Everything under the Sun is in tune, but the sun is eclipsed by the Moon. One of the brightest suns in our firmament has seemingly gone dark. But this is only an eclipse. We can’t look directly at it because we know that will hurt us, as much for the beauty as for the power of it. But the darkness we sense is our perception of loss. Like an eclipse, this intense sadness will simply pass across that radiance, and we will soon see that he’s shining brighter than ever before.

Michael William Gosney, loving son, brother, father and grandfather, tender partner, trusted friend, inspiring leader, tireless activist, visionary creator, and spiritual man, has…decided to be here with us tonight. We can all feel him. The synchronicities, the backplane events, are everywhere. And, really, do you think he would miss this? He’s the producer of this event! This is the ultimate GozSalon. After Michael championed so many conscious causes and celebrated so many people and produced so many parties with purpose, we finally get to celebrate, and contemplate, the very best element of all those events, Michael himself. I know he’s here with us.

This community is rare in this increasingly divided and often lonely world. Tonight, we remember that we are a tribe of sympathetic hearts all over the world, and now more than ever we must rejoice in the miracle of our shared journey together. Like Burning Man and Earthdance, events that cohere community and spark transcendent collective experience, losing someone like Michael is a flashpoint. It is at once a consequence that triggers deep sadness, but it also demonstrates Michael’s community in action, in awareness, in love. That is a wonderful thing. We are the community he lived for. And we are all so much better for having known him.

Sometimes, with people like Michael, those who seem superhuman, larger-than-life, celebrities in their fields, there is a tendency to forget that they, like the rest of us, have real families. And Michael’s family is grieving tonight, in the way only families can grieve.

Michael loved his family with all his soul. He was immensely proud of his daughters Kate and Rachel, and he absolutely adored his grandchildren. He loved being a granddad—I remember thinking, wow, he’s good at that, too. He loved his mom. He was a good son. At 94 years young, Lou couldn’t be with us tonight in person, but she is watching. Let us offer our deepest condolences to Michael’s mother, Lou, sister Kim, brother Jeff, daughters Kate and Rachel, and grandkids Harrison, Ophelia, and Clara. They are all in our hearts tonight.

I know that the news about Michael was a shock to many in this room, to countless friends around the world, all of whom would have without hesitation come to his side had they known of his struggle. Time did not allow this, and that makes our healing all the more difficult. I think it is important that we all understand and take comfort in the perfection and personal fulfillment of Michael’s transition.  

As you might imagine, for such a strong, intelligent, and purposeful man, it was difficult, at first, for him to let go. Even in debilitating pain, he was thinking of others, and he hated being a burden. People like Michael are those who CARRY the burden. But I want to assure you all that he did find peace and acceptance, and he understood that his life made a profound difference, that he was a positive influence in the lives of many, many people. He knew that IT WAS GOOD. And he was ready for the next big adventure

The people that were gathered around him in the final weeks were the most conscious, committed, and loving group I have witnessed in my life. Everyone did everything they could. There were so many that did so much, and far too many to thank in person here.

In his final days, Michael was cradled in the arms of the goddesses, His beloved daughters Kate and Rachel were there with his beloved granddaughters, Ophelia, and Clara. His longtime, treasured friend Penna Piper made the journey to be with him once more. His most cherished life partners were there for him as if time had stopped. Carla King came to him with deep understanding and took him gently through the process of acceptance with what can only be described as a grace supreme. Chloe Le Barre drove hours to be with him yet again. Michael’s close friend Amy Carr was an anchor for weeks on end, providing care and grounding everyone, defining what it truly means to consciously hold space for others. She was with Michael all through his final night. In the morning, when his time came, his daughter Kate and granddaughter Clara were by his side. I know that his spirit was light as a feather.

For me, Michael was my big brother. While I’ve always had buddies who were older than me, Michael was the only one I let be my big brother. I think he knew he fulfilled that role for me and wasn’t shy about exerting the requisite pressure, playing that card, when it was needed. If I was too confident, too reckless, or too egocentric about something, he would yank me back down to terra firma. If I was bitching and moaning and crying in my drink, he would kick me in the ass, hard. That’s what big brothers do for little brothers.

