Becoming Nobody Sheds Light on Out Spiritual Teacher Ram Dass

Writer and director Jamie Catto's documentary includes a lively interview with the now 88-year-old philosopher.

Tracy E. Gilchrist

Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP of Editorial and Special Projects at equalpride. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.

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Tracy E. Gilchrist

September 06 2019 3:26 PM EST

September 06 2019 3:54 PM EST

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A Philosopher, spiritual teacher, and author of several books including Be Here Now, Ram Dass is the subject of the new documentary Becoming Nobody from director and writer Jamie Catto. The film juxtaposes a recent lively in-depth interview with the 88-year-old Dass (born Richard Alpert) with archival footage of the teacher espousing his philosophy of being.

An academic who did psilocybin with LSD guru Timothy Leary, Dass eventually wound up in India for an extended stay during which he met his Maharaj-ji. While Catto's film doesn't delve into Dass's bisexuality, it's well-documented that he began speaking about it as far back as the '70s.

"When you're born, you go into somebody training," Dass says in the clip below about how he was born in a "spacesuit." "The problem that I experienced was that the suit that I was wearing, it was like, you're in one f these suits that doesn't quite fit, and you're a little uncomfortable and your constantly trying to readjust yourself."