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Last-Updated: Tue May 17 12:54:52 CDT 1994
The Sorcerers' Explanation
--------------------------
Summerized from Tales of Power, Washington Square Press.
The secret of the luminous beings is that we are perceivers,
we are an awareness without solidity or bounds. The world we
think we see is only a description of world told to us by
our internal dialog, a description that has been taught to
us by others. We are trapped inside that bubble of
perception and what we witness on its walls is a reflection
of our world view, our description.
As luminous beings, our perception is controlled by the
position of our Assemblage Point (the point where our
luminous being focuses its awareness on the energy fibers of
the universe). There are infinite worlds outside our daily
perceptions. By stopping the internal dialog you break
through this barrier to the totality of oneself.
To this end sorcerers use "the right way of walking" as a
practical task; it saturates the tonal and without the
one-to-one relation with the elements of its description the
tonal becomes silent. Also used are acting without believing
or expecting rewards; erasing personal history; and
"dreaming". To help erase personal history the techniques of
losing self-importance, assuming responsibility, and using
death as an adviser are applied. To aide in "dreaming" the
three techniques of disrupting the routines of life, the
gait of power, and not-doing are used. These techniques are
bound together by living like a warrior, to give temperance
and strength to withstand the path of knowledge.
The nagual is the unspeakable. All the possible feelings and
beings and selves float in it like barges, peaceful,
unaltered, forever. Then the glue of life binds some of them
together and a being is created. That being loses the sense
of its true nature and becomes blinded by the glare and
clamor of the tonal, where all unified organizations exist.
That cluster is the bubble of perception. The secret of the
double is in the bubble of perception. In the nagual, the
cluster of feelings can be rearranged to any form and made
to assemble instantly anywhere. In other words, one can
perceive the here and the there at once. The nagual is
witnessed by "will", and the tonal by "reason".
The tonal is but a reflection of that indescribable unknown
filled with order; the nagual is but a reflection of that
indescribable void that contains everything.
The Seven Gates of Dreaming
---------------------------
Summerized from _The Art of Dreaming_.
First Gate:
You reach the first gate when you become aware you are
falling asleep or have a gigantically real dream (perhaps
what some would call a lucid dream). You cross the first
gate when you are able to sustain the sight of any item in
your dream.
In order to offset the evanescent quality of dreams,
sorcerers have devised the use of the starting point item.
Ever time you isolate it and look at it, you get a surge
of energy,
Second Gate:
You cross the second gate when you are able to change from
dream to dream. For example, you wake up from a dream in
another dream or use an item of your dream to trigger
another dream.
Third Gate:
You reach the third gate when you dream yourself asleep.
You cross the third gate by moving your engery body after
having done so. At the third gate you begin to merge your
dreaming reality with the reality of the daily world.
Fourth Gate:
At the fourth gate, the energy body travels to specific,
concrete places either in this world, out of this world,
or places that exist only in the intent of others.
Go to sleep in a certain position, then in dreaming, dream
that you lie down in the same position and fall asleep
again. This is called the twin positions and it solidifies
your dreaming attention. The second dream is intending in
the second attention: the only way to cross the fourth
gate of dreaming.
The Path of a Man of Knowledge
------------------------------
Exceprts from _The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of
Knowledge_; pages 82-87.
A man of knowledge is one who has followed truthfully the
hardships of learning. A man who has, without rushing or
without faltering, gone as far as he can in unraveling the
secrets of power and knowledge. To become a man of
knowledge one must challenge and defeat the four natural
enemies.
The first enemy of a man of knowledge is Fear. A terrible
enemy--treacherous, and difficult to overcome. It remains
concealed at every turn of the way, prowling, waiting. And
if the man, terrified in its presence, runs away, his
enemy will have put an end to his quest. Once a man has
vanquished fear, he is free from it for the rest of his
life because, instead of fear, he has acquired clarity of
mind which erases fear.
And thus he has encountered his second enemy; Clarity.
That clarity of mind, which is so hard to obtain, dispels
fear, but also blinds. If the man yields to this
make-believe power, he has succumbed to his second enemy
and will be patient when he should rush. And he will
fumble with learning until he winds up incapable of
learing anything more.
He must defy his clarity and use it only to see, and wait
patiently and measure carefully before taking new steps;
he must think, above all, that his clarity is almost a
mistake. And a moment will come when he will understand
that his clarity was only a point before his eyes. And
thus he will have overcome his second enemy, and will
arrive at a position where nothing can harm him anymore.
It will be true power; the third enemy of a man of
knowledge.
