Wow. What can I say.
Burning Man was fantastic. A journey more than an event. Truly a “life” experience.
68,000 people camping in the middle of an inhospitable desert.
Dirty. Excited. Open.
Dressed in costumes, people parade around proudly gifting things to one another and appreciating the generosity of others.
Massive art projects give an impressive life to the playa, mesmerizing people by day and dazzling them with neon lights at night.
Seminars and workshops around everything you can imagine go from dawn til dusk. Sex, spirituality, flexibility, change, dance…you name it.
But not everyone wants to make the journey to Black Rock City. Not everyone wants to live on a desert for a week. Not everyone wants to go without a shower for 7 days or wait in a 12-hour lineup to get in.
If you can’t make it out to one, you could always create your own at home. You’d simply have to…
- Organize space for a large gathering of open-minded people from all walks of life.
- Arrange for massive, expensive and extremely detailed art projects to be lined up all over the community. I’m talking about large climbable 30-foot iron statues of wolves, 20-foot tall human hands that can cup you like a baby and big tents with the most insane psychedelic paintings known to man-kind. This is just a start.
- Find extremely generous people who are willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of effort to transform their vehicles into giant mutant flaming octopuses, disco-dance floors and double-decker armadillos.
- Encourage generosity amongst all participates where people gift everything from hugs, kisses, food, alcohol, and even free plane rides.
- Organize hundreds of “seminars”, “meet ups” and “talks” around subjects of all kinds. Things like samba dancing, female masturbation classes, yoga, unconditional love, TEDx talks, erotic massage, improv, Michael Jackson Thriller dance sessions and so forth. Yup, anything goes.
- Set up massive parties all over the place every single night that don’t stop until the sun comes up. Bring in DJ’s from all over the world willing to perform for free.
- Make a human carcass wash come to life with hundreds of naked people cleaning each other just like a car wash. Pre-soak, soap, rinse and squeegee.
- Create a safe environment where people can try new things, challenge their boundaries or simply be themselves. This includes walking around completely naked, dressing in ridiculous costumes or anything else that participants feel they need to do.
- Create a large, impressive structure to go with the events theme. Maybe a UFO that people can walk in and play around with. Build a giant “man” on the top of it. Make it beautiful. Then burn it down. Actually, make it explode after launching an insane amount of fireworks into the sky.
- Build an absolutely stunning temple for people to visit and feel. Here, people can leave prayers for loved ones who have passed away, write down things they wish to change about themselves, share their love for the event, or anything else they feel compelled to do. They can just sit and think about life or make plans for the future. Anything they want to say, think or pray about. The temple is a peaceful place for all. At the end of the event, burn it down.
I could go on. This is just a start.
Then again, you could just make a trip to Burning Man.
Welcome to the playa.
Have you been? Do you want to go?