Burning Man: The Man Burns

I stood, leaning forward over the open hole of the porta-potty toilet. Someone had ripped the lid off the seat, which I thought was kind of funny as I retched and tried to hurl. But nothing came up and I nearly choked instead.
This was a battle between me and my body: I knew what I needed to do, but something inside me was not co-operating. Something inside me did not want to come out.

I closed my eyes and focused on the spinning sensation which overwhelmed by brain. I was really, really, really high.

And I really needed to vomit.

But even with my eyes closed, focusing on the pain, I couldn't do it. This ugliness inside me wanted to hold on for a moment longer and I suddenly felt angry at it. I wanted it out so bad that I felt myself shaking.

So I rocked my head back and forth quite violently, making myself feel affectively sicker. I tried again to throw up, but only managed to make a hideous choking sound, which drew the attention of someone in the stall next to me.

“Y’okay?” they asked.

“Never been better,” I shot back sarcastically, then closed my eyes and shook my head around again.

This time, as I leaned over the bowl, I thought about things that made me feel sick: Roller-coasters that spin, cheddar cheese, peanuts, Dani—

And I finally hurled.

Several times.

When I was done, my headlamp caught the color of my vomit and I recoiled, nearly falling backward – it wasn’t the color of my food as I’d expected. It was instead the color of Grizzly Bear’s personality.

As a synesthete, it’s hard to describe the emotion I feel when I see a color in “real life” that I see for a number, letter, or person I usually see only in my head. I once saw the color of my own cartilage and it was the color of my 2s. So even though I was a bloody mess, I pointed it out to the doc, who probably thought I was crazy.

Anyhow, seeing Grizzly Bear’s personality color escape from my body in that manner made me feel shocked, amazed, and totally relieved.

It was over.
I could move on now.

I had literally expelled him from my life in the most perfect, fitting way imaginable: Staring into a disgusting porta-potty on the Playa at Burning Man, the very night they had set the Man on fire.

This is what the veteran Burners call “Playa Magic”. It’s the crazy, divine co-incidences that leaves us thinking and questioning all we know about ourselves, our lives, and our spirituality.

Such is the way of Burning Man.

THE RED UFO AT BURNING MAN

We'd all expressed our pains, and fears, and joys on the walls of the great white structure. I had written about my car crash and the person who saved my life, then betrayed me. I doubt I will ever talk to him again at this point. I literally expelled him from of my system and I'm not going back (more on this story later).

For many people, the Temple Burn was something of a melancholy, contemplative moment, meant to be a time of meditation and reflection. For this reason, my group and I chose to watch the burn from a distance, and I'm glad we did. Not only did it provide a better view of the event, it also helped us realize how HUGE the resulting flames were.

And it also gave us a better view of the mysterious red light that crossed the sky that night...

I'm sure that hundreds of people saw it. I myself saw it and took a few images of it (coming soon). It was nothing more than a single bright light moving across the sky, which eventually stopped and sat for 15 minutes to the right of the temple. After the 15 minute-pause, it did something I've never seen an aircraft do before: It dropped another smaller red light out of from under it, which flashed on and off until it reached the horizon, at which point, it went out.

Thereafter, the red craft that dropped the light began to move slowly toward the temple, and then suddenly zoomed off and disappeared into the sky.

Now, I have seen some strange things in my life. But I'd never seen anything like that. I'd seen other UFOs, however, and there were some similarities that I was sure to note. Firstly was the manner by which it "took off" into the night - I'd seen a white ball of light in the sky do this exact move nearly two years prior while camping on a private island near the Oregon Coast. At another time, also in Oregon, I have seen another white craft zig-zag over a short distance like the red craft did over BRC. It also pulsed like the red UFO, and didn't appear to be very high up.

Ironically, I'd had a few dreams about UFOs and extraterrestrial life earlier that very week, whereas I normally don't dedicate much time to thinking about such things (my interest, after all, is with the living creatures of earth). But something about that red light did seem very intriguing to me and I'd like to know more about it.

In short, if anyone knows anything about this event, I'd love to hear from you. There must have been hundreds of witnesses and I've heard from some that they took video of it (though I have yet to see it myself).

The following are images of the craft which I took with my Canon EOS 7D DSLR camera, using an 18-55mm lens. I set the camera on the solid Playa ground to ensure that the shots I got were as clear as could be given the low lighting. I wish with all my heart that I’d had my 300mm and a tripod on me, but alas, I did not. I heard from another photographer, though, that he did, and he planned to post the images online (again, I have yet to see these).

This photo is a zoomed in view of the red light before it dropped its second light. You can see that it seems to have a ring of yellow around it, followed by a halo-like aura of more red. The light was flashing for a while, so this may just be a part of the flash, yet it appears in my other images of the light as well, leading me to believe that it’s actually something in the nature of the craft. Again, though, I’m not sure. I wish that I had a bigger lens for this.

And this is where things got interesting: You can see from this series of shots that the red UFO has now dropped a smaller red light toward the earth. This flashed on and off (all images here show the light while on) and then disappeared when it reached the horizon about 15 to 20 seconds later. My boyfriend told me that this 15-to-20-second drop time means that the original red craft was only about a mile high in the sky, which is quite close indeed, raising my suspicion that this was some kind of hoax.

This next image was taken with a 20-second exposure. The close up in the corner was sharpened to show detail, but is, like the rest of the photos, completely unedited aside from cropping and the signature included for copyright purposes. 

Again, I MUST re-iterate that I simply have NO idea what this thing is. I'm not trying to claim that it's an extraterrestrial spacecraft, nor am I taking the firm stance that it's a hoax. I'm simply saying that I don't know what is, and I think it's a very interesting experience which I'm glad to have had. Once more, if you know anything more about it, please feel free to share! I'd love to hear what you have to say.