A man at this stage hardly notices his third enemy closing
in on him. And suddenly, without knowing, he will
certainly have lost the battle. His enemy will have turned
him into a cruel, capricious man. The man must defy his
power, deliberately. He has to come to realize the power
he has seemingly conquered is in reality never his. He
will reach a point where everything is held in check. He
will know then when and how to use his power. And thus he
will have defeated his third enemy.
The man will be, by then, at the end of his journey of
learning, and almost without warning he will come upon the
last of his enemies: Old age. This enemy is the cruelest
of all, the one he won't be able to defeat completely, but
only fight away. His desire to retreat will overrule all
his clarity, his power, and his knowledge. But if the man
sloughs off his tiredness, and lives his fate through, he
can then be called a man of knowledge, if only for the
brief moment when he succeeds in fighting off his last,
invincible enemy. That moment of clarity, power, and
knowledge is enough.
---------
Teachings: Jun 23 1961 - Sep 30 1965
Separate Reality: Apr 2 1968 - Oct 18 1970
Journey to Ixtlan: Dec 17 1960 - May 1971
[I would like short reviews of each book, if you do it
just email it to castaneda-request@austin.bsdi.com]
--------
The Eight Points
+---Seeing----+
/ \
Nagual Will-----Feeling-----Talking---Reason Tonal
\ /
+---Dreaming--+
Stopping the Internal Dialog
Stopping our description of the world; breaking the
barrier of perception. Stopping the internal dialog is
the key to the sorcerers' world. The rest of the
activities are only props to accelerate the effect.
The Right Way of Walking
Tales of Power, WSP Paperback edition, page 236, don
Juan says: The warrior, first by curling his fingers,
drew attention to the arms; and then by looking, without
focusing his eyses, at any point directly in front of
him on the arc that started at the tip of his feet and
ended above the horizon, he literally flooded his
"tonal" with information. The "tonal", without its
one-to-one relationship with the elements of its
description, was incapable of talking to itself, and
thus one became silent.
Acting Without Believing
Acting just for the hell of it, without expecting
rewards.
Erasing Personal History
Removing cues of oneself from the world at large, making
oneself unavailable. This frees you from the trap of
others attention. This also helps to remove Self-Pity
from your world.
Losing Self-Importance
Another aide in removing Self-Pity.
Assuming Responsibility
Assume responsibility for your actions and being in this
world.
Using Death as an Advisor
Take every act as your last battle on earth. It doesn't
matter if you win or lose a battle but never abandon
yourself, even to your death. You should replace
Self-Pity as your advisor and use death instead. Actions
taken with death as an advisor have power.
Disrupting the Routines of Life
Our routines are what allows death to stalk us. A hunter
learns the routines of its pray and uses them to kill
it.
Gait of Power
Running with abandon, but without abandoning oneself.
Imagine yourself being chased in the dark by a ferocious
animal, if you get away, this is how you will have run.
Not-Doing
Focusing your attention on features of the world that
are ordinarily overlooked, such as the shadows of
things.
Dreaming
Using the natural shift of the Assemblage Point while
asleep.
Together, disrupting routines, the gate of power, and
not-doing are avenues for learning new ways of
perceiving the world, and they give a warrior an inkling
of incredible possibilities of action. These lead to the
knowledge of a separate and pragmatic world of
"dreaming".
Stalking
Fixing the Assemblage Point in position to give your
perception coherence. Used in the daily world it's a way
of behaving towards our fellow men.
Recapitulation
Used to free energy trapped in the world. Performed by
visualizing past events (to shift your Assemblage Point
to that point) and reclaiming any energy you left behind
and returning energy that isn't yours.
Mood of a Warrior
A mood in which to approch the world, acting with
abandon but without abandoning oneself. Using death as
an advisor, each act is your last battle on earth.
Controlled Folly
Since a man of knowledge "sees" and he knows that
nothing is more important than anything else then
nothing matters to him, he has only his controlled
folly, acting as if it mattered even though he knows it
does not.
Gazing
A sourcerery technique of looking without staring at
something. The "not-doing" of looking at something.
Worthy Opponent
An opponent to spur you on the path of knowledge.
Having to Believe
Having no choice, the situation inspired by the worth
opponent.
Man of Knowledge
A warrior who has become a sorcerer and who "sees" and
knows. The ultimate state of being, in total control
over your being.
Energy Body
???
Assemblage Point
The point at which your awarness is focused on your
luminous being causing the energy fibers at large to
align with the energy fibers inside your cocoon.
Glow of Awarness
The glowing point at which the Assemblage Point is
focused, indicating that the being is alive. This glow
lights the fibers and makes the luminous being percieve
them.
First Attention
The attention of the tonal. Used to assemble our daily
world.
