Duration: 17:06

8,180 views

46

Reecorded at the University of Kent, UK, during the Multidisciplinary Meeting on Psychedelic Consciousness "Breaking Convention" 01-03 April 2011, Canterbury, United Kingdom.

http://breakingconvention.co.uk/


In the days before Baba Ram Dass developed an interest in psychedelic drugs, he was known as Dr. Richard Alpert - a social psychologist teaching at Harvard University. It was here in the 1960s that he worked with Timothy Leary, conducting studies on the effects of psychedelics on human volunteers. Later, Ram Dass travelled to India and, finding an affinity with Hindu spirituality, adopted his new name. It was in India that Ram Dass met the Hindu guru, Neem Karoli Baba.

Ram Dass talks here to the conference about his transition from social psychology to Hinu spirituality, and will discuss the importance that psychedelics had in regards to his changes in ideology.

In 1964, together with Dr. Ralph Metzner and Dr. Timothy Leary, Ram Dass (as Dr. Richard Alpert) wrote "The Psychedelic Experience". Aldous Huxley had given them a copy of the Tibetan Book of the Dead and during their work with psychedelics, the Harvard trio began to see parallels between their experiences and ancient Eastern mythology.