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Beyond Joy was born in a tepee on the mountains of north-eastern Washington State. In his early years he was home schooled in British Columbia, Canada, and all over the US, including the Hopi Nation where he spoke more Hopi than English. At ten his parents started a seven year teaching career at small Quaker schools and they moved to New Hampshire. He later attended Quaker schools in North Carolina, Georgia and California. For his Junior Year in High School he joined, with his parents, the Buddhist organized Interfaith Pilgrimage for Peace and Life walking from Auschwitz, Poland, to Hiroshima, Japan. Since then he has participated in many activist marches, including the Native American Sacred Run around Ireland and Scotland, the For Mother Earth 2000 Walk for Nuclear Disarmament from the World Court in Den Hague to NATO HQ in Brussels, Belgium, and protests at the School of the Americas.

Beyond joined the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) when he was four and has been an active member ever since. He Graduated Guilford College completing the Quaker Leadership Scholars Program and the Bonner Scholar community service program. More recently he was asked to speak at the Friends Peace Witness in a Time of Crises where he presented Passionate Peacemaking, a story about being a Quaker Peace Activist.

Currenlty living in Greensboro, North Carolina, he is newly married. He works as an IT Branch Specialist at the Self-Help Credit Union where he is responsible for sixty-two people across eight branches. Self-Help is a mission driven non-profit who's aim is to offer economic opportunities to minorities, women, people in rural parts of North Carolina and more recently Latinos. With over a billion in assets, Self-Help is one of the few players that stand a fighting chance taking on Payday or "predatory" lenders who are basically trying to screw low income home owners out of their homes.