Second Attention
The attention of the nagual.
Third Attention
The attention after burning with the fire from within.
Dreaming Attention
The attention used while dreaming to exercise the energy
body, it's a gateway to the second attention.
First Ring of Power
Also the first attention
Second Ring of Power
Also the second attention
Gates of Dreaming
The seven gates of dreaming are energy obstacles that
must be overcome.
Dreaming Emissary
???
Scouts
Energy beings from other realms in your dreams. By
isolating then and indending to follow them they can
transport your awareness to inconceivable realms.
Dreaming Awake
This state results from moving the Assemblage Point
during normal awareness.
The Tonal and the Nagual
The tonal is but a reflection of that indescribable
unknown filled with order; the nagual is but a
reflection of that indescribable void that contains
everything.
The Dreamer and the Dreamed
The secret of the dreamer and the dreamed is that the
dreamed dreams the dreamer, just as the dreamer dreams
the dreamed.
The Secret of the Luminous Beings
The secret of the luminous beings is that we are
perceivers, we are an awareness without solidity or
bounds. The world we think we see is only a description
of world told to us by our internal dialog, a
description that has been taught to us by others. We are
trapped inside that bubble of perception and what we
witness on its walls is a reflection of our world view,
our description.
Bubble of Perception
The bubble of perception is the cluster of feelings that
have been assembled in the nagual and bound together by
the force of life.
* Subject: Notes on a talk by Taisha Abelar 92 *
The following are notes I took at a talk by Taisha Abelar
on
10 October 1992 at the Alexandria II bookstore in
Pasadena, California.
These are somewhat cryptic but may be of interest to some
on the list.
((my comments if any are in double parentheses))
The Activity of sorcerers is that of Dreaming yourself.
Society is oriented toward a "poor baby" syndrome (society
and the individual are at effect).
Drills to resolve this :
Write your internal dialogue down for 3 days, wait three
days and read it
Mark up the newspaper wherever the poor baby concept is
expressed.
We presently have a mating/courtship compulsion
the self is presented as a "poor baby" to the world
Stalking the self - see how you are living.
The reason for all this is that mankind's assemblage point
is in a certain position.
You can move the assemblage point to another place.
That's what sorcerers do - move it away from the poor baby
position
The assembalge point is a place of luminosity on the
energetic body,
it lights the filiaments. When the filiaments of the
energetic body match those of the universe perception
takes place.
How do you move the assemblage point?
You need energy - this may be obtained from not doing the
presentation of the self in everyday life and stopping
seeking courtship.
curtail needingness.
After you've increased your energy THEN practice sorceric
techniques.
1. The recapitulation (see Sorcerer's crossing)
2. Quiet the internal dialogue (Meditation and breathing
techniques are good for this)
((Taisha told a rather amusing story of going to a guru in
India who had a $900 breathing technique))
The $900 dollar breath: 3 exhalations, 1 inhalation
(Use) any technique that works - sorcery passes, gazing
techniques.
Practice impeccability, you'll know impeccability when you
have no self interest.
Act without expecting rewards or returns.
Act impeccably and the assemblage point moves to the"
place of no pity "
Heightened awareness.
When the assemblage point moves far enough you'll see
different worlds.
You'll know when you are there - (you'll be) very quiet,
unknown to yourself, you'll feel solitude but not
loneliness.
Energy comes to you and will guide you, energy of the
double, the ethereal body. " Poor Baby" ravages energy.
That's the beginning, heightened awareness is the door to
infinity.
NOW you can use dreaming and stalking.
Dreaming, use dreams to enhance awareness of being, wake
up the energetic body. The art of dreaming - move the
assemblage point systematically (find your hands, etc.)
Art of stalking - when assemblage point moves you have to
fix it at new position - give it reality - explore, get
adventuresome.
find out the ramifications of the new position from a
bodily energy viewpoint. Then develop the energetic body.
Use it (while awake).
Solidify it and act from it.
Where Taisha Abelar is is a poistion of the assemblage
point.
Moving assemblage point to where their's (other sorcerers)
were.
The earth too has an assemblage point ((cf. Ley lines
etc.))
embarrassment disrupts the assemblage point.
There are other worlds than this consensual world.
Nagual - pronounced " NO - ALL"
You can move the assemblage point in dreaming.
(( Taisha Abelar made a loud scream at this point in the
talk))
Shriek - makes the assemblage point shift and solidify the
energy body.
For a normal human the assemblage point is behind the left
shoulder at the back.
Perception is encoded in the body (cf. Husserl,
phenomenologists)
Perception - a facet of corporeality.
