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Spiritual nourishment in the desert
The annual Burning Man festival in northern Nevada attracts all kinds of people: artists, musicians, atheists, and the religious, Wall Street executives and the self-employed. What unites the community is a commitment to free-spirited “radical self-expression,” which manifests itself in fantastic costumes and creative vehicles resembling parade floats. During the week, the gathering becomes the fourth-largest city in the state as tens of thousands of people and structures appear in the desert, vanishing a week later as attendees leave no trace they were ever there.
Although the structures vanish, attendees say their experiences at the festival stick with them. And for some, this year’s Burning Man experience included a new element: Christian Science lectures, delivered in venues devoted to spiritual healing.
Christian Science lecturer Tom McElroy traveled to the festival with three other Christian Scientists—Michael Morgan, Nate Frederick, and Julian Schwartz. Tom delivered two lectures titled “The real you—no limitations,” in both indoor and open-air venues (for more on this, see “Seekers unite at a ‘Burning Man’ festival,” Christian Science Sentinel, November 5, 2012). You can also watch a video of one of the lectures at christianscience.com/lectures/the-real-you. The idea for holding the lecture event came from Susanna Kerber, a Christian Scientist who’d attended Burning Man for years, and was supported prayerfully and financially by Christian Science churches and church members in California, Oregon, and elsewhere.
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