Baba Ram Dass, a 1960s counterculture spiritual leader and early LSD proponent, has died at age 88.
His death Sunday at his home in Maui, Hawaii, was announced by his foundation.
The foundation said he died peacefully surrounded by loved ones. No cause of death was given.
"He was a guide for thousands seeking to discover or reclaim their spiritual identity beyond or within institutional religion," the Love Serve Remember foundation stated.
Dass is best known for the 1971 spiritual primer titled “Be Here Now” that found its way into the hands of backpackers around the world.
He was born as Richard Alpert. Dass' LSD experiments while he was a young psychology professor at Harvard got him and colleague Timothy Leary kicked out.
A 1967 trip to India introduced him to yoga, meditation and spiritualism and he received the name Ram Dass from a guru. The name means servant of god in Hindi.
In 1997, he suffered a stroke which left him paralyzed on the right side of his body and limited his speaking ability, according to his website. Then in 2004, Dass suffered a life-threatening infection that forced him to cut back on travel and focus on his health.
In September, the New York Times magazine published an interview where Ram Dass stated that he was ready to die and explained when he knew. "When I arrived at my soul. Soul doesn’t have fear of dying. Ego has very pronounced fear of dying. The ego, this incarnation, is life and dying. The soul is infinite," Ram Dass said to the New York Times magazine.