The only way to change the energy body is to move the
assemblage point, lighting up different filiaments.
Memories can reengage, restimulate different energetic
memories.
Dream yourself, its up to you
A man waits for death and while he waits he surrounds
himself with beauty and with strength " The Death Defier"
The change comes from within, to change the world, the
environment, the universe.
You must move the assemblage point
Recapitulation - make list of everyone you've known begin
with the latest person and work backwards
Breath in over right shoulder to left then exhale back
(rotating the head back) - visualize and breath you can do
it in the world.
Don't poor baby yourself.
Use devices to jolt yourself you can move the assemblage
point up and down.
(( She talks about her experiences in the other world with
the trees
(described in Sorcerer's Crossing)))
Competition among the roots of trees (not recommended to
move the Assemblage point down)
The greatest challenge - practice controlled folly, you
see the situation and you don't do anything about it - you
don't judge - judging is death.
Inorganic entities, they permeate this other realm of the
universe.
Don Juan's/Carlo's new book The Seven Gates of Dreaming
The second gate is these guys - Gargoyles/vampires/shadows
they inhabit a close realm and feed off our energy.
Don Juan's allys.
Seers can see this energy. Build integrity - internal
strength.
Gazing at gravel/leaves/moon/clouds
But if you don't have the sobriety of recapitulation then
there are hazards.
The Inorganic Entities come thru tunnels, ignore them.
The Inorganic Entities obey your commands.
You can recapitualte your dreams or recapitulate in your
dreams.
If awake Normal recapitulation start at right inhale to
left, exhale to center.
In dreams inhale Clockwise, exhale counterclockwise in
center.
There are layers of recapitulation.
Best place for assemblage point - an infinite number of
other places.
The spirit, intent, will let it move , Best intermediate
place - "The place of no pity"
Do the newspaper exercise (looking for "poor baby")
Take a pen and paper to your internal dialogue.
Scratch the surface, stalk yourself.
Taisha Abelar and her fellow sorcerers are now moving
assemblage points elsewhere and using energetic bodies to
establish realities there.
Proper use of sexual energy. if you've got energy to spare
- ((sex is)) OK if you've recapitualted.
If you want to move the assemblage point to other areas
use sexual energy to do dreaming.
The second gate is the graveyard of failed sorcerers.
Control, the stalker's sobriety.
level 1 energy body
level 2 energy and physical body (this needs lots more
energy)
((the above is describing 'going places' via dreaming as
an energy body or taking the physical body too))
After recapitulating there is only NOW.
This permits discrepancies - coming and going from the
consensual universe.
When moving the assemblage point either:
1. Get rid of friends
2. Use them as controlled folly.
The world has multitudes of realities
The real challenge is in the world - can you get off the
assemblage point position?
Stalking - move assemblage point, give the energy body a
jolt.
((an example of a stalking exercise follows))
Tie up the dominant hand and use the other.
Not doing exercises
Walk backwards
Walk on all fours with kneepads
any trigger - sound/time/smell causes the body to remember
cover up mirrors - (they reinforce agreements and put
attention on the self)
Stalk yourself
look at the world
Begin recapitulation
Dream and find your hands in your dream
Not doing
Disrupt routines
and do exercise to wake up the energetic body (physical
exercise)
* Subject: Notes on a talk by Taisha Abelar 94 *
These are the of notes of the Abelar public talk in Menlo
Park, California held January 7, 1994. These notes are not
in the public domain; they may be distributed to friends
interested in Abelar, CC and Donner, but please do not
repost them on other bulletin boards and they may not be
published in any magazine etc. Please respect the style of
teaching of Abelar, Castaneda etc. which seems to be based
on limited public display.
"Tonight's talk with be on Stopping. To Stop you must only
do one thing. Decide to be a warrior or not.
"The assemblage point fluctuates naturally in sleep. It will
also move under the influence of drugs, deep meditation,
starvation, sensory deprivation.
"The assemblage point is located behind you at the level of
your shoulder blades.
"Sorcerers use Discipline to move their assemblage points.
"Everyone of us can 'see' energy - even now - but you are no
longer aware of it. Infants on the other hand perceive
energy directly. However, as they get older the 'Usher'
introduces them to the world of ordinary reality. Instead of
seeing amorphous energy, the infant one day will assemble
the energy configuration into...a table. A toy. A dog. A
tree. Each time the transformation comes from the Usher.
"First and foremost we live in a world of energy. Only
secondarily do we live in a world of objects. The position
of the assemblage point determines the reality that we
assemble of the energy.
"The sorcerer [presumably unlike the hunger artists and
sensory deprivers] seeks to FIX the assembly point at a new
location [not just move it]. To agglutinate energy again
into new sets of 'objects' and hence into a new 'reality.'
