Who is a burner?

stuart · Post by **stuart** » Thu Jan 13, 2005 2:45 pm

surprise and delight are all well and good, but one can not live their life endlessly pursuing a philosophical absolute without dire consequences.

You seem to want to invest a lot of information into the word Pagan. I use the term druid as an example of a specific pagan religion to illustrate the fact. It seems to me that pagan is convenient for you because it allows for a lot of wiggle room when you are constructing these paradigms of burning man and it's attendees. I simply want to pin you down on what it is you mean in order to more effectively exchangeg information without the academic pastiche. Upon further re-reading it seems by pagan you mean native american. Or do you simply mean pre-christian. What is it you are trying to say?

stuart · Post by **stuart** » Thu Jan 13, 2005 2:49 pm

all burners are christians

there is clear empirical evidence to the contrary.

a religion is a means to a higher transformation. If you are a christian that tranformation happens through christ. Many burners do not feel jesus is the path for salvation. Many of us don't really feel we need to be saved in the first place.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Thu Jan 13, 2005 8:45 pm

Stu, is that a Burner armband on your current Avatar? Celtic? Pagan? Or is he just Pixelated?

philosopher · Post by **philosopher** » Fri Jan 14, 2005 12:39 am

stuart wrote:surprise and delight are all well and good, but one can not live their life endlessly pursuing a philosophical absolute without dire consequences.

You seem to want to invest a lot of information into the word Pagan...It seems to me that pagan is convenient for you because it allows for a lot of wiggle room when you are constructing these paradigms of burning man and it's attendees. I simply want to pin you down on what it is you mean in order to more effectively exchangeg information without the academic pastiche. Upon further re-reading it seems by pagan you mean native american. Or do you simply mean pre-christian. What is it you are trying to say?

In trying to think the question of who is a burner, surprise and delight seemed to me to figure prominently in reports of peak experiences in BRC. So that seemed pretty interesting to note--no intention to absolutize, though. And since perpetual surprise would look like chaos, I think we can agree that a little surprise goes a long way.

I think the pagan/Christian question is even more interesting as it relates to burner consciousness. It's clear that there is a view of the issue that looks to a large number of people pretty much as stuart presents it and as Isotopia implied earlier. And it is at least equally clear that the "burners are Christians" thesis is extremely tendentious. But in spite of the appearance of absurdity, I think there is something worth pursuing in it.

In outline: Mytho-historically, humanity's first big problem was the Fall. In a different language, it's isolation from the divine. The loss of innocence. I think this is what Jesus was trying to get at by teaching a way to recover innocence, but not an utterly amnesiac innocence.

So, even though the history of Christianity looks wrong in so many ways, I think the Christian project is essentially about the recovery of innocence. Not about an idle sentiment, but a change in consciousness that expands/deepens perceptions and relationships. It happens in stages, some of which don't look overtly Christian, but reveal themselves as part of a Christian odyssey in retrospect.

And that's where Burning Man comes in. It's set in the context of a culture that is Christian in its origins, a culture that constantly works out Christian and anti-Christian theses (an essentially Christian dynamic) whether it wants to or not because Christianity has set most of the terms. Always challenging us to go beyond ourselves--by sensory assault, seduction, surprise, etc.--Burning Man encourages the openness of mind that is a condition of innocence.

I'm not trying to create an air-tight case in this post, but just to describe briefly how an event that stretches the boundaries of a Christian culture can be cast as part of a Christian project, and that in this project, religion as a way of transformation arguably does not drop out of the picture even when it is not explicitly included.