About Naked Heart
Naked Heart has become a major destination on the playa for the citizens of Black Rock City to find life-altering transformational workshops. Each year we host about 170 workshops and serve over 6000 people.
The guiding light of Naked Heart is the workshop— Emote-A-Thon. There are people who attend Burning Man solely to experience this workshop. It is an opportunity for participants to experience showing up fully in masculine/feminine polarity. Each offering is unique but the lessons learned are potent and insightful in a way not found elsewhere.
Naked Heart is also a magnet for those wishing to explore polarity amongst like-minded explorers. Many of our camp population are full-time workshop leaders around the world. Others are leading a workshop for the first time. Everyone is finely attuned to the gifts we are giving each other in every moment and this creates a camp experience of amazing synergy and vibrancy.
We never know where on the playa we will be placed, but typically we end up somewhere near 6:30 and E.
As you have read on the home page, Naked Heart is devoted to a fuller embodiment of the divine feminine in the bodies of women and to promoting a dialog around the role men play in recognizing, facilitating and supporting this embodiment. We will be leading a significant number of workshops that illuminate facets of feminine embodiment.
The Details
Membership in Naked Heart is a ticket to a plush and luxurious existence on the playa. We will have shade and wind protection for every tent. There is a shaded outdoor gathering area. A 1500 sq. ft tent will be our eating area and cuddle nest. We have 4 other 30’ domes for hosting workshops. There is electricity for lights and refrigerators. The 600 sq. ft. kitchen provides a group meal every day for dinner. Materials will be provided for you to make your own breakfast or snack lunch. Meals are vegetarian with a heavy reliance on fresh vegetables. All your water will be provided including enough to take a few showers.
Each camper will be required to fulfill a few work shifts such as cooking or cleaning the chill space. We hope that anyone who feels inspired will teach some workshops. Teaching workshops does not count as work shifts.
Contribution
Burning Man is a gifting culture and many new burners are seeking ways to plug in and give their gifts fully. Many wish to design things, build things, invent new infrastructure ideas. Great!! It was precisely those curiosities that created the infrastructure that is Naked Heart in the years 2013-2023.
Naked Heart has now entered its second 7 year cycle and the building and creation that we are immersed in is much less tangible. We are creating a Goddess Temple as a collection of practices, we are re-creating ourselves as Divine Femifesters, we are opening our hearts more fully as offering to the Universe. This is creation, this is technology, this is new ground for humans to explore, it just results in fewer tangibles. It also requires that we take scrupulous care to preserve our creations in culture.
We have created our Documentation Wiki to preserve the institutional knowledge of our physical infrastructure. We do not yet have anything similar to preserve our co-created culture crafted in this new 7 year cycle.
Time Line
This camp fills VERY early and every year it fills earlier. If you are serious about camping with us, it is best to join by January 30th. Joining this early will potentially allow you to participate in the Stewards Ticket Sale. For some reason we get many many people trying to join in late June. Unfortunately by that date we have already passed the submission deadline for workshops and it is difficult for these late joiners to fully give their gifts.
Program
The workshop program is dictated largely by camp members. If you have material that you have presented before or would like to try out, we welcome you to submit it to us to be added to the schedule. Burning Man is an excellent place to try out your skills as a leader. Workshop participants are very open to being expanded and it is very difficult to offend anyone. If you need help defining and refining an idea that you have, contact me, David Braun, and I can help you out. You can also read our workshop tutorial here.
Community
We discuss our public plans and ideas on FaceBook. if you are not already subscribed, you should join:
We discuss particular plans for the upcoming year on a private messaging server. This is where we will refine plans for workshops, announce deadlines, and focus our vision. You will be given access to this server when you register. Our members are scattered all across the globe so Burning Man is the only place we can meet in the flesh. Until then, all our co-creating is largely electronic.
More Details
The first step in joining Naked Heart is to fill out the application form. I will probably give you a call after receiving your application and we can mutually determine if Naked Heart is a good fit. Once your application has been accepted, you will then need to fill out the registration form and send in your Ante.
Ante for 2025 are :
Paid prior to Dec 15th: $700-900 Sliding
Paid prior to March 15th: $850-1050 Sliding
Paid March 16th to May 15th: $950-1150 Sliding
Paid May 16th to July 15th: $1050-1250 Sliding
Paid July 16th to August 1st: $1500-1800 Sliding )
Paid after August 1st: $1700-2000 Sliding )
The Ante amounts are presented as a range. That is a sliding scale. Some members have highly valued their experience in the past and have chosen to Ante at a higher level. The lower number is the absolute minimum for that tier.
