founder of Brandeis University. Richard grew up
on the New Hampshire estate of his father.
A student of psychology, Alpert received a
B.A. degree in 1952 from Tufts University, an
M.A. from Wesleyan University in 1954, and a
Ph.D. in 1957 from Stanford University. From
1958 to 1963, Alpert taught and conducted
research at the Department of Social Relations
and the Graduate School of Education at Har-
vard University. In 1961, he first took psilocy-
bin with his Harvard colleague Timothy Leary
(1920–96) and became an integral part in the
Harvard Psilocybin Project. With Leary and
Ralph Metzner, he wrote The Psychedelic Experi-
ence, a recapitulation of the Tibetan Book of the
Dead intended to be a manual for establishing an
appropriate setting for experiencing psychedelic
drugs such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD),
psilocybin, mescaline, and dimethyltryptamine
(DMT). While at Harvard, Alpert began research
into human consciousness and, with Timothy
Leary, Aldous Huxley, Allen Ginsberg, and others,
conducted research into LSD and other psyche-
delics. Because of the controversial nature of this
research, Alpert and Leary were dismissed from
their teaching positions at Harvard in 1963.
Alpert continued his collaboration with
Leary on psychedelics. He became involved with
attempts to realize a utopia as presented in Island
by Aldous Huxley, and the Glass Bead Game by
Hermann Hesse. He participated in utopian orga-
nizations, including the Zihuatanejo Project and
the International Foundation for Internal Free-
dom. During the mid-1960s he lived for a while
at the Millbrook estate in New York, a center for
psychedelic religion, together with Leary and
Swami Abhayananda (Bill Haines).
In 1967, he traveled to India, where he met
Baba HARI DASS (b. 1923) and NEEM KAROLI BABA
(d. 1973), both noted gurus who provided dis-
ciplined study on a spiritual path. They became
role models for him and he replaced his attraction
for drugs with a higher spiritual calling induced
through MEDITATION and yoga. Neem Karoli Baba,
also called Maharaji, gave Alpert his spiritual
name Ram Dass (servant of God) and taught him
raja yoga, a form of yoga that utilizes meditation
as the primary means of moving from mundane
reality to the invisible supersensible world of
higher consciousness (SAMADHI). Ram Dass says
that Neem Karoli allowed him for the first time
to see his life in spiritual terms. Overall, he spent
nearly two years with Neem Karoli before Neem
Karoli’s death in 1973. His Miracle of Love is a
collection of stories about Neem Karoli, from
the homely to the miraculous. Not a devotee of
any one particular philosophy or method, NeemBaba Ram Dass (b. 1933), popular American guru and
founder of Hanuman Foundation (Photo by Richard Alpert.
Courtesy of Hanuman Foundation)
Ram Dass 357 J