Letter from the President January 2020

“Seeing 20/20 in 2020”

Entering the year 2020, it is my prayer that I will be able to see things with 20/20 vision. I realize it won’t be easy. It is easy to believe that what we see in front of us is the truth. Websites and social media reinforce many of our perceptions. All-too-often, decades must past for us to acquire a clearer picture of what is true.

In the 1960s, many experimented with LSD and other psychedelics in the hopes of seeing clearly. One of them was Harvard psychology professor, Richard Alpert, who with a colleague, Timothy Leary, conducted experiments with hallucinogenic agents on prisoners and students. Alpert and Leary thought these drugs could provide a quick way to enlightenment. Eventually, Alpert grew weary of that lifestyle with its emotional ups and downs.

Seeking to find something more, Alpert went to India and for six years studied with his guru, Neem Karoli Baba. He returned a changed man and, in 1971, wrote his first best-selling book, Be Here Now. In it, Alpert told the story of his spiritual transformation and of his desire to impact a nation of young adults eager for a genuine spiritual experience.

Alpert soon had a large following and became known as Baba Ram Dass. I saw him speak at a videoconference that was skyped into our Institute several years ago. ISH’s yoga master, Lex Gillan, had served with Ram Dass for many years. They traveled together, showing people from town to town that a spiritual life didn’t hinge upon hallucinogenic drugs, but rather discipline and dedication to a practice.

When I encountered Ram Dass through the video conference, I was struck by a man who exuded genuine love. I was humbled because in the 1960s, I deplored Alpert and Leary. I thought they were corrupting the young people of our nation. And maybe they were, until Ram Dass found a deeper

truth. Something more real. Something that was truly transformative. He and Gillan had found it. Their invitation was to experience the divine, a message they wrapped in love.

Five decades had passed when I saw Ram Dass in the videoconference and my distorted 1960s views were changed. I came to see in him a depth of love that I had not before seen manifest so clearly, so purely. I came to love the man I once deplored. My vision of him became 20/20.

Which makes me wonder, where else is my vision distorted? What will it take for me to see 20/20 in the year 2020? Time will tell. What is needed is for me to truly open my eyes, my ears, and my heart. I must do that if I want to see clearly the people God brings into my life.

Ram Dass passed away late last month, at his home in Hawaii. He will truly be missed, though his teachings and the loving awareness that they fostered in those who learned from him will ripple outwards for many, many years to come.

John K. Graham, MD, DMin President & CEO
Institute for Spirituality and Health