You might say that certain words are only pegs to hang intonations on.

Ludwig Wittgenstein
    --Philosophical Grammar

Richard Alpert has been studying the nature of consciousness for more than 50 years, and began his studies with psychology, specializing in human motivation and personality development. He received an M.A. from Wesleyan and a Ph.D. from Stanford and served on the psychology faculties at Stanford and the University of California. From 1958 to 1963, he taught and did research in the Department of Social Relations and the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University and co-authored the book Identification and Child Rearing.

While at Harvard in 1961, Alpert's explorations of human consciousness led him to collaborate with Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, Aldous Huxley, Allen Ginsberg and others in pursuing intensive research with psilocybin, LSD-25 and other psychedelic chemicals. This research produced two books: The Psychedelic Experience (based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead) co-authored with Leary and Metzner; and LSD with Sidney Cohen and Lawrence Schiller. Because of the controversial nature of this research, Harvard dismissed Alpert and Leary in 1963.

Alpert continued his research under the auspices of a private foundation until 1967, when he traveled to India. In India, he met his guru, or spiritual teacher, Neem Karoli Baba, affectionately known as Maharaji. Maharaji gave Ram Dass his name, which means "servant of God." Since 1968, Ram Dass has pursued a variety of spiritual methods and practices from various ancient wisdom traditions, including devotional yoga focused on the Hindu spiritual figure Hanuman; meditation in the Theravadin, Mahayana Tibetan and Zen Buddhist schools; karma yoga; and Sufi and Jewish studies. He also practices service to others as a spiritual path.

In 1974, Ram Dass created the Hanuman Foundation, which developed the Prison Ashram Project, designed to help prison inmates grow spiritually during their incarceration, and the Dying Project, conceived as a spiritual support structure for conscious and dying. These projects are now directed under independent auspices. The Ram Dass Tape Library Foundation serves as the organizing vehicle for Ram Dass' teachings, and for the distribution of his books and tapes.

Ram Dass' interests include the support of psychedelic research, international development, environmental awareness and political action. He has written a number of spiritual books including Be Here Now, published in 1971.

In February 1997, he experienced a stroke which left him with expressive aphasia and partial paralysis. The after effects of the stroke have made it necessary for him to postpone plans for his radio program, but he has been able to resume his other teaching commitments and is using the experience to explore the spiritual dimensions of suffering and the nature of the aging process.

Acting with compassion…
"Acting with compassion is not doing good because we think we ought to. It is being drawn to action by heart-felt passion. It is giving ourselves into what we are doing, being present in the moment—no matter how difficult, sad or even boring it feels, no matter how much it demands. It is acting from our deepest understanding of what life is, listening intently for the skillful means in each situation, and not compromising the truth. It is working with others in a selfless way, in a spirit of mutual respect."
—from Compassion in Action (1995)

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/ramdass/index.html

SEOUL (Reuters) - Many North Koreans died a "heroic death" after last week's train explosion by running into burning buildings to rescue portraits of leader Kim Jong-il and his father, the North's official media reported on Wednesday.

TOUCH CHOICE?
According to a report on ABCNews.com, a New York mom might have to choose between enjoying her right to smoke in the privacy of her home or her car and being a parent to her son. A judge last week ordered Johnita DeMatteo to stop smoking at home and in the car, or lose visitation rights with her 13-year-old son, Nicholas. The boy allegedly complained last summer to his dad and his lawyer that he didn't want to visit his mother's home because the place smelled of cigarette smoke. DeMatteo told "Good Morning America" she'll do what she has to do to keep seeing her son, but she thinks the order is an unfair intrusion into her personal life.

GET YOUR FREE SCOOPS AT BASKIN-ROBBINS
Baskin-Robbins is giving away free scoops tonight from 6 to 10 p.m.It's part of the company's support of First Book, which provides free books to needy children. Learn more below:
    http://www.baskinrobbins.com/promo/free_scoop_night.shtml

Ky. Girl Survives Losing Scalp In Pit Bull Attack

HODGENVILLE, Ky. -- 4-year-old Emily Page Stinnett is lucky to be alive after an attack by the family's pit bull.

"I guess you would say she was more or less scalped," Sheriff Bobby Shoffer said. "She had some puncture wounds to her stomach."

The dog then dragged the little girl around the yard as she screamed for help. Her stepmother ran to Emily's aid, but the dog would not let her near the little girl. The stepmother took off in her car to get a neighbor to help rescue little the girl.

Doctors told the sheriff that the child's hair and scalp had to be found and delivered or she would die. Shoffer said he had to cut the dog's stomach open to find the scalp, which was then rushed to the hospital.

Doctors reattached the majority of the scalp, but the girl still might face more surgeries.

-lilangelgurlpnai

The pretty price of a good sex life

Andrew Donaldson: London

Economists in the US and Britain have worked out the financial value of a good sex life - £30 000, or close on R350 000, a year. (How much in real money?)

This, they claim, is how much money a person would need to bring them as much cheer as having regular intercourse.

These economists have also established that the greatest happiness comes from a monogamous relationship. Sleep around and the sex is, literally, devalued.

 Andrew Oswald, an economics professor at Warwick University, and David Blanchflower of Dartmouth College calculated that a loving marriage made a person as content as would an extra £55 000 or about R660 000 a year.

Other aspects of life given a "happiness value" include employment, race and age.

Oswald and Blanchflower determined that the unhappiest age for British women is 37 and 41 for men.

A homeless New York student says he slept for seven months in a university library without being caught.

Steve Stanzak, 20, says he set up home in New York University's main library because he couldn't afford housing costs on top of his tuition.

He was finally discovered by administrators last week They found his website, www.homelessatnyu.com, in which he chronicled his undercover life in the Bobst Library on New York's Washington Square.

Stanzak said he washed himself in the library's toilets, had an occasional shower at friends' dorms and kept his clothes and books in lockers.

5997 YEARS AGO TODAY

Apr 27 3993 BC

God creates the universe, according to calculations by mystic and part-time astronomer Johannes Kepler.

 Kepler assumed that at creation the solar apogee was at the head of Aries. Calculating from known rates of motion, Kepler calculated that the creation occurred in 3993 B.C.