An updated, revised and expanded edition of Toby Johnson's
classic soft sci fi romance novel
SECRET MATTER
-- with its quirky and mystical spin on what it means to be gay. Click
on the title for info.
The novel begins with an homage to Clarke in the form of aliens arriving
in great flying saucers over all the major cities of Earth.
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Table of Contents Search Site Home Also on this website: Toby
Johnson's books: TWO SPIRITS: A Story of Life with the
Navajo, a collaboration with Walter L. Williams 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: updated, revised & expanded edtion from Lethe Press
with Afterword by Mark Jordan PLAGUE:
A NOVEL ABOUT HEALING. Books on Gay Spirituality:
Articles
and Excerpts: Read
Toby's review of Samuel Avery's The
Dimensional Structure of
Consciousness Funny Coincidence: "Aliens Settle in San Francisco" The
Simple Answer to the Gay Marriage Debate A Bifurcation of Gay Spirituality Why gay people should NOT Marry What's ironic Q&A about Jungian ideas in gay consciousness What Jesus said about Gay Rights Interview on the Nature of Homosexuality What the Bible Says about
Homosexuality Mesosexual Ideal for Straight Men Waves
of Gay Liberation Activity Why Gay Spirituality: Spirituality
as Artistic Medium Easton Mountain Retreat Center Andrew Harvey &
Spiritual Activism "It's Always About You" Joseph Campbell's description of
Avalokiteshvara What is Enlightenment? What is reincarnation? Emptiness & Religious Ideas Experiencing experiencing experiencing Going into the Light Meditations for a Funeral Meditation Practice The way to get to heaven Advice to Travelers to India & Nepal Nate Berkus is a bodhisattva John Boswell was Immanuel Kant The Joseph Campbell Connection Campbell & The Pre/Trans Fallacy Gay Spiritual Functions The Sinfulness of Homosexuality Proposal
for a study of gay nondualism "The Evolution of Gay Identity" "St. John of the
Cross & Religious Articulations of the
Secret Teenage
Prostitution and the Nature of Evil Allah
Hu: "God is present here" The Life is in the Blood What
are you looking for in a gay science fiction novel? 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 How Gay
Souls Get Reincarnated In honor of Sir Arthur C Clarke Toby's friend
and nicknamesake Toby Marotta. Harry Hay, Founder of the gay movement About Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, the first man to really "come out" About
Michael Talbot, gay mystic 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 Bougeois Over Coffee: A conversation For Gay Partnership & Conservative Faith by D.a. Thompson Dark Knowledge by Kenneth Low Janet Planet by Eleanor Lerman
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Sometimes I think everything I believe about the nature of life, t
he universe and God, I learned from Arthur C. Clarke. Karellen was a homosexual
 The main character of Arthur C. Clarke's classic sci-fi novel Childhood's End is the Overlord commander Karellen. Readers of the novel will recall that the book is divided in three parts, each separated by about 50 years. The first section, titled Earth and the Overlords, features the arrival of the aliens. A quirk of the story is that they do not allow themselves to be seen. The want the people of Earth to be accustomed to them before they reveal themselves. The second section, titled The Golden Age, begins with the Overlords coming down from their spaceships and showing themselves. Suddenly everyone understands why they wanted the 50 year getting-to-know-you time. Those 50 years have brought on a Golden Age for humankind; peace on Earth at last; the Overlords have brought boons in technology and culture that have dramatically improved human life. BUT it turns out they look all the world like devils: leathery wings, little horns, black scaly skin and a little tail. This section ends with the human protagonist, a young black man from South Africa named Jan Rodricks, stows away on an Overlord ship in order to visit their planet. By the time he returns home, for the third section, another decade or so has elapsed because of Einsteinian time-dilation caused by the speed of interstellar travel. The third section, "The Last Generation" then recounts the marvelous but frightening transformation of the Last Generation of human children into spiritual beings who escape the bonds of matter entirely and are absorbed in a great mystical apocalypse into the Overmind, the collective consciousness of the Cosmos itself, "God." One of the themes of the novel is that the Overlords themselves do not expect ever to be similarly absorbed into the Overmind. Though they are its servants who go about the galaxies overseeing the transformation of species into spirit, their race is not evolving in that direction. They forever remain barren. Understanding that Sir Arthur was a gay man helps explain Karellen and the Overlords. I  corresponded
for a while with Clarke, in the late 1990s, when I sought his
permission to acknowledge him as a sort of gay wise man/prophet in one
of my books on gay spiritual sensitivity. I learned that he was quite
fascinated with the role homosexuals have played in history as leaders
of culture. C.A. Tripp's book, The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln, on Lincoln as gay had just been
published and Clarke was enthusiastic about this revelation as evidence.It is said Clarke has left a collection of his writings--called the "Clarkives"--with the instruction they not be made public until 30 years after his death. I suspect the Clarkives are going to include those writings about homosexuality as cultural leadership. So those 30 years correspond with the 50 years the Overlords kept themselves in hiding. And their "barrenness" correspond with the homosexual experience of being excluded from the procession of the generations. Homosexuality has taken some getting used to in modern society. Old ideas have been shown to have been false, misleading and misguided. The Overlords' appearance as devils who turn out to be "angels" as midwives of Earth's planetary mind parallels the recognition of the role homosexuals play in human evolution. The Overlords in some very real way in Arthur C. Clarke's consciousness, I believe, represent gay people as service providers and culture leaders. And religion, mystical phenomena, and the "mysterious world" (as Clarke's TV shows about fringe phenomena) represent the evidence and form of the evolution of human consciousness in "God," i.e., the Overmind, the consciousness of the Cosmos itself. Gay people are the shamans and gatekeepers who work for the development of planetary consciousness and reveal the real meaning of religion. Read Toby Johnson's essay on Arthur C. Clarke Read Toby Johnson's suggestions for the Best Gay Science Fiction novels |
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.
