Becoming Nobody

Jamie Catto, USA, 2019, 81 min.

“When I was born, I donned a space suit for living on this planet. It was this body, this nice spacesuit, and it had a steering mechanism, my prefrontal lobes and all the brain motors coordinating stuff. . . . You get so good at using your spacesuit that you can’t differentiate yourself from your spacesuit anymore. . . . It’s what I call somebody training.”

—Ram Dass

Both playful and profound, this film is a portal to and portrayal of Ram Dass’s life and teachings.

In Becoming Nobody, historic clips of Ram Dass balance an engaging conversation with director Jamie Catto. The film captures a loving man full of joy, wit, honesty, and wisdom, at ease in conversation while sharing his considerable pains and pleasures. The life experiences that have freed him from the attachments of his “Somebodyness” have transformed him into the radiant soul who now inspires a new generation. In watching Ram Dass’s unconventional journey unfold, we may come to understand how our own roles and disguises become increasingly burdensome.

The screening will be followed by a conversation and Q&A with Mirabai Bush.

About the Speaker

Mirabai Bush is co-author, with Ram Dass, of Compassion in Action: Setting Out on the Path of Service. She is a devotee of Maharaj-ji and spent time with him in India from 1971 to 1972. She is also Senior Fellow and founder of the Center on Contemplative Mind in Society, which encourages contemplative practice and perspective in American life in order to create a more just, compassionate and reflective society. The center has created the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education, a network of scholars, teachers, and administrators. Mirabai has also worked with Google on a workplace course called Search Inside Yourself and with the US Army on a program for chaplains and medics. She formerly directed the Seva Foundation Guatemala Project, which supports sustainable agriculture and integrated community development. She is editor of Contemplation Nation: How Ancient Practices are Changing the Way We Live, co-author of Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods To Transform Teaching and Learning, and author of Working with Mindfulness (CD). She lives with her partner in Western Massachusetts.