Where are the Burning Man hippies??

[CyanEssence]

A serious note to the OP: all state & Federal laws apply in BRC, and there are more law-enforcement officers there per-capita than probably any other similar sized city in the US. They love to apply the "stupid tax" to people breaking the law, and fines in Nevada can be serious.

I was taught this when I first started going way back in '03, and it's even more true now: the cops have been Burning longer than you, they have better costumes & art cars, you will not be able to tell who an undercover one is.

Thank you. I needed the blunt truth, I guess.

I envisioned a plethora of shrooms for my trip, to be honest. This set me straight. I've never been to jail before, and I don't want to ruin my first burn by turning it into my first lock-up. That's intense.

I saw the blunt truth right after the man burn in 2013. I was sitting on my camp's art car, a great burn had just happened, we are all smiling at having just pulled off another great year, and people slowly started to move to wherever they were going. Then, from out of no where, somewhere between 7 - 9 uniformed LEO swarm this one skinny burner dude. They all grab him, and he starts flailing and screaming. At this point at least four LEO are holding onto him, and are holding him parallel to the ground (the burner is positioned as if he were laying on the ground, but the LEO's have him at about waist height off the ground). The burner is still kicking and screaming. I am horrified.

About 15 burners run over and start filming this, with cameras ranging from phones to really nice DV (not surprising since it was the man burn just two seconds ago). But, the LEO, and there seemed to be even more of them at this point, created a circle around the burner, and put their flashlights right onto the cameras - this makes it so the cameras don't film anything but blackness and a bright light. The LEO got the burner into relative submission, and at this point there were way more LEO around, including a bunch of vehicles, with flashing blue and red lights, and spot lights focused on the burner. This whole episode reminded me of a well coordinated military operation from a TV show or the movies.

Like I mentioned, this was minutes after the man fell in 2013, it kind of sucked all the energy out of the atmosphere, and made for a less festive feeling for some time - and don't even know who that poor sap was, I imagine he was having an even worse night though. To be fair, this could have been some really horrible person that they nabbed. What we do know from this, which we already did know, is that there are LEO out there, uniformed and undercover, and that they will come down on you with as much force to bear as they can (and it is apparently quite a bit) if they need/want to.

[digital]

What we do know from this, which we already did know, is that there are LEO out there, uniformed and undercover, and that they will come down on you with as much force to bear as they can (and it is apparently quite a bit) if they need/want to.

For me, I am glad this is the case.

We should all, for the most part, be proud of the service they provide. As with any group of people there are bad apples, but look at the numbers. 6 arrests! Not one of them for simple possession, iirc. Law Enforcement is NOT out to arrest you for that joint (or tab, pill, whatever). Last year as the man burned I had a nice conversation with Officer N (as in Not playing around). Full SWAT gear, multiple weapons, armor. He was with a group of 5 or 6 similarly dressed military folks. He lit a cigar as I lit a smoke. I nudged him and asked, "Do you enjoy this?"

He smiled, puffed his cigar, and said, "This is great."

"If people want to have a little fun," (obviously hinting at drugs) "keep it in your tent and don't hurt anyone." He smiled. Puffed again.

"We are not here to arrest you. We are here to protect you."

Law Enforcement at Burning Man is a good thing. Just don't be stupid. Many of the officers consider themselves to be part of the community.

For the week at least.

[Savannah]

I envisioned a plethora of shrooms for my trip, to be honest.

In my opinion, hallucinogens are entirely unnecessary, especially your first year. Every bizarre thing you are seeing is real. The ship sailing across the desert is real. The reggae lion is real. The octopus shooting fire is real. The colors and scents and sights and sounds are so outside what you could have imagined, that reality gets you high.

100% agreement. The burn is dazzling and hallucinatory on its own. It's a weird place. It's a beautiful place. People are nicer on average than in the default world. If you don't have a tolerance for being cited or arrested, it might be better to establish a baseline for what Burning Man is for you before you go worrying about how to place a veil of staggering or strong substances all over it. You're going to be okay without it.

Okay, I'm not made of stone. If you're 21+, you might bring a little champagne, but share it.

The places in your brain that shrooms access exist without the shrooms. The room is always there, and there are several doors into it. Shrooms are not manufacturing a new gland for you up there. If you're having a good Burn, you're still seeing and being dazzled with with your own eyes, feeling closer to someone you just met than you thought possible, laughing harder at something than is seemly. And so on.

