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691 ratings, 4.28 average rating, 117 reviews
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published
October 12th 1971
by Lama Foundation
binding
Paperback, 416 pages
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isbn
0517543052
(isbn13: 9780517543054)
description
It's easy to dismiss Be Here Now as the relic of a whacked-out '60s acid tripper. Paging through the center section of the book, with its inch-high pr...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 864)
Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
I feel like I'm supposed to say, "The book will find YOU"
So there was this this guy I went to high school with, Michael, and he fancied himself a gangster. He wore his flannels buttoned all the way up, put sad-faced airbrushed clown stickers all over his books, and, though not Mexican, developed a Mexican accent. Then he dropped out of school, grew dreads adorned with seashells, and joined some cult out in the mountains by Neverland Ranch. He now considered himself a guru and also, in a past life, a bird . He was very committed to not wearing shoe...more
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Read in October, 2007
This book helped me a lot. It was one of many that my husband brought home from work and left around the house so someone would find it at just the right time. I'd flipped through it and thought it was just a collection of philosophical sayings in the form of trippy graphics (which it is, mostly.) I noticed a copy at Ashanti's house, which impressed me, but not enough to actually start reading it.
One night I was tripping for the last time with my best friend who was about to move to anoth...more
One night I was tripping for the last time with my best friend who was about to move to anoth...more
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Ram Dass takes the wisdom of the East, and wraps it in a package a Westerner can open. This book had a profound effect on me at a time when I was at a spiritual crossroads... well, maybe the beginning of my spiritual road is more accurate.
I was an atheist until about 21. Then I had my gnosis, or series of events that brought me into a direct experience with something larger than me. Call it what you want, the divine plan, the ground of being, the true self, insanity, a hallucination... all ...more
I was an atheist until about 21. Then I had my gnosis, or series of events that brought me into a direct experience with something larger than me. Call it what you want, the divine plan, the ground of being, the true self, insanity, a hallucination... all ...more
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I first read this book at 20 years old when I was just barely beginning to realize that my beliefs might be different from those of my parents. So, alas, my review of this book is purely personal in nature. However, I believe this is how Ram Dass would expect his book to be reviewed.
Reading "Be Here Now" could only be likened to having the top of my heart ripped out of my chest and shown to me. I felt as though it contained all the beliefs, fears, and questions that I had kept s...more
Reading "Be Here Now" could only be likened to having the top of my heart ripped out of my chest and shown to me. I felt as though it contained all the beliefs, fears, and questions that I had kept s...more
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Read in January, 2006
This book is was perhaps the beginning of my interest in the eastern/mystical thought where I began to take meditation and Buddhist thought as less an academic study and more of an integration to my action and my belief. This book, like some others I shall review, possess not only the opinions, thought and methodology of one man, but takes the tradition of many religions and 'revealed truths' and quotes them here. I think it is perhaps necessary to the western mind to see that the perceived co...more
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Read in January, 1971
recommended to Maureen by:
Maher Babarecommends it for: cool people
There is something about a square book (the shape, not the content, man), printed on paper that is almost as thick as construction paper, with the wackiest insides EVER. And, yes, while we are treated to an overview of Ram Dass' life, and given a primer for becoming practicing Hindus, it is the part in the middle with the mind-melding/melting pen and ink drawings accompanied by words on a page like, "You're standing on a bridge watching yourself go by," that make this book such a trip...more
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Weird. Just plain weird. And, dare I use the word...lame-o? Because that's kind of the way I see it.
And just in case anyone was wondering: no, it is not actually possible to live on light alone. One lady who makes a lot of money claiming that she does this was exposed as a fraud on 60 minutes, and some people have still died trying even after this media exposure.
Rumor has it that God gave us a planet so that we would have stuff to eat.
That damaging dietary advice nonsense aside...more
And just in case anyone was wondering: no, it is not actually possible to live on light alone. One lady who makes a lot of money claiming that she does this was exposed as a fraud on 60 minutes, and some people have still died trying even after this media exposure.
Rumor has it that God gave us a planet so that we would have stuff to eat.
That damaging dietary advice nonsense aside...more
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It wouldn't be fair to open this book holding on to any preconceived notions about some "hippie counterculture", you might miss the message. You must be able to accept that a book can be square in shape and that the story can be delivered as art and not only straight lines of text. And to push you just a bit further, you must be comfortable reading most of the book "sideways", not like a "regular" book.. Some of those very things are what I love about Be Here Now, ...more
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Always a few of these lying around the house. A recommend to anyone. Interesting stuff that can be cross-referenced with various other sources of hallucinogenic/Buddhist/meditative works for a broad idea of the power of human consciousness and Ram Dass' various imports therein. Bonus for enlightening, intricate illustrations and heavy name dropping.
