E. J. Gold

Eugene Jeffrey "E.J." Gold (born 1941) is an American spiritual teacher, artist, author, musician, video game designer, and comedian. He has worked with groups of students since the 1960s in a large number of activities including art, music, dance, puppetry, comedy, writing, building, tree planting, gardening, gold mining, video gaming, numismatics, rare books, museums, public art auctions, midwifery, jewelry and public workshops. He is the founder of the Institute for the Development of the Harmonious Human Being.

Gold's large-scale JazzArt paintings have served as backdrops for Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Nancy Wilson, Oscar Peterson, and Toots Thielemans.^[1] His artwork has appeared in the set of Sister, Sister, International Association for Jazz Education,^[2] Jazz at Lincoln Center, and other jazz venues. Gold has written and self published over 50 books. He is the founder of the Institute for the Development of the Harmonious Human Being. In addition to starting an online science fiction museum, he is a voting member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. His science fiction stories and articles have been published in a number of monthlies including Omni Magazine. In 1992 his artwork was part of a collaborative show with writer Margaret Randall at the Cedar Tavern in New York City.

Early life and career

Gold is the son of Horace Gold, founding editor of Galaxy Science Fiction magazine. He collaborated on several novels with his father during the 1960s, and they worked on television scripts during this same period. He grew up in New York City and has stated he is friends with many of the writers from science fiction's golden age. He has appeared on panels with Isaac Asimov, Harlan Ellison, and Alfred Bester at science fiction conventions.

As a child he created and presented his artwork at the Children's Art Carnival at the Museum of Modern Art (1944–49). He has numbered among his friends many of the artists of the Woodstock Art Association where he spent his summers. In the summer of 1953 he attended Camp Woodlands in Phoenecia, New York. In 1956 he moved to Hollywood, where his mother worked as a story editor for the Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock television shows. He attended Los Angeles City College, Otis Art Institute, and showed at Robert Comara and Joan Ankrum Galleries with friend/mentors Fritz Schwaderer and Peter Jan Hirschfeld.

Happenings

In the 1960s Gold worked as a jazz musician, composer, and photographer for Tiger Beat magazine. His photos of Harry Nilsson were used by RCA for album covers. He edited Mod Teen Magazine in the 1960s. He also worked as a continuity writer for the Bob Crane radio show on KNX.

Gold staged the "Saints' March" Art Happening where 40 saints were dropped from the official Vatican calendar of saints. The event generated news items in Time magazine and Newsweek leading to several television interviews with Joe Pyne and Richard Dawson.

By the early 1970s Gold emerged as a sculptor and painter associated with the California Nine group.^[3]

Spiritual teaching

Gold has for many years acted as an independent spiritual teacher whose work and style bear a strong affinity with the teachings of G.I. Gurdjieff and the Fourth Way school of thought. Gold's particular style, as evinced in his published writings such as The American Book of the Dead also demonstrate a strong influence of Tibetan tantric teachings such as the concept of bardo or "in-between" states. Like Gurdjieff, the fundamental emphasis of Gold's teaching is on the concept of spiritual "Work" in daily life and a constant effort to increase and maintain heightened awareness in all activities. The state of an individual "in the Work" is thus contrasted to what is taken to be the state of the "ordinary" unawakened individual, who is presumed to go through life in a condition of quasi-automatism or mere social conditioning ("asleep," in the metaphorical terminology of this tradition.)^[4]

Hoax

In 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), Gold published Secret Talks With Mr. G. (Nevada, CA: Gateway Books, 1978) as a well-crafted hoax. Although it worked, it was not appreciated and caused a furor that still follows him.^[5]

Current works

Today Gold is one of the older online gamers, who has participated in the production of Quake 2, Dragon's Lair 3D: Return to the Lair, Necronomicon, and other online first-person shooters. He has worked with Quake's Capture The Flag and with Team Fortress, both online team games used as teaching tools.^[6]

Gold also hosts workshops in onstage comedy and theater. He is responsible for the creation of the You Can Paint art instruction series which is now used at a few universities and art associations. He has also personally conducted public art classes into the 21st century.^[7]

Gold has created a line of hand-crafted fiber art beads, and his painted celebrity-gear clothing line has been shown at various performance venues. His comedic/tragic play Creation Story Verbatim has been performed at several colleges.

