Life-changing news rarely comes by letter these days, but in 2009, a letter from a stranger landed like a heat-seeking missile in the home of Ram Dass, the world renown spiritual teacher. The letter said, “I believe you may be the father of my older brother.”
Ram Dass dismissed it at first, thinking, “Someone’s trying to hustle me.” For most men, the news that you may have a son you’ve never known about would be like learning an explosive has been planted under your house. But for Ram Dass, it was even stranger. He was bisexual with a preference for men and had never wanted children. He’d distanced himself from his own family and famously said, “If you want to see how enlightened you are, go spend a week with your family.” The sudden arrival of a son would require him to deal with attachments he’d made a point of avoiding, and to reexamine his beliefs about love.
For four decades Ram Dass has been a pioneer, cutting paths for generations to follow. He was formerly Richard Alpert, the psychology professor at Harvard who was fired with Timothy Leary for experimenting with LSD. After the scandal, he went to India and studied with an obscure guru who named him Ram Dass, servant of God. He wrote Be Here Now, about his transformation from a neurotic Jewish overachiever to a yogi who’d found inner love and peace. The book sold 2 million copies and helped launch the Eastern spiritual movement that’s moved from the fringe to mainstream. Most people today who practice yoga or meditation have some connection and feeling for Ram Dass.
In Maui where he lives, paralyzed on the right side from a stroke, Ram Dass could not quite put the letter out of his mind. The author, Lawrence Reichard of Bangor, Me., said his mother is Karen Saum, who attended Stanford in the ‘50s. The name rang a bell— Ram Dass had a vague memory of Karen as a feisty young woman but couldn’t recall what had happened between them except that it was brief.
His manager, Kathleen Murphy, asked Ram Dass, “Do you want me to call this guy?”
“No,” he said. “Let’s sit on it.”
Weeks later, Ram Dass mentioned the letter to Chuck Blitz, a friend for 25 years. Intrigued, Chuck offered to discreetly check it out. He called Lawrence and asked why he thought Ram Dass was the father of his brother, Peter. Lawrence said his mother, Karen, had told a mutual friend that she suspected Peter might be the son of Ram Dass. The father who’d raised the brothers, whom we’ll call Hans, had once shouted at Peter when he was 49, “I don’t even know if you’re my son!” Lawrence added, “Peter doesn’t look like me, my brother, Stephen, or our dad. We’re all about 5’8” and Peter is 6’2.”
Chuck said, “Ram Dass is 6’2”.