In Spring of 1969, I journeyed to Cambridge Mass.

I stayed in house with several

residents. One was a student of Ram Dass his who had dropped out of Harvard to get
into the spirituality that Ram Dass was teaching at the time.
While others of us were carrying on with late sixties psychedelia, this person, Scott I
think his name was, would sit and watch, meditate perhaps and draw caricatures.
That fall I went off the deep-end. I experienced a near-death and powerful visionary
experiences for which I was hospitalized in a state institution. Following discharge, I felt
really drained and enervated on many levels.
Didnt quite know how to process what I had gone through. About a year later, in spring
of 1971, *Be Here Now* came out. I devoured the book, really took many of the
teachings to heart. Immediately I gave up drinking, smoking and eating meat and
waited for my guru.
For the next few months I checked around the spiritual scenes a bit. I saw Swami
Satchitananda, remembering him from Woodstock where he blessed the crowd. I read
a few spirituality books, but generally speaking bided my time. In the fall of 1971 I heard
of a young 13 year old guru, Maharaji, on a late night radio show in New York.
I connected with this guru and found myself in India in November. A large group of us
Western disciples were camped on a dusty site with big tents between Old and New
Delhi called Ram Lila ground. One of the group was this American guy who went by the
name Sita Ram. He now goes by Baba Rampuri and has an interesting story. I recently
read his recent book called Baba. Heres his website:
http://www.rampuri.com/
I think it was Sita Ram who said that Ram Dass was in town at a local hotel in New
Delhi right on Connaught Circus located in the center of town. I was excited and
managed to get the address of where Ram Dass was staying.
I went to town and knocked on the door of the hotel. Ram Dass invited me up and I sat
on a small third floor balcony overlooking the town circle. With Ram Dass I related my
story as best I could. I told him of some of my experiences, including spiritual
experiences and the abuse of the mental hospital. Ram Dass shared with me some
regarding the experiences of his brother who had 'lost it' like I had.
Basically Ram Dass suggested that my experiences were authentically spiritual, not just
crazy hallucinations. This was a great gift for me as I really didnt have many reference
points for what I had experienced. The perspective that Ram Dass' offered remains with
me today. I believe strongly there are many who are diagnosed with schizophrenia or
bi-polar disease or other mental illness syndromes that can greatly benefit by holding
some or all experience as spiritual in nature and not just psychotic hallucination.
In "going off the deep end" I had been in effect blasted by spirit. I had experienced the
full force of spirit all at once and, being quite unprepared, was literally ungrounded. It
has been my work of 40 years to integrate and come to terms with the spiritual energies
that opened up in me. Ram Dass was a tremendous help for me and I remain very
grateful for his compassionate presence.