Back to the Burn

Aug 18, 2025

Cross-posted by Convergence: Power and Belief

"A cross-post from Carl Teichrib. I would like to highlight the first video in the list presented here, titled "Desert Encounters". It runs about an hour, and if you aren't familiar with the topic (and most people aren't), it is worth taking the time. I watched it when it was first recorded, and I just watched it again. The video is part of an online conference, held at a church, and it begins with a sing-along hymn for viewers attending remotely. That's not what I am highlighting, and it's OK to skip past that part! Within the talk, Carl expresses religious views with which you are welcome to agree or disagree. I would hope those don't stand in the way of listening."

ClearMiddle

It was 2018, and I was riding my bicycle through the hot-and-dusty streets of Black Rock City — the temporary metropolis of Burning Man — when it hit me hard; I should have been here years ago…

My friend Jen and I had just left a workshop where a panel discussion explored the future of psychedelics, including the political and legal dimenssions of making mind-altering substances mainstream. One of the speakers, an attorney with a recognized brand, explained that she was in the process of partnering with a major Christian organization to promote her legal products coast-to-coast, and through this new venue she hoped to advance something more potent — her version of psychedelic spirituality. Names had been meantioned, and Jen’s eyes popped. The lead person at the ministry in question, the very organization to be used as a type of Trojan Horse, was a good friend of Jen’s pastor.

Later on, after returning home, Jen sat down with her pastor and outlined the sitution. Clearly the ministry was unaware that something more than just a portfolio of legal products was on the table. Now they knew, now they had the intel.

As we rode away from this particular workshop, I wondered; what else had we missed over the years? What other conversations of importance had occured?

Such thinking, of course, is a reflection of the gravity of what was transpiring in a place infamously known for being a hedonistic gathering. And that was the point: while Burning Man is reputed to be a place of carnal excess — and it is — the event is ground-zero for world changing conversations, an incubator for powerful ideas, and a place for international networking. It is also a space where actors from across disciplines interact around shared agendas; I remember in 2019 being at a United Nations 2030 celebration led by a Young Leader from the World Economic Forum, along with personalities from the medical field, art and culture, security and governance, crypto and technology.

There is much more happening in the dust than most people realize…

Starting this week I’ll be on the road back to Black Rock City. It’s my sixth time, not including the virtual Burns during the Covid years, or the couple of regionals I’ve been to (there’s approximately 110 regional Burns around the world), or the spin-off transformational events I’ve attended. Indeed, understood as a movement, it offers up a power cultural imprint, reflecting and reframing global narratives. Furthermore, it is evidence of the spiritual shift occuring in the Western world — along with the search for purpose and meaning, individually and collectively.

To better grasp the nature of Burning Man and the broader realm of evolutionary culture, I’ve included some videos from conference talks and interviews. It is my hope that this will better equip you to grasp not only this singular event, but the larger mileu of change it represents.