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This book is the literary equivalent of playing with cornstarch mixed with just enough water to blow your mind.
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Great book, "Be Here Now", By Ram Dass is an autobiography about his life starting with his pre-mature termination from Harvard where he was a professor, through his days of exploring LSD with Timothy Leary, and ending with his life changing experiences while learning under the guru Maharaj-ji in India.
The reader will find this book both humorous (when reading about Dass’ adventures with Timothy Leary) and enthralling (when learning about India and his experiences there). This b...more
The reader will find this book both humorous (when reading about Dass’ adventures with Timothy Leary) and enthralling (when learning about India and his experiences there). This b...more
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Read in January, 2003
recommends it for:
Everybody, especially cynics.
It's like a collection of broadsheets advertising common sense. At first glace this book might be easy to write off as trivial, simplistic, and new agey, but the problem with that view is that this book is instead common (as opposed to trivial, and it is the common that is most easily ignored by those for whom texts like this are written), simple (as opposed to simplistic, being direct, experientially derived, and founded on no great concept or ideals as much as holistic pragmatism), and rather ...more
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Read in September, 2008
recommends it for:
people who know that there's more to life
Psychedelic experience effects on people may vary. For some people it's just recreational, for others (including me) it's life changing.
I realized that I've been so foolish, to be so attached with my mind. Because my psychedelic experience gave me knowledge, understanding beyond mere logic. I begin to see the world in more spiritual way, I know that I've seen the Truth during my trips, I believe that I have a soul.
Somehow, many wisdom, which I've heard over and over again which at first ...more
I realized that I've been so foolish, to be so attached with my mind. Because my psychedelic experience gave me knowledge, understanding beyond mere logic. I begin to see the world in more spiritual way, I know that I've seen the Truth during my trips, I believe that I have a soul.
Somehow, many wisdom, which I've heard over and over again which at first ...more
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recommends it for:
anyone with free love hippie tendencies
I went to school briefly at Evergreen State College in Olympia,which uses a interdisciplinary teaching methodology. I enrolled in a Buddhism/Physics course and a contemporary Pysch class and this book was part of the assigned reading. It is a little on the cheesy side but an interesting look into Timothy Leary's companion in helping the nation to "Tune in and Drop out" campaign. It's hard to put into words, it is a honest quest for the ultimate high which ended up never being a epic j...more
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Read in January, 1973
recommended to erik by:
my peersrecommends it for: everyone
With drugs, particularly pharmaceuticals, being so regularly abused in our culture, it is a salutary exercise to reconsider the sixties, when some psychoactive drugs, used considerately and independently of profit-driven corporations, turned millions towards the serious study of psychology, philosophy and religion. Richard Alpert and Timothy Leary were two prominent examples of this existential turn.
Of the two erstwhile Harvard academics, Alpert's is the happier story, Alpert the wiser man....more
Of the two erstwhile Harvard academics, Alpert's is the happier story, Alpert the wiser man....more
Read in January, 2001
recommended to Spencer by:
Maharaji, Susie, my Fatherrecommends it for: Everyone
Sri Sri Sri Ek Sah Sri Neem Karoli Baba!!
Be Here Now is timeless. It is one of those books where any page can be read at any time and it's effects are immediate. With useful information of all sorts it is a helpful book for those interested in meditation, yoga, cooking better, being happier, and connecting with your soul. It entails brief encounters with the Indian Guru Neem Karoli Baba and gives insight of Ram Dass' transformation into his true being. In this Age of Kali, it is an essen...more
Be Here Now is timeless. It is one of those books where any page can be read at any time and it's effects are immediate. With useful information of all sorts it is a helpful book for those interested in meditation, yoga, cooking better, being happier, and connecting with your soul. It entails brief encounters with the Indian Guru Neem Karoli Baba and gives insight of Ram Dass' transformation into his true being. In this Age of Kali, it is an essen...more
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long away and far ago i pretty much missed this train even tho i was supposedly riding it. i am grateful so much of it found fertile ground...
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For me, this book goes through cycles. Sometimes I look through it and think it's hokie. Especially when I go back through the intro where he is talking about his experiments with LSD... I don't believe that drugs are really the answer to improving life (and I know that is not what he is advertising but in the beginning it is an easy mistake to make). There are other times when I find the messages inspiring, exactly what I need to hear.
When my mom first gave me this book, I expected it to ch...more
When my mom first gave me this book, I expected it to ch...more
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as a teenager this book inspired me to see life in a new way and continues to influence me in many ways
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Believe in Karma and far east thought? This is a Perfect addition to your library. Great graphics too!
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