#some gene determines whether or not it progresses faster or slower

[hauntedhokage]

thinking about itachi in glasses since he's like near blind by the time he's 21

[crashinglotus]

The 10 Principles

RADICAL INCLUSION

All kinds are welcome.

I say welcome to people every day.

Inside Willis Tower is a wall that says "WELCOME" 3 feet tall and in 15 languages. People's eyes light up when they recognize their native words. We receive guests from all walks of life, from every country and culture. Learning how to treat all our guests with equal fairness is a constant work in progress.

In our increasingly global-complex-connected society, every single person has work to do on being better at radical inclusion.

Our prejudices fail to define us. They may protect us, help us navigate reality. We define them. Taking opportunity to create something new instead of reinforcing a negative prejudice is a win for the universe.

And when people feel welcome, when they feel free to exist as their true expression of self, they bring warmth and smiles. They are agreeable. They work with you. We work together.

Incredible things happen when we work together with positive intentions.

I felt radically welcomed by my Camp Bisco friends. By the group at the Ten O'clock camp out. By my teachers and peers at Central Crossing. By my Cypress family, spending time together at retreats. By my family, who have tried very hard to understand. By my loves in this life. By strangers and one-chance-encounter friends.

The growing I have done because of people following this principle is invaluable.

This is the last of the Ten Principles of Burning Man (told in cat memes) I will reflect on. It is my intention to continue focusing on Burning Man as the festival completes, and begin looking ahead to attending the event next year for Burning Man's 30th anniversary.

Experiencing Burning Man would be the penultimate moment of learning and understanding my humanity, which I realize more and more, is my calling in life.

I hope you will all find your own ways to support me in this endeavor, whether sending out a few words of positive intention to the universe, or giving me guidance and emotional support as I work with all my being to make the event my reality.

Some of us take different paths. When I dream, my path leads me to Burning Man. So I'm taking steps to start getting there.

Be light. Be love. Believe. 💚

PARTICIPATION

Yes, life is a participatory act. No room for spectators. Especially at Burning Man.

Certain events in my life turned me from a spectator to a participant. This change was gradual, subtle, and also spurred on by instant moments of huge transformative power.

I've tried brain change entheogens. I have fallen in love. In fact, I constantly remark to myself on how surprising it is to feel so many different kinds of love. Agape, brotherly love, spiritual kinship, amorous love, the Greek loves, the Spanish loves. These things put you back in the centre of your own universe. I radiate love every day.

And I swear, sometimes when I look at people I can see the energy flowing from their hearts. Maybe too many entheogens.

I began adopting the ethic: Work smart, play hard. Have a reason to sleep when you crawl into bed.

And I have chosen these past few days to reflect on Burning Man principles because I feel how strongly this festival has affected culture and consciousness. For 29 years, humans have participated in perhaps the most evolved event in our history. Each creating ten thousand ripples out into the rest of the world.

Mark Zuckerberg has been to Burning Man, Lady Gaga, Anne Hathaway, Diddy (Puff Daddy). Politicians, too, and cultural gatekeepers from nearly every sphere of influence.

And when 70,000 people get together and throw a one of a kind party in the desert, strange things happen to space time.

There's a saying about drug culture. In the 60's, the hippies took acid and made the world weird. In the 90's, the whineys took Xanax to make it normal again.

But no pharmaceutical brain tranquilizers can undo the universal implications of a young brain exploring itself on acid. That's just too big of an event for the universe.

So whether you support me, or you find yourself reading these posts with an attitude of cynical interest, at least know that your life on this earth is made different because of events like Burning Man, and other events where millions of people get together to do incredible things with their nervous systems.

We are creating a new culture, or as Timothy Leary calls us, a New Breed of human being more advanced than any to come before us. I know I have met a few of you already. I know, not everyone in their lifetime, will evolve with us.

Even so, every single living hominid creature can benefit from knowing the principles I have shared over the past few days.

I have saved what I consider the most important for last. Stay tuned.