A (non-Burner) friend of mine used to tell me he used to do shrooms once a year like clockwork, to "reset himself", get centered, & do some thinking and realizing about where he was in life, and what he wanted to accomplish before the same time next year. I will not disparage how he arrived at what he needed, but . . . I was blown away by realizing that the Burn does the same thing for me, all on its own.

[CyanEssence]

I envisioned a plethora of shrooms for my trip, to be honest.

In my opinion, hallucinogens are entirely unnecessary, especially your first year. Every bizarre thing you are seeing is real. The ship sailing across the desert is real. The reggae lion is real. The octopus shooting fire is real. The colors and scents and sights and sounds are so outside what you could have imagined, that reality gets you high.

So true. I came back from my first year and was having light shows both in my head and all around me for days afterward. And I don't do drugs.

These comments reminded me of a book I read when I was studying cultural anthropology (my knowledge on this topic is really limited, I only took a course or two during undergrad). The book is called "Shamanism" and it is by Mircea Eliade. The book is really dense and academic, but it is considered THE book on the topic (I should mention that it is in no way a New Agey text, it is really boring most of the time). In it he talks about how shamans in various cultures use different techniques to alter their consciousness, in order to get into a trance that allows them to heal people, find lost objects, make predictions about weather and hunting, and resolve disagreements and problems amongst the tribe's members, among other things.

The techniques that they use often include: fast-paced drum beats, sleep deprivation, fasting, dehydration, costuming, exposure to the elements, exposure to heat (sweat lodges), dancing, and either isolation or over-stimulation. I found it striking that many of these elements occur at Burning Man for most, if not all of the participants. I think that this could give us some clues as to why so many people find themselves altered at Burning Man without having taken any drugs.

As a side note, Eliade considers the use of drugs by shamans to be a degenerate form of their practice. He believes that the true practitioners can enter these states of their own volition, which in some ways reminds me of what people who meditate say about meditation, that they can alter their consciousness at will.

[Aurelia]

Lucky is an angelic Alice

xoA.

[lucky420]

smooches back at you as ^^

[delle]

Actually Simon is exaggerating, there was a very clueless female festival hippie that was going to bring a baby or was late stage pregnant as well as being unprepared. Wish I could find that thread!

One thing leads to another, and suddenly you find another half-hour gone. Good times nonetheless.

https://eplaya.burningman.org/viewtopic ... rn#p716196

[CyanEssence]

What we do know from this, which we already did know, is that there are LEO out there, uniformed and undercover, and that they will come down on you with as much force to bear as they can (and it is apparently quite a bit) if they need/want to.

For me, I am glad this is the case.

We should all, for the most part, be proud of the service they provide. As with any group of people there are bad apples, but look at the numbers.

....

Law Enforcement at Burning Man is a good thing. Just don't be stupid. Many of the officers consider themselves to be part of the community.

For the week at least.

I tend to agree with you, even more so after I read a comment on a post in the Burning Man Blog called "Is There Too Much Positive Energy at Burning Man."

From the comments on the blog:
"Going into BM this year (my first) a friend was telling me how another friend of his had probably one of the worst, and if it could possibly make sense at the end of this story, the best experiences anyone could’ve had at the Playa: bus full of seemingly fun and “nice” clowns picked him up in their art car, provided a treat or two and then, this is where it gets good, proceeded to tie him up and say the most vile things that came to mind (all while he was tripping), even going as far as telling him they were gonna cut him up and leave him out in deep playa. They sold it so well he didn’t leave his camp the next day. He was then reminded what the Playa is and isn’t and has since come to appreciate the whole experience.

Viva the bastards!"

To me this is psychological abuse, and likely criminal. I would definitely be contacting the LEO after a situation like this, and be glad if these assholes were arrested. They are lucky this person didn't freak and hang himself after their little "prank." Apparently there are people on the playa with less than admirable intentions (ie. want to harm others).

Here's the blog article, if you want to see the comment for yourself: http://blog.burningman.com/2011/11/cult ... ve-energy/

[Captain Goddammit]

It's 5:30 AM and I'm about to head to work and get shit done. Then I'll come home to one of my houses and work on the mutant vehicle I'm bringing this year, that other people will get to ride on (as well as myself).
Take a lesson, hippies!

