Subtle Workings of the Spirit in Gay Men's Lives

Also on this website: Toby Johnson's books: GAY SPIRITUALITY: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness GAY PERSPECTIVE: Things Our Homosexuality Tells Us about the Nature of God and the Universe SECRET MATTER, GETTING LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE PLAGUE: A NOVEL ABOUT HEALING.     Articles and Excerpts: The Simple Answer to the Gay Marriage Debate Why gay people should NOT Marry Wedding Cake Liberation Shame on the American People The "highest form of love"  The cause of homosexuality What Jesus said about Gay Rights The purpose of homosexuality Varieties of Gay Spirituality Why Gay Spirituality: Spirituality as Artistic Medium "It's Always About You" The myth of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara You're Not A Wave Curious Bodies What Toby Johnson Believes The Joseph Campbell Connection, The Nature of Religion Being Gay is a Blessing Freedom of Religion The Gay Agenda Gay Saintliness Gay Spiritual Functions  "The Evolution of Gay Identity" "St. John of the Cross & the Dark Night of the Soul." Avalokiteshvara at the Baths.  Eckhart's Eye Let Me Tell You a Secret Religious Articulations of the Secret The Collective Unconscious Driving as Spiritual Practice Teenage Prostitution and the Nature of Evil Allah Hu: "God is present here"   Adam and Steve Gay retirement and the "freelance monastery" Seeing with Different Eyes The mystical experience at the Servites'  Castle in Riverside The Great Dance according to C.S.Lewis The Techniques Of The World Saviors Part 1: Brer Rabbit and the Tar-Baby Part 2: The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara Part 3: Jesus and the Resurrection Part 4: A Course in Miracles The Secret of the Clear Light Understanding the Clear Light Mobius Strip Finding YourTiger Face How Gay Souls Get Reincarnated About Alien Abduction In honor of Sir Arthur C Clarke The D.A.F.O.D.I.L. Alliance Toby's friend and nicknamesake Toby Marotta. About Michael Talbot, gay mystic About Guy Mannheimer The Gay Spirituality Summit in May 2004 and the  "Statement of Spirituality"

For seven years, Toby Johnson edited White Crane Journal. In 2004, he handed the editing/publishing job over to Bo Young in Brooklyn and Dan Vera in Washington DC. Here's a "Call for Submissions" for White Crane which Toby issued originally in 1997. It very succinctly describes the subtle workings of the spirit in gay men’s lives:     • how deep sexual feelings work to inspire spiritual longings     • how deep spiritual feelings enhance sexual experience     • how our lovers manifest, in the flesh, "God's" love for us     • how the struggles of life as gay men force virtue on us     • how the internecine hurt, pain and rejection we cause one another because we're members of an oppressed minority call us to participate in the sufferings of "God," striving to cope with the limitations and problems of individualized incarnation and multiplied perspective     • how the beauty of young men shines forth as the beauty of "God" and "God's" creation     • how the “enlightenment” that comes with gay sensibility results in feelings of personal frustration in dealing with "the world," but, thereby, push us to participate in "saving the world"     • how gay experience redefines the notion of "God"     • how the model of gay forebears demonstrates wisdom and hints at the meaning of life for fellow gay men     • how the work of spiritual writers--gay and non-gay, ancient and contemporary--have helped give meaning to life and to gay identity: Thomas Merton, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Joseph Campbell, C.S. Lewis, Alan Watts, Arthur C. Clarke, Edward Carpenter, John Boswell, Mark Thompson, C.G. Jung, Giordano Bruno, Marsilio Ficino, Meister Eckhart, John of the Cross, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Ramakrishna, Christopher Isherwood, Walter Williams, Gerald Heard, Will Roscoe, Harry Hay, Mitch Walker, Arthur Evans--and how many more?     • how coming out has been an experience of conversion     • how sexual desire is an occasion for prayer     • how homosexuality is the sign of a vocation that cannot be resisted     • how "God" receives waves of joy each time a human consciousness enters the altered state of sexual arousal and breaks through into pleasure     • how sexual arousal and the ecstasy of orgasm are participation in "God's" joy     • how gay sensibility and enlightenment contribute to the development of a new spiritual awareness for humankind     • how YOU WOKE UP

Toby Johnson, PhD is author of eight books: three non-fiction books that apply the wisdom of his teacher and "wise old man," Joseph Campbell to modern-day social and religious problems, three gay genre novels that dramatize spiritual issues at the heart of gay identity, and two books on gay men's spiritualities and the mystical experience of homosexuality. In addition to the novels featured elsewhere in this web site, Johnson is author of IN SEARCH OF GOD IN THE SEXUAL UNDERWORLD and THE MYTH OF THE GREAT SECRET (Revised edition): AN APPRECIATION OF JOSEPH CAMPBELL.

Johnson's Lammy Award winning book GAY SPIRITUALITY: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness was published in 2000.

His Lammy-nominated book  GAY PERSPECTIVE: Things Our Homosexuality Tells Us about the Nature of God and the Universe was published by Alyson in 2003.