RADICAL SELF EXPRESSION

Different strokes for different folks. Different scenes for different genes.

We deal with a concept called brain castes. In every social group, not just human, but in many organisms, species-identical groups will have variations within the group.

Flocks of birds will have a few that cry out in danger. Some that fly faster. Some that fly slower, get eaten, support the food chain.

Gorillas and lions have alpha males, who express different physical characteristics.

And in humans, we have a huge number of different brain castes.

According to your genetic predisposition, and the environment creating the social order you participate in, your brain is circuited to see things in a certain way. You have a unique type of intelligence that moves our species into the future.

For better or worse. If you drive a car to work, then you are moving our species into the future for the worse. But that's a part of your understanding.

Some people understand computer science. Some study biology. Some feel religious or spiritual.

Some carry around anger and negativity. They make others reject them. They provide examples.

Notice how much we love extreme examples. Like the tattooed lizard guy, or the world's fattest man. The bearded lady. These people are important to our survival, sometimes by showing us what we don't want to be, how we don't want to evolve.

Your job is to be you! Your brain works in a certain way, and that way is integral to the whole of our species.

Sandi West Henson told me how she saw it: Your feelings are valid.

And she's so right. The impulses of your nervous system are valid. They work beyond your simple mammal brain to create the full expression of "you."

So allow the universe to be itself through you!

Feel everything you need to feel!

The spiritual people call it our "calling." The things we were brought into this world to understand. For everyone, what you are meant to understand is different.

I have to laugh when I see people trying ruthlessly to get other people to see what they see.

Others are not meant to see what you see! No one sees through your synergetic-eye-brain system. No one knows your thoughts and memories.

These are all parts of your unique being.

And you can feel good about that! You are here because you are important, for something, and maybe it's as small as giving someone a hug when they need it, or as big as helping our species into the age of space migration.

Who knows? You determine the form of your expression.

IMMEDIACY

Life is a participatory act, no room for spectators. Even the act of watching is a form of participation.

My whole life I have been watched by people. Small people who judge whether I am attractive or unattractive. Whether what I'm doing is agreeable or disagreeable. It gets so distracting! Small people think small thoughts about me, I pick up on them, and they trip me up.

Small people read my status updates but don't 'like' them. They are too busy in their heads, spectating and judging.

Small minds zone out in front of television screens until drool falls down their chins. I refuse to do that anymore. I love cinema and television, but if a show makes me feel like going slackjawed instead of engaged and like I am learning something, I can't put in the effort for it.

My life is a series of time-sensitive investments. I refuse to waste what I'm given on 45 consecutive minutes of action shots. On garish sex scenes that destroy my individual notions about intimacy. On scripted reality shows. On bright flashing colors void of information about how to succeed at being human.

Lately, I watched Fast Times at Ridgemont High. It made me laugh and I felt it was a good representation of culture. Everything I watch is about learning and growing.

Talking with one of my incredible coworkers one day, he said that people all over the world are full of intelligent ideas and incredible perspectives, but all they do is sit in their rooms and fail to make a change in the world.

I feel many of us are like this, full of great ideas but having never learned how to participate in our own lives.

CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY

As the sun begins to set on day 3 of Burning Man, I reflect on the principle of Civic Responsibility.

As a tour guide, I am an Event Organizer, and being on the blunt end of Civic Responsibility comes with the territory.

For example, when I load elevators, people fit the best, and feel the least awkward, when everyone faces the same direction. I had a gentleman, when I asked him to turn around in the elevator, say: "You mean I'm not allowed to face the group I'm with?" (which would have made him the only person facing everyone else in the elevator.) At that point, it became my civic responsibility to explain how everyone fits more comfortably facing the same direction.

As a participant, who also knows what it means to be an organizer, the best thing I can do while participating in group events is lead by example. Every individual has the power to set the mood and tone of their own reality tunnel. When you start working with groups and tribes, you see how the interdependence of "having a good time" relies on the nature of each individual.

