In 1960, Richard C. Cook moved with his family to Williamsburg, VA, where he spent his formative years in the restored colonial capital. In 1970 Cook graduated from the College of William and Mary, the alma mater of Thomas Jefferson, receiving a degree with honors and election to Phi Beta Kappa. He then came to Washington, D.C., to study the Gurdjieff Work and serve as an analyst with the federal government.

Cook continued his study of the world's spiritual teachings over the next forty years, working with several realized masters, including Hugh Ripman, Abdullah Dougan, Pir Vilayat Khan, Sri Chinmoy, Swami Satchidananda of Kerala, India, and Sri Shivabalayogi. His spiritual name is Ramcharandas, which means, "Servant of the Feet of God." He works within the lineage of the ascended master Babaji.

With the federal government, Cook first worked on the policy staff of the U.S. Civil Service Commission followed by the Food and Drug Administration.

Having been promoted to the Jimmy Carter White House, he served under Esther Peterson, President Carter's special assistant for consumer affairs. He witnessed first-hand how the Federal Reserve crashed the U.S. producing economy by bringing on the recession of 1979-83. This was the start of the takeover of the economy by the big bankers and Wall Street. One result of the recession was Carter's loss to Ronald Reagan in the election of 1980.

Cook then relocated to operate a farm he had purchased in West Virginia. Returning to Washington in 1985, Cook went to work for NASA as an analyst on the space shuttle program. While at NASA he warned of a possible disaster due to faulty O-ring joints in the solid rocket boosters. The disaster came to pass with the loss of Challenger and seven American astronauts in January 1986. Cook then told the investigating commission and the press that NASA had known of this problem for years. For his testimony Cook received the Cavallo Foundation Award for Moral Courage in Business and Government.

Transferring to the U.S. Treasury department and working there for over two decades, Cook saw how electronic funds transfer created even more wealth and power for the banking system, laying the groundwork for the gigantic financial bubbles and crashes that have dominated the economy for a generation. Upon retirement in 2007, Cook wrote articles predicting the crash of 2008. He has also advocated for a basic income guarantee and in 2011, speaking on the Riviera Maya, Mexico, introduced his Gaia Plan for a guaranteed income for all people.

Cook has published several books in recent years, including "In the Footsteps of the Yogi" on his experiences with Sri Shivabalayogi; "Challenger Revealed" on his time as a whistleblower with NASA; and "We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform" on how to change the financial system. In his latest book, "Return of the Aeons: The Planetary Spiritual Ascension", Cook confronts the central topics of our day: the "end times" and the predicted "apocalypse." He says that a Planetary Spiritual Ascension is real and that it applies to all human beings, not just a select few. He says planet earth has already moved to higher consciousness within the galaxy and that any man-made structure that relies on the human ego for its source of authority will perish.

Cook says further that the Divine Beings known in ancient times as the Aeons are here and available to guide us, including the Divine Mother and Jeshua ben Joseph, a.k.a., Jesus Christ. He says he is in regular communication with these and other Divine Beings and that they have given him the messages he now conveys to humanity.

Cook and his wife Karen now live in Roanoke, VA, where they teach Ascension Meditation and Healing at the Lifestream Center, 2006, Windsor Ave., Roanoke, VA 24015. He is also an ordained minister with the Sanctuary of the Beloved and Order of Melchizedek, a non-denominational healing and teaching order.