Though we share many of the same components of lineups, stages and infrastructure with countless other festivals, there is an intentional participation of artists, seekers, travelers, and visionaries at Lightning in a Bottle and Symbiosis that we believe foster a dream of creativity with more impact than just a moment in time of celebration. Through our intention, hard work, and a spirit of positive community, we believe the seeds of lasting change can be planted at a festival in the minds of its participants. And from these seeds, lasting, sustainable change in the greater world begins.

Together, the Do LaB and Symbiosis wish to continue building this intention and continue planting these seeds of change.

The Do LaB is proud to announce our participation in Symbiosis 2013. We are of course focused on production of LIB right now, but at the conclusion of LIB, we will charge our makers and dreamers, movers and shakers, and creative geniuses and production masters to manifest a great work of art on the canvas of SG13. We are beyond excited to pair up again, to create, to build, and to celebrate a fantastic moment of brilliance and art in action.

We invite you to join us in this vision of unity and respect, celebrating the greater world we are building together.

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1 Giant Mind will be conducting a mass meditation session and experiment at LIB on Sunday, July 14th. During the meditation William Close will be playing his Earth Harp, using subtle harmonics to help take the meditation participants deep into non thought.

Scroll down for info on how to sign up and participate in the research 1 Giant Mind is doing at LIB.

1 Giant Mind is a global non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the education and scientific research into the benefits of meditation.

The 1 Giant Mind Mission

To reduce the impact of the global stress epidemic and its effects on health and wellbeing, society and culture, the workplace, economy and the world at large through:

The study involves a series of blood draws before and after a mass meditation experience to be held on the 21st of July at the main stage. They will then test this blood for the amount of oxytocin, seratonin and dopamine released to determine what the neurological impacts are when large groups of people meditate together.

For full details of the research read the Brain Effects of Group Meditation – Research Overview Document. (link below for you to imbed: http://d2oadd98wnjs7n.cloudfront.net/medias/727705/files/20130327194635-Mass_Meditation_Experiment-_Research_Overview.pdf?1364438797

Dr. Zak (aka Dr. Love) Professor of Economics and Department Chair, as well as the founding Director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies at Claremont Graduate University. Dr. Zak also serves as Professor of Neurology at Loma Linda University Medical Center, and is a Senior Researcher at UCLA. Dr. Zak specialises in monitoring Oxytocin levels. Oxytocin is the chemical of morality, empathy and love.

• Visit The Moral Molecule to learn more about Dr.Zaks discoveries. (link: http://www.moralmolecule.com)
• Watch Dr.Zak’s Ted talk at TED Global. (Link: http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_zak_trust_morality_and_oxytocin.html)

Meditators participate in 1 Giant Mind at Lightning in a Bottle 2012

We Need You

In order to conduct this experiment we need 50 volunteers who are willing to allow us to take a little blood before and after the mass meditation experience.  Dr. Zak and his team will be setting up a portable lab on site near the main stage so that they are able to swiftly draw blood straight after the experience.

What’s involved?

Its as easy as turning up to the main stage 40 mins before the mass meditation experience with 50 others and allow us to take a little blood from a professional Phlebotmist. You will then participate in the mass meditation with thousands of others. Straight after the meditation you will be asked to give a little more blood and then you are free to play.

Simply register below to be a volunteer include you contact details and we will send you everything you need to know.

The Impact

In the ancient wisdom traditions, there has been an understanding that when we collectively unite in action, intention and/or prayer, we exponentially increase the effect of that intent or action. This experiment wishes to scientifically examine this idea.

Thinking outside of the square, Dr. Zak and 1 Giant Mind are exploring new ways to inspire biological transformations that translate to more loving and empathetic human beings.

Our mind states are essentially governed by our brain states and the chemistry that we produce from moment to moment. Our ability to increase our capacity to live more fulfilling, meaningful and connected lives, depends largely on us understanding how the brain works and what causes it to produce certain chemistry that promotes different responses and behaviour.

