He is best known for The American Book of the Dead (Nevada, CA: Gateways Books, 1975), a provocative and contemporary interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Gold illuminated our understanding of spiritual crises and pop culture, and continued to explore Bardotown (the City of the Dead) through labyrinth voyaging, artistic visions, and most recently, customised online gaming using the popular Doom design architecture.
Gold's Institute for the Development of the Harmonious Human Being is frequently associated with George Gurdjieff's Fourth Way because of a prank that occurred when Gold published Secret Talks With G. (Nevada, CA: Gateway Books, 1978), frustrated with the failure of the Gurdjieff Foundation to make public the final 'Third Series', Life Is Real Only Then, When "I AM" (New York: Elselvier-Dutton Publishing Co, 1981). Although Gold's well-crafted 'hoax' worked, anticipating the Enneagram's commercialization, the heirs of Ashiata Shiemash were not amused.
The incident continued to haunt Gold, whose research and teachings would encompass Sufism, L5 space colonies, shamanism, natural childbirth, angels, lucid dreaming, and the floatation tank. His collective would publish important writings by Robert S. de Ropp, Claudio Naranjo, and Mark Olsen, create multimedia stage and video productions, author video games, and record experimental albums.
The Human Biological Machine as a Transformational Apparatus (Nevada, CA: Gateways Books, 1985), Life in the Labyrinth (Nevada, CA: Gateways Books, 1986), and Practical Work on Self (Nevada, CA: Gateways Books, 1989) are, for many people, the 'core' of E.J. Gold's work, serving as guidebooks to awaken an awareness of suffering and the Absolute, the rift between intelligence (mind) and feeling (heart), and the transformational possibilities of becoming more human. These books offer a glimpse of the vast knowledge that may regenerate civilization.
Whatever your belief about his legitimacy and 'false' Sufism schools, E.J. Gold has shown that your ultimate creation is your Self. Most of all, you can transform yourself with wit and humor. After all, why does spiritual liberation have to be so dour and serious all the time? (From Disinfo.com )
E.J. has appeared on Integral Naked:
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The American Book of the Dead. Part 2. Navigating the Bardo. • 1/8/2006 |
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The American Book of the Dead. Part 1. Training to Transition. • 9/5/2005 |
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