My Experiences at Burning Man

I am well aware that many of the things contained within this post will make me sound like a loon.

I've always felt a sense of separation in the default world. There is a belief that you cannot trust people you don't know. A belief that if you're too open with others, they will take advantage and you'll get screwed over. This paranoia and feeling of separation is extremely painful to the human spirit because our natural inclination is to be united with each other.

Burning Man unites people. Everyone leaves their failed ideologies at the gate. Money does not exist at BM. It runs on a gifting community where everyone gives to one another. It looks like a normal city with bars, clubs, shops and services except everything is given to you. Bring a cup with you to the bar and they'll put a drink in it. We saw a yard sale where you can take anything you want and the price is a hug. There was an art car driving around the open area of the desert called the Dusty Diner and you can hop on and get grilled cheese and coffee while listening to jams from the 1940s. People have really embraced the giving spirit and you can see how much joy is created when we stop placing importance on our items and start placing importance on our people.

Burning Man is a place for self expression. Social judgments, norms, and fears of rejection are left in the default world. People can be whoever they want and express themselves in any manner they choose without fear of reprisal. If you're not participating and expressing yourself, you stand out as the weird one. Someone described the atmosphere in the following way: A person wearing a polo shirt and dockers will look just as out of place at Burning Man as a naked man covered in feathers walking through the cafeteria at work.

Burning Man is a place for art. I have never seen so much beautiful artwork in all my life. Some of the pieces are HUGE. One of the structures was 10 stories tall. Many of them are interactive and lots of them shoot fire. Many of them are built on vehicles called art cars, or mutant vehicles, which drive around the city with very impressive sound systems. Some are mobile party platforms shaped like pirate ships or UFOs and people dance on them while they travel around. Some people express their artwork in their costumes. I liked all the fire stuff and one guy was dressed as a fireman and he walked around with propane tanks on his back and flamethrowers on his wrists.

Burning Man is a place for the spirit. When you're in a supportive community that takes care of you and you ditch your paranoia and really let strangers into your heart without fear of being smashed, something awakens within you and you realize that this is how human beings are meant to live. We are meant to give and take care of each other rather than hurt each other. Happiness for all is a beautiful thing. The whole week I was there, I didn't see any fighting. Aggression was extremely rare. Keep in mind we're talking about a city of 50,000 people in extreme proximity to each other on all kinds of different drugs. In any other city, get 50 drunk people in a bar and somebody is going to want to throw down. That just doesn't happen at Burning Man.

Why do we have the event in such an extreme geographic location? We live in the desert for a week with HOT temperatures during the day and cold temperatures at night. There are dust storms so intense that you can't see your hand in front of your face. People are still walking around dancing in the storm, wearing dust masks and goggles like desert warriors. Nobody struggles through these conditions alone. If you are in need of water or food, people will provide it. People will insist that you come into their shade domes for shelter and won't take no for an answer.

We have a term called 'playadipity.' The sandy area of Burning Man is called the playa, which is Spanish for 'beach.' Playadipity refers to serendipitous experiences at Burning Man and there are many magical examples of it. I'd like to share several stories of my time on the playa and the magic that works in that place but first I'll give some background about how I reached this point in my life.

I have been a spiritual seeker for 6 years now. Since it all began, I felt success for the first 6 months and have struggled, clawing and grasping, the rest of the way. I won't go into my awakening at this time but I bring it up because I have been trying to get back there for more than 5 years. I was vibrating on a high energy level when I made my breakthrough at age 18 and have felt nowhere close since then. My spiritual path has always been on my mind but I have put it to the side to finish school and to work full time. It all turned around when I decided that I was going to drop everything else and just go for it.