Bonnaroo had a "rule" this year. Don't be that guy.

People get dicey about having rules told to them, but on a basic human level, there exist certain ways, and certain levels of tension, that work more effectively for group settings. Tribes do not have tolerance for disruption to the social systems necessary for their survival.

But sometimes, disruption is necessary for survival.

COMMUNAL EFFORT

Some of mankind's greatest achievements, and the current highly advanced level of our society, stem from the most complex and interconnected community structures ever to form on this planet.

Community has never looked like this before. We are physically more isolated, but also, thanks to electronic communication, remain in close personal contact with highly specialized groups of friends and peers. We don't walk down the street to spend time with our one friend in the neighborhood. We snapchat our best friends. We express via status update to our unique friend lists. We communicate with people who get us, and who are willing to support and work with us.

Camus said "To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others."

And he knew a thing or two. When we get around other people, our tribal instincts kick in, and we get judgemental, emotional. We carry strong opinions. We feel, deeply, it's important others see what we see. This is a biological psycho-mechanism that is slowly losing its importance for our species.

I feel strongly that working with others always demands a sacrifice. People, in their unconsciousness, steal your energy, they waste your time and demand your attention when they aren't entitled to it. People trap you in their mind games. They attempt to bring you down to low-vibration frequencies. This is the cost of working with others. This is why, if you want to be happy, you shouldn't get too concerned about people.

I feel, ultimately, this sacrifice of energy and time is worth it. Working with human beings is worth it. When we get together and focus our energy, we build the world's tallest buildings, the world's most progressive festivals, and, just by thinking and being together, we create new realities that affect the flexible fabric of space-time.

Often I think back on when I attended a Christian music event, Winterfest, with Dakota and his parents Jeff and Carrie. At one point, the 15,000 attendees were asked to be together silently in prayer. The magnitude of that silence absolutely moved me, and I reflect on it still today, as I see news of millions of people around the world meditating collectively for global consciousness change.

Something unique happens when individuals work together with positive intentions. Incredible outcomes occur.

DECOMMODIFICATION

Imagine what people could accomplish with their energy and time in a culture free from "having."

Have you ever considered what you would do with your day if you were free from working, to earn the money, to buy the stuff?

We interact differently with each other when we stop constantly exploiting our peers for cash and resources. Almost every "job" in America is a form of exploitation. Even my job exploits people, considering my company turns a profit, and the CEO makes a hell of a lot more than I do even though I unquestionably work harder. I have no need to convince you of the pitfalls in our economic system. They are self-evident.

GIFTING

Imagine what people could accomplish with their energy and time in a culture free from "having."

Have you ever considered what you would do with your day if you were free from working, to earn the money, to buy the stuff?

We interact differently with each other when we stop constantly exploiting our peers for cash and resources. Almost every "job" in America is a form of exploitation. Even my job exploits people, considering my company turns a profit, and the CEO makes a hell of a lot more than I do even though I unquestionably work harder. I have no need to convince you of the pitfalls in our economic system. They are self-evident.

RADICAL SELF RELIANCE

If you want to have a good time, avoid putting that time in someone else’s hands.  Radical self reliance is a celebration of all things you can do for yourself!  By being radically self reliant, you lift the burden of taking care of you off your neighbor and lift up the kinds of interactions we can have with one another into a higher realm.  When all our needs are met, especially self met, we can begin to give back and engage with others from a place of fulfillment, not a place of lack or need.  Radical Self Reliance allows for high quality interactions to take place at Burning Man and beyond, it helps prevent anyone from taking away your good time, because you provide the good time no matter what!  I love Radical Self Reliance it is useful and life saving among the 10 principles.

Meditating on these 10 concepts has completely changed my mind and the direction I’m headed.  The benefits of integrating these principles into your life are HUGE and have lasting ripples that go out out out into the world.  Honoring even one of these principles can have a positive impact and I’m super thankful to have found them and the opportunities they lead me toward.  Burn on!!