When Mom was in college in Ellensburg, it was the earliest of the ’60’s. Timothy Leary toured the country, including Central Washington University. He was speaking around the topic of enlightened living and LSD, lecturing and teaching for Harvard. Drugs were legal then. His partner in the project, Richard Alpert, later known as the beloved Ram Dass, likely held down the fort on the East Coast.
Four decades later, after Mom had died, I sorted through her books. I pulled a few that were familiar, not that I had borrowed them, but that I had read them in my own journey. One title declared “Inspiration”, and was written by Wayne Dyer. I also snagged “On Death and Dying” by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.
Ram Dass (Richard Alpert) 1931-2019 
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross 1926-2004 
Wayne Walter Dyer
1940-2015
Stephen Levine 1937-2016
Author of A Year To Live
Joel Solomon Goldsmith 1892-1964
Founder of the Infinite Way
Wayne Dyer discovered that Ram Dass had suffered a stroke in 1997, and since Dass had lived a simple life, giving everything away, Dyer came to his rescue. Ram Dass was one of many popular spiritual teachers who had found their way with many guides, including the teachings of Ram Dass (and Joel Goldsmith as well, who is one of my favorites. My love for Ram Dass comes from his humor, candor, humility, and intricate journey).
A Year to Live, the book we are reading together, was written by Stephen Levine. Although it was not chosen with any knowledge of the author or his affiliations, he is a contemporary of Dass’, and on the back of the cover, there is a blurb written by the late leader. Levine and Dass were friends.
Also, in opening the book, the first author to comment in the foreword is, you guessed it, Elisabeth Kubler Ross.
There are no coincidences. We weave in and out of our group of people and teachers, webbed together in an obvious yet incomprehensible beauty!
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