VitorMSAlmeida.pt

Burning Man is approaching, and as always, there are elements trying to take advantage of this artistic and cultural event. So let’s look more clearly at the connections between the two.

As a simple scholar, I have previously discussed the so-called New Age movements, both for their commercial exploitation and for psychological manipulation, and finally, for the ignorance of their “gurus.”

I compare these movements and practices to those used by various religions and religious sects where the focus is on monetary gain, and to achieve this, they manipulate and deceive the victims.

The evolution of humankind (and for this, just think a little) makes no sense if it is caused by psychedelic drugs (mushrooms, etc.) but by study and meditation; it is not by carnal sex but by a unique and total union (feelings and objectives); It’s not about individualistic philosophy of extreme egoism (libertinism) but rather about order (where respect for others takes precedence over self-interest (rational freedom)); it’s not about “cheesy cosmology” because that’s the same as defining the entire planet by knowing only the Aegean islands; one doesn’t evolve by acquiring dolls and other things (religions and sects already do that), etc.

Therefore, I see this festival as a meeting and discussion of contemporary art; all the rest is New Age folklore, just a “farce” to deceive the unwary. A suggestion for serious reading: “Rosicrucian Fundamentals, An Exposition of the Rosicrucian Synthesis of Religion, Science and Philosophy,” which you can download for free from the Library of Congress in the USA.

Burning Man and the New Age movement share several cultural, spiritual, and historical connections, although they are not the same thing. Burning Man is not formally a “New Age” event, but it functions as a space where practices, values, and impulses typically associated with the New Age (and related currents, such as neopaganism and “spiritual but not religious” spirituality) manifest themselves intensely and ritually.

Common Origins and Influences

Burning Man emerged in 1986 in San Francisco (initially in Baker Beach) from the counterculture, punk, the Cacophony Society, and influences from the 1960s and 70s.

These roots strongly overlap with the New Age: the human potential movement, the Esalen Institute, the use of psychedelics, the search for transformative experiences, and criticism of traditional religious institutions.

Academic Lee Gilmore (in the book Theater in a Crowded Fire) and other scholars point out that Burning Man emerges at the intersection of movements that include the New Age and other alternative spiritualities, rural revivals, countercultural utopias, and the electronic music/rave scene. Many participants describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious,” a classic profile of the contemporary New Age.

Shared elements in practice

Eclectic and transformative spirituality:

Both value personal experience, self-divinity or connection with the “whole,” healing, meditation, yoga, rituals, and the search for meaning outside of organized religions. In Burning Man there is the Temple (a space for mourning, intentions, and rituals), the burning of the Man and the Temple (highly symbolic and cathartic acts), theme camps with spiritual practices, workshops, and frequent use of psychedelics in contexts of “psychedelic spirituality.”

Neopaganism and lowercase “pagan” elements:
Fire rituals, connection with nature (even in the desert), tribal symbolism, emphasis on the body and embodied experience, and “tribal revival” aesthetics. Studies describe Burning Man as a space of convergence between neopaganism, techno-culture, and transformative self-exploration, with rituals reminiscent of New Age and neopagan practices of healing and collective connection.

Transformational Festivals:
Burning Man has influenced (and is sometimes confused with) a number of “transformational festivals” (Lightning in a Bottle and others), explicitly described as commercialized and “post-New Age” progeny of Burning Man—mixing visionary art, EDM, yoga, spirituality, mindful eating, and “Kumbaya spirituality.”

Important Differences
Burning Man is not a religion nor does it have an official doctrine. Their 10 Principles (radical inclusion, self-reliance, decommodification, leave no trace, etc.) are more ethical and communal than theological. Organizers and many participants reject religious labels. There is a strong presence of atheists, agnostics, artists, Silicon Valley techies, and hedonists, as well as spiritual seekers.

Classic New Age tends to be more centered on gurus, texts, crystals, channeling, the “law of attraction,” and networks of teachers. In Burning Man, the emphasis is on collective experience, on “doing” (art, improvised rituals), and the temporality of the “city” in the desert. Christian critics and conservative observers often classify the event as promoting paganism, occultism, or New Age (especially because of the tech elites who frequent the place), but this is an external reading; internally it is more plural and “without dogma.”

In short,
Burning Man functions as a contemporary laboratory (and one of the main destinations) of 21st-century metaphysical/New Age spirituality: a secular-sacred pilgrimage space where people experience personal transformation, temporary community, and rituals without the structures of traditional religions. It absorbs and amplifies New Age, neopagan, and “spiritual but not religious” impulses, while mixing them with art, technology, rave, and counterculture. This is why many see it as one of the most visible places where American “alternative spirituality” materializes today.

When I suggest studying entities like Maria Padilha of the Souls, I’m not thinking about myself or her; rather, I’m suggesting that by studying a (safe) entity and with basic training, one can interact with it (actually testing the so-called Astral Plane and its ecology) while simultaneously evolving individually and without “gurus” or others of the same type.