In early 1966 my older sister and I formally became ‘water brothers’ with Richard ‘Dick’ Alpert (aka Ram Dass). This involved discussing what it meant to be water brothers and taking a few sips from the same glass of water.  We did this on the beach in front of the house we were renting in Venice, CA. Ram Dass remembered this occasion. He acknowledged that to me in a letter in 1994. 

After formally becoming water brothers with Richard Alpert, my sister and I decided to send fan mail to the author of the book that gave the three of us that idea.  We each wrote a letter to him, and we wrote on jointly also. In the joint letter we composed we told Robert Heinlein about becoming water brothers in real life with someone.  My mother typed these letter up, tracked down and address for Mr Heinlein and sent them off.  Here is the letter I composed by myself to Robert Heinlein. I told him I found his coining of new terms to be a powerful addition to his storytelling. I shared some of my thoughts about the other books of his I had read. 

In his amazing reply to us Robert Heinlein warns us to never become water brothers with anyone we are not very, very sure of. He then signs this letter to us with the expression used frequently by the characters in his book – ‘May you never thirst.’  I used that expression to sign my letters for decades after receiving this one.  Ram Dass signed one of his letters to us with that expression also.