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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
GETTING
LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE
PLAGUE:
A NOVEL ABOUT HEALING.
CHARMED LIVES: Spinning Straw into
Gold: Reclaiming Our Queer Spirituality Through Story
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
Why gay people should NOT Marry
Wedding Cake Liberation
Gay Marriage in Texas
What's ironic
Shame on the American People
The "highest form of love"
The
cause of homosexuality
What is homosexuality?
What Jesus said about Gay
Rights
The purpose of homosexuality
What the Bible Says about
Homosexuality
Mesosexual Ideal for Straight Men
Varieties
of Gay Spirituality
Waves
of Gay Liberation Activity
Why Gay Spirituality: Spirituality
as Artistic Medium
Easton Mountain Retreat Center
"It's Always About You"
The myth of the
Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara
Joseph Campbell's description of
Avalokiteshvara
You're
Not A Wave
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
Curious
Bodies
What
Toby Johnson Believes
The Joseph Campbell Connection
Campbell & The Pre/Trans Fallacy
The Nature of Religion
Being
Gay is a Blessing
Freedom
of Religion
The
Gay Agenda
Gay
Saintliness
Gay Spiritual Functions
The subtle workings of the spirit in gay men's lives.
The Sinfulness of
Homosexuality
"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
Next
Step in Evolution
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
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
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 Your
Tiger 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
More
about Gay Mental Health
Gay
Rap
Psych
Tech Training
C.I.A.S.
& C.I.I.S.
The
Rainbow Flag
Toby's friend
and nicknamesake Toby Marotta.
About
Michael Talbot, gay mystic
About Guy Mannheimer
About Dennis Paddie
About Sterling Houston
About Michael Stevens
Our friend Tom Nash
Second March on
Washington
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Ralph Walker
and The Loving Brotherhood
During the late 70s, 80s, and
90s, TLB was a penpal list for gay men interested in New Age
spirituality, run by this elderly man who looked like Walt Whitman
named Ralph Walker. He lived in a Barn in the New Jersey countryside.
It was a sort of DYI retreat center where Ralph had regular meetings
for spiritual gay men. The Barn, as it was called, was literally a barn
that had been converted into a meeting/conference center and a narrow
but tall three storey apartment with stairs between every room where he
lived and where he produced a monthly newsletter. He led "human
potential movement"- style seminars called The All New You Experience
at
the Barn.
I think he should
be considered one of the Fathers of Gay Spirituality.
The newsletters were mostly
autobiographical material about Ralph, but that meant it always
included reports on the latest healing techniques he discovered or
channeled writings he was reading or trance-channels he was visiting at
any given time, book reviews of what he was reading (or what other
contributors wrote about that they were reading) along with accounts of
his relationships both with the TLB members who came to visit him AND
with the men he had fallen in love with. Ralph maintained a prison
ministry (and was a fan of Bo Lozoff). He carried on a long apparently
Platonic but very erotic and emotional relationship with a gay man in a
prison a few states away from New Jersey.
 The Newsletter started in 1977. The subtitle was "A
Journal of Personal
and Planetary Transformation." The motto that appeared at the bottom of
the masthead spoke Ralph Walker's central message: "That out lives
might make a difference." The logo was a variation on the Chinese
yin-yang image of the Tao.
A typical issue of TLB Newsletter started with a column of wisdom from
Ralph, a couple of book reviews (by Ralph or by any other member he
could coax to write material for him; he was always trying to get more
people to participate), a page or two of letters to the editor (he had
a couple of friends who traveled widely and submitted breezy
traveloques, then a page of quotes and life-positive aphorisms, a poem
or two, then Ralph's "Love Letter From The Barn," where he shared his
personal life details, all woven into the wisdom he'd started the issue
with, then finally "The Back Page" that contained announcements and
"classified-ads."
Ralph believed strongly in the goodness of human nature--on the bottom
of pages of the Newsletter was often emblazoned the aphorism: LOVE --
in your Heart you know. And he believed in the essential goodness of
gay people. He'd certainly seen the transformation of gay life from the
1940s when he was coming of age to the present; he died early in 2007.
What a life span! What tremendous change! Ralph believed in change.
