Citation:
Breau, Jeffrey. 2023.“God Came to Party: Psychedelic Spirituality at Burning Man”. in Uses and Abuses of Power in Alternative Spiritualities. Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Abstract:
Abstract: This paper explores psychedelic-using spiritual communities operating at the annual Burning Man festival. The paper focuses on communities-of-care and harm reduction practices which allow the 70k person city to function, as well as rituals and spiritual practices co-operating with these care practices. The paper weaves the author’s personal experience from his five Burns (where he worked in psychedelic harm reduction and as a Temple Guardian) with an analysis of the primary and secondary literature on Burning Man and North American psychedelic churches. This paper will discuss both positive practices of psychedelic communities at Burning Man and areas of abuse and risk.Presenter bio: Jeffrey A. Breau is a Master of Divinity candidate at Harvard Divinity School, where he focused on psychedelic spirituality and chaplaincy. His current research interest is communities-of-care in ‘underground’ psychedelic spiritual communities. Prior to Harvard, he oversaw an Ashram founded by Ram Dass and spent six years as a Google program manager.
Presenter affiliation: Harvard Divinity School