If you’re a fan of Ram Dass (aka Dr. Richard Alpert), you’ll love Becoming Nobody, an enjoyable film by producer/director/composer Jaimie Catto — an obvious disciple. If you’re not, you may be disappointed by the film’s hagiographic treatment of the legendary psychology professor who, along with his trip buddy Timothy Leary, was kicked out of Harvard University for shoddy LSD/psilocybin research and illegally dosing undergrads. And if you’re new to psychedelics or meditation and you’ve never heard of Ram Dass’ 1971 best-seller, Be Here Now, you’ll get a nice introduction to its author, a man who readily admits to being flawed and cheerfully confesses to lifelong spiritual tourism.
Use of vintage cartoons, archival footage of child development studies, old clips of San Francisco’s 1967 “Human Be-In” and Alpert’s early lectures all mask the fact that Catto hasn’t made a documentary but, rather, recorded a master class. The film is produced by The Love, Serve, Remember Foundation, which is dedicated to promoting the teachings of Neem Karoli Baba and Ram Dass. There are no dissenting voices, critical reviews or family participation.
Instead, Catto relies on a series of interviews he personally conducted with Alpert in 2015 at the teacher’s Maui home. It’s a lovefest full of doctrinal shorthand — a darshan on “inside education” with Alpert’s charisma and self-deprecating humor on full display, despite a recent stroke. As such, the film delivers some wisdom on anger, love, the masks society makes us wear, the nature of death and why “becoming nobody” is the ultimate goal of enlightenment.
But the film can’t help it — Becoming Nobody is about Somebody. Dr. Richard Alpert/Ram Dass is famous. He’s the psychedelic pioneer who, in his own words, “didn’t want to come down” and traveled to India to learn how to stay high, only to realize that “the game isn’t to be high, it’s to be free.” He’s the American chela from Boston, dubbed “Ram Dass” (Servant of God) by his guru, who discovered that “everyone you meet is God in drag.” He’s the self-proclaimed “bisexual Hin-Jew” who became a bridge between Eastern and Western philosophies. And he’s the prolific author who never met a crowd or a camera he didn’t like.
Maybe that’s the point. Maybe the paradox of courting celebrity while striving for egoless personal freedom is Alpert’s lesson. In one clip, he states that modern technologies are here to help us on our journey toward enlightenment. But beware — “Phony holy kicks you in the butt.” He should know. He’s been there … and back.
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