Be Here Now, Ram Dass. First Edition.
I love this one. Before Ram Dass was Ram Dass, he was a clinical psychologist, teaching at Stanford and Harvard University. It was at Harvard that he met Timothy Leary and devoted himself to researching the therapeutic effects of psilocybin, LSD and other psychedelic compounds. He also assisted in the famous 1962 "Good Friday Experiment", which was the first controlled, double-blind study of drugs and the mystical experience. In 1963 he was formally dismissed from Harvard for allegedly giving a student psilocybin. Following this, Alpert and Leary set up a communal group in New York, hosting events related to the journey towards higher consciousness, yoga and meditation. It was in 1967 that Alpert traveled to India and met the teacher that would become his guru, Neem Karoli Baba, who gave him the new name of Ram Dass. Since then he has continued to reach out and spread his spiritual teachings throughout the world, founding various projects and foundations.
Be Here Now was published in 1971, after Dass had returned from India. He was staying at the Lama Foundation in New Mexico when he presented a manuscript he had been working on, From Bindu to Ojas. The Foundation's residents edited, illustrated and laid out the text, and the book has since become a bestseller. It's the one of the first guides dedicated to showing a non-Hindu the path to becoming a yogi, and has been described as a counter-cultural bible and a seminal book of the era. This is the first printing:
Here are a few sample pages: