Statement of Spirituality

Gay Spirituality Summit, Garrison Institute, Spring, 2004



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Toby Johnson's books:

Toby's books are available as ebooks from smashwords.com, the Apple iBookstore, etc.


Finding Your Own True Myth - The Myth of the Great Secret III

FINDING YOUR OWN TRUE MYTH: What I Learned from Joseph Campbell: The Myth of the Great Secret III


Gay Spirituality

GAY SPIRITUALITY: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness


Gay Perspective


GAY PERSPECTIVE: Things Our Homosexuality Tells Us about the Nature of God and the Universe


Secret Matter


SECRET MATTER, a sci-fi novel with wonderful "aliens" with an Afterword by Mark Jordan


Getting Life

GETTING LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE:  A Fantastical Gay Romance set in two different time periods


The Fourth Quill

THE FOURTH QUILL, a novel about attitudinal healing and the problem of evil




Two Spirits
TWO SPIRITS: A Story of Life with the Navajo, a collaboration with Walter L. Williams



charmed lives
CHARMED LIVES: Spinning Straw into Gold: GaySpirit in Storytelling, a collaboration with Steve Berman and some 30 other writers


Myth of the Great Secret


THE MYTH OF THE GREAT SECRET: An Appreciation of Joseph Campbell



In Search of God


IN SEARCH OF GOD IN THE SEXUAL UNDERWORLD: A Mystical Journey



Unpublished manuscripts


About ordering


Books on Gay Spirituality:

White Crane Gay Spirituality Series


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  Toby has done five podcasts with Harry Faddis for The Quest of Life

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  Articles and Excerpts:

Review of Samuel Avery's The Dimensional Structure of Consciousness


Funny Coincidence: "Aliens Settle in San Francisco"


About Liberty Books, the Lesbian/Gay Bookstore for Austin, 1986-1996


The Simple Answer to the Gay Marriage Debate


A Bifurcation of Gay Spirituality


Why gay people should NOT Marry


The Scriptural Basis for Same Sex Marriage


Toby and Kip Get Married


Wedding Cake Liberation


Gay Marriage in Texas


What's ironic



Shame on the American People


The "highest form of love"


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Gay Consciousness


Why homosexuality is a sin


The cause of homosexuality


The origins of homophobia


Q&A about Jungian ideas in gay consciousness


What is homosexuality?


What is Gay Spirituality?


My three messages


What Jesus said about Gay Rights


Queering religion


Common Experiences Unique to Gay Men


Is there a "uniquely gay perspective"?


The purpose of homosexuality


Interview on the Nature of Homosexuality


What the Bible Says about Homosexuality


Mesosexual Ideal for Straight Men



Varieties of Gay Spirituality


Waves of Gay Liberation Activity


The Gay Succession


Wouldn’t You Like to Be Uranian?


The Reincarnation of Edward Carpenter


Why Gay Spirituality: Spirituality as Artistic Medium


Easton Mountain Retreat Center


Andrew Harvey & Spiritual Activism


The Mysticism of Andrew Harvey


The upsidedown book on MSNBC


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Enlightenment


"It's Always About You"



The myth of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara


Joseph Campbell's description of Avalokiteshvara


You're Not A Wave



Joseph Campbell Talks about Aging



What is Enlightenment?



What is reincarnation?



How many lifetimes in an ego?



Emptiness & Religious Ideas



Experiencing experiencing experiencing



Going into the Light



Meditations for a Funeral



Meditation Practice



The way to get to heaven



Buddha's father was right



What Anatman means



Advice to Travelers to India & Nepal



The Danda Nata & goddess Kalika



Nate Berkus is a bodhisattva



John Boswell was Immanuel Kant



Cutting edge realization



The Myth of the Wanderer



Change: Source of Suffering & of Bliss



World Navel



What the Vows Really Mean



Manifesting from the Subtle Realms



The Three-layer Cake & the Multiverse


The est Training and Personal Intention



Effective Dreaming in Ursula LeGuin's The Lathe of Heaven


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Gay Spirituality


Curious Bodies


What Toby Johnson Believes


The Joseph Campbell Connection


The Mann Ranch (& Rich Gabrielson)


Campbell & The Pre/Trans Fallacy


The Two Loves


The Nature of Religion


What's true about Religion


Being Gay is a Blessing


Drawing Long Straws


Freedom of Religion


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The Gay Agenda


Gay Saintliness


Gay Spiritual Functions



The subtle workings of the spirit in gay men's lives.


The Sinfulness of Homosexuality


Proposal for a study of gay nondualism


Priestly Sexuality


Having a Church to Leave


Harold Cole on Beauty


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Marian Doctrines: Immaculate Conception & Assumption


Not lashed to the prayer-post


Monastic or Chaste Homosexuality


Is It Time to Grow Up? Confronting the Aging Process


Notes on Licking  (July, 1984)


Redeem Orlando


Gay Consciousness changing the world by Shokti LoveStar


Alexander Renault interviews Toby Johnson



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Mystical Vision


"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


Meditation


Historicity as Myth


Pilgrimage


No Stealing


Next Step in Evolution


The New Myth


The Moulting of the Holy Ghost


Gaia is a Bodhisattva


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The Hero's Journey


The Hero's Journey as archetype -- GSV 2016


The  Gay Hero Journey (shortened)


You're On Your Own


Superheroes


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Seeing Differently


Teenage Prostitution and the Nature of Evil


Allah Hu: "God is present here"


 
Adam and Steve


The Life is in the Blood



Gay retirement and the "freelance monastery"


Seeing with Different Eyes


Facing the Edge: AIDS as an occasion for spiritual wisdom


What are you looking for in a gay science fiction novel?


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The Vision


The mystical experience at the Servites'  Castle in Riverside


A  Most Remarkable Synchronicity in Riverside


The Great Dance according to C.S.Lewis


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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


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The Secret of the Clear Light


Understanding the Clear Light


Mobius Strip


Finding Your Tiger Face


How Gay Souls Get Reincarnated


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Joseph Campbell, the Hero's Journey, and the modern Gay Hero-- a five part presentation on YouTube


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About Alien Abduction


In honor of Sir Arthur C Clarke


Karellen was a homosexual


The D.A.F.O.D.I.L. Alliance


Intersections with the movie When We Rise


More about Gay Mental Health


Psych Tech Training


Toby at the California Institute


The Rainbow Flag


Ideas for gay mythic stories


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People


Kip and Toby, Activists


Toby's friend and nicknamesake Toby Marotta.


Harry Hay, Founder of the gay movement


About Hay and The New Myth


About Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, the first man to really "come out"


About Michael Talbot, gay mystic


About Fr. Bernard Lynch


About Richard Baltzell


About Guy Mannheimer


About David Weyrauch


About Dennis Paddie


About Ask the Fire


About Arthur Evans


About Christopher Larkin


About Mark Thompson


About Sterling Houston


About Michael Stevens


The Alamo Business Council


Our friend Tom Nash


Second March on Washington


The Gay Spirituality Summit in May 2004 and the "Statement of Spirituality"


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Book Reviews



Be Done on Earth by Howard E. Cook


Pay Me What I'm Worth by Souldancer


The Way Out by Christopher L  Nutter


The Gay Disciple by John Henson


Art That Dares by Kittredge Cherry


Coming Out, Coming Home by Kennth A. Burr


Extinguishing the Light by B. Alan Bourgeois


Over Coffee: A conversation For Gay Partnership & Conservative Faith by D.a. Thompson


Dark Knowledge by Kenneth Low


Janet Planet by Eleanor Lerman


The Kairos by Paul E. Hartman


Wrestling with Jesus by D.K.Maylor


Kali Rising by Rudolph Ballentine


The Missing Myth by Gilles Herrada


The Secret of the Second Coming by Howard E. Cook


The Scar Letters: A Novel by Richard Alther


The Future is Queer by Labonte & Schimel


Missing Mary by Charlene Spretnak


Gay Spirituality 101 by Joe Perez


Cut Hand: A Nineteeth Century Love Story on the American Frontier by Mark Wildyr


Radiomen by Eleanor Lerman


Nights at Rizzoli by Felice Picano


The Key to Unlocking the Closet Door by Chelsea Griffo


The Door of the Heart by Diana Finfrock Farrar


Occam’s Razor by David Duncan


Grace and Demion by Mel White


Gay Men and The New Way Forward by Raymond L. Rigoglioso


The Dimensional Stucture of Consciousness by Samuel Avery


The Manly Pursuit of Desire and Love by Perry Brass


Love Together: Longtime Male Couples on Healthy Intimacy and Communication by Tim Clausen


War Between Materialism and Spiritual by Jean-Michel Bitar


The Serpent's Gift: Gnostic Reflections on the Study of Religion by Jeffrey J. Kripal


Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion by Jeffrey J. Kripal


The Invitation to Love by Darren Pierre


Brain, Consciousness, and God: A Lonerganian Integration by Daniel A Helminiak


A Walk with Four Spiritual Guides by Andrew Harvey


Can Christians Be Saved? by Stephenson & Rhodes


The Lost Secrets of the Ancient Mystery Schools by Stephenson & Rhodes


Keys to Spiritual Being: Energy Meditation and Synchronization Exercises by Adrian Ravarour


In Walt We Trust by John Marsh


Solomon's Tantric Song by Rollan McCleary


A Special Illumination by Rollan McCleary


Aelred's Sin by Lawrence Scott


Fruit Basket by Payam Ghassemlou


Internal Landscapes by John Ollom


Princes & Pumpkins by David Hatfield Sparks


Yes by Brad Boney


Blood of the Goddess by William Schindler


Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom by Jeffrey Kripal


Evolving Dharma by Jay Michaelson


Jesus in Salome's Lot by Brett W. Gillette


The Man Who Loved Birds by Fenton Johnson


The Vatican Murders by Lucien Gregoire


"Sex Camp" by Brian McNaught


Out & About with Brewer & Berg
Episode One: Searching for a New Mythology



The Soul Beneath the Skin by David Nimmons


Out on Holy Ground by Donald Boisvert


The Revotutionary Psychology of Gay-Centeredness by Mitch Walker


Out There by Perry Brass


The Crucifixion of Hyacinth by Geoff Puterbaugh


The Silence of Sodom by Mark D Jordan


It's Never About What It's About by Krandall Kraus and Paul Borja


ReCreations, edited by Catherine Lake


Gospel: A Novel by WIlton Barnhard


Keeping Faith: A Skeptic’s Journey by Fenton Johnson


Dating the Greek Gods
by Brad Gooch


Telling Truths in Church by Mark D. Jordan


The Substance of God by Perry Brass


The Tomcat Chronicles by Jack Nichols


10 Smart Things Gay Men Can Do to Improve Their Lives by Joe Kort


Jesus and the Shamanic Tradition of Same Sex Love by Will Roscoe


The Third Appearance by Walter Starcke


The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight by Thom Hartmann


Surviving and Thriving After a Life-Threatening Diagnosis by Bev Hall


Men, Homosexuality, and the Gods by Ronald Long

An Interview with Ron Long


Queering Creole Spiritual Traditons by Randy Conner & David Sparks

An Interview with Randy Conner


Pain, Sex and Time by Gerald Heard


Sex and the Sacred by Daniel Helminiak


Blessing Same-Sex Unions by Mark Jordan


Rising Up by Joe Perez


Soulfully Gay by Joe Perez


That Undeniable Longing by Mark Tedesco


Vintage: A Ghost Story by Steve Berman


Wisdom for the Soul by Larry Chang


MM4M a DVD by Bruce Grether


Double Cross by David Ranan


The Transcended Christian by Daniel Helminiak


Jesus in Love by Kittredge Cherry


In the Eye of the Storm by Gene Robinson


The Starry Dynamo by Sven Davisson


Life in Paradox by Fr Paul Murray


Spirituality for Our Global Community by Daniel Helminiak


Gay & Healthy in a Sick Society by Robert A. Minor


Coming Out: Irish Gay Experiences by Glen O'Brien


Queering Christ by Robert Goss


Skipping Towards Gomorrah by Dan Savage


The Flesh of the Word by Richard A Rosato


Catland by David Garrett Izzo


Tantra for Gay Men by Bruce Anderson


Yoga & the Path of the Urban Mystic by Darren Main


Simple Grace by Malcolm Boyd


Seventy Times Seven by Salvatore Sapienza


What Does "Queer" Mean Anyway? by Chris Bartlett


Critique of Patriarchal Reasoning by Arthur Evans


Gift of the Soul by Dale Colclasure & David Jensen


Legend of the Raibow Warriors by Steven McFadden


The Liar's Prayer by Gregory Flood


Lovely are the Messengers by Daniel Plasman


The Human Core of Spirituality by Daniel Helminiak


3001: The Final Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke


Religion and the Human Sciences by Daniel Helminiak


Only the Good Parts by Daniel Curzon


Four Short Reviews of Books with a Message


Life Interrupted by Michael Parise


Confessions of a Murdered Pope by Lucien Gregoire


The Stargazer's Embassy by Eleanor Lerman


Conscious Living, Conscious Aging by Ron Pevny


Footprints Through the Desert by Joshua Kauffman


True Religion by J.L. Weinberg


The Mediterranean Universe by John Newmeyer


Everything is God by Jay Michaelson


Reflection by Dennis Merritt


Everywhere Home by Fenton Johnson


Hard Lesson by James Gaston


God vs Gay? by Jay Michaelson


The Gate of Tears: Sadness and the Spiritual Path by Jay Michaelson


Roxie & Fred by Richard Alther


Not the Son He Expected by Tim Clausen


The 9 Realities of Stardust by Bruce P. Grether


The Afterlife Revolution by Anne & Whitley Strieber


AIDS Shaman: Queer Spirit Awakening by Shokti Lovestar


Facing the Truth of Your Life by Merle Yost


The Super Natural by Whitley Strieber & Jeffrey J Kripal


Secret Body by Jeffrey J Kripal


In Hitler's House by Jonathan Lane


Walking on Glory by Edward Swift


The Paradox of Porn by Don Shewey


Is Heaven for Real? by Lucien Gregoire


Enigma by Lloyd Meeker


Scissors, Paper, Rock by Fenton Johnson




Toby Johnson's Books on Gay Men's Spiritualities:




Gay
Perspective cover
Gay Perspective

Things Our [Homo]sexuality
Tells Us about the
Nature of God and
the Universe


Gay Perspective audiobook
Gay Perspective is available as an audiobook narrated by Matthew Whitfield. Click here







Gay
Spirituality cover
Gay Spirituality

Gay Identity and 
the Transformation of
Human Consciousness



gay-spirituality-audiobook
Gay Spirituality   is now available as an audiobook, beautifully narrated by John Sipple. Click here








charmed lives
Charmed Lives: Gay Spirit in Storytelling

edited by
Toby Johnson
& Steve Berman







secret matter
Secret Matter

Lammy Award Winner for Gay Science Fiction

updated







Getting Life
Getting Life in Perspective

A Fantastical Romance





Getting
Life in Perspective audiobook
Getting Life in Perspective is available as an audiobook narrated by Alex Beckham. Click here 






The Fourth Quill

The Fourth Quill

originally published as PLAGUE




johnson-the-fourth-quill-audiobook
The Fourth Quill is available as an audiobook, narrated by Jimmie Moreland. Click here






Two
Two Spirits: A Story of Life with the Navajo

with Walter L. Williams




Two Spirits
audiobookTwo Spirits  is available as an audiobook  narrated by Arthur Raymond. Click here






Finding Your Own True Myth - The Myth of the Great Secret III
Finding Your Own True Myth:
What I Learned from Joseph Campbell

The Myth of the Great Secret III








In
Search of God in the Sexual Underworld
In Search of God  in the Sexual Underworld










The Myth of the Great Secret II

The Myth of the Great Secret: An Appreciation of Joseph Campbell.

This was the second edition of this book.




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Toby Johnson's titles are available in other ebook formats from Smashwords.




Gay Identity and The Nature of Religious Truth: Gay Spirituality Summit Issues Statement of Spirituality



by Toby Johnson

 

An historic Gay Spirituality Summit convocation was called by an ad hoc committee known as the Gay Spirit Culture Project in spring 2004. At this gathering, sponsored by White Crane Journal, Gay Spirit Visions, Easton Mountain, Manifest Love, Body Electric and Gay Spirit Journeys, and held at Garrison Institute, a retreat center across the Hudson River from West Point Military Academy, gay thinkers and writers, yoga and meditation teachers, radical faeries, spiritual-erotic activists, Body Electric trainers, psychotherapists, pastors, and preachers met to bring more self-awareness to the developing, but loosely identified, "Gay Spirituality Movement."

 

As part of the Summit's process, a small work group (including Daniel Helminiak, Toby Johnson, Kip Dollar, and Cami Delgado) struggled to describe the nature of spirituality--and to draw the obvious and necessary conclusion about the morality and spiritual worth of homosexuality--whether as an "essential" element of human nature or as a construction of contemporary social realities. They have issued a "Statement of Spirituality."

 

The Statement in full (though without the signatures, which are now being sought through a yahoo group dedicated to intercommunication between participants at the Summit) appears at the end of this article.

 

What they came up with has a very Buddhist ring to it, though it is consistent with almost all religious teachings. As Helminiak, who was the convenor of the work group to create the statement, commented: "I think the statement is also very Christian: 'If I speak with the tongues of angel but have not charity.... Whatever you do to the least of my brethren.... How can you say you love God whom you do not see if you do not love your brothers whom you do see...? And I will show you my faith through my works....' The insistence on down-to-earth good living is all through the New Testament (now what the churches did with this teaching may be another matter, but they did open hospitals and schools; Christianity has had some good days and still does have many good pockets of charity and genuine good will and good sense). And Incarnation is to be the heart of Christianity. The statement is also Taoist: living with the flow. And it's Jewish: love and service and concern for fellow humans. I think we did a pretty good job of saying something that really does lie at the heart of all the religious traditions."

 

The Buddhist perspective on the nature of religion is particularly instructive. It was surprisingly precocious it has turned out. For Buddhistic perspectives, though thousands of years old, sound just like contemporary, post-modern, comparative-religionist analyses.

 

The Buddha likened religion and spiritual practice to a boat. You use a boat to cross a river, he said. When you get to the other side, you don't pick up the boat and carry it with you. The important thing about a vehicle is where it gets you to, not what the vehicle itself is. And the value of a vehicle is assessed by how well it gets you to your destination, not by the inherent excellence of the vehicle (TV ads for Lexus, BMW, etc. notwithstanding).

 

According to this "spiritual" way of thinking, the truth of religion is how it transforms the personalities, behaviors, and consciousnesses of believers, not how well it maps with Absolute Reality. (In this model--both ancient Buddhism and post-modern, "new paradigm" physics, epistemology, and social theory--there is no such thing as "absolute reality," or if it is there it doesn't matter because by definition it's unknowable because it is impossible to achieve a high enough perspective to ever perceive of it properly and contextually. This is the implication of both Godel's Theorem in mathematics and Heisenberg's Uncertainly Principle in high-energy physics.)

 

Religious "truths" are techniques, just like meditating, doing prostrations or yoga postures, breathing in rhythmic patterns, chanting a mantra, singing hymns, or performing complex rituals. Such techniques are designed to create certain consciousness states and to transform personality and experience. The constellation of ideas, symbols, and metaphors through which the techniques of religious doctrines work, in comparative religions' lingo, is called myth. Believing myths, believing religious doctrines changes how one thinks.

 

The story of the Fours Signs by which Buddha was called to seek enlightenment is an example. It's partly historical--there was a human being named Prince Gautama who renounced his royal status to become a spiritual seeker and developed a "spiritual" explanation of life and a practice to achieve peace of mind and spiritual bliss. It's also mostly symbolical--the story tells of how the gods appeared to him as a beggar, a sick man, a dead man, and a monk to pique his curiosity and about the nature of suffering and then spirited him and his faithful flying horse into the night to devote himself to finding enlightenment--and, ultimately, to sit beneath the Bodhi tree and perceive the nature of reality. The gods, the apparitions, and the horse, even the Bodhi Tree, are all symbols for enriching meditation. The story really isn't about the acts of Gautama (which all likely happened more mundanely and prosaically than the myths describe) as much as about the excellence of the wisdom he preached. (Just like the myth of the divinity of Jesus is less about the personhood of the Nazarean preacher and healer and more about the excellence of his teaching that love trumps ritual purity as the goal of religious living.)

 

The "truth" of a myth is its power to help other people achieve the consciousness state the myth is about, to give one insight into the nature of reality--in the case of the Four Signs, into the nature of suffering-- or to grasp the religious quest, to "make the light break." All myths are "false" as history, and all are true as metaphors for perceiving life from higher perspectives. Indeed, one might say--using one of the most pervasive and compulsive mythic images--that all myth (and spiritual practice) is intended to give one the experience of heaven now.

 

Christianity takes a different view to the nature of religion and religious truth. In the Christian--fundamentally materialistic and realistic--worldview, truth is found in history and is totally knowable to the same degree as any other events in history. God (and His "Absolute Reality") is an element of history and is just as real and just as knowable as, say, the story of Napoleon Bonaparte. Jesus and Napoleon are historical figures and, though the tools and methods of historical research have changed, the events of their lives can be known by simple historical/realistic investigation.

 

In this view, religion and religious practice arise out of logical respect for and response to the reality of God, just like a certain respect and reverence--though in his case tinged with cynicism and irony--is due Napoleon and his near achievement of world emperorhood. In the Christian worldview, God (along with his son and heir-apparent Jesus) is Ruler of the Universe. He's personal and can be communicated with as a person can be talked with (at least through intermediaries, if not directly, just like the Queen of England or the President of the United States). Like any beneficent Ruler, He can be rationally appealed to for justice and mercy. As Ruler of the Universe, He deserves and expects--and enjoys--obedience, respect, and honor (i.e. "worship"). This is what religion is about.

 

Jesus himself seemed a little more sympathetic to the Buddhist vision. In the various sayings attributed to him in the Christian Scriptures, he was much more concerned with how human beings treated one another than how they obeyed religious rules and worshipped God. Jesus ridiculed and intentionally disobeyed religious rules--like that against healing on the Sabbath or, to cite the example he gave, getting your donkey out of a hole in the ground it had fallen into on a holy day of rest. Jesus especially dismissed the rules and taboos of his culture about sex roles, portraying them as oppressive to women and inherently hypocritical, to wit his comment: "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone."

 

The Buddhistic view makes more sense according to contemporary scientific worldviews and the perspectives of comparative religions. Given the multiplicity of descriptions of God and His histories in different cultures around the Earth, it's hard to determine that any one (or all) of the histories is correct (and the others thereby necessarily wrong).

 

And, as observed above with the citations of these great, but esoteric, rubrics of math and physics, not to mention the social sciences-based critiques of Michael Foucault and the French "de-constructionists," the idea of an unchanging, external, knowable "Absolute Reality" has faded into history and become now just a quaint and erroneously simplistic notion of the ancients, like the luminiferous ether and phlogiston.

 

This difference in worldviews parallels the epistemological puzzle posed in the familiar question: "If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" I.e., is there a "real world" that exists independently of human consciousness? And can be know it, especially if we're not present to it?

 

Foucault and the de-constructionists apply such a critique to the nature of homosexuality and end up arguing that sexual orientation is "social construction" rather than an "essential" quality of human nature.

 

Another--more whimsical--way of asking that question about the role of human consciousness to define reality then is whether same-sexed dinosaurs who rubbed cloacas together were essentially homosexuals. In 150 million years of dinosaur life on Earth, that's bound to have happened, isn't it? (One wonders if that insight might inspire some homophobe to hypothetize that what killed the dinosaurs was really homosexuality!)

 

* * *

"All reality lies in the mind." Here's a Hindu/Buddhist idea that certainly makes sense in terms of modern science and psychological awareness. It's never possible for a human being to "know" anything outside his or her mind since the "knowing" itself takes place with the capabilities of the mind and can only be experienced in the mind. And the act of knowing interacts with and changes the reality that is known. (We might need to expand the notion of "mind" here, so that it's not just logical thinking, but also sensing, feeling, evaluating, intuiting--all the various aspects of "experiencing.")

 

The truth of God, then, isn't found in history, but in current experience. And the "principle of verification" isn't in external reality, but in the transforming power of the religious myth to positively improve--and evolve--experience and personal behavior.

 

The work group at the Spirituality Summit issued a Statement of Spirituality. It declares:

 

"Spirituality has to do with religion, but only secondarily," the statement the small group released said. "For the role of religion is to express and foster spirituality in a rainbow of cultural variations. But true spirituality is not necessarily concerned about afterlife, former lives, metaphysical entities, revelations, doctrines, religious myths, sacred texts, rituals, prayers, meditations, and trances. Nor does true spirituality necessarily require belief in God, by whatever name. All these religious matters have legitimacy only insofar as they support true spirituality. For spirituality pertains to life on this Earth.

 

"True spirituality is the out-working of the human capacity for self-transcendence, variously called spirit, consciousness, Buddha Nature, and higher self. The forces that govern spirituality are built into and work through the human spirit. On-going cultivation of the spirit--through virtuous living, ecological awareness, psychological healing, and spiritual practice--brings on expanded and crystal-clear awareness that flows into genuine harmony with all people, all living creatures, all inanimate things, and all life-forces. Profound sensitivity to this awareness and harmony makes for mindfulness, enlightenment, mystical experience, soulful living."

 

The Christian realistic worldview--strongly tinged with polarization of good vs evil, right vs wrong, male vs female, correct majority vs dissident minority, normal vs abnormal--condemns homosexual behavior, denies the reality of homosexuals' personal experience, and rejects homosexuals' pleas for justice and mercy, recognition and fair treatment. And zealous believers in that worldview think the respect and honor they rightly owe God, Ruler of the Universe, calls for them to righteously oppose homosexuals' political struggles. (Some extremists even cite the Bible's instructions about stoning sexual taboo offenders and call for the death penalty for homosexuality. The Fundamentalist (and still virtually medieval) Muslim societies that are the avowed enemies of Western liberal democracies, indeed, behave just that way. It's an irony that some Fundamentalist Christians find themselves sympathetic with the "terrorist" cultures they are waging Crusade against.)

 

Countering such ideas, the Statement on Spirituality declared:

"True spirituality is increasingly aware and deliberately chosen participation in the positive unfolding of the universe. 'Evil' is whatever shuts down this unfolding; 'good' is whatever furthers it. If beliefs and behaviors are hurtful and destructive, they are evil; if they are helpful and up-building, they are good. In the final analysis, spirituality is as spirituality does."

 

To claim a place for gay people's experience and to seek a definition of spirituality that includes gay people's (seemingly inherent) religiousness and moral sensibilities, "leaders, luminaries, and change agents" at the Gay Spirituality Summit issued their Statement of Spirituality.

 

"[G]oodness or sanctity or holiness is defined by loving kindness, not obedience to texts or traditions, however many thousands of years old. And the spiritual worth of homosexuality--as of everything else--is grounded, not in the rules of ancient societies or the trends of public opinion, but in the positive contributions of real, live persons to one another and to their societies."

 

To many of the men in attendance at this gathering, spirituality, sensitivity to others, and fascination with matters of meaning and the "Secret of Life," are natural reverberations within individual personalities of homosexual orientation and gay identity. Gay (or, for a politicized/radicalized/academized segment of younger generations, queer) consciousness bequeaths a certain spiritual and moral sensibility and a detached enlightenment to the nature of religion and myth.

 

"True spirituality is about compassion, love, truth, gratitude, growth, give and take, and the unity of all things. Spirituality has no truck with the hateful, destructive, intolerant, and divisive. Nonetheless, loving attention to negative tendencies, forces, occurrences, and persons fosters the personal and collective wholeness that allows the human spirit to flow freely and to bring something positive from the negative."

 

That gay consciousness and sexual experience (especially of intense, transcendent altered states achieved through sexual arousal and techniques of spiritual practice) can provide homosexually-oriented individuals a sense of purpose, meaning in life, transpersonal goal, and relationship with "God" (understood with those quotation marks as as reverential as they are derogatory) is the needed message of gay spirituality.

 

"'My religion is kindness,' says the current Dalai Lama. And Jesus said, 'By their fruits you will know them.' Therein lies wisdom about true spirituality," said the Statement.

 

Because so many young gay people, in their struggle to discover and be true to their authentic experience of sexual and affectional attraction to and relationship with others, renounce conventional religion because of its anti-gay stance and judgment and sometimes "throw the baby out with the bathwater," an effort of the loosely identified "Gay Spirituality Movement" is to bring the good news to these burgeoning homosexuals that a rich, mythically-infused, spiritually-layered, gay-affirmative life potentially awaits them on the other side of religion and condemnation.

 

Too many wonderful gay lives are ruined by despair, self-loathing, and consequent irresponsible behavior (like crystal methaddiction and carelessness about sexual hygiene) because all religious and moral advice is rejected in reaction to the intolerance of the very vocal and seemingly hateful religious zealots.

 

This so-called "Gay Spirituality Movement" strives to save those lives and offer those individuals deep and fulfilling experiences of meaning and transcendence by discovering a higher perspective on religion, myth, and the nature of life itself.

 

This modern, psychologically-sophisticated, essentially Buddhistic perspective witnessed to by the Gay Spirituality Movement--through a veritable rainbow of variations--is needed by all human beings, because it's consistent with contemporary worldviews and scientific discoveries about the nature of the universe. All people are called to wake up.

 

And articulating and proclaiming it is certainly in keeping with the queer historical role of those people (many, maybe most, of whom we today would likely call "gay") who down through time have created and guided the development of the great religious traditions.

 

We gay people have been the progenitors of religion and transcendent consciousness. It is one of our roles in culture to give birth to the gods and to teach human beings how to speak appropriately about transpersonal reality and the secrets of what consciousness really is.

 

Garrison Institute where the Gay Spirituality Summit was held is a former Catholic monastery, now transformed to a sort of New Age retreat center with a strong Buddhist flavor. At the front of the main meeting room sat a bigger than life, gold statue of the Buddha. It portrayed him in one of his classic poses, reaching down with the middle finger of his right hand to touch the earth. In Buddhist mythology, after achieving his enlightenment, Buddha was assaulted by the "god" (the consciousness) of lust and death who challenged his right to sit beneath the Bodhi Tree and to see through the illusion of reality. To rebuke the assault, Buddha reached down and touched the earth to call upon the earth to proclaim the legitimacy of his enlightenment: "I have a right to be here," he said. The meaning of that gesture is precisely applicable to the role of the Gay Spirit leaders assembled before that statue. We are here. And we have a right to be here. Indeed, we have a reason to be here.

 

A Personal Note

 

I was proud to be a member of the Core Group of Gay Spirit Culture Project which called and organized the Summit (along with Patrick McNamara of the Appreciative Inquiry Consulting, who was the originator of the idea of the Summit; Craig Harwood, producer of the current award wining film Paternal Instinct; David Nimmons, creator of the Manifest Love movement; and Duncan Teague from Atlanta's Gay Spirit Visions). The event was truly ground-breaking.

 

Going into the Summit, I'd imagined that we'd likely conclude the Summit with some sort of ceremony of signing a collective statement about the spiritual component inherent to what's commonly known today as "gay identity." I'd fantasized something like the signing of the Declaration of Independence. And so when Daniel Helminiak announced he was convening a work group (called an "infinity session" in the lingo of the Summit) to devise a statement about the difference between spirituality and religion, I jumped at the chance to join that work group. This has been the subject matter of my two most recent books: how the perspective on life that comes with being gender variant (what's referred to in the pop and polite, but very inexact, nomenclature as "gay") offers an incisive insight into the nature of religion.

