Becoming Nobody

First Hit: Moments of delight with Ram Dass are mixed with Jamie Catto's own agenda.

Instead of producer and director Jamie Catto eliciting information about Ram Dass and his life, we get him doing this and also spending time sharing his own spiritual journey and points of view. It isn't that this is wrong; however, I came to see a film about Ram Dass, a man who has influenced so many of us baby boomers and others with his willingness to expand our understanding of life as it is.

Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert) found a yearning from within to better understand life as he and others were experiencing it. He had questions about what and why life, the way it was unfolding for him, was unsatisfactory. With these questions, he began a quest to better understand it all.

Meeting with Dr. Timothy Leary, he started taking various types of drugs, psilocybin and then LSD to expand his consciousness. But it wasn't until he met Neem Karoli Baba, a Hindu spiritual teacher in India that he called Maharaj-ji, did he find his guru and path. In Maharaj-ji he found loving acceptance and limitless love for who he was.

The film intersperses current time interview segments with Catto, with previously recorded film and video segments of Ram Dass teaching groups of people. These clips cover a broad spectrum of his life and help to make this story interesting.

Moments, where Catto shared his understanding of Dass's teachings looking for approval and pats on the back from Dass, got tiring. At one point Jamie outright told Ram that he thought of Dass as his father figure and it came across, to me, as needy and approval seeking.

The film did not spend as much time on Ram's hospice work, for which he's very well known and respected. But Dass did talk a little about it by telling a couple of stories, in video clips, of patients he worked with. He also spoke about the importance of embracing both the concept and actual death as it arrives at each of us.

It was in these segments along with a couple of other discussions that I fell into enjoying this film wholeheartedly. I've come to understand many of the same things that Dass has learned through my own meditation practices and readings, including his books "Being Here" and "Still Here."

Catto, as I previously indicated, spent too much time sharing his own teachings and understandings, as I came to see this film about Ram Dass.

Overall: Not quite the film it could have been, but there are genuinely out-loud enjoyable moments.

Not a bad movie but not much more than a retreading of all those "vaguely eastern" philosophies that any westerner living (or becoming alive) after the New Age movement of the 70s west has heard before. Again, it's not a bad thing - sometimes you need to hear those things again and sometimes there's a hidden gem that particularly resonates with you.

Perhaps the director should have decided to lean more into making either a documentary of eastern philosophies or a love-letter to Ram Dass. The middle-of-the-road approach doesn't particularly deliver in either aspect, seems superficial and may, in fact, be a detriment to the man himself, even though the guy manages to exude a fair amount of charm and charisma despite the movie's shortcomings.

Some of us have no idea how important this documentary is for people like me. We, the weirdos who give up their comfortable life to embrace the unknown. We, the ones who can't stand a minute longer not knowing who we really are and what life is about. Life will teach you lessons no matter what you do and some lessons are so painful that sometimes only death seems the real way out. Ram Dass is not your usual guru, he had a life just like you and I. During his journey of self discovery, he had the courage to explore the effects of lsd on himself and others thus jeopardising his position as a respected psychology professor at Harvard University. I am Italian, born in 1967 in Italy and raised there. The first time I watched this documentary I thought - Ram Dass and Timothy Leary made history with their discoveries, why there's no mention of them in history books? -. I had to learn the names of war-oriented individuals from history books while those who truly made a huge positive impact on humanity by spreading their light and love had been deliberately left out by main stream media and education. Dear Jamie, thank you for opening my eyes and heart to the truth. I have already watched this documentary several times as a reminder that there's more to life that meets the eye. The first time I watched it, I was feeling suicidal due to a sudden illness which has disabled me and the message in the documentary is so powerful that it gave me the courage and faith to keep on living but most importantly: I am not alone!

I love Ram Dass to begin with, I've listened many of his old talks and watched the movie, Going Home as well. His humor, humbleness, his honesty about his own journey, openness about his own feelings and thoughts make you feel much closer to him and relate to as well. He is not preaching, as he says in the movie, he just tells his story like a close friend and a beautiful soul, so that we can see and discover the truth and the path to freedom in ourselves.

Although there a few things that would better not to take place in the movie, first being the producer's long talks that even outtalk Ram Dass most of the time and the clips that cause so much distraction that it becomes harder to concentrate on what Ram Dass is saying (that's why I've closed my eyes and just listened him most of the time), I still found the movie really beautiful and meditative.

I've just finished watching in the middle of the night in silence and it made me cry so much and I felt his presence in my heart. For me he was not a "perfect being" or a "saint" or a "guru", he was a beautiful human being who has gone through more or less the same journey and difficulties as all of us, has never played a role of a "guru" and has always been open about it with his humbleness and humor. I really love him and although I think the movie could have been better, I still loved it and would definitely recommend everyone to watch it.

The world has so much to learn from his love, compassion, beauty, humor and humbleness.

I'm glad for having the chance to know you Ram Dass.

Namaste.

Captures the essence of Ram Dass perfectly! This movie is a vibe. Love