Dancing with Lucy at Burning Man

I really can't begin to write anything that would do justice to my entire experience. It was such a grand experience on so many levels that it's hard to describe for a guy with limited writing skills. I did think I would share one afternoon though, in the interest of sharing and something to go back and read someday.

My ride share buddy and I had talked about tripping together during our long trip there and decided that thursday would be best, I had no obligations with my campmates the next day and she was free anytime for anything.

Well, swinging by her camp (we were camped with different groups) that morning to check in and make plans, she started apoligizing, sharing the story of how she let loose big time the night before on a mild dose of shrooms and X. Well a major theme, for me at least, was lessons in letting go of preconceptions. Instead of being bummed that we weren't going to trip together I instead asked if she had a great time, what they did, etc. She had been partying with a group that had an art car with a dance area, her kind of music and what not and had let loose and danced the night away on the playa. Good times!

I had invited a young couple to join us, they had been gifted some tabs but neither had the previous pleasure with Lucy, but had some experience with shrooms and X and what not. I told them I'd swing by before I headed off with my plans. By the time that happened, they were into a whole nother trip so I bid them farewell and headed off. I had dropped about 20 mins before so I was just coming up and wanted to get 'some place' before things got weird.
I had decided to come up and peak at "Fractal Nation"

http://fractal-nation.com/welcome/

The day before I had attended a talk with Rick Doblin there on the current state of psychedelic research, something I thought I'd miss. I had written down a few things that I wanted to make a point of seeing and that was one of them but I had lost this list somehow. While chilling at friends camp the day before I was lamenting the loss of this list and a few minutes later, one of the guys said "Rick Doblin? It's today in 20 mins". I was 10 minutes away. Another in the long list of magical occurrences.

But I digress... I had decided that my trip would also be my surrender to the dust. I had dressed in airy cotton muslin peasant clothes, barefoot (flip flops with me in the bicycle basket tho). As I approached the main dome at Fractal, a Shpongle remix of Behind Closed Eyelids that I'd never heard beckoned from within. Strongly coming up I walked in and made my way through the dome, climbing up a center spiral staircase to a circular platform above. A guided musical meditation was happening, much to my delight. Folks all about, eyes closed, or drawing, or hugging... a small stage at one side with a few Goddesses, sitting nude and free and soaring through their mindscapes. It was very powerful as I sat, crossed my legs and closed my eyes and began to sweat from the heat. The thought came to me that I was burning. I straightened my posture, quieted my mind and let go. A variety of music was played, from Handel's Messiah, to Jimi Hendrix. Simply amazing sound quality and heightened by my state and the environment. A few mantras and gratitudes were expressed by those guiding our experience.

I had had little awareness of time while at the event, the time was related to the sun in the sky, traditional time coordinates really only mattered when trying to see particular scheduled events. I'm not sure how long I spent in the dome but when this guided tour broke, I felt the need to go out into the sun. I sat, rolled some tobacco and got lost in visuals. The ground, deep soft dust, came to life. I'm not one for strong visuals with Lucy but these were as interesting as any before... pastel pinks and blues danced on the surface as all the textures of footprints and bicycle tracks twisted slowly. I sat mesmerized, barely aware of people coming and going. Then the awareness of someone sitting near me came to me, I shook off my trance and turned. Smiling what must have been a huge one, I said hi. A wonderful girl turned and looked, smiled and said hi how are you?. What followed was the most wonderful conversation, a pure connection between two people with no bullshit, no social convention, just sharing. She is a gypsy of sorts, originally from Chile and has been traveling since leaving school, living and experiencing whatever comes her way. She shared bits of her life, how she lives and where she might go next after. She asked me why I was there and I told her why I was there had changed dramatically between the time I got a ticket and the time I left to go. I dont mind saying I had tears well up in my eyes a few times. From the shear beauty of the experience at the Burn so far, from the purity of our sharing, from telling her some things about me... it was one of the most profound human exchanges I've ever had, maybe in the top 5. It's not an exaggeration to say that we fell in love, in a way that you love another person for their friendship and humanity. She was one of the most beautiful women I've ever met, inside and out.

There was an energy, understanding, something that needed no words, that told us that this was something to remember as a memory. We stood and hugged, it must have literally been minutes, and said goodbye. I will never forget her. The image of her smile, her face, her voice is literally Burned into my memory.
Namaste Claudia.

The peak was spent at the dome, with her, and was noticeably passed and it was time to move along. The one person I knew from outside the Burn was involved in an art project that was part of the Core, several groups representing large cities and this was the night that 35 core projects were to be Burned, simulatanously. I had thought it would be nice to go watch hers go up and come down, out in the open playa where the partying gets wild at night.



I found it, not easy to do out there, and found that there were 5 projects in a group, a perimeter was being set up for safety and these 5 were going up together. Seven other circles were being prepared out there somewhere.
We hung, kept people from crossing the line since its so hard out there to tell one place from another, a fire safety zone from any other crazy out of the world area. The projects were lit, the crowd cheered, and watched, and yelled... the art cars provided music... we Burned. It was great to see this part of the Burn, all sorts of feelings and meanings and emotions get ascribed to the effigies... I simply took it all in and bathed in the experience.