 

I'd hoped we'd talk about this topic in plenary session throughout the Summit. As it happened, though, there was little opportunity for discussion in plenary sessions. The agenda for the Summit placed almost all the working discussion into the small groups (called "affinity" and "infinity" groups), and limited the plenary sessions to reports on the work groups, deeply personal heart circles, and collective rituals.

 

During the reporting on the infinity groups, Helminiak, a former Roman Catholic theologian and popularizer of contemporary Scriptural analysis, now a professor of psychology and theorist of spirituality as a human consciousness state, announced that his work group had devised a tentative "definition of spirituality." I chimed in myself to remind the whole assembly that we'd written a statement we wanted to make in the name of all of them, the discussion shifted to questioning the wisdom and the legitimacy of making a collective statement. Several participants raised the concern of racism, observing that one of the ongoing crimes of European culture has been to speak for--and thereby erase the diversity of--all other cultures, especially cultures of non-white races. Perceptive and sensitive as that discussion was--and salient to the topic--because of schedule constraints, it precluded a reading of the statement. So lots of objection was provoked to a statement nobody had yet heard.

 

During an informal follow-up session (in lingo called "the marketplace"), the statement was posted and numerous participants made suggestions for changes, and Helminiak who stood by as representative for the statement diligently revised the wording to accommodate the various reactions. And then in the weeks following, Daniel and I refined and reorganized the statement even more.

 

Following my fantasy of a signing ceremony--like that for Thomas Jefferson's world-changing document 228 years before, I'd hoped the Summit would agree on a statement about homosexuals' perceptions of life and spiritual consciousness. That was not what the statement was about. It was simply about the nature of spirituality and about the legitimacy of any system of spirituality/religion being proved by the lovingkindness in produces--or doesn't--in those who believe in it.

 

I think we could have made an even more provocative declaration that down through time people whom today we'd generally recognize to have been homosexuals and might, very imprecisely, call "gay" have been at the center of humanity's development of religious ideas and myths and that we--"leaders, luminaries, and change agents in the gay spirituality movement"--reclaim that ancient identity. I think it needs to be said that gay people are not mockers of religion and goodness and flagrant sinners seeking to destroy the institutions of society out of meanness and in retaliation for religion's negative judgment. "We" were in some ways the originators of religion and mystical awareness; we have a certain responsibility for being "on the cutting edge of evolution" and guiding the direction of religion; our current conflict with the institutions of traditional religion is part of "pushing the envelope" and forcing the continued evolution of religious ideas and images.

 

Indeed, I think it needs to be said that gay consciousness creates certain alternative patterns in thinking that call for alternative metaphors and myths for communicating subtle states of spiritual consciousness and positive social behavior, so that there are appropriate myths and symbols for gay people that are different from those helpful and meaningful for straight people, i.e., that there are specifically gay--and specifically lesbian--spiritual paths and spiritualities to communicate these myths and guide these journeys.

 

And I think the whole world needs to hear that contemporary gay people's perspective on religion--colored by our outsider status, our flair for transcending and violating strict gender roles, and our tendency to perceive the world as less polarized, contentious, and competitive--is consistent with modern perspectives on the nature of religion flowing from simple awareness of the diversity of religious images and myths, i.e., the comparative religions stance championed by my own teacher (and the Wise Old Man of my personal spiritual journey) Joseph Campbell (famous for his maxim "Follow Your Bliss").

 

But the Summit's "infinity group" on spirituality didn't choose to make that statement. But the statement it made is still important. And there was no signing ceremony, and there was no agreement about a collective statement.

 

Aren't we all sort of saying something similar -- that religion is about guiding our paths thru life, and staying open to the various influences that come our way (including our homosexual feelings) AND not about declaring the Moral Absolutes about how things are, what God's rules are about human behavior, and what is natural and what is unnatural.

 

I'd have liked the Summit to come forth with a statement about gay people's inherent spiritual/mystical bent (in contrast to the image of us as hateful sinners and corrupters of youth that Dr. Dobson et al wants to popularize) and that there are symbols and myths that speak to us better than those of "family values Christianity."

 

That we were all there as representatives of various groups that are trying to offer those more appropriately "gay" paths is the evidence we all sort of think there are more suitable paths for gay people and that traditional Christianity (i.e. mainstream American religion) doesn't really support us.

 

Disappointed though I was that the statement wasn't read and widely embraced, I think it consistent with the patterns of what I will gay consciousness (and that others might call, with equally rich and multi-layered terms, queer, LGBTQ, men-loving-men), that the assembly would be sensitive to issues of elitism, class dominance, and racism. After all, as outsiders and sympathizers with other oppressed peoples, we want to champion diversity, and we chafe at anything that seems reductionistic. As fiercely individual, because we've all had to create our own religious understandings--since those of inherited traditions didn't include us--we naturally resist generalization and collectivization.

 

As disappointing as it was that the Summit didn't conclude with a signing ceremony, that there wasn't easy agreement with a statement on the nature of gay spirituality was itself a sign of the mindset that is gay spirituality. Ironic. Paradoxical. And absolutely consistent.

 

There is no one answer to the "Great Secret" that is the nature of consciousness, God, the universe, and the meaning of life. That is to say, "God" is not a thing out there in heaven (like Napoleon was ruler of France in Paris). Religion isn't about the way things are. It's about how to transform consciousness and see the world differently, to see the world and other people with sensitivity to difference and always with loving kindness. And that, of course, is the Buddhistic perspective that all human beings are called to discover in these days of global awareness and that gay people are naturals for understanding because it's in our very world- and self-perception.