"This world is not as important as we make it out to be. Our
language is biased; we call it 'reality' when it is really
only one of many modes of the assemblage point. For
convenience though let us refer to it as 'ordinary' reality.
"Ordinarily once the Ushers do their work of helping us
perceive the various energy configurations as 'objects,' the
assemblage point is fixed once and for all and the
assemblage point does not move thereafter.
"We are forced to maintain a world of everyday life until we
die.
"By the way death, from a sorcerer's standpoint, is not the
fast process that it appears to be. The glow of the
assemblage point fades quickly, but all the other energy
strands that make up the energy egg of the human being can
take a long long time to disperse. This process can also be
slowed down, for example if you were buried in a lead coffin
right after death.
"The alternative to being stuck all your life on one
assemblage point is to move it by the practice of
Discipline, and then to fix it at a new location while
awake.
"A firm foundation in the warrior's way is required for
heavy duty stopping and dreaming."
"Discipline is not the same thing as practiced by Catholic
girls in a convent. Nor the same thing as what USED to be
practiced by the nuns themselves. It is not getting up early
to do aerobics before going to work, or eating sensibly.
These are just routines, habits. Not a warrior's Discipline.
"From the point of view of a warrior, stalker or dreamer,
Discipline is abstract - an unbending hooking to a purpose -
so that the actual implementation of the Discipline is
actually very flexible and fluid. It takes courage of steel,
there is no room for doubt or hesitation which will
otherwise rise up to pull you back to the everyday world of
tantrums and self indulgence.
"Discipline leads to harmony, well being and balance.
Everyday life, on the other hand, is indulgence.
"Unbending unyielding purpose is what is requird for
Discipline in our quest for freedom.
"At the Phoenix Bookstore [ed. note - Santa Monica, CA I
think] talks recently - some of you were there - Carlos
Castaneda gave a talk of the 'warrior's way.'
"You can't 'learn' to be a warrior! It is just a decision
you have to make one day for yourself on your own. Asking
someone to teach you to be a warrior is the wrong approach,
it is the 'poor baby me' approach to warriorship.
"Carlos Castaneda said that first and foremost the
transfiguring event in a warrior's life, what is at the
bedrock of becoming a warrior, is accepting responsibility
for your own death. This is the bottom line. Don't assume
you are immortal.
"Face infinity and death in the mirror at night.
"Just by doing this, taking death as an advisor this way,
lots of things will fall off, fall away from you.
"Assume responsibility for your perception of the world. Not
just the single perception you were born into. Instead
intend the movement of your assemlage point to other areas
of the luminous egg. If you tighten your belt, curtail the
other things in your life the pont will JUST MOVE ON ITS OWN
without any exercises or routines on your part. The lamp of
awareness, strong now that you have cut the excess baggage
out of your life, will shine on all the other possible
positions of your assemblage point.
"The next rule of being a warrior is to pay your debts. A
warrior is very generous. He or she does not look at the
world in terms of what other people owe him or her. The
warrior looks at the world in terms of opportunities to
discharge his or her debts to other people so he or she will
not be tied up forever.
"This paying of debts leads to an unbiased affection for all
things. Most of what we consider to be affection is the
trading of favors with other people. The warrior, on the
other hand, gives affection with no expectation of return.
It is not that the warrior is trying to eliminate affection,
be an unfeeling person. The warrior's affection is just so
unbiased it unravels everyday connections. The warrior's
affection is so unbiased that if the warrior goes into
another reality completely different from this one the
warrior's affection will extend to all the other new beings
that exist in that other reality.
"If someone has really INJURED you this also needs to be
paid back. The concept of paying debts is not a sentimental
concept limited to returning the good connections. The point
is to loosen all connections. If you are connected to
someone who injured you, you may need to sever that
connection by paying back the injury. So it is not a moral
issue; it goes two ways."
"The warrior's path is an escape hatch, somewhere to go
after you have finished dismantling everyday life. There is
no room for crapping out, for fear, for indulgence, for
regrets or for nostalgia when going into the unknown.
"Unbending determination is the only choice you can make or
terrible things will happen to you once you have accumulated
enough energy [by using death as an advisor to cut loose the
excess baggage].
"You CANNOT be half assed, half willing or, with your
partial energy, even worse things will happen to you [than
if you had never taken this path].
