In this lively Q&A session filled with laughter and love, Ram Dass reflects on psychedelic lessons, what cyberspace means for consciousness and so much more.
Psychedelic Lessons
This Q&A session from 1994 begins with questions about getting caught up in self-righteousness, and what lessons Ram Dass has learned from his experiences with psychedelics. Ram Dass talks about how he uses methods like psychedelics to help him get straight with other methods. He explores why psychedelics are no longer critical to his process.
“I love [psychedelics], and I think they’re wonderful, but I very rarely feel a pull to take them.” – Ram Dass
Antidepressants and Meditation
Next up are questions about working with darkness, whether or not antidepressants can help with meditation, and if Ram Dass still communicates with his non-physical friend, Emmanuel. Ram Dass talks about focusing on the mechanics of thought, rather than the content of thought, and how meditation can help extricate us from identification with our thoughts.
“Instead of trying to get out of the shadow, the dark, which I think reinforces the shadow, actually, reinforces the reality of it, it’s better to just do your practices.” – Ram Dass
Cyberspace and Consciousness
Ram Dass handles two final questions: what does cyberspace mean for consciousness, and whether he’s about to disappear for a few years to write a new book. From his viewpoint in 1994, Ram Dass talks about profound new technologies such as computers and cyberspace, and how he worries they could have a big impact on our interpersonal relations over time.
“I think when a new technology comes along, we in the West are so much coming out of the myth of progress, that we see new as better. And new is different, it’s not necessarily better. It may open certain doors, and it’ll close others. I mean, the nature of the computer chip has certainly changed all of our lives. And I don’t think we yet understand how profoundly it has changed our lives.” – Ram Dass
