Dear Adrian
Thank you for sharing your Ram Dass – Richard Alpert letter.
He was so appreciative of what you had to say, and I am surprised at your response. Of course, I do not have all the facts, and you are probably summising years of experience in a few paragraphs. Would you mind elaborating on your comments?
Best
J
Dear J
I have nothinng against Richard Alpert or his alter-ego of Ram Dass. Indeed, I am deeply appreciative of both – but for different reasons. I think his friiend – Timothy Leary – was the driving-force behind what was a Revolutionary period during his time at Harvard (taking LSD and seeing through capitalism). The problem is that he did not “see” very far beyond capitalism – in my opinion – but then again I am a proletariat – not a rich (privileged) Zionist. Of course, an argument can be made that his lurch to the centre (from the right) was as far a heroic dosages of LSD could take him – and that tells you something about the cultural power of modern Zionism (not the left-wing Zionism that used to support Lenin – yes – such a thing did exist before the modern State of Israel purged it). As I say, Ram Dass needed to be assisted out of his birth predicament – but there are forces which strove to prevent this process. This undermines much of Hinduism and Buddhism. As Ram Dass says – he used to “pretend” to know all the answers at Harvard because that was what he was paid to do. I started directly interacting with him and his supporters when I first went on the internet in 2000 (prior to that I had been given his tapes). I saw anti-intellectualism, cultism, greed, lying, anger, aggression – and all the things that manifest in ignorant human society. There was nothing “enlightened” about any of it – and yet some of his recorded lectures are sublime to encounter. He possessed the ability to make each listener feel he was talking directly to them. Ironically, it was not in the USSR that people secretly copied his lectures and freely passed them around (religion was free, open, and protected) – but in the capitalist West! A rich Westerner would purchaee a set of tapes – secretly record these sessions – and give them out freely to those who could not afford the fees Ram Dass charged – or at least those fees the gate-keepers who claimed to support him. During a lecture he gave at Malibu (?) – he had a person thrown-out for daring to suggest the poor be taught for free. And then to top it all – his attitude toward the Arabs was completely right-wing. His answer was to give some of his income to charity – once his bourgeois lifestyle and medical bills had been met (the latter were considerable after his 1997 stroke). After-all he did live out his luxurius home in Maui, Hawaii – a high-income area. Not very Guru-like behaviour. Furthermore, his lectures are evidence of the key turning points in his life and the opinions he held and the decisions he made. His persona is very carefully staged-managed online because there is money to be laid. For instance, you will no reference to the letter he sent me – but I have it in my hand. Those who control his image rely on the average person not having access to his thousands of lectures – or no direct experience with his US community (which the internet permitted). He fell-out with hundreds of previous supporters and was supported over the years in waves (and distanced himself from the Hanuman Foundation after 1997). I have no idea who the handful of people are who were with him on his death in 2019. I stopped all direct and indirect contact from the early 2000s when I witnessed what he was like in real life on the net (writing on his personal discussion forums). In 2016 I was played a tape of a meeting he held in the US for Zionist Jews (I believe held in a church hall) – and the open and sustained racism being expressed was beyond the pale. Pure delusion presented as enlightenment. Even prior to this, Black civil rights advocates had walked out of his lectures in protest to the Eurocentric (ignorant) tropes he was weaving as “wisdom”. He thought the capitalist (right-wing) Japanese were wonderful (he lectured in Japan to hundreds of silent, stone-faced locals) – but the Socialist Chinese were corrupt. As a capitalist he was opposed to Socialism. Meanwhile, “White” bourgeois individuals felt warm and fluffy when they experienced his romanticised stories about India (he even met the Nazi-educated Dalai Lama – saying nothing about his history). Laughably, he thought the pathetic Indian Army had spiritually “beaten” the Chinese PLA in 1962 – despite being physically crushed – as Mao drove on to Delhi (feeding the starving Indians they encountered on the way). If you want to see the latest incarnation of Ram Dass (pun intended) involving (White) Americans pretending to transcend material reality in exchange for money – please access “ramdass.org“. Ironically, many people who receive a “contact high” by listening to the lectures of Ram Dass – upload these lectures to the internet – giving free access to millions. Finally, the genuine Indian Guru – Neem Karoli Baba – taught everyone for “free”. That is a genuine spiritual reality. What Ram Dass and his supporters did to this pristine teaching is nothing less than a travesty and probably a crime in some countries (fraud). All this is the tip of the iceberg regarding Ram Dass-related corruption and deception. It is a spider’s web of mis-direction – with many playing their part.
Thanks
Adrian