"Take back the energy used to support the everyday world [by
using death as an advisor and paying back debts]. The
everyday world is a gigantic edifice but it rest on just
three cornerstones:
"(1) how we present ourselves in the world, how we fit into
the social structure. The recapitulation lets you think
about all this, how you fit in, it is a looking glass of how
others see you in your hopes and fears. All this takes
energy. The warrior looks instead at what he or she is doing
the face of death and what conduct, what intensity is really
appropriate in that light.
"(2) the second cornerstone is our biological need to mate
and to reproduce. We are social animals. Sorcerers say - let
the others do it. Sorcerers need the energy that goes into
the social dance and biological need to get their freedom.
We refuse to be the flower that blooms -and dies - to
propagate the species. Security of the family is one of the
strongest attractions to the social order. There is a
tremendous fear of being alone, of dying alone. Sorcerers
have to learn to be ALONE for long stretches, which is why
Don Juan and the others would test us by keeping us alone,
on our own, to see how we handled solitude. Why are you so
afraid to have no moives, no friends. It is also important
to learn to keep mental silence, mental solitude, for long
periods. The world will then collapse on its own without the
inner talk! Dreaming is also very alone, facing the dangers
in the dreaming world alone.
"We are talking about STOPPING tonight and have to get used
to solitude. As women we just don't want to be an old maid,
a bitter old maid with a mole and whiskers on her cheek as
was held up to me. We learn these things, the need to be
beautiful to ctch a good mate and we fund the entire
cosmetics industry with our fears and worries. In
recapitulation we have a chance to see this and to look for
alternatives."
"The warrior's way [is not to get trapped in the biological
imperative to mate and the social dance motivated by
loneliness it] is to give unbounded affection instead, not
to count the number of affairs we have or be in a
relationship and daydream about alternatives that would be
even better for us. A warrior's affection so transcends the
social order that the warrior can move to any other position
of the assemblage point, even an unknown universe and still
be full of affection. So don't be afraid to chip away at
this second cornerstone of everday reality, that if you do
so you won't have any affections or feelings left.
"The third cornerstone of ordinary reality is very sublte;
it is self importance. We joked about putting out a bumper
sticker 'Self-importance kills' because a false sense of
self importance, when undercut, is a great source of suicide
and illness not to mention taking away from a zest for
living. Everyone manifests self importance one way or
another, either by wanting to be best in something or by
wanting to play the martyr and be the worst - the use my
bones as stepping stones to your own glory syndrome. Don't
substitute false humility or false modesty for pride about
your self importance. The important thing to realize is that
you are no MORE and no LESS important than any other living
thing. To think otherwise is like one ant in a heap carrying
an especially big load and thinking it is the most
important, the best ant when in a moment I will step on that
ant and all his companions and they will be equal in their
death. Something will 'step' on all of us someday, just like
one of us might step on an ant hill. We are all equal and
self importance is nothing but a reward from the social
order of everyday reality, like the drip of a drug into your
brain to keep you hooked on the social order. It is better
to save your energy and take your freedom instead.
"The 'Selector.' A very simple mechanical model of a needle
pointing in a certain direction and we get our engergy
configuration lined up at a new assemblage point. The
Selector does it all for you if you have enough energy it
pulls certain things in the universe down to you. Once you
have restored your energy by the recapitulation there is no
need for chanting or special rituals to move your assemblage
point. Where why how the Selector moves the assemblage point
we don't know all we can do is acquiesce in the movement,
act implacably under the terrible pressure of the Selector.
"Stalking. I - stalkers in general - use behavior to move
the assemblage point to create maximum cognitive
dissonance." "You cannot choose where to move your
assemblage point when you are living as a stalker because if
you choose you will not have enough cognitive dissonance
between the old point and the new point to work with. This
is why warriors are under tremendous pressure, because the
Selector - or spirit - chooses difficult new positions that
are so scary or different that sometimes the assemblage
point of the warrior, when subjected to the pressure to
move, starts vibrating in place, you can see this
energetically. If the warrior lapses into an internal dialog
about what is going on, then the point will not relocate it
will snap back to its normal position which for you is
ordinary reality.
"It takes tremendous pressure to move the point and what you
need to do is to keep the pressure up but it should be
harmonious pressure or you culd actually go crazy. Once you
have energy and unbending intent the point will move very
easily with no problems and after you do the recapitulation
it will move sometimes and you won't even be aware of it.
"I had certain tasks chosen for me by the Selector. I had to
completely live as different people, this was not just
acting during the day or being aware you are acting it was
complete immersion in a new self. 24 hours a day. You ARE
that new person. Let me be Sheila Waters for you. [Puts on
wig and eyeglasses.] I have to wear eyeglasses when I am
Sheila Waters.