I quit my job, bought a ticket to Burning Man, and booked a flight to Australia to leave 4 days after BM. Throwing myself head first into the walls I had created seemed like the right choice. Burning Man was the perfect catalyst for me because it attracts a lot of people who vibrate on a high level. I am very sensitive to energetic people and can usually feel them around me. In the default world, I occasionally run into them but it's rare. At Burning Man, they were all around me and every time I followed an intuitive pull to talk to someone, I found one. It was the first time I experienced a community in which I truly felt loved, just for the fact that I am a human being.

With each day that passed, I felt more in tune energetically and began to remember all the lessons that I had forgotten:

All people make mistakes. We must act with compassion towards others rather than with negativity. How do you judge your own faults? We understand that there are parts of ourselves that we do not like but we are patient with ourselves and realize that it takes time to overcome negative habits. Treat the faults of others' in the same way because they are struggling with them just as you are struggling with yours.

Love is the greatest gift you can give to someone. Love is free of judgment and full of support. We develop love for people we know and care about but it is important to love everyone in just the same manner. We are all human and are all trying to be happy in this life. We all struggle and don't have to struggle through it alone. In the default world, we are on the defensive against other people, trying to avoid judgments and scams. If all humans loved each other as they love themselves, we would all be able to relax and deal with all the other negativity in our lives, namely that which exists in our own minds. The journey to true lasting happiness exists within ourselves, not in the world of money and possessions.

Everyone is amazing. The human psyche is very complex. That quiet guy in the corner has a whole story to tell and many talents to share. In fact, it's often the quietest people who are the most talented and have the greatest potential. A simple inquiry into someone's life is often all it takes to discover these 'hidden gem' people.

I remembered all these lessons and countless others. It all began to flood back into my mind and help me realize what I had been doing wrong all these years. I was filled with a new vigor and stepped forward into this new and familiar direction with purpose.

We exist as body, mind and spirit. Everyone hears the voice of their spirit but it is often confused with the voice of mind and discarded as weird, illogical thoughts. Intuition asks you to do things that your mind cannot understand in that moment. "I feel compelled to talk to that random person but I don't even know them. Ehh.. I'm not going to because they'll think I'm weird." Guess what, you just missed an opportunity. We are drawn to certain things, people, places on an energetic level. It's irrelevant whether or not you believe in this energetic system because it acts on you just the same. Most people have at some point or another followed one of these intuitions and found it led them to something which provided an answer they had been seeking. Going further, most people do not follow these intuitions all the time, convincing themselves that there are more important things to do in that moment.

The spirit is the most intelligent voice in our being. Even if the mind thinks it knows better, it does not. When a conflict of mind and spirit exists, let the spirit win. This is something I had not been doing in my 5 years of struggle and I decided to change that. Moving forward with trust and absence of fear for the unknown, I went out into the Burning Man world. I was led to the top of the man and started talking to people about my ideas of a consciousness revolution. If you haven't heard me talk about this yet, it'll have to wait for another time because it'll consume another few pages.

I followed intuition and met a guy named Rob who is on the same life path as myself. We had both awakened some time ago but had since lost our way. We had both recently decided to scrap our lives that were devoid of meaning and pursue the spiritual once again. Interestingly, the spirit voice led me to many people throughout the week who were in this exact position as Rob and myself. We formed a good friendship and relationship and will support each other through the next steps of the journey.

We headed to the temple together, which is a place for people to let go. The most common thing that people let go of is loved ones who have passed on but people also let go of failed relationships, personal fears and doubts, and anything else. By now, I was almost in an intuitive trance and had completely placed aside my doubts of the spirit and fears of people thinking I was crazy. Every person I was led to was of a like mind and realized the truth of a consciousness revolution working through our world. I decided to write a few things on the temple wall. I wrote two things, one of which I could remember later: "HUMANITY IS NOT DOOMED TO FAIL." I remember that it took me awhile to write this short phrase due to an uneven, grainy wooden surface.