Collections

There is an extensive range of paintings by E.J. Gold in the permanent collection of Gallery Arcturus, a public art museum in downtown Toronto.^[8]

Major publications

Science fiction

• E.J. Gold. (2007). DarkSide DreamWalker. Nevada City, Calif.: Gateways/IDHHB Pub. ISBN 0-89556-140-9. 
• Avram Davidson ... (2002). RetroVisions Science Fiction. Nevada City, Calif.: Gateways Books and Tapes. ISBN 0-89556-175-1. 
• SlimeWars: The Epic. 
• Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine (current editor of galaxyezine.org)

Fine art

• Amazing Sculpture You Can Do. 
• Awesome Graphite Landscapes. 
• Charcoal Nudes. 
• Draw Good Now. 
• interpretive drawings by E.J. Gold ; poetry by Iven Lourie ; commentaries by Linda Corriveau. (1991). Miro's Dream. Nevada City, CA: Gateways. ISBN 0-89556-055-0.  CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
• Mysteries of Still Life. 
• E.J. Gold; text by Linda Corriveau; photoart by Nona Hatay. (1990). Pure Gesture. Nevada City, CA: Gateways. ISBN 0-89556-087-9.  see also: Manifesto of Reductionism^[9]

Consciousness, death and dying

• E.J. Gold. (1975). American Book of the Dead. San Francisco: And/Or Press. ISBN 0-915904-12-8.  E.J. Gold; illustrations by George Metzger. (1978). American Book of the Dead (revised). S.l.: I.D.H.H.B. & Doneve Designs. ISBN 0-89556-007-0.  E.J. Gold (1981). New American Book of the Dead. Nevada City, Calif.: IDHHB. ISBN 0-89556-029-1.  written and illustrated by E.J. Gold. (1999) [1987]. American Book of the Dead (revised). Nevada City, CA: Gateways/IDHHB. ISBN 0-89556-051-8.  written by E.J. Gold. (1995). American Book of the Dead (revised). HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-251310-9. 
• E.J. Gold. (1985). The Human Biological Machine as a Transformational Apparatus. Nevada City, CA: Gateways/IDHHB. ISBN 0-89556-046-1. 
• E.J. Gold. (1986). Creation Story Verbatim. Nevada City, CA: Gateways/IDHHB. ISBN 0-89556-047-X.  (Also appears in script format for play.)
• E.J. Gold. (1989). Practical Work on Self. Nevada City, CA: Gateways/IDHHB. ISBN 0-89556-056-9. 
• E.J. Gold. (1989). Visions in the Stone: Journey to the Source of Hidden Knowledge. Gateways/IDHHB. ISBN 0-89556-057-7.  (Introduction by Robert Anton Wilson.)
• E.J. Gold. (1991). Life in the Labyrinth. Nevada City, CA: Gateways/IDHHB. ISBN 0-89556-048-8. 
• E.J. Gold and friends. (2001). The Great Adventure. Nevada City, CA: Gateways Books and Tapes/I.D.H.H.B. ISBN 0-89556-110-7. 
• Alchemical Sex. 
• Angels Healing Journey. 
• Autobiography of a Sufi. 
• Bardo Stations: A Guidebook for the Afterlife. 
• The Book of Sacraments. 
• Brother Godfrey's Journal. 
• The Hidden Work. 
• The Invocation of Presence. 
• The Joy of Sacrifice. 
• The Lazy Man's Guide to Death and Dying. 
• The Original Handbook for the Recently Deceased Workbook, Manual, Practicum.  (with Dr. Claude Needham)
• Secret Talks on Voluntary Evolution. 
• The Seven Bodies of Man. 
• Secret Talks With Mr. G. 
• Shakti: The Gestalt of Zap. 
• Songs My Dead Mother Sang Me.  (with Parker Dickson, et al.)
• Tanks for the Memories.  (with Dr. John C. Lilly)

Secret Talks volumes

• Volume I: The Human Biological Machine as a Transformational Apparatus. 
• Volume II: Work on Self. 
• Volume III: Prayer-Absolute and Sacred Obligation. 
• Volume IV: Visions in the Stone (formerly Journeys to Inaccessible Monasteries). 
• Volume V: Work of Groups. 
• Volume VI: The Seven Bodies of Man. 
• Volume VII: The Great Laws. 
• Volume VIII: Science of Objective Hypnotism. 
• Volume IX: Objective Magic and Ritual. 
• Volume X: The Creation Story Verbatim. 

References