There is a growing body of scientific evidence that shows that meditation provides a range of positive outcomes including reduced stress and increased health and wellbeing, enabling people to feel more connected to themselves and others. To learn more about the science behind meditation visit www.1GiantMind.org/research. (link: http://1giantmind.org/research)

If meditating has these positive impacts on an individual, is there an even greater effect occurring when we practice together in large groups? And if so, could this be used as a way to affect meaningful social change on a mass scale? We invite you to come on the journey with us to find out. See you on the 21st and don’t forget to tell you friends.

Help activate peace at the festival and the rest of the world

Before Lightning in a Bottle, I was a closet yogi living in lack. I had been since the age of 14 when I began discovering my inner strength. However, I was embarrassed at how connected I was with everything because those types of people seemed to be at the butt of every joke. Especially in my family. So I remained chanting and meditating behind the confinement of my bedroom door hiding behind designer clothes and a thick layer of bronzer, usually complaining about how broke I always was.
By the time my friend showed me a Youtube clip of LIB, I knew I had a divine appointment waiting for me. It was time to break out of my cocoon.

Arriving at LIB for the first time

As soon as I arrived in the parking lot, my heart both relaxed and pattered with excitement. I was meeting people left, right, up, and down who were the embodiement of my dreams and exactly who I wanted to be: free. Totally free. I met people travelling the world, living out of busses, throwing judgement and caution to the wind in honor of that something indescribable. That something that makes sea shells grow, that nectar that we taste when we have a first kiss with someone we love….that wordless experience poets lose their mind over describing, and what the West has long forgotten. I saw it in all their faces and I was hungry for it.
So, like I planned I ditched my friends, and asked the festival to show me everything I needed to become who I was always scared of. I was on a mission of discovery, of enchantment. And boy did I find it. I found it over. And over. And over again. And over again once more.
On the first night, I was by myself running. I didn’t know where to or why but I couldn’t stop running and laughing through hula hoops, passing gypsies, jumping over blankets of people, I felt like I was a 5 year old squealing with joy all over the place. When I suddenly felt the urge to stop.

The Meeting – She was actually glowing pink

There was a couple sitting on a blanket and before I know it, we’re not only talking, but the girl grabs my arm and we run to the front of the Bamboo stage swirling in more joy than anyone told me existed. And the most beautiful indescribable thing happened: I swear to you, all around her turned pink. She was actually glowing pink. And besides a shot or two of vodka I was totally sober.  But there this girl was, totally pink and oozing the type of presence that made Marilyn Monroe famous. This smile that is probably one of the most beautiful sights I’ve seen to date. After we danced and laughed together over nothing, we kissed a kiss I will never forget. It still makes me shiver when I think about it, 2 years later. We did not sleep a wink that night laughing and exploring one another, watching the artists paint at Lightning in a Paintcan…we watched this one artist, Christina Angelina, paint the most alive painting either one us had ever seen. At the time we saw it, it was just a pair of eyes and the beginning of the rest of a face. We stopped and stared at this painting of this face. How did she look that alive, but still just be a sketch on a canvas? We were blown away. After listening to all the different types of music and watching the sunrise, we parted ways and promised to see each other later that day to give each other our clothes back and to, of course hang out with one another. We had found our other half. We could relax finally, so it seemed. The first night was worth the price of admission.
Unfortunately, that’s now how life would have it. I did not see her that day, nor that night. Instead, I was again, on my own exploring and having fun with everything and everyone around me that I ALMOST didn’t notice her not being with me.
I proceeded to come out of my shell further, dancing on stage with Panty Raid, (after being ushered off by a man on stilts that is), I laid in a chair and had toning bowls placed all over me to realign me further, I was continuing to be blessed by volunteering at the Awesome Sauce kitchen eating the best food serving the most beautiful adventurous souls I had never thought of… so that by the third night I was flying so high I just took some time to relax and look at all the finished paintings.
And there she was. The painting by Christina Angelina we had watched being created two nights prior. It was finished and it was more beautiful and straight up more ALIVE than I could stand. It was just of a girl looking over her shoulder with a smirk of knowingness. Of Knowing who she was and where she came from and where she was going that her simplicity was its message. She just WAS. I had to have it. So I went straight to the silent auction table and put down my bid for $510 (a number I quite basically pulled out of my ass, especially since the starting bid began at $300 and no one else had even put down their name down…) plus my name and number for her painting. After another gorgeous night, I woke up at 6 am wondering if I had actually won that painting, slightly freaking out because I did not have $510 to my name. Not even close to it. I worked at a coffee shop minimum wage paying for college and rent for chrissakes…
I went to the paintings and found out I won it! I was shocked. But surprisingly happy. This epic painting was mine!! I just had to figure out a way to pay for it now…