The next day, I found myself back at the temple. I couldn't remember what I wrote in the second message so I went back to the location I had written it in. Upon seeing it, I became extremely confused. In the location I had written in, was a message from another person but written in my handwriting. At first I thought someone had very similar handwriting to myself but I could not find another message in the same area that was from me. I sat down next to it and analyzed the writing. The whole message was written by my hand, but the style changed from the beginning to the end. Midway through the message, character styles began to change. For example, I write "d" with a straight downward stroke but the d in the message had a loop in it. Near the end was an "&" and I never write these. I always spell out "a-n-d." The message was one of regret and apology and although there was no indication of it in the message, I somehow knew it was from a mother to a daughter. I still do not know for sure but the only explanation I have is that I somehow unknowingly channeled this message from a mother's spirit to the temple wall for her daughter. I tried to remember what happened but I have no recollection of writing the second message. I did write the first message, which was 6 words and took awhile to write on the grainy surface but I have no memory of writing this paragraph-long message. Weird.

On Friday, we were on a spirit guided bike ride and were led to center camp when the pull stopped. We were sitting around wondering why we weren't going anywhere when Ben walked up out of nowhere and said he was going to take us to a sound healing session at sunset. It was somewhat miraculous that Ben had found our mobile group in this huge city but he walked up all nonchalant as if he knew we would be there waiting for him. As my friends and I became more in tune throughout the week, miraculous events such as this became commonplace and accepted phenomena. I can think of several instances in which we found each other intuitively in just the same manner, despite the lack of cell phones or modern communicatory devices. It wasn't a ludicrous idea to try to send someone a telepathic message if we weren't able to meet in the place that we said we would.

Ben took us to the deep deep playa to a circular, open building called the Sapphire Portal. It was painted sky blue and inside were people lying down against the circular walls and healers walking around with instruments, mostly didgeridoos. After lying down and relaxing, healer after healer passed by me and each time, I felt closer to some type of release. What finally did it was a woman who was singing and channeling a beautiful, haunting song. Energetically, her voice and song sounded like it was mother earth crying out in pain. I had seen many beautiful things and experienced releases the week that brought tears to my eyes but none of them were quite like this.

Tears began to stream down my face one after another and were not stopping. I used to try to keep from crying because of the whole 'try to be a tough guy' thing but release is necessary and feels really good. After crying for a long time, I got up to go over to Sierra and Ben. We had a group embrace with our heads in the middle but didn't break it for quite some time. To give some background, all three of us have been good friends and all independently reached decisions to give up our lives of struggle to walk in the spirit. We all had an unspoken understanding that even though we were all headed separate physical directions in our lives, we are walking parallel paths and at some point in the future, have a common purpose to accomplish together. The silent embrace that we shared signified this common understanding. We stood there together in the Sapphire Portal for quite some time when I noticed that we were surrounded by the didgeridoo healers. I could hear many other instrument types and the haunting voice approach us. It was as if they felt the bond between us and knew that we needed support. I felt something powerful welling up inside of me which was finally released when Ben broke into sobs. I broke into sobs almost immediately afterward and we cried together for quite awhile. I could feel the energy of this release move through the room. Tears are often mistaken as an indication of sadness but in this case, we felt genuinely lucky and blessed to be standing amongst loved ones in that place in that moment. Well after the sun had set, the session ended and a guy came over and thanked us for the beautiful moment. I sat down and asked him what he had seen. He told me about his experience of it and how he broke into sobs after we did. He looked up into the sky and saw a shooting star pass over the portal, the first he had seen in his life.

