Chris’s presentation in Prague at the International Transpersonal Conference!

I have been invited to Prague's International Transpersonal Conference in September to present my paper From Perv to Shamaness: an auto-ethnography of gay mysticism and I need your help to make spreading of BIG gay love, gifts and purpose internationally possible.

The funds of love will be used for my airfare/transportation, conference registration, hotel and Czech cuisine!! Any donation is much appreciated and I have a couple of opportunities of working with me and the deep mystery of your dreams available for you or as a gift certificate as well.

Context

I went back to school 5 years ago at the age of 57 in San Francisco at California Institute of Integral Studies where I completed my BA in Critical Psychology, got an MA in Integral Counseling Psychology, am currently a Marriage and Family Therapy Intern, and am in a PhD program in East West Psychology. I presented my first academic paper at the American Academy of Religion Western Region last March. After the presentation, as I was saying goodbye to Marie Cartier and John Ericsson the moderators, they asked me if I would return next year for the same conference in Berkeley. They want me to open the queer studies section of the conference with a performance as Eartha Madre, my drag queen shamaness alter ego. They also want me to teach a section on queer performance as activism. Quite an honor and surprise for my first academic conference!

My juicy title from perv to shamaness refers to my journey from the trauma and stigma of growing up (for 63 years!) in a heterosexist, homophobic and misogynist world to the reconciliation of that with my true nature as a person of two spiritedness who stands between the material and cosmic world of dreams, "to open the doors" for others.

here is a summary of my presentation

Abstract

While the field of gay mysticism is relatively new, there are many examples from around the world that include the indigenous people of the Dagara in Africa (Malidoma Somé, 1993), Native North and South Americans (Dollarhide, 2008; Roscoe, 2000, Horswell, 2005), historical and mythical gay mystics (Harvey, 1997), and post Jungian gay archetypal theory (Mitch Walker, 1980). My research is most directly focused on my autobiographical journey and those sources that speak to the dance of my sixty plus years of life as both a gay male and a spiritual seeker, the struggle to integrate the two, and compares my journey with how other gay men have done the same. Holding this paper as an alchemical vessel its aim is to allow the sources—gay mystics and my own experience—to interact and inform one another. Continued attention is paid to the imaginal realm of dreams to honor the transformative nature of a phenomenological inquiry that opens the habitual structures of consciousness (Robert Bosnak, 2007). What has been revealed in my life is that—rather than the internalized homophobia I have lived with for these six plus decades—that actually what is within me is a gift and purpose that is aligned with Spirit and my nature as a gay man. This paper weaves together my journey from perv to drag queen performance artist shamaness with this research, my teachers, my dreams and a preliminary study of the dreams of gay men incubated for the possibility of innate gifts and purpose.

Here is a link to a life changing (mine) interview with African shaman Malidoma Somé of the gifts and purpose of gays in our society.

Gays:Guardians of the Gates

http://www.menweb.org/somegay.htm