Separation

Monday at 4 o’clock rolled around and the entire campsite was packed up. Nothing was left where my soul mate once stayed. I was both crushed but at peace with her gone because I knew what we had no way could survive outside of a festival. After all, neither one of us were gay, let alone ready to share what we had with the world. On top of it all, there was no way of tracking one another down even if I wanted to. All I knew was her first name was Lorraine and that she worked at a Starbucks in San Diego and all she knew about me was my first name, Alahna and that I too worked at a coffee shop but in San Luis Obispo. So that was it. Now I had to figure out where to come up with $510.
Or so it seemed…

The Phone Call

Several days later, I was working at my local coffee shop when I answered the phone.
“Hello, Nautical Bean Café, how may I help you?”
“Hi, who is this?”
“Alahna”
Click.
My boss walked in. “Hey Dee, did you just call to see who was working?”
“Nope.”
Hmm. Ok.
Several hours go by and the phone rings again to which my boss answered. I over hear him repeating himself.
“But if this is not an emergency, then I cannot interrupt her. She is working. Call her on her cell phone. Thanks. Bye…hey Alahna tell your friend Lorraine not to call you at work again.”
My heart dropped to the floor and I put down the drink I was making.
“What did you say?” I could barely move.
“I said tell your friend Lorraine or whatever her name was that you cannot take personal phone calls at work and to call you on your cell phone.”
I was absolutely speechless. I turned bright red and purple and could not stop laughing. There was no way I could explain to my coworkers what had just happened so I had to wait an agonizing 3 more hours until my break when I could call her back. Of course that meant I had to go through the hundreds of take out numbers that called in those past few hours to guess what time she had called. I had a good feeling about one number. I pressed dial.
“Hello?”
“Hi….uhhh is this Lorraine?” I asked absolutely feeling like a blind person in the middle of a busy street.
“Yes…is this Alahna!!”
“Oh my god yes! HOW DID YOU FIND ME?”
“Of course I looked you up, I just googled coffee shops in San Luis Obispo on my break and had a good feeling about the first one that came up…then you actually answered the phone! I couldn’t believe it so I hung up.”
“That was you!! I thought you were my boss…oh my god, it makes so much sense now.”
We laughed like crazy blown away that we got to reconnect.
She tells me she’s moving to Paris for the summer but wants to visit me when she comes back. I am again, blown away, as I used to live in Paris. I took French as my major in college.

Abundance Returns

As I am sitting on my best friends’ bed recalling her this magical story, I tell her I also have some bad news. That I put down $510 for a painting and won it…so now I have to come up with $510 and have ZERO idea where to come across it.
She explains to me that my disappointment is not from not having the money but in the discord I feel from abundance. If I want the painting, then the Universe will rearrange itself for me to have it.
I decide to listen. To act from that place of abundance that I felt when I wrote down that number.
I call my dad up and ask him if I have some sort of savings I don’t know about, half way joking because I know his broke ass doesn’t have any saved up money for me. He tells me it’s funny I should ask him because he does have $500 that he had started for a college savings account he never got around to tell me about since I started getting financial aid.
Oh my god! When is the magic ever going to stop?!
“Well, since I am getting financial aid…do you think I could use that money for rent and food since I just spent a weekend away…?” I cringe. I know my dad. Once when I asked him for $1 in high school he asked what for. I told him it was to get some milk at the cafeteria. He tells me we have milk at the house and if I want to take some to school we have water bottles I can fill up…asking him for $500 point blank for no real reason is like asking the principal to have recess all day.
“Sure. Why not? It’s your money anyway. I will transfer the money tomorrow, if that works for you.”