Ante Scholarship
It seems that every year the costs to transact Naked Heart increase. That makes it ever more difficult for some of our members to participate. In 2022 about 20% of our members received low income (Ticket Assist) Tickets. We wish to include everyone who has the desire to camp with us; we make this possible through our scholarship program. Here is how it works:
1. You must indicate your interest on the registration form
2. You must be awarded a Ticket Assist Ticket
3. You will not be assessed any of the risk sharing fees
4. Scholarship funds are the excess funds from the previous year plus any scholarship specific donations
Refund Policy
Because of the tenuous nature of Burning Man 2020-2022, we have a refund policy in effect. You can read it here:
Community Obligations
We require the following of everyone who is part of Naked Heart:
1. That you show up at camp by Monday, August 24 at 4pm for the opening circle, particularly if this is your first year with Naked Heart. Please plan on potentially arriving as early as Thursday, August 19 to participate in our pre-event community building weekend on playa, contingent on availability of Work Access Passes. If you are taking the Burner Express Bus, try to get a Saturday booking. This is the easiest and most predictable way of arriving early.
2. That you sign up for three work shifts on Playa during the week .
3. That you commit to helping with camp setup either as a part of our pre-event team, or once you get settled in. No matter when you arrive, there is likely to be some camp or village project that needs help with organizing or constructing. We'll have the bulk of the camp set up pre-event, but there are bound to be projects such as kitchen organizing, lighting, bike racks, bodywork area, shower that need to be completed on Tuesday or Wednesday of the event. There will be a Dry-Erase board with the current camp setup/help needs posted in the Kitchen area, so if no one is around to direct you, please check this list and help as you can— we value self starters. And, if you see something that needs to be done, please help and organize as needed to get it done. Naked Heart, like most of Burning Man, is aDo-Ocracy. If you're interested in joining us pre-event to help set up, please indicate this as such on your camp registration. Halcyon has a great video about Do-Ocracy: https://youtu.be/DDk77iYMTuQ
4. That you commit to show up for camp break down on Sunday afternoon starting at noon. We'll be breaking down parts of the camp, and loading up ourtrailer. That means that you are not only present but able to work. That does not mean high on shrooms or passed out in your tent. Also, a part of being at Burning Man is that you spend an hour before you leave performing a Moop Sweep. In 2023 we received a full green rating for our area, but that has not always been the case. It requires the full help and commitment of all camp members to make this possible. If you are leaving before 3pm on Sunday and can't help with this effort, we have some alternative projects we'll ask for help with during the week.
5. That you make arrangements to take at least one and preferably two bags of community generated Trash or Recycling off of the playa with you.
6. That you are committed to Leave No Trace policies of Burning Man. This means that if you brought it, you take it home with you. This includes items that you think would be really useful in future burns like carpets, tapestries, kitchen items, bicycles, etc. We may indeed want to retain some of these items, but Camp leadership has final say. If you don’t have prior approval, expect to take it home with you.
7. That you will create an account on Mattermost. We will be using this system for all our internal camp communications this year. The address for doing so will be sent to you upon acceptance to Naked Heart.
8. That you read the Manual. Yes, Naked Heart has a User’s manual. This is a document of all the information we each need to know in order to use the infrastructure provided in the camp. It is easiest to absorb this info when you are in the comfort of home prior to arriving on playa.
9. If you have ever camped with us before you are required to “buddy” with 1 or 2 new members. This is how we transmit camp culture. Your buddy responsibilities are mostly pre-burn, but it would be nice if you could be a available as friendly face once we get to playa too.
10. Veteran Leadership: If you have camped with Naked Heart or with Camp Contact for 3 years in the past, you are a Veteran and it is expected that you will give back to the Camp with your consummate knowledge and experience. You are invited to select from one of the leadership roles which will be announced in the spring
11. For those persons camping in the Soularium, you are limited to an absolute maximum of 64 sq. ft. per person of tent size. If you have 2 people in the tent, you may have 100 sq. ft, but be careful. We have had couples break up prior to the burn leaving one person in a large tent. There will be zero flexibility with this rule. Once you arrive on Playa, a Tent Placer will help you locate your tent for maximum space efficiency.
12. All members are required to recognize the Supreme Authority of the Kitchen Leadership over their domain. One of the 3 main things each member is relying upon our camp to provide is food. It is not possible for those who have chosen to take on the Kitchen Leadership tasks to have their authority challenged and still provide safe, sufficient food for the entire camp. What they say goes! And there are consequences for challenging them.
13. Once you get on playa and have your tent settled, you must attend an Orientation Walkthrough. These will be held several times a day and will show you how to operate all the systems we have in our camp. This is REALLY important and is the one thing that allows such a large group of people to interact with ease. Don’t be the “Bad Roommate”, learn how to operate the camp!
14. Naked Heart is a service camp. That means that all we do is directed at being of service to the greater Burning Man community. It does not mean that the camp or its leadership is in service to you. 100% of the camp's infrastructure and "amenities" are present so that you are better rested and better supported to give your gifts to the Burning Man community at large. Using these infrastructure and "amenities" solely for your pleasure or ease is abusive to the camp, the camp's mission and your fellow campers. Expecting access and usage of the infrastructure and "amenities" is an act of entitlement and is contrary to at least 2 of Burning Man's core principles. Membership in Naked Heart is not a transaction. Your membership guarantees you absolutely nothing.
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