> I wasn't born Richard Alpert. I was just born as a human being and then I learned this whole business of who I am, whether I'm good or bad, achieving or not - all that's learned along the way. And you see all those learn things separate, so you start to have this dissociative experience, where all that can become is a point of awareness. I remember the first time this happened to me, I got a terrible panic, because indeed I was gonna cease to exist.

-- Richard Alpert aka Ram Dass

I hope it's transcribed correctly.