I followed my spirit the rest of the week. One morning I felt a very urgent pull to get to Ben and Sierra's camp as soon as I could and I left immediately even though breakfast was ready and I had not eaten. I ended up meeting a ton of really cool people over there who were receptive to my ideas and mindset. The more I followed my spirit, the more "in-tune" I became. I have always been sensitive to the energy of people but it started to reach levels I had not experienced before. I could sense the vibe of entire groups of people. I had felt this before in Chico but not to this degree. Feelings and attitudes can move through the collective consciousness of people like ripples through a pond made of individual water droplets. Even though we are all different as people, our spirits are of the same nature and we all respond to the ripples that move through the collective consciousness. For example, on the night of the man burn, I felt an extremely nervous and anxious energy moving through the entire city. It was really bothering me because I wanted everyone to chill out and relax but it just wasn't happening. I talked to Lizzie about it and she had noticed it too. She explained that major burns act as a type of big release and that anxiety is common before a 50,000 person simultaneous release. She assured me that everything would be fine afterwards but that people would be freaking out a little until then. Outside of the tent, I could hear people in my own camp swearing and raising their voices at each other. I hadn't heard any semblance of aggression the entire week so it really stood out in my mind.

Sunday night was the temple burn. After a week of people placing their intentions and energy into the temple, it is set ablaze and the energy is released. I had a flash vision earlier in the week that the temple burn would be the most intense experience of my life so I was feeling a little nervous. Sierra and I went together and followed intuition to find a group of friends and we sat down together. Torches were brought out by robed individuals and the whole temple was ablaze quite quickly. Thousands of us sat together in silence until something happened that brought chills up my spine. A series of tightly wrapped smoke devils started coming out of the temple, one after another. Fifteen or so twisters came out at a steady rate, 20 feet apart from one another. Tears were once again brought to my eyes. The lighter pieces of wood all burned away, leaving the heavier support beams. It took some time for the rest of the temple to fall, which created an extended silence and time for contemplation. The beams finally weakened and fell to the ground with a twist. Most of the beams came to the ground but a few fell into one another and remained standing. It took me a second to notice but a friend and I realized that the structure contained lots of geometric shapes, including a perfect equilateral triangle and several right triangles. I don't know anything about sacred geometry but I would like to look into it and discover what the formation means.

Immediately after the temple fell, the wind began to pick up and a massive dust storm blew in. The wind whipped and the rain fell, kicking everyone's ass. I was lucky enough to be with friends who had a van so I could escape the elements. The storm blew over and we decided to trek out into the intense cold to find some people to hang out with. The energy of the city had changed for sure and it felt calmer in that moment than it had all week. It was as if the releases I had felt were experienced by the region in a similar manner. The build up of tension and energy in the temple over the week, followed by the release of tension and a kickass storm (tears), followed by calmness, serenity and peace of mind. I could hear the voice of my spirit quite clearly and felt completely energized.

We wandered until we found a fire to sit by. It was a propane flame about 2 feet high coming straight out of a pipe in the sand. The lack of coals meant it wasn't very hot but it was certainly better than no flame at all. I decided to experiment with elemental magic, trying to move the flame with my energy. I placed my hands close to the base of the flame and shot energy out of my palms. With intense concentration and focus (and lots of energy) I was able to blow the whole flame over as if I was blowing air out of my lungs as hard as I could. When I stopped releasing energy, the flame came back. The fight to control the flame was futile but I enjoyed being able to control it at my will. Fire does not like to be controlled and lashes out like a puppy being reprimanded. At one point, I sat so close to the flame that a shift in the wind would put me in the fire. When the wind shifted toward me, I resisted the reaction to pull away and stood my ground, pushing the flame away from me with energy. I realized that although I was successful with my attempt at fire manipulation, I had a lot more to learn. I used my energy very inefficiently and I felt myself become drained very quickly. With better control, I could have achieved the same result with a fraction of the energy output. Like aikido, you use the fire's own energy against it rather than trying to overcome it with brute force.

On this night, I met many very interesting people. Patterns were emerging in my life, pointing me to learn and explore certain subjects. These include ayahuasca, shamanism, sacred geometry, crystals, indigo children, and elves. Does that sound weird? Trust me, it is, but this is what I was being led to. My intuitive voice was reaching a new level. Instead of just leading me to people or places, it began to provide information. The information always came in a flash, like an 'Aha!' moment.