[lucky420]

oh good grief

[Captain Goddammit]

Little known secret: I was raised by hippies. I had to earn a decent life the hard way because I was set back a LOT. I work hard every day. I know I go off too much when I hear the "H" trigger word...

[lucky420]

*pats CG on the back*

It's okay, you've done well in life and should be proud of what your hard work has earned you.


for the record I don't care for moochy people either, get a job hippie!

[some seeing eye]

CE that story sounds entirely fictional.

And CG we appreciate your contributions!

[Captain Goddammit]

There are good hippie people. I know some. The ones that annoy the hell out of me by their very existence are specifically the mooch, freeloading, mess making, "establishment" hating, soap-making drug doing smelly needing a shave and offering poetry and crystal energy healing in exchange for free Burning Man tickets kind. My apologies to all you productive members of society who identify as "hippies" because you have long hair and wear colorful clothes and smoke a joint or two.
That's fine, peace and love to ya, rock on.

[CyanEssence]

some seeing eye, I certainly hope that story is fiction. I have yet to encounter anyone like this out there, and hope to never run into them.

CG, thanks for sharing that bit about your upbringing, your position on hippies is a lot more understandable now. When I think of hippies, I think of a very different kind of person than what you have described. As long as we are being honest here, some aspects of the type you describe tend to make me cringe a bit too.

More specifically, I grew up around hospitals and the medical/healthcare world (one of my parents is an RN), and when someone proceeds to tell me about sound healing, crystal healing, or some other new age healing, my mind gets all knotted up, and I have to try and hide my desire to say, "can you show me the research." I try and be polite, and excuse myself, or change the topic, but I really think some of those ideas are a little... "under researched." I guess it's a personal bias.

I also agree with what you said earlier about people focusing on taking drugs at BM instead of what they can do to create the city, make some art, or contribute in some other way. I think that is a key factor in what separates BM from the run-of-the-mill festival experience - there is a year round community of (largely unpaid/non-BORG) people who are actively involved in the creation of art, infrastructure, camps, etc. We are not just showing up and saying, "Entertain me." We are showing up and saying, "Look at what we did!"

[171/348]

The real hippies hang out at a place called First Camp. Ask for Larry, he'll hook you up with the good stuff

[Simon of the Playa]

the west side of the playa will be receiving the good stuff on wednesday between 2-3 pm PST

[media]

unless the winds shift, of course.

[FIGJAM]

Do we pay extra for that?

Where do I pay extra for that?

[Jackass]

The fees have already been included when you purchase your Vehicle Pass...

[Mojojita]

From some in-depth conversations I have had with veteran LEO's on playa - there are a lot of LEO's in training there. It is the perfect place to train them, knowing the population is (in most part) not armed. They have good high tech instruments, including night vision. IMHO, anyone using there stands a much higher chance of being busted than most any other city in the US.

[Simon of the Playa]

GPE.jpg

[tatonka]

[delle]

The places in your brain that shrooms access exist without the shrooms. The room is always there, and there are several doors into it. Shrooms are not manufacturing a new gland for you up there. If you're having a good Burn, you're still seeing and being dazzled with with your own eyes, feeling closer to someone you just met than you thought possible, laughing harder at something than is seemly. And so on.

A (non-Burner) friend of mine used to tell me he used to do shrooms once a year like clockwork, to "reset himself", get centered, & do some thinking and realizing about where he was in life, and what he wanted to accomplish before the same time next year. I will not disparage how he arrived at what he needed, but . . . I was blown away by realizing that the Burn does the same thing for me, all on its own.

Too long for a sigline, otherwise I'd already have snaffled it. That is how much I love this thought.

(and its thinker too)

[Molotov]

Where are the hippies? Last time I saw them they were down at the plasma donor center and payday loan offices trying to hustle enough money for the exorbitant BM ticket prices. I think they failed....

[GreyCoyote]

For me, I am glad this is the case.

Last year as the man burned I had a nice conversation with Officer N (as in Not playing around). Full SWAT gear, multiple weapons, armor. He was with a group of 5 or 6 similarly dressed military folks. He lit a cigar as I lit a smoke. I nudged him and asked, "Do you enjoy this?"

He smiled, puffed his cigar, and said, "This is great."

"We are not here to arrest you. We are here to protect you."

