What do you get when you invite forty-thousand of the world’s most energetic people to the blank slate of the Black Rock Desert, and encourage creativity and conservation rather than commerce and consumption?

Racing towards the unknown in a friend’s Jeep, we were drawn toward a spectacle only recently evicted from San Francisco’s Baker Beach. My cohorts and I had no idea what we were about to witness, and even less of an inkling of the cultural phenomenon this seemingly simple ritual would become. Encountering Nevada’s Black Rock Desert for the first time, surrounded by ominous dark clouds and mountains strobe lit by lightning, we felt Western civilization recede as we ventured toward something primitive and timeless.

Through clouds of dust, we followed faint tracks on the playa until we could just make out a blue “X” on the horizon. Tiny at first, the “X” grew larger as we approached and realized that this was indeed the man himself, forty feet tall, outlined in neon, and holding court over a circle of a few hundred people. Just as we stopped the Jeep and jumped on the roof for a better view, a torch was lit and the man burst into flames. Within minutes, the towering electric-blue figure visible for miles was reduced to a blazing bonfire on the ground, inviting the daring to leap through the flames and offering a final home for cherished mementos.

Fast-forward fourteen years, and the dust storm of ‘93 is still referred to as the mother of them all. The ghastly cows skull atop a tricycle that delivered coffee to the early morning survivors lives on in the legend of the Java Cow, and countless myths have evolved to forever change the lives of playa pilgrims. Over the years, Burning Man has become a haven for widely divergent endeavors: radical expressions of creativity coexist alongside transformative healing and spiritual practices. This year marks the first time that Gabrielle Roth’s 5Rhythms® will be represented through the new theme camp RhythmWave. In keeping with this year’s Green Man theme, RhythmWave will host daily sessions of 5Rhythms and Sweat Your Prayers healing dance classes on an eco-friendly sprung bamboo dance floor. Roth’s ecstatic dance modality offers a perfect way to process the sensory overload that accompanies any trip to the playa and a framework where you can center yourself in the company of a conscious community.  

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Here’s how a day in Black Rock City might look as seen through a map of the 5Rhythms.

 • You arrive full of wonder and find yourself among incredible art installations as you glide smoothly on your bicycle.

• A booming sound system beckons and you follow the beat to the playing drum & bass music.

 • A marching band appears, and suddenly there’s no more room between you and the fire. Chaos!

 • Rolling towards calm on your bike, you discover a dome full of friendly people, singing delightfully lyrical You settle in for a while.

 • Much later, you find yourself flat on your back gazing at the Big Dipper with a new friend, basking in the desert turns to dawn.

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Burning Man feels totally different for two reasons. Money has no value, except to purchase coffee and ice. And, apart from the porta-potty servicing, no one cleans up after you. What do you get when you invite fortythousand of the world’s most energetic people to the blank slate of the Black Rock Desert and encourage creativity and conservation rather than commerce and consumption? Humanity riding its cosmic surfboard, cresting the wave of conscious evolution. Burning Man is a rising tide of intelligence and enthusiasm that relies on creativity to forge new mythologies of a positive future.

Neale Donald Walsch, author of Conversations With God, speaks to the essence of Burning Man when he urges us to “get off our collective duffs and arouse in ourselves a deep desire to produce our future, rather than wait to see what future is produced.”

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