What Burning Man can teach you about yourself and the world, even if you never go

"Have you ever wanted to burn a man? In June 1986, the founders of the Burning Man project and nonprofit, Larry Harvey and Jerry James, built a wooden human effigy and set it on fire on San Francisco's Baker Beach as a symbolic act of letting go of their personal crises. They call it the First Burn. Every year since, the two committed to doing it again."

"It's an interesting event because you have to survive a couple of days with people you've never met, surrounded by art and dust, and the challenge of being self-reliant in the desert, said Henry Wu, a photographer and content creator on Instagram. He has been attending Burning Man every year since 2010 and will be going again this year. Burning Man is all about you. You're part of the whole thing and not just there as an observer. You're there as a participant, he added."

"Globally, Burning Man is a cultural movement that exists in every continent and all over the place. But what it means, as far as experientially, it is very idiosyncratic. It really does depend on who you are and what part of it you see, said Stuart Mangrum, director of Burning Man's Philosophical Center, a department within the nonprofit. Although some people refer to Burning Man as a festival, many say it's closer to a living art piece. Every year around this time, the cities of Burning Man get built in different parts of the world, attracting more than 70,000 people to Black Rock City and another 100,000 or so more in affiliated events worldwide."

Larry Harvey and Jerry James built a wooden human effigy and set it on fire on San Francisco's Baker Beach in June 1986 as a symbolic act of letting go of personal crises. The ritual, called the First Burn, became an annual act and moved in 1990 to Black Rock City, Nevada. Burning Man now lasts a week and centers on participatory art, self-reliance, and temporary cities built in the desert. Attendees face dust, desert conditions, and communal living with strangers while contributing to a living art piece. Burning Man has grown into a global cultural movement with tens of thousands attending main and affiliated events.

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