Cody Johnson

Gary “Cody” Johnson (10 October 1939 – 18 December 2011)

"An early life of cowboy ranching and railroading that paralleled in many ways Kerouac’s On The Road, Cody began his life as an adventurer. He played second chair clarinet in a symphony orchestra and played tenor saxophone in a jazz band. Always involved as a conscientious objector, he helped raise the funds that released Angela Davis from prison and he started a free school modelled after AS Neill's Summerhill.

"Cody was a man of passion and was driven by a vision that took him to extraordinary places. He was gifted with an intuitive sense of awareness which he generously shared and he dedicated his life to the transformation of consciousness, the conscious evolution of humanity. Gathering people together has been his way of creating change. He was doing this through music when we first met in the 70’s. In the late 60's and 70's music was a powerful vehicle for social, political and environmental awareness and Cody helped plant seeds of change through big musical gatherings with artists like the Jerry Garcia Band, Bonnie Raitt, Blondie, Willie Nelson, Herbie Hancock, Stan Getz, Dave Brubeck, and Wynton Marsalis, benefiting groups like The United Farmworkers Association, SolarCal, The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, homeless shelters and food banks. These musical gatherings were celebrations of the shift in perception that was taking place at that time.

"Following what has heart and meaning, our work shifted from producing musical artists to promoting teachers of consciousness. Cody had been a long time student of Alan Watts, Gurdjieff and Krishnamurti and our first GreatMystery.org workshop was in 1992 on Maui with Carlos Castaneda and his party. This was followed by teachers such as Terence McKenna, Stanislav Grof, and Gabrielle Roth. Great Mystery then began presenting conferences and sacred tours in the US, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Egypt, India, Malta, and the UK under the banners of The Prophets Conference and The Great Rethinking, synthesizing new findings in science with the deeper understandings of spirituality. It has been our honor and pleasure to present to you some of the greatest contemporary thinkers such as Jose Arguelles, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Ram Dass, Edgar Mitchell, Andrew Harvey, Starhawk, and Satish Kumar...

"Author and friend Tom Robbins, shortly after the release of his book, Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, said we are “the gypsy campus of Timbuktu U.”. This feels so appropriate, especially now with our Great Mystery Online programs..."