"Sheila Waters was pointed out to me by the Selector (spirit
or whatever you want to call it) I had to become a business
woman, get an MBA, real estate license, paralegal, invest in
commodities, keep business relationships with attorneys and
accountants and all the other people in the business world.
I got things done and made and lost fortunes. Because when
you are in that assemblage position there is a natural
desire to succeed, not fail, so naturally the tendency is to
try to make lots of money, not just stand still or lose
money. If you are not impeccable it is easy to lose money by
not listening to your own inner voice. I decided that I had
to have some really great timber land in the north and it
was really great land perfect in every way; except that it
was near Mt. St. Helena and when the volcano blew up it was
ruined. I used to read the Wall Street Journal and watch
Ruyckhaueser [spelling?].
"Other personas. [Takes off glasses and wig.] In Mexico I
was under Emilito's supervision he was more of a guardian or
spectator than a teacher, would not interfere with the roles
the Selector chose for me. I was Ricky, the first position
chosen for me, an American gringo male trying to pass
himself off as a Mexican. I dressed in mans clothing, passed
for a man, romanced a lady and even used the urinals. Don't
ask me to tell you what I had to do to use the urinals, I
will put it in my new book Stalking the Double.
"The second assemblage point chosen for me was a young
ingenue from Texas, niece of some women in Mexico who were
of course really the women sorcerers from Don Juan's party.
I had blonde hair by choice and would parade in the square
waiting to attract men to this virginal thing, because of
course I had to be a virgin, and the blonde hair was very
startling and attractive.
"It is essential to be absolutely fluid. That is the point
of all the not-doing exercises, so that you can be
absolutely fluid and when the Selector moves your assemblage
point you will have the Discipline to be able to fix it at
its new location.
"You cannot view yourself as just a cynical manipulator of
behavior, acting out one role then another. It must be real
to you, absolutely real.
"Next I was a crazy beggar. Sat on the church steps bitten
by fleas and mosquitos all day but although I am allergic to
bites in my role as a crazy beggar woman I did not care, did
not mind them at all. I was a crazy female outcast beggar so
I had 4 strikes against me and all the time in the world to
just sit there and watch the world go by because no one
noticed me or cared."
"To conclude. Nothing is real, just a manipulation of
behaviour, just a result of the accidental fixation of our
assemblage point at birth. That is what the stalker learns
from being so many different people. Each position is
equally real and hence equally phantoms. We cherish our
present positions, but even the closest, most real ones are
just phantoms when you move to another postion.
"It took years of recapitulation to undermine the sense of
reality . At the same time I had to replace reality with the
warrior's way to avoid the trap of cynicism. Turn my
response to the world into controlled folly, the warrior's
delight!
"If ou have the energy all the things it [Selector, spirit]
puts around you become things of beauty and strength, in the
highest sense your life becomes surrounded by a display of
living art.
"Remember that you are already dead, already a phantom like
everything else, and lose your sense of self importance.
"Know beyond a shadow of a doubt that nothing is real."
[Questions & answers; questions inaudible in the garden.]
"After the recapitulation and not doing, then you can see.
"Moving into another complete band of the luminous egg is
like dying, because the glow of your awareness in the
everyday world has gone out. Awareness is still with you but
you are perceiving a different reality. To the ordinary
reality world you are gone, dead.
"There are similarities between Chinese acupuncture theory
and the sorcerer's description of the luminous body. If you
draw the main body meridians they form an egg like the
sorcerers describe. Also Chinese theory is that you are born
with a limited supply of intrinsic energy, same view as
sorcerers. We think that the assemblage point in the embryo
is in the embryo and only relocates outside the embryo when
the Ushers bring in the ordinary reality. Also some people
are born more energetically powerful than others. For
example if both parents are energetic and the baby is raised
on the mother's milk. But don't worry if you were not born
with a special abundance of energy, you have all you need if
you will be careful with it. Also you will get extra jolts
when your assemblage point moves. We just need to be more
disciplined to guard our energy. It really does not take
much energy anyway to move the point.
"Nietsche said whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger.
That is how sorcerers think. But otherwise be careful of
philosophers because they are famous crazy self indulgers.
"Recapitulation. There is no method. There is a method but
it is not important whether you move your head from right to
left or from left to right or set aside a regular time or a
lot of time. What is important is the unbending intent to
recapitulate. Then spirit will guide you into the right form
and time and amount of practice. With intent, time will set
itself. When you make the right intent, you will have 27
generations of sorcerers behind you. They did not all
practice the recapitulation the same way, but their intent
will hook you support you and guide you. The intent out
there to recapitulate is constant but the method varies.
Therefore:
"1. Intend it.
