Joe Perez
Encyclopedia
Joe Perez is an American writer in the fields of spirituality
and Integral theory.
Washington, Perez attended public schools until beginning his academic career at Harvard University
, where he earned a Bachelor's degree in The Comparative Study of Religion with Philosophy as Allied Field in 1991. Subsequently, he attended The Divinity School at The University of Chicago. Perez is an openly gay man, having come out during his senior year at Harvard.
Perez wrote a bi-weekly newspaper column called Soulfully Gay, which was distributed by the Contax Guide and The Weekly News in Florida, among other publications.
He is the founder and manager for four years of the Gay Spirituality & Culture Weblog that originated around the time of the 2004 Gay Spirit Summit (the blog is still published today as the MyOutSpirit.com Gay Spirituality Blog). The Gay Spirit Summit was a gathering of gay men identified as leaders or change agents seeking to shift consciousness in the gay community and raise visibility of transformational experiences in order to change the conversation about what it means to be gay.
Soulfully Gay is a memoir developed from a blog, and chronicles his efforts to come to grips with illness and spirituality. It is a chronologically organized diary through which Perez describes the events that led him from being a Catholic youth from a working class background to a Harvard student, and then on to sexual rebellion, drug abuse, living with HIV/AIDS, and ultimately discovering himself as a mystic and philosopher. The philosopher and psychologist Ken Wilber
wrote a column for BeliefNet over a year before the book's publication, in which he compared Perez to the French dramatist Antonin Artaud
, in that he "rescued his life from disaster by turning it into art."
Perez’s primary insight, according to Toby Johnson, is defining what he calls “The Importance of Being Gay.” In a series of short essays he argues that there are four major patterns, archetypal and universal: masculine, feminine, other-directed, and same-directed. In Perez's philosophy, Love is said to be a manifestation of the soul’s desire to be reunited with God both as love for others (heterophilia) and love for the self or similar (homophilia). Perez himself, in a dialogue with Ken Wilber
published by Integral Naked, said that he views the autobiographical climax of his book to be a reflection of homophilia in its positive and negative forms, Love (Agape) and Fear (Thanatos).
He lives in Seattle, Washington.
Spirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
and Integral theory.
Life
Born as Joseph Perez in 1969 in Moses LakeMoses Lake
Moses Lake is a lake and reservoir along the course of Crab Creek, in Washington state, USA.Moses Lake is part of the Columbia River basin, as Crab Creek is a tributary of the Columbia River....
Washington, Perez attended public schools until beginning his academic career at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, where he earned a Bachelor's degree in The Comparative Study of Religion with Philosophy as Allied Field in 1991. Subsequently, he attended The Divinity School at The University of Chicago. Perez is an openly gay man, having come out during his senior year at Harvard.
Perez wrote a bi-weekly newspaper column called Soulfully Gay, which was distributed by the Contax Guide and The Weekly News in Florida, among other publications.
He is the founder and manager for four years of the Gay Spirituality & Culture Weblog that originated around the time of the 2004 Gay Spirit Summit (the blog is still published today as the MyOutSpirit.com Gay Spirituality Blog). The Gay Spirit Summit was a gathering of gay men identified as leaders or change agents seeking to shift consciousness in the gay community and raise visibility of transformational experiences in order to change the conversation about what it means to be gay.
Works
Perez is author of two books on spiritual development: Soulfully Gay: How Harvard, Sex, Drugs, and Integral Philosophy Drove Me Crazy and Brought Me Back to God, a book combining a variety of short writings including memoir, journal entries, reviews, and interviews, about his discovering of an Integral approach to understanding the spiritual significance of homosexuality; Rising Up: Reflections on Gay Culture, Politics, Spirit which advances an agenda for gay activism informed by an evolutionary psychological model.Soulfully Gay is a memoir developed from a blog, and chronicles his efforts to come to grips with illness and spirituality. It is a chronologically organized diary through which Perez describes the events that led him from being a Catholic youth from a working class background to a Harvard student, and then on to sexual rebellion, drug abuse, living with HIV/AIDS, and ultimately discovering himself as a mystic and philosopher. The philosopher and psychologist Ken Wilber
Ken Wilber
Kenneth Earl Wilber II is an American author who has written about mysticism, philosophy, ecology, and developmental psychology. His work formulates what he calls Integral Theory. In 1998, he founded the Integral Institute, for teaching and applications of Integral theory.-Biography:Ken Wilber was...
wrote a column for BeliefNet over a year before the book's publication, in which he compared Perez to the French dramatist Antonin Artaud
Antonin Artaud
Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud, more well-known as Antonin Artaud was a French playwright, poet, actor and theatre director...
, in that he "rescued his life from disaster by turning it into art."
Perez’s primary insight, according to Toby Johnson, is defining what he calls “The Importance of Being Gay.” In a series of short essays he argues that there are four major patterns, archetypal and universal: masculine, feminine, other-directed, and same-directed. In Perez's philosophy, Love is said to be a manifestation of the soul’s desire to be reunited with God both as love for others (heterophilia) and love for the self or similar (homophilia). Perez himself, in a dialogue with Ken Wilber
Ken Wilber
Kenneth Earl Wilber II is an American author who has written about mysticism, philosophy, ecology, and developmental psychology. His work formulates what he calls Integral Theory. In 1998, he founded the Integral Institute, for teaching and applications of Integral theory.-Biography:Ken Wilber was...
published by Integral Naked, said that he views the autobiographical climax of his book to be a reflection of homophilia in its positive and negative forms, Love (Agape) and Fear (Thanatos).
He lives in Seattle, Washington.
As Author
- Soulfully Gay: How Harvard, Sex, Drugs, and Integral Philosophy Drove Me Crazy and Brought Me Back to God
- Rising Up: Reflections on Gay Culture, Politics, Spirit