I made a friend, Wayne, who had knowledge of astrology and told me some things about myself. I have sent him my birth date and time so he can read my full chart, which I am looking forward to reading. Later in the morning I had a flash insight about Wayne that he would make a good priest but not a priest in the Christian sense but more like a spiritual priest. He asked, 'Like a shaman?' and I said 'Yes!' and he responded that he knew. Every intuition I had about him he already knew which is good and means that he is in tune with the voice of his own spirit. He also has a talent for sacred geometry which he hasn't yet explored and I'm excited to learn about his progress on that subject.

Together, we met a guy named David who was wandering around. I gave him an idea of the types of things we were talking about and upon learning that he was interested in the same, the three of us wandered together. It turns out that David had some experiences with ayahuasca and told us some very interesting stories about journeys into other dimensions. This was the 3rd or 4th time ayahuasca had been brought to my attention and I will be seeking out a shaman to have a journey of my own. Ayahuasca is one of the strongest intuitive pulls I have going on right now and I know it will bring me unfathomable amounts of wisdom.

We wandered, taking pictures of artwork, and I began dispelling negative energy and casting blessings and light grenades into the darkness. I met a Danish man and hugged him upon meeting him, a common greeting in Black Rock City. We hugged for more than 5 minutes and when we released, there were tears in his eyes. The sun was beginning to rise and I was drawn to a group of people that I saw. I met a girl named Sara who had the same intuitive sight into people that I had. She was struggling with it slightly but after we started hanging out, she became more confident in her ability and really started to excel. We healed many people together that morning, giving them insight into their lives and helping them to confront their demons, rather than hide from them. She had knowledge of crystals and rocks and gave me a piece of amber to help my focus. I could tell a story about each of the people we healed that morning and each of those stories holds many miracles which to me now seemed commonplace.

A pretty girl walked out onto the playa on a morning walk and my intuition asked me to call her over. She and David were immediately drawn to each other and I saw how well their energies worked together. I pulled Sara aside to tell her to watch their interaction because the lifetime bond of a very spiritual couple was being formed in that moment. She could see it too. I wish words could do it justice but watching them together was beautiful to behold. Before she left, I gave her a hug goodbye and an intuitive flash came through for her. She is a very gentle person with nothing but good intentions for others and I told her that I was excited for her because she had been patiently waiting a long time to reach the point she is at now. She is moving into a really good place in her life and is doing so patiently and slowly, avoiding the recklessness that overexcitement can bring when you finally reach something that has taken you so long to achieve. She smiled a bright smile, confirming that she knew all this, thanked me and walked into the desert.

Background before I continue. The previous night, I had been talking to a girl who was telling me about elves and how elves are real. She didn't believe it herself until she was drawn to a class about them. The teacher asked if anyone had ever felt like they were an elf and this girl raised her hand. The teacher asked what type of elf she was and she didn't know but knew how to embody the feeling. She did a type of elven walk and the teacher started telling her all kinds of things about that type of elf, which resonated with her to a high degree.

I traded contact information with David, who had the word 'sylvan' in his email address. I asked him what it meant and it means 'from the forest.' In that moment, I realized how much David looked like an elf. He is very tall and slender and has elf-like facial characteristics. I straight up asked him if he is an elf and he said he didn't know but it was weird that I should bring that up because he was staying in a theme camp called the Elven Nation. An insight came through that he should read about elves and I told him about it.

Sunrise had come some time ago and people were starting to split off. I was being pulled back to the camp where Sierra was and Sara and I both knew she should come with me. The camp we hung out at had a lot of young people and all of them were very high energy. Almost all of them seemed to be indigo children. I was talking to Chris about my experiments with fire manipulation when we noticed a dust devil spinning out in the playa. I asked him if he wanted to help me make it grow larger and we both focused energy on it to accomplish this task. It did indeed begin to grow larger. I saw two twisters in another part of the desert and said that I would try to dispel them. Unsure of how to go about it, I watched to see which way they were spinning and then used energetic fists to grasp one of the twisters and spin it the opposite way. The twister I was focused on began to lose shape and quickly broke apart. I started on the other one and dispelled it within 5 seconds. I started running and jumping around pumping my fists and kicking the air, excited and overjoyed that energetics are real and that I was finally making some progress in discovering them.

