Works by
Ram Dass
(aka Richard Alpert)
(Writer)

• The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead (1963) by Ralph Metzner, Richard Alpert, and Timothy Leary

Video/DVD

• The Tibetan Book of the Dead (A Way of Life / The Great Liberation) (2004)
     DVD
  Barrie McLean, director with Leonard Cohen and Ram Dass
  Death is real, it comes without warning and it cannot be escaped. An ancient source of strength and guidance, The Tibetan Book of the Dead remains an essential teaching in the Buddhist cultures of the Himalayas. Narrated by Leonard Cohen, this enlightening two-part series explores the sacred text and boldly visualizes the afterlife according to its profound wisdom.

  • Part 1: A Way of Life reveals the history of The Tibetan Book of the Dead and examines its traditional use in northern India, as well as its acceptance in Western hospices. Shot over a four-month period, the film contains footage of the rites and liturgies for a deceased Ladakhi elder and includes an interview with the Dalai Lama, who shares his views on the book's meaning and importance.

  • Part 2: The Great Liberation follows an old lama and his novice monk as they guide a Himalayan villager into the afterlife using readings from The Tibetan Book of the Dead. The soul's 49-day journey towards rebirth is envisioned through actual photography of rarely seen Buddhist rituals, interwoven with groundbreaking animation by internationally acclaimed filmmaker Ishu Patel.

• The Sacred Unconscious (2000) by Huston Smith
  At the height of his extraordinary career, a man who exemplifies the virtues of the spiritual path speaks of some of his own transforming experiences and insights.

  With anecdotes, humor, radiance, and a twinkle in his eye, a giant in the field of world religions shares profoundly personal experiences which have changed his life. Speaking at Kentucky's Cathedral Heritage Foundations' Festival of Faiths 2000, Professor Huston Smith observes that the Festival's theme, Healing Mind, Body, and Soul "comes down to who we "are"-the recovery of the original divine station." Professor Smith describes what he considers to be the "deep lying elements" for understanding the healing of mind, body, and soul. He answers the basic questions of "who we are" by providing an insightful analysis of the four levels of the unconscious, the most important being the sacred which, he maintains, is linked with God as our "imago Dei." And, he recounts his own transforming experience of this place of Beauty, Bliss, and Joy, which each of us knows in dreamless sleep. Were the mind, body, and soul not re-charged or "healed" every night by direct contact with the Divine, we could not endure our lives. Professor Smith believes we must think more highly of our "selves." Additional treats are his mention of a personal hero: Wendell Berry, and his moving tribute to Ram Dass/Richard Alpert (Be Here Now), whose paralyzing stroke gave him the "gift of suffering": closeness to God and the dismantling of the "persona." But what is most moving about this precious footage is the wise and luminous presence of Huston Smith himself, a man who clearly embodies the virtues of the spiritual path.
  
  Note: This video is available from Fons Vitae

See also:

• Passion For Life (Quest Passion for Life Series, V. 1) (2002)
  Four programs featuring Caroline Myss, Deepak Chopra, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Jean Houston, Joan Borysenko, John O'Donohue, Judith Orloff, Marianne Williamson, Ondrea Levine, Ram Dass, Richard Carlson, Sam Keen, Sarah Ban Breathnach, Sir John Templeton, Stephen Covey, Stephen Levine, Thomas Moore, and Wayne Muller

• Higher Wisdom: Eminent Elders Explore The Continuing Impact Of Psychedelics (2005), Charles S. Grob and Roger Walsh, eds.
  Psychedelics have been a part—often a central and sacred part—of most societies throughout history, and for half a century psychedelics have rumbled through the Western world, seeding a subculture, titillating the media, fascinating youth, terrifying parents, enraging politicians, and intriguing researchers. Not surprisingly, these curious chemicals fascinated some of the foremost thinkers of the twentieth century, fourteen of whom were interviewed for this book. Because no further human research can be done, these researchers constitute an irreplaceable resource. Higher Wisdom offers their fascinating anecdotes, invaluable knowledge, and hard-won wisdom—the culmination of fifty years of research and reflection on one of the most intriguing and challenging topics of our time.  Includes interviews with Albert Hofmann, Alexander T. Shulgin, Ann Shulgin, Betty Eisner, Gary Fisher, Huston Smith, James Fadiman, Laura Archera Huxley, Michael Harner, Myron J. Stolaroff, Peter T. Furst, Ram Dass, Stanislav Grof, and Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

• Timothy Leary: Outside Looking In: Appreciations, Castigations, and Reminiscences (1999) by Robert Forte
  A memorial volume to one of this century's most colorful and pioneering figures in the consciousness movement
  
  A wide array of individuals from all stages of Leary's life provides a comprehensive view of the man and his impact on American culture
  
  One of the most influential and controversial people of the 20th century, Timothy Leary inspired profound feelings--both pro and con--from everyone with whom he came into contact. He was extravagant, grandiose, enthusiastic, erratic, and an unrelenting proponent of expanding consciousness and challenging authority. His experiments with psilocybin and LSD at Harvard University and Millbrook, New York, were instrumental in propelling the nation into the psychedelic era of the 1960s. From the 1980s until his death in 1996 he fully embraced the possibilities of freedom offered by the developments in computer technology and the instant communication made possible by the Internet.
  
  The essence of Leary's life has often been reduced to the celebrated formula of "Turn On, Tune In, and Drop Out." The wider implications of this esoteric call to communion have been lost, just as the multifaceted nature of Leary's personality was obscured by the superficial spin put on his life and ideas. In this book a wide array of individuals from all stages of Leary's life, friends and foes alike, provides a more complete view of the man and his impact on American culture.
  
  It is still too early to know how posterity will judge the man and his ideas, but Timothy Leary: Outside Looking In shows that Leary was often so far ahead of his time that few could follow the extensive range of his thought.
  
  Includes Appreciations, Castigations, and Reminiscences by Allen Ginsberg, Andrew Weil, Hunter S. Thompson, Huston Smith, Ram Dass, William Burroughs, Winona Ryder, and Others.

• Paths beyond Ego: The Transpersonal Vision (1993), Frances Vaughan and Roger Walsh, eds.
  Aldous Huxley, Bill Devall, Charles Tart, Christina Groff, the Dalai Lama, Daniel Goleman, Fritjof Capra, Georg Feuerstein, Huston Smith, Jack Kornfield, Jayne Gackenbach, John Welwood, Ken Wilber, Kenneth Ring, Michael Murphy, Ram Dass, Sri Aurobindo, Stanislav Grof, Stephen LaBerge, William James and many, many more.