Becoming Nobody

I do not agree with reviewers that felt Jamie Catto was speaking too much or was egoic at all. I felt he asked good questions, beared his soul at around the 1hr 7 min point in thinking about losing Ram Dass, and from that point onward, it was the purest concentrated dose of Ram Dass's pure wisdom...absolutely beautiful, inspiring, heart opening, ego reducing, and reminding us to continue letting go and to keep evolving. Thank you Jamie Catto for this magnificent film that I have now watched for the 3rd time and still frantically writting notes on!! I love Ram Dass. I love this film. And love to you Jamie Catto!

Some of us have no idea how important this documentary is for people like me. We, the weirdos who give up their comfortable life to embrace the unknown. We, the ones who can't stand a minute longer not knowing who we really are and what life is about. Life will teach you lessons no matter what you do and some lessons are so painful that sometimes only death seems the real way out. Ram Dass is not your usual guru, he had a life just like you and I. During his journey of self discovery, he had the courage to explore the effects of lsd on himself and others thus jeopardising his position as a respected psychology professor at Harvard University. I am Italian, born in 1967 in Italy and raised there. The first time I watched this documentary I thought - Ram Dass and Timothy Leary made history with their discoveries, why there's no mention of them in history books? -. I had to learn the names of war-oriented individuals from history books while those who truly made a huge positive impact on humanity by spreading their light and love had been deliberately left out by main stream media and education. Dear Jamie, thank you for opening my eyes and heart to the truth. I have already watched this documentary several times as a reminder that there's more to life that meets the eye. The first time I watched it, I was feeling suicidal due to a sudden illness which has disabled me and the message in the documentary is so powerful that it gave me the courage and faith to keep on living but most importantly: I am not alone!

While an interesting subject, the director/interviewer (Catto) seemed more interested in inserting himself into the narrative of Ram Dass instead of providing an insightful dive into Ram Dass' teachings.

The hypocrisy of Catto's ever present ego on film felt at odds with the true spiritual teachings of Ram Dass. Nevermind that 50% of this film was random stock footage hap-hazardly laid over narration.

Stock footage is an ok tool, but when it has nothing to do what's shown on screen it leaves the audience wondering if they're watching a real movie or an amateur's college term project.

First Hit: Moments of delight with Ram Dass are mixed with Jamie Catto's own agenda.

Instead of producer and director Jamie Catto eliciting information about Ram Dass and his life, we get him doing this and also spending time sharing his own spiritual journey and points of view. It isn't that this is wrong; however, I came to see a film about Ram Dass, a man who has influenced so many of us baby boomers and others with his willingness to expand our understanding of life as it is.

Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert) found a yearning from within to better understand life as he and others were experiencing it. He had questions about what and why life, the way it was unfolding for him, was unsatisfactory. With these questions, he began a quest to better understand it all.

Meeting with Dr. Timothy Leary, he started taking various types of drugs, psilocybin and then LSD to expand his consciousness. But it wasn't until he met Neem Karoli Baba, a Hindu spiritual teacher in India that he called Maharaj-ji, did he find his guru and path. In Maharaj-ji he found loving acceptance and limitless love for who he was.

The film intersperses current time interview segments with Catto, with previously recorded film and video segments of Ram Dass teaching groups of people. These clips cover a broad spectrum of his life and help to make this story interesting.

Moments, where Catto shared his understanding of Dass's teachings looking for approval and pats on the back from Dass, got tiring. At one point Jamie outright told Ram that he thought of Dass as his father figure and it came across, to me, as needy and approval seeking.

The film did not spend as much time on Ram's hospice work, for which he's very well known and respected. But Dass did talk a little about it by telling a couple of stories, in video clips, of patients he worked with. He also spoke about the importance of embracing both the concept and actual death as it arrives at each of us.

It was in these segments along with a couple of other discussions that I fell into enjoying this film wholeheartedly. I've come to understand many of the same things that Dass has learned through my own meditation practices and readings, including his books "Being Here" and "Still Here."

Catto, as I previously indicated, spent too much time sharing his own teachings and understandings, as I came to see this film about Ram Dass.

Overall: Not quite the film it could have been, but there are genuinely out-loud enjoyable moments.

Not a bad movie but not much more than a retreading of all those "vaguely eastern" philosophies that any westerner living (or becoming alive) after the New Age movement of the 70s west has heard before. Again, it's not a bad thing - sometimes you need to hear those things again and sometimes there's a hidden gem that particularly resonates with you.

Perhaps the director should have decided to lean more into making either a documentary of eastern philosophies or a love-letter to Ram Dass. The middle-of-the-road approach doesn't particularly deliver in either aspect, seems superficial and may, in fact, be a detriment to the man himself, even though the guy manages to exude a fair amount of charm and charisma despite the movie's shortcomings.