In Memory of Ralph Abraham: A Friend, Teacher, and Exemplary Human

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My dear friend, Ralph Abraham, passed away on September 19th, 2024. He was 88. It is one of the greatest honors of my life that Ralph considered me his friend. In my entire life, I have never met anyone whose intellectual depth, openness, and kindness matched Ralph's. My family and my parents feel the same. 

I met Ralph in November 2009 at Esalen where I attended a workshop he taught on Human Potential. Since then, I met him regularly every three to four months for lunch. I cherished my time with him. I often joked that I didn’t understand half the things Ralph said, and the half I did understand made me rethink everything I knew. There is some truth in that joke. 

Ralph discussing Consciousness 


Ralph profoundly influenced me. Here are some of the ways:

1. Consciousness: This was probably the most discussed topic between the two of us. He shared with me that there are three levels of consciousness: 

(i) Individual (humans and other sentient beings) 
(ii) Collective (all living beings connected to each other) 
(iii) Cosmic (everything connected to each other). 

Very few people achieve the third level of consciousness; Buddha and Jesus are notable examples. Why humans have it? How we got it? What exactly is it? These are questions still being debated. 

These discussions helped me recognize that all animals are sentient beings with consciousness, and I realized that eating them felt wrong. Consequently, I became a vegetarian, like Ralph.


2. Chaos Theory and Dynamical Systems: Ralph was a mathematician, a brilliant one. He advanced the understanding of chaos theory and dynamical systems. Ralph's contributions to mathematics significantly expanded the field. His books on using geometry to explain mathematics are groundbreaking. He founded the visual math institute at UC Santa Cruz. 

Ralph once helped the famed investor, Jim Simons, with a math problem. I asked Ralph why he didn’t pursue becoming a quant investor to make a lot of money like Simons. His response was, 'What would I do with all that money?' 

Spending time with Ralph made me a student of chaos theory and enabled me to approach problems through the lens of dynamical systems.


3. Learning & Teaching: He was a lifelong learner, always exploring new ideas. I vividly recall when Apple launched the App Store for iPhone, he created an app "I Ching". He developed the curriculum for the Ross School. He taught at UC Santa Cruz for decades. His efforts led to addition of Systems Understanding in the PISA exam. Ralph's trialogues with Terrance McKenna and Rupert Sheldrake are fascinating. 

Ralph loved Santa Cruz, where he lived because of the openness of the people who moved there in the 1960s and 70s. He created a community Hip Santa Cruz to pay a tribute to Santa Cruz. 

Ralph always made time to speak at events I organized, and like me, everyone who listened to him was in awe.


4. India: Among Ralph's many adventures was living in India, where he spent nearly a year in silence. He spent time with Neem Karoli Baba and lived alone in the forest for months. He got to know the yogis and babas in many parts of India. When I listened to his stories about his time in India, hours passed by in a blink. 

I learned more about India from Ralph than I did while growing up there. He opened my eyes to history of non-dualism, vedas, tantric tradition, and Kashmiri Shaivism. 


5. Open mind: There is nothing you could tell Ralph that would provoke a negative reaction. He could talk to anyone about anything. He was a professor at Princeton before he moved to Santa Cruz via Berkley. The ivy league crowd was not open to his experimenting with DMT which he credited for showing him a higher level of consciousness. 

Ralph did not believe in free will, and he thought of astrology as an application of mathematics. 

My friendship with Ralph broadened my mind and enabled me to accept multiple worldviews.

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May he rest in peace, and may his family find the strength to endure this tremendous loss.


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