Reunited Forever

When she returns from Paris, she has all my clothes from the festival in hand and the moment that we reunited eradicated any thoughts that we couldn’t be together in the real world. We were wearing nearly the same exact outfit: a short floral dress, multiple long necklaces, more glitter than any college graduate should wear, and we each were wearing a headband. We embraced and she has been adopted into my family, and I hers. While she has moved to Austin, Texas and I have moved to North Shore, Oahu, we are still very much and always will be, together. She is hands down my soul mate (one of them at least) and I have been honored and humbled by our connection. Lorraine has broken open my heart for good and my life has not been close to the same without her. As for, Ananda (the painting by Christina Angelina we named her) is a constant reminder of the abundance I am steeped in. I since have not had any complaints of lack since I’ve realized we can ask for whatever we need
Thank you for having the space for abundance, TRUE love to happen, form, and continue to ripple through the galaxy. You guys are important people. And do not forget it
Namaste <3

So we matched the two up so one incredible story can help create another! Read below for Cory’s inspiring story of transformation followed by Tonya’s request for an amazing story of her own.

A story of tattoos, love, and transformation. With extra special thanks to Nick Warren.
By Cory Kantin

We had a choice.
We could break up
Or go to a music festival

Electronic. Yoga. California
Heaven. Here we come.
carrying all the confusion that is
4 months of losing
to the black hole
of our differences

Even if it was her trip, that she invited me one day when her arms wrapped round tightly.

But I’m a fighter
and a lover
and we needed
a vacation more than
heartbreak,

we arrived on two rockets
aimed as far from the new york we were living
maybe there we could
connect the void,
or altogether
vanish

And arrived she did
To this utopic make-believe
Forest of new friends, pretty lights

I saw it all
Through a tv screen
Divided by an ultimatum for joy
or bust heart
I knew no one, but her and I wasn’t sure
she knew me, my love as she watched me awkward
as a cut/copy image from
New York. Thrown into California
lovestained

Pain is so obvious in the sunshine
And is especially unattractive
when it was once yours

Despite me. She was calm, charismatic.
Connected as a deep breath
She couldn’t understand
how I could acknowledge Disneyworld
Yet I could not enjoy the rides
She encouraged me, with polarizing grace
She had her whole life to find a seatmate.

But! I’m a lover and a fighter
A meditator. A yogi. A visitor
of the temple of consciousness
The dance floor. At the top
of the ferris wheel with an open mouth.
No hands. I begged my body to join the consciousness
But my energy collided each time the wheel
Dropped

And I kept on spinning,
Further away. My frequency,
Out of sync. Vibration, Spectrum
Till it was obvious. I was vanishing from the picture

There she was Harmoniously
Blended within the costumed tattoo clad
Freaks, gasp. I sat alone.
Stirring, within a bottle of my own shit
Judgement. while the others, played
Alone I saw the strife was ME
Lurking deep in the roots of my eyes

I saw we were not losing to a black hole of our differences
I was losing love to judgment
She was a garden full of weeds
A body full of tattoos
A woman walking away
My love, I saw her as she was walking away in a beautiful crowd of freaks
Did I mention, she’s tattoo clad
But not looking for attention. Not silly. Not vain and immature.
Just expressing. I wanted to tell her,
“Babe! Come back! I get it”
But it’s not so easy this moment
you realize the problem. The rotten you smell
comes from inside of you
you have to touch it.
cut the diseased thoughts like a cancer
Without killing yourself
Skip shame.                           Find     liberation.

I returned on the final night.
Pumpkin on the Woogie Stage
An ultimatum for my vibrance
I started dancing as hard
As I could to shake it out
into the songs I knew
I broke free beneath-my-sunglasses-tears-as –I- saw –you-see- me –return-and –dance. All-the-faces-recognized-me.You-wouldn’t-believe-how-they-smiled–back/

But, my love was sleepy
The all night before filled her limbs
And on this eve, she retired.

Me. Awakened. Released. Connected.
I needed no one. I danced
with everyone.
Everywhere I could feel everything
The highest high of a ferris wheel
How my vibration had been too low to connect
Too compromised. Now contrasted
like a sunrise

And then the universe itself greeted me
Outside the port-a-potty
“What’s up? Where are you from?”
“Brooklyn,” I reply.
“That’s so cool– do you want to come back stage? I’m a friend of Nick Warren’s”
Sidenote: Nick Warren was my favorite DJ at LIB

I wish I had a photo but it can’t be captured. Transformation. Raw energy.
The music emanating to the crowd, to the mountain
The crowd, the nature flowing back
filled my openness completely
This night. For me. The festival. The name. The lightning.
And the black man with heart shaped glasses standing beside me
As I danced watching the energy swirling the crowd into one
In the end. The last set of LIB.
Nick turns around. Picks me up
and spins me
into the whole world.

