Ram Dass is 88 years old now. Long disabled by a 1997 stroke, he needs a wheelchair to get around, and the spiritual teacher’s once-robust physicality is but a shadow of itself. His voice lacks its former timbre, yet when he speaks in Jamie Catto’s new documentary “Becoming Nobody,” his fierce intellect and captivating sense of humor are undimmed.

The film is a kind of hybrid. It is story of a life and how Richard Alpert, a Harvard professor and Timothy Leary’s fellow psychedelic adventurer, came to embrace Hinduism and became Dass — so named by his guru Neem Karoli Baba during a trip to India in 1967. But it is also a synthesis of Dass’ more than half-century of teaching in his workshops; his many books, beginning with the seminal 1971 volume “Be Here Now”; and through the Love Serve Remember Foundation that is dedicated to the preservation and continuation of Baba’s and Dass’ teaching.

The spine of the documentary is an in-depth conversation between Dass and Catto — the leader of transformative workshops himself, as well as a filmmaker and Grammy-winning composer, best known for his collaboration with Duncan Bridgeman on “1 Giant Leap” (2002). Threaded throughout are photos and archival footage from Dass’ life and spiritual journey.

Dass recently engaged in an email dialogue that covered his legacy and the lessons he’s learned during his life.

Q: What were your initial thoughts when Jamie Catto came to you with the idea for the documentary? You’d worked with him before and you clearly share a friendship and spiritual bond, but this film would be different, synthesizing a lifetime of teaching and ideas for posterity.

A: Jamie approached Raghu Markus, the director of my Love Serve Remember Foundation, with this film idea, and at first I was intrigued but not convinced that a film like this would be of value. But I had worked with Jamie before on his “1 Giant Leap” films, and many years before that he had been a student of mine in the U.K. I appreciated his maverick sense of humor and his honesty. So, I was ultimately convinced by both Raghu and Jamie to trust their process for the film.

Q: The heart of the film is Jamie’s conversation with you, but the film is also rich in material from throughout your life as Ram Dass and even before. What is your reaction upon seeing the many iterations of the being known as Ram Dass?

A: Seeing the many different rupas (forms) of my evolvement as a human being on the spiritual path and as a teacher was very humbling. It was like looking through a prism which reflected different rays of light and was in constant change.

Q: You date your journey to the first time you ingested psilocybin with Timothy Leary. If you had never done that, what do you imagine is the road you might have taken to get to the same place, or is there another road you think you might have gone down? Or maybe no road at all? Can you imagine being Richard Alpert, emeritus professor at Harvard?

A: Ha! No, I can’t imagine being in the role of emeritus professor … and I can’t imagine not taking psilocybin that night with Tim. In reality, those psychedelic journeys really did help me to understand my experience when I first met Neem Karoli Baba. And the fact that I kept coming down from those trips led me to go to India to find a “map of consciousness.” And I did find it in the form of my guru who is my doorway to the Divine.

Q: One of the most striking things about you is your great, good humor. How has that served you along your journey?

A: Humor and honesty have always been the catalyst for my spiritual growth. When you are so self-serious about the spiritual path, there is no room to grow. Having a sense of humor is appreciating our predicament — appreciating our humanness — not attaching to the judging mind.

Q: The title of the documentary is “Becoming Nobody.” The irony is because of the books that you’ve written, documentaries like these and the fact that for some people, you are every bit as important as Neem Karoli Baba has been to you, you are never really going to be nobody even after you leave this plane. Is that a conundrum or am I overthinking, because it isn’t about what’s left behind but what is here and then isn’t here?

A: “Becoming Nobody” is about relinquishing the stories we tell ourselves. It’s about realizing that the trip of what’s good for me or what do I want runs its course — and you realize that service is a path to becoming nobody — to a release of our roles and mistaken identity.

Q: What do you want people to take from this film? People who are already attuned to your path and those who are completely unfamiliar with it?

A: My wish for people watching this film is to realize that there is a path to love without cause — both for oneself and for everyone we interact with on a daily basis. You don’t have to go to India to find it. It’s all sitting right in the middle of your chest. It is what I call Loving Awareness. We are loving awareness. We are truth. We are capable of putting our small selves aside to serve others.

“Becoming Nobody” opens at Bay Area theaters on Friday, Sept. 6.