Ralph had been greatly
affected by Werner Erhard's est seminar and the gay spinoff
created by David Goodstein called The Advocate
Experience. The "All New You Experience" that Ralph conducted himself
occasionally at The Barn was based partly on Goodstein's program and
even moreso on the "You Experience," created and facilitated by Hal
Frank of San Diego.
Ralph Walker was a hippie,
New Age wiseman. He certainly resonated the "karmic vibes" of an Edward
Carpenter or Walt Whitman.
Here's a self-portrait sketch Ralph did for a little
pamphlet he distributed to new TLB members on how to meditate and,
specifically, sit zazen (i.e., the Zen Buddhist meditation practice of
focusing on the breath).
Robert Kazmayer, who now is
part of the community at Easton Mountain
and goes by the
faerie/religious name Sunfire, was Ralph's righthand man for years with
the newsletter. Sunfire maintained the mailing list for Ralph. Sunfire
published his own gay spirituality journal focused specifically on
bodywork and gay tantric practices; his newsletter, called Touching
Body and Spirit, took over from the TLB Newsletter when Ralph retired
very near the end of his life. Sunfire continues his work as a body and
spirit healer.
The work of TLB--and all such penpal/mailing lists--was taken over, and
taken beyond anyone's wildest dreams, by the Internet. The
LovingBrotherhood was certainly a forerunner of the social network.
Ralph lived a wonderfully
rich and productive life; he died just a few months shy of his 88th
birthday. 87 is a prime number. Ralph Walker was a prime man.
Ralph Walker May
27, 1919 - January 6, 2007
An Appreciation by Sunfire
Retreats at Easton Mountain, typically begin and end with a circle. I
can’t count the number of circles I’ve been part of there, but I do
know where and when I participated in my first circle of Gay men. It
was in the winter of 1980, at the Barn, which was the home of Ralph
Walker, the founder of The Loving Brotherhood.
I had joined that organization a few months before, and I came to The
Barn not knowing whether to expect a prayer meeting or an orgy. I found
a bit of both. I also found in Ralph, a man committed to a spiritual
life, though not always sure of the direction his spiritual life was
taking.
Ralph introduced me to A Course in Miracles, but that was just one of
the ways he fostered my spiritual growth. By bringing together Gay men
with a passion for a spiritual life, he showed us all what was possible.
For about twenty-five years, Ralph edited and published the
organization’s monthly journal, often folding and mailing all the
copies himself. For many Gay men, his voice was one of the few voices
telling us that we as Gay men could have spiritual lives — lives rich
in meaning and connected to the Divine.
Ralph Walker does not leave a legacy as recognized as Harry Hay’s. But
his work was just as important. Over the life of the Loving
Brotherhood, about two thousand men joined the organization. Many of
them Ralph knew personally. With letters and long phone conversations
he guided many of us through troubled times. He encouraged us to take
an active role in political causes and to ground that activism in a
very real spirituality. He constantly worked on his own spiritual
growth. I wasn't always ready to follow him in all the paths he
explored. He didn't expect me to.
Early in my friendship with Ralph, I remember his commenting on Last
Letter to the Pebble People, a book about how friends supported a dying
man. His words, after reading that book, were, “Death is a Victory.”
So, Ralph, congratulations on your victory. No one can really know the
full extent of your influence — the number of lives you touched and
helped and sometimes rescued. If, Ralph, you have a chance now to speak
to God in a way that's more direct than we have here on earth, please
tell God that I'm grateful for your life, and the example you gave to
all Gay men.
In the interests of honoring Ralph Walker's work and maintaining a
history of the gay spirituality movement(s), I'd be pleased to hear
from others who remember Ralph and The Loving Brotherhood and will keep
updating this page to record the history. I'd be epsecially interested
in getting the dates for the start of TLB correct.
Contact me
Toby
Johnson knew Marie Friend through gay spiritual activist Ralph
Walker. She and her husband published a newsletter of book
reviews, most related to New Age topics--ideas that were dear to Ralph.
Marie Friend has published a novel titled Star. It's described as "a brilliant tour de force through love bonds that were forged during
the time of Akhenaton, strengthened during the reign of Henry XIII, and
then climaxed in New York during the September 11 fall of the World
Trade Center. The connections between various time periods are
compelling and brilliantly wrought, yet what stands out in this
wonderful novel is love. Friend’s subtle portrayals of love
relationships from both the male and female perspective are deep and
thought provoking."
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