Law Enforcement at Burning Man is a good thing. Just don't be stupid. Many of the officers consider themselves to be part of the community.

Let me get this right: Full SWAT gear,automatic weapons ,body armor and these clowns consider themselves "part of the community" and are "here to protect us"? WTF? Protect us from WHO? Maybe those wiley Paiute's just down the road? (Yup, must be them. They look awfully dangerous. Might be planning an invasion or something. Better bring the armor-piercing .50 cal rounds, just in case. Maybe a tank or two. Paint some daisies on those fuckers and tell these hippies its an "art car". Maybe fly a low CAP too. Bring in a couple of A-10's and lay down some boogie just outside the moop fence, you know, just so they know we are here. Yeah. Sounds like a plan! We're part of the freakin' community now!!!)

Methinks Danno has been snorting some KoolAid in the evidence locker. All we really need are a few dozen ranchers toting their lever-action Henry .30-30's from atop horses. These guys are the real bad-asses. Just ask the BLM. Hehehe

(Note tongue planted firmly in cheek here. I did my best to channel BBadger, lack of italics notwithstanding!)

[Aurelia]

[quote="delle"][quote="Savannah"]
The places in your brain that shrooms access exist without the shrooms. The room is always there, and there are several doors into it. Shrooms are not manufacturing a new gland for you up there. If you're having a good Burn, you're still seeing and being dazzled with with your own eyes, feeling closer to someone you just met than you thought possible, laughing harder at something than is seemly. And so on.

A (non-Burner) friend of mine used to tell me he used to do shrooms once a year like clockwork, to "reset himself", get centered, & do some thinking and realizing about where he was in life, and what he wanted to accomplish before the same time next year. I will not disparage how he arrived at what he needed, [i]but[/i] . . . I was blown away by realizing that the Burn does the same thing for me, all on its own.[/quote]

Too long for a sigline, otherwise I'd already have snaffled it. That is how much I love this thought.

(and its thinker too)[/quote]

[Savannah]

The places in your brain that shrooms access exist without the shrooms. The room is always there, and there are several doors into it. Shrooms are not manufacturing a new gland for you up there. If you're having a good Burn, you're still seeing and being dazzled with with your own eyes, feeling closer to someone you just met than you thought possible, laughing harder at something than is seemly. And so on.

A (non-Burner) friend of mine used to tell me he used to do shrooms once a year like clockwork, to "reset himself", get centered, & do some thinking and realizing about where he was in life, and what he wanted to accomplish before the same time next year. I will not disparage how he arrived at what he needed, but . . . I was blown away by realizing that the Burn does the same thing for me, all on its own.

Too long for a sigline, otherwise I'd already have snaffled it. That is how much I love this thought.

(and its thinker too)

Awwwwww.

[Aurelia]

YES !

xoA,

[SageV]

The legit Haight and Ashbury hippies are gonna be doing what they always do, begging for tickets at the gate.

Unsuccessful hippies beg. Successful hippies will at least have savory bean pies or random Etsy worthy hand-made stuff to gift in appreciation if they are looking for a miracle. Basically, if it got you into a Dead show, you have to multiply that by seven for it to get you into the Burn. Personally, when I've been living lightly and my only reason for not going has been cash, a gifted ticket has magically appeared, often from a friend I didn't know I had.

[SageV]

Finding

the legit Haight and Ashbury

...
Wouldn't the original Summer of Love crew all be 60 years old at bare minimum?
Which would probably get them a discount at their favorite eating establishment, where they can be found on Haight-

Yep, that's why the true greybeard hippies pretty much died out from the Burn in 2000. That leaves the "children of the sixties," in their fifties, in the vague hippy category. I think if you were conceived in the back of a station wagon stuck on the way to Woodstock and/or during one of the Electric Koolaid Acid Experiments and/or followed the Dead around in the 70's you also probably qualify.

Keep in mind that there is no such thing as a Hippy, that was a media invention, we had a funeral and everything. Putting on my completely unqualified cultural anthropologist hat: Most of the Burning Man crowd comes from the Ken Kesey "Get on the Bus" -> Merry Pranksters -> Discordian/Subgenius -> Cacophony society lineage. The traditional Hippy is from the Boho -> Beatnik -> Digger -> Flower Power -> Peace Movement lineage, so really a dead end if you're The Man and looking to score an easy bust because half of us became attorneys working for the ACLU.