Sara was sitting at camp and asked Emily if the two of them had met before. Emily knew they hadn't but was wondering the same thing. She said, "No, but I somehow feel that you're like me." The two of them had remarkably similar facial features, including striking green eyes, the left one hanging lower than the right one. Emily said that she has encountered twins of hers before and that it's not unusual to find someone who looks the same and has the same energy. The 'sisters' traded information and said they would keep in contact.

Later in the morning, I was sitting by a girl I hadn't met who said aloud that she needed some money for gas to get herself home. As soon as she said it, I felt an inner pull that compelled me to help her, no matter the cost. I asked her how much she needed, she said $80, and I gave her all of it. She looked really surprised and said she didn't even know my name.

"Finch."
"Where are you going Finch?"
"Actually, I'm moving to Australia on Thursday."
"Really? I'm from Australia! Wow, oh oh.. I can give you lots of people to contact over there. You can meet my friends and family and come live in our community. We have a van! You can use it to help you travel!"

Everyone around us was completely blown away at what just happened in the last 60 seconds, especially me. Brought together by the playa to help each other. After hanging out with her for a short time, I noticed that we were extremely comfortable around each other right off the bat. We looked deeply into each others' eyes, straight into the spirit. She is a beautiful person, inside and out, and I found that I loved her completely. Now, I have never had an experience quite like this. I typically am a little cautious with my heart and with who I let get close to me when it comes to matters of romance. However, with Piule, I trusted her completely from the very first moment. We held hands, cuddled, and napped together and our interaction reminded me of the innocent days, like 6 year olds holding hands on the playground. Frankie came up to us to tell us how beautiful we were together and later Sierra told me that everyone recognized an energetic connection between Piule and I. When Sierra and I were getting ready to leave Burning Man, we hugged one last time. I was going to tell her that I love her but she told me first.

Another strange occurrence was that I kept forgetting her name. I am typically very good with names and seldom forget them, especially those names of people with whom I've strongly connected. I didn't realize it until after we had left but I kept feeling the inclination to call her by another name. This is when it occurred to me that this is not the first time I had met her. It occurred to me that with the level of comfort we had right away and this other name I wanted to call her by, we must have known each other in another life. Before this moment, I did not have a personal experience to connect me to the truth of reincarnation. My mind does not have the pieces of the puzzle to figure all this out logically but my heart knows the truth of it and that is enough. I had not told Piule about my awareness of this connection but she sent me a text message telling me what an honor it was to reconnect with me in this life time. I have been thinking about her a lot and I can feel her thinking about me as well.

These stories are the highlights of my Burning Man experience. There are so many more magical stories that were made possible by following my spirit and intuitive voice but they cannot all be listed here. I am well aware that much of this makes me seem like a crazy person, especially the bit about elemental magic and elves, but that's ok with me. We've been taught all our lives that we cannot trust anything without scientific proof. I'm not a genius scientist or anything but I think it'd be pretty hard to prove the existence of telepathic or energetic connections. Perhaps one day soon science will devote more resources to the paranormal.

I've always believed in the existence of higher human abilities like manifestation, psychics, empaths, and even telekinesis. I am starting to see that the paranormal realm extends much farther than I ever thought and that perhaps witchcraft, spells, magic, and mystical creatures do exist. Rather than write them off without any knowledge on the matter, I am willing to explore the possibility. I will be looking into shamanism and aboriginal knowledge so hopefully they will help shed some light on the matter. Check back here for field reports.

Much love,

Finch