Naropa at MAPS 2023: Ritual, Play & Presence | Embodied Marketing & Immersive Experience Design

Naropa at MAPS 2023: A Living Invitation to Presence

Ritual, Play, and the Rainbow Mind in the Heart of the Psychedelic Movement

At MAPS 2023, Naropa University did not simply attend a conference.
We entered it as a force of presence, ritual, and play.
We became a living field of belonging—one woven through sound, breath, poetry, and connection.

In a space dominated by data, discourse, and commercialization, we created something rare:

✨ A sanctuary where the psychedelic mind could rest and integrate.
✨ A ritual of recognition, passed hand to hand in the form of Gems of Belonging.
✨ A series of activations that moved across the conference like poetry in motion.

This was Naropa in its truest form—embodied, experimental, and deeply felt.
This was the revival of the 1974 Institute, where artists, mystics, and revolutionaries gathered to imagine what consciousness could become.

Presence does not begin at the moment of arrival—it begins in the space before.
🎧 A pre-conference psychedelic meditation seeded the experience before the first step was taken.
🔗 Experience it here
Even before attendees entered MAPS, we had already whispered to them in the language of presence.
In a conference designed for the mind, we created space for the soul.
A sanctuary. A place to pause, to breathe, to reconnect.
🎶 Sound Baths Every Day—where vibration guided integration.
📖 Ritual Poetry Experience—with the Summer Writing Faculty of the Jack Kerouac School, weaving words into sacred offering.
☕ Alumx Coffee Hour—where past and present Naropians gathered in remembrance and renewal.
✊🏽 BIPOC Hour—a space for reflection, solidarity, and shared experience.
🌀 Ram Dass Foundation's Loving Awareness Talk & E-Forest Concert—blending wisdom and music into a journey of presence.
📖 Indigenous Story Hour—where voices of the land carried the weight of time and tradition.
💗 Heart-Opening Activation Play—where laughter, movement, and deep connection brought participants home to themselves.
This was not a booth.
This was a temple in the middle of a city of ideas. text goes here
Alongside our contemplative sanctuary, Naropa took center stage in Deep Space—one of the most high-profile MAPS venues, in partnership with Dr. Bronner’s.
Here, we did not hold discussions.
We invoked experience.
🌞 Morning Yoga—held daily by Naropa’s yoga students, grounding the conference in embodied wisdom.
🫖 High Noon Parallel RealiTEA—an unexpected pause in the day, where tea and conversation bridged realities.
🌠 Opening Ritual by Ramon Parrish—where the audience became the constellations, forming an embodied astrological map of the conference.
🌿 Channeling Plant Wisdom in an Afro-Future—where past, present, and future converged in a psychedelic dialogue.
🔬 SubAtomic Spaces: A Plant Wisdom Oasis Ceremony—an intimate ritual honoring the unseen forces that shape us.
🎤 Psychedelic Cypher—where spoken word became a channel for the ineffable.
🌊 Honoring Our Pain for the World: A Joanna Macy-Inspired Grief Ritual—where water, stones, and drumbeats carried the weight of collective loss and transformation.
🕉️ Closing Sound Ceremony Kirtan—where voices rose, mantras swirled, and the conference ended not with words, but with vibration.
This was not a brand activation.
This was a living offering to the psychedelic movement itself. text goes here
If Deep Space and the Contemplative Space were our roots, the Happenings Troop was our wings.
👑 Led by King Lexi, our roaming ensemble transformed the conference’s liminal spaces.
🎶 Songs, games, and immersive interactions erupted in unexpected places.
💡 Attendees became participants, drawn into moments of joy, spontaneity, and shared humanity.
📸 Media captured the magic, amplifying the spirit of Naropa beyond the walls of the conference.
This was Naropa as movement, as invitation, as play.text goes here
At the heart of our presence was a simple yet profound invitation—a gem, given freely, in recognition of another.
Inspired by the Buddhist Rainbow Mind, these gems symbolized the radiant awareness we see in others.
🔹 Each Naropa lanyard carried a gem—an offering of belonging.
🔹 Attendees received two gems—one for themselves, and one to pass to someone they found inspiring.
🔹 Alumni were empowered to anoint others—turning this exchange into a spontaneous lineage of recognition.
By the end of the conference, gems had passed from stranger to stranger, carrying a simple message:
"I see you. You belong." description

🌍 The Power of Living Naropa

📊 The Impact of a Living Experience

We did not come to be the most talked about presence at MAPS.
We came to be the most deeply felt.
✨ New students enrolled at Naropa—not because they were recruited, but because they recognized home.
✨ Partnerships deepened—with Dr. Bronner’s, Unlikely Collaborators, and MAPS leadership.
✨ Media captured our presence—because what is embodied cannot be ignored.
✨ MAPS leadership loved us—because we offered something real.
We did not sell Naropa.
We became Naropa.
And in doing so, we left a mark that will be carried forward.
🌠 Lessons for Those Who Seek to Move Minds

1️⃣ Presence is More Powerful Than Promotion.
We did not tell people about Naropa—we created an experience where they felt it.
2️⃣ Ritual and Play Create Lasting Connection.
From sound baths to spontaneous poetry to the Gems of Belonging, our presence was built on shared experience, not information.
3️⃣ The Smallest Rituals Can Create the Biggest Impact.
A gem passed from hand to hand became a symbol of recognition and belonging, rippling through the conference.
🤝 A Living University: Collaboration Without Hierarchy

At MAPS 2023, Naropa was more than an institution—it was a shared experience.
✨ Students led alongside faculty and staff, guiding yoga, chaplaincy, and immersive activations.
✨ Alumni returned to co-create, bringing their wisdom back into the fold.
✨ Retired professors rejoined, teaching music and improvisation.
✨ Hierarchy dissolved into collaboration, as Naropians across generations worked together as equals.
For one luminous moment, Naropa was fully lived—not just remembered.