What Burning Man and Bananas Taught Me About Manifestation
A friend told me about a great shirt they saw someone wearing at Burning Man that said:
“NO YOU DIDN’T MANIFEST THIS BANANA. I PACKED IT.”
What makes that shirt funny is a couple of things that are true. First, Burning Man is often associated with the stereotypical New Age “spiritual” person who overly (and often incorrectly) uses the word manifestation (case in point, the 2020 viral meme “shut up I’m manifesting”).
The shirt is also funny because of the way in which the mundane and practical component of the statement collapses all magical thinking in one fell swoop.
So — is The Secret, magical thinking and manifestation all just hokus pokus?
Having been an avid Law of Attraction junkie myself for many years who has experienced countless inexplicably magical moments of synchronicity and unexpected prosperity, my answer is no. Though I do believe there is a distinction that would help us ground the concept.
Let’s examine Google’s definition of manifestation: the action or fact of showing an abstract idea.
Those of you who frequent Burning Man experience this definition in bizarrely profound ways all the time. There you are, in your dusty tutu, somewhere in the middle of the Nevada desert, thinking of how amazing it would be to have a banana, and suddenly a perfect stranger walks up to you and offers you one.
So how do we explain this kind of phenomenon? Is it pure coincidence, or is there something else going on?
I want to propose that we start thinking about these occurrences as the result of magnetism rather than manifestation.
Bear with me as we zoom out for a moment.
The Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field, generated by the movement of the planet’s liquid core, which essentially makes it one huge magnet.
Scientific research is beginning to catch up to the ancient teachings that human bodies create magnetic fields as well, which can also be called “auric” fields, and are responsible for drawing in or repelling specific things.
So, in the Burning Man example, whoever “manifested” the banana they desired “out of thin air” likely already had an affinity for bananas previously and therefore created a resonance with the vibrational frequency of “banana” within their magnetic field, which would then make them a “vibrational match” to the banana appearing.
Additionally, quantum entanglement theories are revealing that subatomic particles can communicate with each other beyond the constraints of time and space. I’m no scientist, but I do intuitively feel this could explain why the gap between thinking “I would like a banana” and the banana actually showing can be so instantaneous.
And yes, I am implying that we can be quantumly entangled with a banana.
Since we’re on the topic of Burning Man, let’s take it a layer deeper. Part of what makes this particular event so magnetic is the collective, electromagnetic “auric” field of possibility it creates and amplifies amongst its participants.
When 80,000+ humans choose to believe in things our culture has deemed impossible, what happens? Well, an increase of synchronicity, alignment, flow-state and legit “magic” is experienced.
The more this happens, the more the belief in it stabilizes, which in turn strengthens the collective magnetic field even further.
Burning Man can therefore create a sort of portal of potential that reaches far beyond the confines of our day to day thinking. Throw some mind-expanding components like psychedelics, extreme temperature exposure and electronic music into the mix and the boundaries of what is “normal” and “real” collapse even further.
Of course we must remember that the outcome isn’t always as harmless as a banana. Burning Man’s amplified magnetic field also contains the shadow side of the spectrum, as do all things.
Legit magic and actual delusion are often only distinguished by a few degrees of separation.
Believing that positive thinking alone is going to “manifest our dream life,” for example, is a delusion, for it ignores the reality that we all carry traumatic imprints in our cells and psyches which have a direct impact on our thoughts and feelings and cannot be bypassed.
Through deep personal inner work we can cultivate awareness and agility within our “energetic signature,” meaning, the default setting of the subtle magnetic field we are emanating at all times. This agility allows us to then more consciously focus our attention and intention on the things we wish to experience more of.
Then, when those things show up, we can experience the manifest result of our magnetism.
See you in the dust, family.
In relentless devotion,
Azrya Bequer
Follow me on IG @azryabequer
Visit me at www.BEQOMING.me
