Aural Pleasures for the Ride to BRC

We don’t usually think of rituals as dangerous, but Crimson Rose literally dances with fire. Her ritual practice has clear and obvious stakes: if something goes wrong, people get burnt.

Crimson, who over time has created (or she might say “discovered”) most of Burning Man’s most prominent fire-rituals, sees ritual practice not as a way of going through the motions of what you already know, but as the process of setting the conditions by which you can approach the sacred — and the sacred is the opposite of just going through the motions.

Has it ever seemed to you that there are more ways to be a citizen of Black Rock City than there are to be a citizen of anyplace else you live? Your home town, your county, your state?

Well, it's not actually true, but it can certainly seem true. And the reason it seems true, according to Walker Fisher, is that there is a link between creative freedom and civic engagement. People who feel creatively empowered in turn make creative spaces, and creative spaces are easier for people to engage with as citizens than conventional spaces. That's because creative spaces as you who you want to be, rather than forcing you to choose from a list of prescribed options.

In this Philosophical Center podcast, we talk about the link between creative freedom and civic engagement. Walker was a Philanthropic Engagement Associate with Burning Man Project at the time this was recorded.

Has it ever seemed to you that there are more ways to be a citizen of Black Rock City than there are to be a citizen of anyplace else you live? Your home town, your county, your state?

Well, it's not actually true, but it can certainly seem true. And the reason it seems true, according to Walker Fisher, is that there is a link between creative freedom and civic engagement. People who feel creatively empowered in turn make creative spaces, and creative spaces are easier for people to engage with as citizens than conventional spaces. That's because creative spaces as you who you want to be, rather than forcing you to choose from a list of prescribed options.

In this Philosophical Center podcast, we talk about the link between creative freedom and civic engagement. Walker was a Philanthropic Engagement Associate with Burning Man Project at the time this was recorded.

Theresa Duncan spent her whole adult life doing development and fundraising work for non-profits. But after she went to her first burning man, she realized she hadn't understood gifts at all. On playa she discovered a gifting culture so powerful that at first she didn't even know how to participate. That's not an uncommon experience: many of us realize, our first Burning Man, that we are so used to thinking in terms of transactional relationships that we simply don't know how to give the kind of life-changing gift that we are sometimes offered on playa. We don't even know how to accept it graciously.

I like to tell people it took me about eight years of practice before I got really good at gifting in the sense that Burning Man means it. And I never, never, would have gotten there if I hadn't seen people doing it right, year after year. It's one of the most important things in my life.

Today Theresa is Burning Man's director of Philanthropic Engagement, and prefers to talk about a "gift culture," rather than a "gift economy," because economy implies a balanced transfer, while the power of a gift comes from its lack of balance.

In a podcast with the Burning Man Philosophical Center, she talks about what she calls the "evolution of gift giving" in the lives of Burners. And how to give joyfully.

Theresa Duncan spent her whole adult life doing development and fundraising work for non-profits. But after she went to her first burning man, she realized she hadn't understood gifts at all. On playa she discovered a gifting culture so powerful that at first she didn't even know how to participate. That's not an uncommon experience: many of us realize, our first Burning Man, that we are so used to thinking in terms of transactional relationships that we simply don't know how to give the kind of life-changing gift that we are sometimes offered on playa. We don't even know how to accept it graciously.

I like to tell people it took me about eight years of practice before I got really good at gifting in the sense that Burning Man means it. And I never, never, would have gotten there if I hadn't seen people doing it right, year after year. It's one of the most important things in my life.

Today Theresa is Burning Man's director of Philanthropic Engagement, and prefers to talk about a "gift culture," rather than a "gift economy," because economy implies a balanced transfer, while the power of a gift comes from its lack of balance.

In a podcast with the Burning Man Philosophical Center, she talks about what she calls the "evolution of gift giving" in the lives of Burners. And how to give joyfully.

Burning Man tech staff member Anselm Engle put the pieces together, suggesting that the experience of going to Burning Man is itself a manifestation of the “Hero’s Journey” — a kind of mythical journey common to most (or even all) cultures.

Burning Man tech staff member Anselm Engle put the pieces together, suggesting that the experience of going to Burning Man is itself a manifestation of the “Hero’s Journey” — a kind of mythical journey common to most (or even all) cultures.

UCLA Anthropologist Dr. Megan Heller studies play — how we do it, why we do it, what impact is has — and when I asked her if she had any thoughts about this year’s theme, “Radical Ritual,” she came back with a challenging question: What’s the difference between “ritual” and “play?”

UCLA Anthropologist Dr. Megan Heller studies play — how we do it, why we do it, what impact is has — and when I asked her if she had any thoughts about this year’s theme, “Radical Ritual,” she came back with a challenging question: What’s the difference between “ritual” and “play?”

Ritual, Dr. Tanya Luhrmann says, is the way we connect the world as it ought to be with the world as it is – and orient ourselves to it.