ONE FOR THE AGED, FROM AUTHOR RAM DASS

RICHARD Alpert took mind-bending drugs to break free from the ivory tower,
where he'd gone to understand human nature. He later used yoga, meditation and
trips to India to find the public work that for 40 years has made him - known
now as Ram Dass - one of America's most eccentric spiritualists.

Ram Dass visits Northampton this Friday as a guest of Beyond Words Bookshop.
Come evening, he will take to the pulpit of a church on Main Street in
Northampton. Those who've heard him say he's a legendary talker. He's certainly
got stories to tell, for Alpert has made a career out of making an example of
himself.

While the man is the same, the examples have been changing. Today, Ram Dass
speaks about what it means to grow old.

In 1963, he was fired from the faculty of Harvard University's graduate school
of education for his experimentation with LSD and psilocybin and other
psychedelic drugs. Four years later, still in search of ways to understand
human consciousness, he traveled to India and met the spiritual leader who gave
him the name he adopted (it means ''servant of God'') and carries today.

''A lot of us are growing old with him,'' said Diana Krauth, co-owner of the
Northampton bookstore with her husband, Jeff.

This is the third time the couple has arranged for Ram Dass to speak to a
Northampton audience. Their connection with the author reaches back to the
beginning of their store, founded 25 years ago. They reckon that they've placed
thousands of copies of Ram Dass' 1971 best-selling ''Be Here Now'' in
customers' hands.

''He really did stimulate a lot of thinking,'' Diana Krauth said of Ram Dass.
''Be Here Now'' remains a steady seller, she said, along with his latest book,
the 2000 ''Still Here: Embracing Aging, Changing, and Dying.'' In it, Ram Dass
wanders through reflections about all those topics, zigging and zagging through
anecdotes pulled from things he's done or seen - or drawn from other people's
writing.

The book shows its seams but benefits from the goodwill Ram Dass trails behind
him. He doesn't seem to mind that many of his observations carry little
surprise. For instance, he observes that youth and physique are celebrated in
America. He argues, against no opposition, that our culture should give its
wise elders a special status.

''Getting old isn't easy for a lot of us,'' he writes. Is it for anyone?

Nonetheless, this book's lulling monologue - about body image, fears of dying,
loneliness, sexuality, dependence, depression and mindfulness, to name a few
topics - can't help but induce reflection in a reader. That is all Ram Dass
appears to be after.

He notes, in a little section titled ''Eccentricity,'' that it is OK to be
unconventional. ''Since old age is sure to bring us many surprises, we should
learn to be more flexible in our behavior, rather than more rigid,'' he writes.
This from a man who built a worldwide franchise out of being flexible.

In person, I suspect, his message is even more free-wheeling, giving listeners
a chance to muse right along with him.

Krauth said she has detected interest in Ram Dass and his latest book even
among non-followers - people, in short, who don't subscribe to his wider views
about spirituality. ''They're interested in seeing how a compatriot is facing
aging.''

Ram Dass writes in ''Still Here'' that he was searching for a way to end the
book when he suffered a major stroke while at home in California in February
1997. He recovered enough to complete the book, but was dramatically changed.
''It's really hard for him. It's been his greatest personal challenge,'' Krauth
said.

Tickets to hear Ram Dass at 7 p.m. at the First Churches, 129 Main St.,
Northampton, are $25 in advance ($22 for seniors and students). Proceeds
benefit the author's nonprofit foundations. For information, call Beyond Words
at 586-6304.

[Content not related to drug policy snipped for brevity]