Ram Dass, Going Home is a Netflix short documentary that follows spiritualist and author Ram Dass at his home in Maui, Hawaii. The film gives a poignant look at Dass’s views on some fairly weighty topics, including spirituality, life, and death.
I had never actually heard of Ram Dass until I sat down to watch the short documentary. He’s an American spiritualist and author for those of you who are equally oblivious. Most notably, he wrote a book in 1971 called Be Here Now, which I assume he named after Oasis’ third album. (To clarify: I am joking. I understand the concept of linear time, just about).
What I also didn’t realize was that in his early life Richard Alpert (not the one from Lost), as he was known before he changed his name to Ram Dass, was actually a professor at Harvard University as well. Anyway, just a few brief Ram Dass facts for you to dazzle other guests next time you’re at a dinner party or similarly high-brow function.
Despite my ignorance of Ram Dass I really enjoyed this documentary. It’s not a documentary in the traditional sense of the word, or at least it’s not what I would associate with being a documentary in the traditional sense of the word. It’s something much more abstract and free-flowing than that, which given what I’ve learned in the hour I’ve spent reading about Ram Dass, I think that this style is actually quite fitting.
The first thing that struck me about the film is that some of the visuals are utterly beautiful. I think I might be slightly biased as I absolutely love Hawaii and have been lucky enough to visit a couple of times, so a lot of the shots brought some fond memories flowing back to me (despite having visited another island entirely). There’s no denying that Hawaii is a truly beautiful place, and some of the shots of the islands and sea are wonderful.
As I mentioned, it’s not a traditional documentary in the sense of having a strong throughline or central argument. Instead, we are given some of Ram Dass’ thoughts and musings on his life’s work across a range of topics, including spirituality, life, and death—so pretty much the big three, really. I think that a project like this has the potential to become either incredibly preachy or a little pretentious; thankfully, this ends up being neither.
I found it to be an incredibly relaxing experience. It reminded me more of a guided meditation than a hard-hitting documentary—and I mean that very much as a compliment and not a criticism. I found it genuinely fascinating when I could keep up with what was actually being said, as I’m not too proud to admit that a lot of the spiritual stuff went right over my head.
This is an interesting documentary, that made me stop and think about things in a slightly different way. I think anything that can make us stop and think and reframe some of our own beliefs, if only for a few minutes, is something to be applauded and to be enjoyed. Throw some beautiful Hawaiian visuals into the mix and you have a rather relaxing way to spend 31 minutes right there.