There are so many things I admire about him. One, he didn’t talk badly about people. He didn’t suffer fools in the least, but he had no time for fussing and fighting, my friend. He saw the best in people, and that was the secret to his extraordinary gift of bringing people together. Because he saw the best in us, he knew who we would most inspire, and most be inspired by.

He wasn’t motivated by wealth or fame, his purpose on this earth could not be defined or confined by such ephemeral and illusory things. Of course, he understood that money was needed to fuel his work, but he always judged the success of his ventures in terms of positive impact and cultural enlightenment, and never by how much he profited personally.

He never succumbed to negativity or despair. When he experienced projects that stumbled, enterprises that failed, or relationships that ended, he dusted himself off and got down to work.

He wasn’t afraid to put himself on the line, to hold the torch so that something important was illuminated, to march out front and declare that our best intentions must lead us ever forward and would carry us through. He always asked us to “Trust the Flow.”

He was a gifted writer and editor, a true polymath, a philosopher of the highest order. He was a deeply spiritual man, a tireless seeker of wisdom and higher consciousness who stayed the path until his final breath.

Nearly everyone who knew Michael was aware of, and likely very impressed by, what he called his Backplane Theory. To summarize this, the Backplane is Michael’s comprehension of a Universal Mind, a noosphere-like repository of all thoughts and ideas. But Michael took this conception several steps further. He also speculated how it might function and how our relationship to it was essential to our ethics and purpose.

Michael postulated that the Backplane, whether it be a celestial library compiling and transmitting information in some real dimensional sense, or a phenomenon existing solely in our collective psyche and archetypal consciousness, must reflect the processes of nature and biology, just as those processes are also reflected in our new realms of digital technology. As above, so below.

And because the Backplane exists outside of time, the quality of experience we bring to it both creates our future and reconstructs our past. Therefore, every moment can be transformative, transcendent. In this very moment we are resolving Michael’s human past through the Backplane, while also bringing our love into his divine future.

In essence, Michael’s Backplane theory is a brilliant and inspiring reimagining of our concept of, and our relationship with SPIRIT. The ancient Greeks called it aether, the pure essence that the gods breathed. In the East, Akasha was imagined as an ethereal fluid pervading the cosmos. The Stoics and the Platonists conceived of it as the basis for thought and creation, the Logos. The Gospels called it the Word. Jung termed it the collective human unconscious.

This is the realm of thought explored by the sages, the seers, the oracles, the alchemists. In his philosophy, Michael was of a mind with the great thinkers of human history. But even more than that, Michael’s life exemplified the Backplane in action. He didn’t just seek it, he sought to be it. He didn’t just conceive it; he consciously became it. And now he is pure spirit. He is completely free. And he is everywhere.

When Michael told me he was sick, after absorbing the initial shock, I suggested we record a series of dialogs on the Backplane, and if he wasn’t able to write it, I would get it to the finish line with the help of his many capable colleagues. He was excited to do this, and I flew to be with him, but things had already progressed to the point where he didn’t have the energy to focus on prolonged conversation. We only taped one session, and it was on a subject that he felt represented both a major turning point in his life, and a vivid example of the Backplane in action. Dark Side of the Moon. He shared his story of hearing the album for the first time, and then seeing Pink Floyd perform it in concert, and how this altered the direction and purpose of his life. 

When I sat down to create this eulogy, I knew that Dark Side of the Moon would be my guide, would connect me to Michael and him to me, so that I could feel his spirit and let him guide these words I’m speaking to you now. When I got to the conclusion, I didn’t feel there were any words, no sentence, no paragraph, no quote that could properly summarize his life, express our respect, our admiration, our love for Michael. It would have to be the song “Eclipse” from Dark Side of the Moon.

Then, I got a call from someone who was with Michael and several of Michael’s loved ones shortly after he passed. Someone turned on one of Michael’s media devices and a song immediately came blaring from Michael’s sound system. It was “Eclipse” by Pink Floyd. I knew in my heart that this was indeed what Michael wanted me to share with you.

I listened to “Eclipse” literally hundreds of times while I was writing this, and I suddenly heard something I had never noticed before, something that I am sure will bring Michael to life for me every time I hear it from now on. I think it might do the same for you. And I think this is what Michael wanted us all to hear him express tonight.

Would you like to hear Michael laugh?

Dark Side of the Moon – 40.05 seconds till close of music, final laugh before the band kicks in…