Ram Dass Meets Goleta, California Producer Boreta in a Guided Meditation

“Awareness” is a 17-minute guided meditation from the late spiritual teacher Ram Dass, set to new ambient music by Boreta, the Glitch Mob co-founder from Goleta, California, and his meditative project Superposition. Released May 8, 2020, it pairs a talk Ram Dass recorded in 1994 with a slow-blooming score, plus a 17-minute instrumental version, per Bandcamp.

Who Was Ram Dass?

Born Richard Alpert in Boston in 1931, Ram Dass was a psychologist who turned to a spiritual path after traveling to India, and his 1971 book Be Here Now became a counterculture touchstone. He died on December 22, 2019, in Maui, Hawaii, at 88, per Wikipedia. “Awareness” was released less than five months later.

From the Glitch Mob to Guided Meditation

Boreta (Justin Boreta) grew up in Goleta, near Santa Barbara, attended Dos Pueblos High School and studied film production at UC Santa Cruz before landing in Los Angeles, the Santa Barbara Independent reported. There he helped form The Glitch Mob in 2006, whose 2014 album Love Death Immortality reached No. 13 on the Billboard 200.

His Ram Dass work predates “Awareness.” He previously scored “Imagine,” a roughly 30-minute guided meditation Ram Dass recorded in 1972, with a stated mission to “introduce the teachings of Ram Dass to the next generation of seekers,” per Headphone Commute. The Be Here Now Network describes him as the first musician to collaborate with Ram Dass.

What Is Superposition?

Superposition is Boreta’s ambient duo with programmer and musician Matthew Davis, who has done audio-visual work for Drake, according to Conscious Electronic. The pair also run the label Superposition.world, which debuted with their 2019 album A00/No Mind and released Listen/Dream, a set built around the voice of philosopher Alan Watts. Their record Form//Less was later nominated for Best New Age Album at the 2021 Grammys, losing to Jim “Kimo” West’s More Guitar Stories.

To launch “Awareness,” Boreta performed the meditation live on Instagram on release day, followed by a Q&A with Raghu Markus, host of the Mindrolling podcast and director of the Love Serve Remember Foundation, per RamDass.org. The page billed the piece as a 17-minute audio journey.

Update

As of November 2026, Boreta is no longer in The Glitch Mob. He announced his departure on September 1, 2023, to focus on solo work, and the group continues as a duo, per Wikipedia. He has kept talking about the Ram Dass connection, including a December 2024 Mindrolling episode on music and Ram Dass’s legacy.

Quick answers

When did “Awareness” come out? May 8, 2020, as a two-track release with a guided version and an instrumental.

When was the Ram Dass meditation recorded? In 1994. Boreta and Superposition added the music decades later.

Where is Boreta from? Goleta, California, near Santa Barbara. He later moved to Los Angeles.

Sources

RamDass.org — “‘Awareness’ Meditation IG Live Event with Boreta and Raghu Markus”

Santa Barbara Independent — “Justin Boreta’s Road to The Glitch Mob”

Conscious Electronic — “Conscious Creators 002: Boreta & Matthew Davis’ ambient alias earns ‘Best New Age Album’ nod at 2021 Grammys”