My friend and I headed back to her camp, we chilled, she offered me beers to compliment my psychedelic afterglow and we talked. I'd like to say that the entire evening continued with the profundity of earlier in the day but I actually needed the lower intensity. It was a major drain of energy of all forms and when it came time to sleep, I had little problem drifting off around 4 am, sleeping soundly for a few hours before waking up surprisingly rested and deeply happy.
It had been a 14 hour slice of pure heaven, differently beautiful only because of LSD but certainly not better due to the psychedelia of the trip, only different if that makes sense. The place is such a flood of beauty and creativity that with no consciousness altering substances I often felt high without.

It's a perfect example of what I mean when I say something is psychedelic, mind-manifesting, without "tripping".
And thats why I can't put the whole 8 days down on paper.
It was distilled natural psychedelia by the acre. More than any one person could ever handle.

 

That last sentence is pure gold....hit the nail on the head . My experience there was before I had started to experiment with psychedelics, but I think the energy and the vibes of the place affected me in a similar way.

What an amazing experience that sounds like.... wow.

 

Good read voyage. It sounds like it couldnt of been any better!
Burning man has been on my to do list for years.

 

Thanks for sharing, the scope of the event sounds amazing and awesome you were able to experience it on Lucy as well as share that moment with that woman you met.

 

Very good read Voyage. Burning Man sounds like a serious experience. I can't imagine how mentally expansive it must be to be around that kind of energy and the sheer amount of creation.

 

That sounds like an incredible experience oh thank you for sharing. Connecting to others while on lucy is amazing in itself, and you were immersed in the energy of burning man! beautiful <3

 

jeez voyage, break that up into sections will ya? my eyes would appreciate it, but i'm gonna read it anyways

edit: ok, i read it. sounds amazing

the part about you having visuals in the sand reminded me of my brother getting really into watching visuals in the sand at our camping spot. and the part about welling up with tears...reminds me of me while tripping on acid many times. may i ask, what were your reasons for going?

 

Beautiful. Psychedelic.

Thanks for sharing that. I'm glad you got to go to Burning Man.

:sunny:

 

I added a space for the paragraphs, I thought the breaks were apparent. Hope you approve.
Otherwise, consider it a rememberance of Cos.
You and I are not about the visuals but I threw that in because they stood out, the strongest I'd had with Lucy in a very long time. I don't think it was as much the dose as it was the attenuation from the setting. And ya, tears of joy man..

The reason for going was another trip. It started early in the year with the decision to make it happen finally, for the experience. It was something I had wanted to do for some time. As time grew close it all began to change.
For some time I had been lamenting the sorry state of affairs. I'm not sure how or why but I just had developed this lingering background aura of "whats the point, we're all just so very fucked"... kind of thing. Not a depression, just a loss of my usual hope and positivity.
Add to that the pinched nerve thing, (which is still a slight issue), some other things, and it sort of evolved into a "pilgrimage to rediscover hope and joy."
Part of my discussion with Claudia was exactly that. In some way she gifted me this little nugget of hope, of love, and that things are exactly as they should be. Not something I stopped believing but was struggling with.

Thanks man. We've talked a bit on the side about festivals and your encouragement has been appreciated. If at all possible, do see if it's something you could manage. You would be seriously glad if you could.

 

did you take a lot of pictures? i'd like to see if you did.

 

I've been off the forum for a few weeks (travel and just lurking) - this thread brought me back on. You may recall that I was saying earlier this year I was committed to a big fest. Alas, we had a major interruption in our life and now, three months later, it's close to resolved, but g-d,m-f, s-a, sob, c-s, m-f, *^!&*##!, which is to say, it's been a long and stressful process.

Still, a little dancing in the forest and some backpacking, so really, except for the stress, some good things happening. And the gauge of gage, whew, alright!

Hello Voyage!

 

Hello back atcha Sir.
Sorry to hear about the life interruption but... it's part of the deal so? I hope it wasn't serious, from the look of all those swear words it sounds like a healthy dose of bs. Better that and your loved ones are all well and good than the other way round.

Pork, I'll post mo pics soon as I can. I can't seem to get them on here without putting them in my galleries, which I might as well do anyhow.

 

:2thumbsup:

 

I would love to see them as well. Fantastic imagery and detail in the report. One of my more favorite ones read on HF. Burning man is definitely something im going to experience.

 

Thank you for the kind comments...

Chen, do it if you possibly can.

These two were a very large installation called Burn Wall Street. It was scheduled to go up the night before the Man burned but there were complications rigging the pyrotechnics. It went up after the Man on saturday, about 1am. These were full sized "buildings" 4 stories tall, depicting "Bank of UnAmerica, Merrill Lynched, Goldman Sucks and Chaos Manhattan.
It was pretty f*ing impressive.
There's a write-up and vid here
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/04/burn-wall-street-otto-von-danger-burning-man_n_1855745.html

 

^That sounds extremely entertaining.

 

I'll post some shots of art cars since I took so many. They are endlessly fascinating.