Paths to God: Living the Bhagavad
Gita (Harmony Books) (2004)
 Be Love Now (with Rameshwar Das) (2010)
 Polishing the Mirror: How to Live from Your
Spiritual Heart (with Rameshwar Das) (2013)
  Walking Each Other Home: Conversations on
Loving and Dying (with Mirabai Bush) (2018)
 Changing Lenses: Essential Teaching Stories
from Ram Dass (2018)

Films
 A Change of Heart, a 1994 one-hour
documentary directed by Eric Taylor and
hosted by Ram Dass and shown on many PBS
stations. It examined taking social action as a
meditative act.
 Ecstatic States, a 1996 interview on VHS, by
Wiseone Edutainment Pty.
 Ram Dass, Fierce Grace, a 2001 biographical
documentary directed by Micky Lemle.
 Ram Dass – Love Serve Remember, a 2010
short film directed by V. Owen Bush, included
in the Be Here Now Enhanced Edition eBook.
 Open Your Heart in Paradise, a 10-DVD set
featuring workshops (with Ram Dass, Krishna
 Das and Sharon Salzberg) from all 5 days of
the 2010 Maui retreat.
 Dying to Know: Ram Dass & Timothy Leary, a
2014 documentary dual portrait.
 Ram Dass, Going Home, a 2017 documentary
portrait of Ram Dass in his later years, directed
by Derek Peck.[56]
 Ram Dass, Becoming Nobody, a 2019
documentary portrait of Richard Alpert
becoming Ram Dass and Ram Dass becoming
nobody. Directed by Jamie Catto.

 Recordings
 The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based
on the Tibetan Book of the Dead (with Timothy
Leary & Ralph Metzner) (1966) (reissued on
CD in 2003 by Folkways)
 Here We All Are: A Spiritual Journey In Three
Chapters, a 3-LP set recorded live in
Vancouver, BC in the summer of 1969.
 From Bindu to Ojas: Original Chants with
Ram Dass (1970), a collection of chants from
the originally released “From Bindu to Ojas”
box set in 1970, a predecessor to the release of
“Be Here Now."
 Love Serve Remember (1973), a six-album set
of teachings, data, and spiritual songs (ZBS
Foundation) (released in .mp3 format, 2008)
 Finding Our Natural Path Featuring Trungpa
Rinpoche (1974). Three early unreleased Ram
Dass talks featuring a Naropa Session with
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (3.5 hours of
audio divided into three talks).
 Greed and Consciousness (1976), Miami,
Florida (50 minute .mp3). When we design our
lives in anticipation of the next high, we miss
out on the richness of the present moment.
 Forms of Yoga Ram Dass (1981), Huntington
Beach, California (140 minute .mp3).
 Awareness, Perspective and Change (1994),
recorded live at the Eupsychia Conference at
Embodying Spirit, held September 30 through
October 2, 1994, in Orlando FL.
 Conspiracy of Consciousness (1995), San
Rafael, CA (70 minute .mp3). Ram Dass
explores our symbolic value in society, and
how we can learn to inhabit our roles lightly,
with love, joy, passion and emptiness.
 Cosmix (2008), a collaboration of Ram Dass
messages mixed with work by Australian DJ
 and mixmaster Kriece, released on Waveform
Records (CD Album).
 Ram Dass - Meditations on the Gita (2014), a
combination of readings from the Bhagavad
Gita by Ram Dass with musical
accompaniments.
 From Separation to Source, a 120 minute talk
from Ram Dass. Only when you live in the
moment and give up your attachments can you
ultimately recognize the awakening of your
soul.
 Becoming Nobody: The Essential Ram Dass
Collection (2019), a 5 CD audio collection of
five essential sessions, featured in the Ram
Dass documentary film Becoming Nobody.
 East Forest X RAM DASS (2019) collaborative
album with musician East Forest featuring the
final recorded teachings of Ram Dass.
 Who You Are, (60 minute Audio .zip File).