Richard Alpert came from a family of right-wing-Zionists. As a professional Harvard Professor – he definitely possessed the gift of the gab. He trained in India under a Guru for free – then came back to the West and “sold” the spiritual knowledge he had gained. His other (parallel) ability was to read, absorb, and then “teach” the knowledge contained in English-language books regarding Hinduism, Buddhism, Yoga, and Christianity. Oddly, whilst he did lecture to right-wing (Zionist) Jewish audiences in the US – he rarely mentioned Judaism when lecturing to the goyim (although he did state he rejected all Arabs and refused to meet Arab delegations when he visited Israel). He also made anti-China statements throughout his lectures, and bought into the “Free Tibet” mythology. As a trained academic his taped lectures (which were “sold” to the public for large amounts) were well-delivered and technically correct.
Typical of a White American, Alpert “sold” the spiritual teachings that are “free” in the genuine lineages. As a consequence, there were generations of individuals from around the world who fell under his spell. His teachings were seductive as he wanted to be liked. He was a homosexual who apparently sired a child with a woman. He was once a world-denying (celibate) yogi – but when he returned to the West he soon returned to his privileged (bourgeois) identity. I wrote to him to explain that he was wrong about Socialism and Chinese Buddhism. He had said that religion was suppressed in the Communist Bloc and that his texts were “outlawed” and illegally copied and passed around. None of this is true – but it is a common mythos in the US. The truth is that nobody cared what a rich Zionist had to say – who was busy co-opting the spiritual culture of a deeply impoverished country (India) – whilst denying that country the opportunity of breaking-out of this ignorance through the adoption of Socialism.
I do not deny his sleek operation – but I also saw through it. Many people would be drawn to him – and then be used and thrown away by him – and those who managed his personal affairs. Whilst pretending to be enlightened – he suffered a stroke in 1997 and behaved in a very un-guru-like manner. His management team were terrified their income stream would end – and so they would wheel-out a desperately ill-man to “dribble” in-front of a fee-paying and cheering audience (pretending that normal human fragility was somehow “special”, “unusual”, and worthy of being “sold” to the desperate and vulnerable). The entire thing was macabre and exploitative. When he died in 2019 – those around him claimed he was “terrified” and not calm and accepting as he told everyone else to be throughout his long preaching career. I was treated with aggression by his henchmen – particularly after he sent me the above letter. They refused to allow him to meet me because they were afraid of losing influence over him (they were that petty). This is American corporate spiritually writ-large.