I shit you not. I let the negativity out
and lightning came
to release me
from the bottle.

————————–

On the busride home the next day. I looked at my love and thought.
She’s gonna break up with you now. She doesn’t see you yet.
You’ve stained her bottle and it will take time for her to see past it.
But don’t worry. She will. You’ll get her back
And you’re going to marry her.

Tonya Kinchen’s request for an LIB story of her own:

I don’t have a story, because I have never been to a festival quite like this. I am 31 years old. I am recently single. I have experienced great loss, as my Grandmother whom raised me has recently passed. I live alone, in a small town, and am a big promoter. It comes with quite a bit of angst as other promoters are constantly trying to take me out. I do my best to stand above it and push my events in a positive way. I work at a very small indie rock bar that caters mostly to UC Merced students, The Partisan. I don’t make much money, as I do it more for the passion, and to keep myself going through the months. I have never been someone that has experienced life on the right side of the tracks. I have never been on a vacation. I may not deserve to win with some really great story about my past experiences at Lightning in a Bottle, but I would be ever changed if I did win. I would be grateful and feel extremely blessed to be able to get out of this town, and experience new people, and a life altering music festival such as this seems to be the medicine to cure this wounded soul. I would really like consideration to win, but am happy for those that are chosen if I am not qualified. Thanks so much for your kindness and time.

Thanks so much for sharing your stories and congrats to Tonya for her pair of tickets to LIB 2013. Stay tuned and keep those stories coming as we still have 3 more pairs of tickets to give away!

Missed out on a free volunteer ticket? Lock in your LIB tickets for a low down payment before they sell out! Check it out:

Full Weekend Pass w/ Tent Camping – 3 payments
$80 + fees by Monday, May 20th
$80 payment Monday, June 3rd
$80 payment Monday, June 17th

Full Weekend Pass w/ Tent Camping – 2 payments
$120 + fees by Monday, May 27th
$120 payment Monday June 24th

Layaway purchases require signing up for an account on the beTicketing website:

https://beticketing.com/layaway/071113LIB2

http://lightninginabottle.org/

Tycho blends swirling melodies into vaguely triumphant arcs that crisscross between stuttering beats and vocal samples, creating rolling sonic landscapes that extend into the horizon. Here we’ve featured his brand new music video for “Ascension”:

Learn more about Tycho here:

http://lightninginabottle.org/artist/tycho

Warm, analogue dreamwave; mind-altering glitch; world-infused groove; bass-fueled breaks; sexified down-tempo; electric lullabies; and psy-fi funk are just a few of the genres that have poured from The Polish Ambassador’s soul into earbuds and ghetto-blasters across the galaxy.

Follow the links below to download his brand new double album for free! 

Surprise. Ecozoic is a double album and officially out now. Enjoy!

“Name Your Price” http://bit.ly/15fRq4P
Stream on Spotify http://spoti.fi/ZNlBN6
Download @ iTunes http://bit.ly/10gnspr

All Polish Ambassador music is “Name Your Price”
http://thepolishambassador.bandcamp.com/

Learn more about The Polish Ambassador here:

http://lightninginabottle.org/artist/the-polish-ambassador

Known for its etheric melodies, immaculately smooth samples, and addictive drum beats, Emancipator’s music has captivated a diverse audience across the globe. Here we’ve featured the video from his newest album “Dusk to Dawn.”

Learn more about Emancipator here:

http://lightninginabottle.org/artist/emancipator

Cry Wolf combines beautiful melodies, exploding bass lines, and haunting vocals on his new Ghosts EP.

See him live in Los Angeles tonight, ahead of his LIB debut in July! Show info: http://thedolab.com/?p=3948

Learn more about Crywolf here:

http://lightninginabottle.org/artist/crywolf