 


The statement is still being reworked by the team.

Here's the latest version (10/21/04):

(Suggestions are welcome)

 

A Statement of Spirituality

A small workgroup of participants at the first Gay Spirituality Summit at Garrison Institute, Garrison, NY, USA, May 1, 2004, prepared the following statement about spirituality and offer it for discussion to help clarify the nature of “spirituality” in the gay community and beyond. This version was simplified with advice from a group at Gay Spirit Visions Fall Conference, September 2004.

Spirituality is the out-working of the human capacity for self-transcendence, variously called spirit, consciousness, Buddha Nature, and higher self. Spirituality is increasingly aware and deliberately chosen participation in the positive unfolding of the universe. Beliefs and behaviors that are hurtful and destructive shut down this unfolding; those that are helpful and up-building further it.

Spirituality pertains to life on this Earth and is measured by the compassion, love, truth, gratitude, growth, give and take that real, live human beings show one another. In the final analysis, spirituality is as spirituality does.

Spirituality has no truck with the hateful, destructive, intolerant, and divisive. Nonetheless, loving attention to negative tendencies, forces, occurrences, and persons fosters the personal and collective wholeness that allows the human spirit to flow freely and to bring something positive from the negative.

The forces that govern spirituality are built into and work through the human spirit. On-going cultivation of the spirit--in communion with fellow seekers and through virtuous living, ecological awareness, bodywork, psychological healing, and spiritual practice--brings on expanded and crystal-clear awareness that flows into genuine harmony with all people, all living creatures, all inanimate things, and all life-forces. For spirituality is concerned with the unity of all things. Profound sensitivity to this awareness and harmony makes for mindfulness, enlightenment, mystical experience, soulful living.
 
Spirituality has to do with religion, but only secondarily. The role of religion is to express and foster spirituality in a rainbow of cultural variations, including belief in God (by whatever name), ideas about afterlife, former lives, metaphysical entities, revelations, doctrines, religious myths, sacred texts, rituals, prayers, meditations, and trances. All these religious matters have legitimacy insofar as they support the positive unfolding of the universe.

“My religion is kindness," says the current Dalai Lama. And Jesus said, “By their fruits you will know them.” Therein lies wisdom about true spirituality.

Thus goodness or sanctity or holiness is measured not by obedience to texts or traditions or the rules of ancient societies or the trends of public opinion, but by demonstration of loving kindness. And the moral worth of homosexuality can be measured only by the behavior of real, live homosexual persons and by the contributions they make to one another and to their societies.




An earlier version (the one cited in the article above)--which Daniel Helminiak has been showing around the country at various retreats and conferences--reads:


A Statement of Spirituality

 

"My religion is kindness," says the current Dalai Lama. And Jesus said, "By their fruits you will know them." Therein lies wisdom about true spirituality.
 
Spirituality has to do with religion, but only secondarily. For the role of religion is to express and foster spirituality in a rainbow of cultural variations. But true spirituality is not necessarily concerned about afterlife, former lives, metaphysical entities, revelations, doctrines, religious myths, sacred texts, rituals, prayers, meditations, and trances. Nor does true spirituality necessarily require belief in God, by whatever name. All these religious matters have legitimacy only insofar as they support true spirituality. For spirituality pertains to life on this Earth.

True spirituality is the out-working of the human capacity for self-transcendence, variously called spirit, consciousness, Buddha Nature, and higher self. The forces that govern spirituality are built into and work through the human spirit. On-going cultivation of the spirit--through virtuous living, ecological awareness, psychological healing, and spiritual practice--brings on expanded and crystal-clear awareness that flows into genuine harmony with all people, all living creatures, all inanimate things, and all life-forces. Profound sensitivity to this awareness and harmony makes for mindfulness, enlightenment, mystical experience, soulful living.

True spirituality is increasingly aware and deliberately chosen participation in the positive unfolding of the universe. "Evil" is whatever shuts down this unfolding; "good" is whatever furthers it. If beliefs and behaviors are hurtful and destructive, they are evil; if they are helpful and up-building, they are good. In the final analysis, spirituality is as spirituality does.

True spirituality is about compassion, love, truth, gratitude, growth, give and take, and the unity of all things. Spirituality has no truck with the hateful, destructive, intolerant, and divisive. Nonetheless, loving attention to negative tendencies, forces, occurrences, and persons fosters the personal and collective wholeness that allows the human spirit to flow freely and to bring something positive from the negative.

Thus, goodness or sanctity or holiness is defined by loving kindness, not obedience to texts or traditions, however many thousands of years old. And the spiritual worth of homosexuality--as of everything else--is grounded, not in the rules of ancient societies or the trends of public opinion, but in the positive contributions of real, live persons to one another and to their societies.

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Toby Johnson, PhD is author of nine 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, four 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 and editor of a collection of "myths" of gay men's consciousness. 

Johnson's book GAY SPIRITUALITY: The Role of Gay Identity in the Transformation of Human Consciousness won a Lambda Literary Award in 2000.

His  GAY PERSPECTIVE: Things Our [Homo]sexuality Tells Us about the Nature of God and the Universe was nominated for a Lammy in 2003. They remain in print.

FINDING YOUR OWN TRUE MYTH: What I Learned from Joseph Campbell: The Myth of the Great Secret III tells the story of Johnson's learning the real nature of religion and myth and discovering the spiritual qualities of gay male consciousness.

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