Dying to Know: Ram Dass & Timothy Leary

Dying to Know is an intimate portrait of two complex controversial characters, Ram Dass and Timothy Leary, in an epic friendship that shaped a generation.

In the 1960s Harvard psychology professors Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert began probing the edges of consciousness through their experiments with psychedelics. Leary became an LSD guru, igniting a global counterculture movement and landing in prison after Nixon called him “the most dangerous man in America.” Alpert journeyed to the East and became Ram Dass, a spiritual teacher for an entire generation and the author of Be Here Now. Including interviews spanning 50 years, Dying to Know celebrates the lasting legacy of Leary and Alpert and encourages critical thinking about life, drugs, and the biggest mystery of all: death.

Parvati Markus is the author of Whisper in the Heart (Mandala Publishing, 2022); Love Everyone (HarperOne, 2015); and a children's book, Isabella Castaspella (SitaRam Press, 2022), with co-author Radha Baum (in development as an animated series Izzy Casts A Spell). She is a substantive editor who has been midwifing spiritually-oriented, non-fiction books and memoirs since her first efforts with Ram Dass’s classic Be Here Now, and has helped with spiritual organizations (past President of the Board of the Neem Karoli Baba Ashram and Temple in Taos, NM) and events (as a development consultant for the Global Peace Initiative of Women). She is on the Board of Advisors for the Love Serve Remember Foundation.