"2. Have an integrity about it - don't brag or compete
(competition is the worst thing in the world, it is a
primary support for the third cornerstone of everyday
reality, the sense of self importance).
"3. Discipline order harmoney. Don't be random unless you
intend it. Most people make a list and work backwards.
"4. Breath. Direction not important. What is important is
using the breath to pull the energy back.
"Letter came to Carlos Castaneda - 'I recapitulated last
night. Can I join your party now?' Recapitulation takes a
lifetime, not a night."
[end of transcription. By Swedenborg@aol.com]
LK> I got a disarming book recently called "The Don Juan Papers". It is a
LK> supposed expose of the entire series by Carlos Castenada.
LK> Anyone else read and follows these works? There's some amazing and
LK> probing ideas there.
All I know about this case is what I've read in Cornerstone
magazine (Vol. 19 Issue 93, p.24), in part 3 or a series by Bob
Passantino, called "Fantasies, Legends, Heroes: a discussion of
popular 'legends' and how they arise." I'll quote the relevant
section:
Christians aren't the only ones who accept legends substituted
for real research. Those of you who are around my age and who
remember (or were even part of) the 1960s age of "drug
enlightenment" probably remember Carlos Castaneda as the
anthropologist who discovered that hallucinatory drugs supposedly
bring spiritual enlightenment.
He didn't do it the way many of my generation did, by dropping
acid, staring into a flower, and suddenly realizing that
everything is "God."
He did it by allegedly spending portions of several years in the
American Southwest and Mexican deserts as an apprentice to an
Indian shaman.
UCLA awarded Castaneda a Ph.D. in anthropology in 1973 for his
fieldwork and ethnography dissertation on Native American
shamanism. "The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yacqui Way of Knowledge"
represents that work and is known worldwide for its vivid
portrayal of Castneda's apprenticehip to the shaman, Don Juan.
However, practically nothing about Castaneda, including his name,
birth date, and original nationality, is what it appears to be.
In fact, careful investigation and analysis shows that his books
represent more of the Castaneda his college friend described as
"witty, imaginative, cheerful--a big liar and a real friend"*1
than they do Castaneda as the serious anthropologist and reporter
who sacrifices himself for scientific ethnographic research.
Like most legends, the Castaneda legend is missing dates, times,
people, places, and documents. Careful research and investigation
uncovered gaping holes, inconsistencies, and outright
fabrications in the convoluted stories Castaneda told in his four
books *2.
But the reason I mention the Castaneda legend particularly is
that I would never have expected the professional reaction to the
expose. Rather than relegating his books to the legend shelf,
some professionals STILL depend on them for ethnographic
information, and still herald him as the father of the
ethnographic "revolution" in anthropology!
What is most interesting is the response that has greeted
the revelation that Castaneda's works are fictional.
First, there has been no real attempt to revoke his
Ph.D., based as it is on fraudulent "research."
Secondly, as de Mille ... documents, the response among
many anthropologists and others who share the Don Juan
type of philosophical outlook has been neutral.
In other words, it doesn't matter if the works are
fictional because the underlying philosophy is, in some
vague sense, true.
An excellent example of this approach is Shelburne's
(1987) article titled "Carlos Castaneda: If It Didn't
Happen, What Does It Matter?"
Shelburne argues that "the issue of whether it
[Castaneda's experience] literally happened or not makes
no fundamental difference to the truth of the account"
(p. 217). Such excuses are little more than intellectual
used-car salesmanship. *3
Let's relate this back to our legend/research paradigm. Castaneda
BASED his "revolutionary" cultural anthropological ideas on
FICTION *4.
That's like building a house on sinking sand instead of solid
rock. Now Shelburne and other professional like him say it
doesn't matter, because the "truth" is the same. That's like
saying your sinking house is fine where it is--the house itself
is well built. But no matter how well built the house is, it will
fall apart since it's built on sand instead of solid ground.
You need BOTH as well-built house AND solid ground if you expect
to live in the house.
*1 Richard de Mille, "Castaneda's Journey" (Santa Barbara, CA:
Capra Press, 1976), 26.
*2 The most comprehensive investigation was done by Richard de
Mille and is contained in "Castaneda's Journey (see above
note) and the book de Mille later edited, "The Don Juan
Papers: Further Castaneda Controversies (Santa Barbara, CA:
Ross-Erickson Publishers, 1980).
*3 Terence-Hines, "Pseudoscience and the Paranormal" (Buffalo,
NY: Prometheus Press, 1988), 278.
*4 If there is any truth to Castaneda's anthropological theories,
it would be in spite of his fantasies, not because of them.
[End Quote]
Last-modified: Tue, 17 Dec 1996 10:28:42 GMT
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