Ram Dass’s account of his transformation from Harvard psychologist Richard Alpert into a devotee of the Hindu guru Neem Karoli Baba. The book’s middle section is a hand-illustrated, non-linear meditation manual that has been continuously in print since 1971, and is credited by figures from Steve Jobs to George Harrison as a pivotal text.
Reception
A counterculture landmark — over 2 million copies sold and credited by figures from Steve Jobs to George Harrison as a pivotal text. Praised for its visual inventiveness and its bridging of psychedelic 1960s seekership with Hindu devotional practice. The standard critique is that it romanticises the guru-disciple relationship in ways that aged poorly, and that Ram Dass himself spent later decades qualifying the certainty of the original text.
Frequently asked
What is Be Here Now about?
Ram Dass’s account of his transformation from the Harvard psychologist Richard Alpert into a devotee of the Hindu guru Neem Karoli Baba. The book’s middle section is a hand-illustrated, non-linear meditation manual; the front and back frame the autobiographical and practical material around it.
Why is Be Here Now considered a counterculture landmark?
Released in 1971, it sold more than two million copies and was credited by figures from Steve Jobs to George Harrison as a pivotal text. It is one of the books most responsible for moving Hindu devotional practice into the American counterculture.
How did Ram Dass himself view the book later in life?
He spent later decades qualifying the certainty of the original text — particularly around the guru-disciple framing — while continuing to recommend the book as a record of where he was in 1971. The middle section is still the most widely cited part.