It was the same one that Benji described at the God Phone, and the same one that Karen tried to foster in her courses: normalcy. The same day, the tribunal handed Joan of Arc over to the secular court for her punishment: burning at the stake. Over the next few hours we sat together. I still wish the God Phone had some referrals or instructions for really hard moments, but my time there won me over to Karen and Dr. Dan’s perspective: Given the choice of having the phone as is, or not having it at all, I’d pick having it every time. There are many churches today that have abandoned God’s mission for their own mission. Whilst a majority of Muslims in Singapore are traditionally ethnic Malays, there is also a significantly growing number of Muslims from other ethnic groups. You can backcomb the hair until it reaches whatever height you’d like; there should still be some unteased hair left that will be styled later. Then she whispered, Can you help my boyfriend to be faithful? Then he felt ashamed for being lonely.

I asked. He said he’d think about it, then ended the call. They all call me. Davis learned that Haitians who believed in zombies believed that a bokor’s sorcery — not a poison or a drug — created them. “I’ve talked to people who used that phone,” he said, shocking me. “You have to hope,” he said, “that whoever is answering isn’t going to support someone toward self-harm.” I’d planned on asking him about my conversation, but shame sank it like concrete in my throat. “You’re god,” he said, standing up before I could decline. In some Hindu sects this essence is believed to manifest in numerous deities. They are believed to possess great wisdom and insights into both the physical and spiritual realms. Buddhism in Myanmar dates back to at least the third century from contact between what is believed to be the Mon people of Lower Myanmar and Southern Indian kings in Nagarjunakonda. “Obviously,” he explained, “it would be best if the people hearing these things were trained.” But faced with the option of having the phone booth as is, or not having it, he said he’d pick having it. Unexpectedly, 24 hours at the Talk to God phone booth reminded me of my first year of law school, when I felt so sad and overwhelmed that I sought out counseling for the first time.

In the early evening, two women approached the phone booth. They were just two of a handful of people I met who, once they found the phone, visited it again and again. A lot of people feel that way, I told him. In the counselor’s office at the school, she asked my field of study and I told her. “It’s therapeutic,” he told me. “It reminds you that we are all struggling with things, we are all insecure, and we’re all lonely.” He added, “It’s not nice to know that other people are suffering, but it’s comforting to know that not everyone is having the best time all day long. His miracles are described as “signs” that support the authenticity of his claims. Are you willing to fight the good fight? “It doesn’t take any training to be a good person,” he added. A woman stopped in to take a few calls and explained it was her nightly ritual before going to sleep. When I got back at 3 a.m., he was still there, nodding off between calls. He said he was part of the original camp that brought the Talk to God phone booth, and he’d been taking calls at sunrise for years.

Across the thousands of years of our existence, there have been mentions of gods from every religion, some of the most significant of which came from the Greek culture. “A bad conversation is saying, ‘Just do it.’ A bad conversation is hanging up the phone and walking away.” Then, she added something that hit me hard: “Sometimes the fear that people have is that once they become aware of something that serious, there is an expectation to do something they are not skilled to do. “That was not a bad conversation,” Karen assured me. And he echoed everything Karen said. People went back because it was a place where they felt they could be their fullest selves, which meant wearing a tutu, taking on a new name, or just telling a stranger that sometimes they found themselves on a dance floor and all they wanted to do was cry. Later, a man wearing a captain’s jacket and a top hat joined us. But sitting at the God Phone reminded me that, at its best, Burning Man is an immersive art project.