Disclaimer: I am writing this post with the upmost respect for the Castaneda community and rules of this sub. I am battling with some troubling issues in my day to day life which I now believe are linked to a dreaming experience I had 1 year ago. I will do my best not to indulge and everything I write is absolutely 100% true.
Context:
I have been reading Castanedas works for years and only recently have I begun practicing tensegrity and darkroom in my free time.
1 year ago, after finishing The Art of Dreaming for the second time, I began to focus solely on seeing my hands in my dreams. I remember on one occasion finding my hands, and for a brief moment, being semi lucid within my dream. Shortly after this, after becoming ill with the flu, I found myself waking up over and over again, until finally, with what felt like an electric jolt, I found my hands and became acutely aware within my dream. Immediately, I recalled everything I had learned within the books. I began rubbing my hands together and scanning my environment for objects. I was in a dessert, somewhere I had never been the real world. I also remembered that I could go anywhere I wanted to, so I demanded that a portal would open up in front of my to take me to Paris (of all places). I spun around a few times and to my complete amazement, a door had appeared right in front of me. I opened the door and found myself standing on the roof of a building in a brightly lit city at night. I remember feeling the instinctive need to fly, something I do regularly in my normal dreams, but I didn't make it far as a I fell down and woke up. That night I was so excited from my experience that I simply couldn't sleep.
The issue:
Since that lucid dreaming experience my ordinary dreams have progressively increased in emotional and visual intensity. So much so, that my girlfriend can barely wake me up when I'm asleep. She has to shake me to wake me up sometimes. I'm 24 years old and I have no energy in my day to day life anymore. It feels as though my dreams are becoming so exhausting that my remaining energy throughout the day is only a fraction of what it once was. I have also seen things/beings in my dreams that were once unimaginable to me. I am scared that this will get worse, so I am seeking your advice.
99 Comments
Focus on the spot below the navel and breath deep from that area (in the dream). That can be invigorating after you wake up. Also intend to get out of the place you're in, usually a cave or building, and get out towards natural light, nature, mountains, or just flying above the city
Focus on the spot below the navel and breath deep from that area (in the dream). That can be invigorating after you wake up. Also intend to get out of the place you're in, usually a cave or building, and get out towards natural light, nature, mountains, or just flying above the city.
Thanks for your reply. I believe that my punctuation may have been incorrect since what I meant is that my unconscious dreaming is the issue, not my 'dreaming'. I have seen things in my unconscious dreams that either terrified me, or were so unfathomably wonderous to me and the time that I was simply trapped in a state of complete awe until I inevitably wake up. This leaves me feeling completely exhausted in the morning when I used to have so much more energy.
Do you think that my focus should be on 'dreaming' to solve this issue?
Yes, you already said it: become conscious. That you do with dreaming practices. Like the ones I told you. It looking at several objects in a loop. Or flying. Even doing Tensegrity in the dream. Any deliberate and conscious act.
It seems you have mistaken the sorcery approach to make use of dreams, with another stuff you took from elsewhere or maybe your own experience?
Keep in mind, the "4 Gates of Dreaming" sorcery path involves very specific steps to follow in order to get a practical use for ordinary dreams.
Each of those has a suppoused result, which includes finding the Dreaming Body and learning to move the assemblage point far enough to end up "seeing energy". So that at the end of the path there's no difference between being awake or sleep.
You seem to be sharing too early conclusions that never took anyone further than random dream exploring, that never gets powerful enough to be done daily and for hours.
Make sure not to mislead this sorcery subreddit, and instead take your perspective to the lucid dreaming subreddit who might be more aligned to your type of search (attention?).
No, I understand, I'm not confusing them. This is from my own experience I didn't take from anywhere. It was a temporary respite I got when I got overwhelmed. Besides that I did comment on aspects of the Dreaming as per the books, Don Juan very clearly states the hands are only one of many possibilities. Didn't he say to look at 4 objects at a time in a loop, and to maintain their gaze as much as possible? I didn't make that up. He also mentioned you can fly in dreams. Not my invention. I have experienced both; I have also seen by myself how by focusing on the Dreaming techniques one can extricate oneself from a nightmare. The OP mentioned a very important of this issue, the being unconscious or conscious, meaning beginning aware one is dreaming. That's in the books, look it up. The OP gets stuck at times in nightmares and drained of energy severely when he is not aware and like a zombie being passive in an inorganic dream. I don't know what's so controversial.
Even if it's mentioned in the books it's taken out of context, and used as a too specific advice, which was more likely something that fit Carlos but couldn't be applied to each situation.
We don't need inventory experts. We need people who can do the real thing, awake.
And in case we are tolerating some sleeping dreamers, we hope they at least figure the whole thing out, and not isolated experiences that follow a made up line.
Your advice didn't take you anywhere and that's a fact. Or you wouldn't be focusing on such specific stuff, and instead give a better advice.
It just shows how isolated your success is, and how misleading you are to others.
Shut up or go elsewhere.
Oh haha a cult leader and how you claim to not be, just like any other guru, obsessed with his ego and group control. Go F yourself. Bye
WOW you got angry! I only wanted to help. Sorry for stepping on your ego, power trip. Good bye
It seems you quickly deleted your newest comment, but I got to see it in my notifications.
Did you mean angry??
I've been moderating this place for 4 years. After all I've seen in here, the less thing I get is anger.
Rather, I just focus on solving the situations as soon as possible, since it's been proven that's the least harmful way for users and the mod team.
I've seen thousands of people flowing through this sub, each one with their own perspective about the techniques and their own personal motivations to participate.
We had very bad guys which were hard to beat and almost destroyed everything.
And despite you are not even close to scare a fly, we don't lose time anymore with long explanations hoping you'll change your mind. We have no more patience.
Because no matter you understand it or not, the next week we are having 3 more like you.
So as Dan pointed out, it's better to throw a slap and see how people react. Most of them get their head explode.
You seemed to regret and delete that comment, which might let you stay longer as an active user. Just take that opportunity.
Those who come with a different intention will leave offended, but those who are focused on practice will continue to practice.
First: Thats a cool experience but do not cling to it!
People practicing here begin or aim to see stuff like this daily. With their open eyes and sober.
The stuff that you described is what people seek out here.
Movements of their Assemblage Point (AP).
Sorcery relies on the manipulation of the AP. We strive to learn to control that.
I just remembered a hunch from the books, but I read somewhere that sleeping dreaming can make you moody in daily life.
Are you forcing silence 24/7 yet? Its an exhausting process but will become natural over time. It is like a muscle that develops by putting in the effort.
This Post has helped me immensely with that:
https://www.reddit.com/r/castaneda/comments/aki0db/how_to_see_energy_in_3_weeks/?share_id=54WY-5bGQy3k2fxUUDCSx&utm_content=1&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1
Also I can't fathom a world where Practicing the "Series for preparing Intent" Tensegrity daily while forcing Silence leaves you with less energy.
It will be rough at first depending on your physicsl prowess.
I only practice the parts of that Long Form that are also mentioned in the Book "Magical Passes".
If you only read about the section of the "Series for preparing Intent" it goes into Detail how it is designed to energize you.
All of the Books are also freely available in the Wiki.
Eventually this practice will turn you into a Sleepwalker. Your states of passing out may even be reduced slowly over time, as you gain more control.
The Key to all the Practices recommended here is Inner Silence. It glues everything together.
It is not your experience that is haunting you, but what you make out of it.
It is great that you have begun engaging with the practices recommended here.
Recap may also be of benefit to you. It is designed to unlock stuck energy from your past experiences and aids you to free up more energy to engage further in your practice.
It reduces the impact memories hold over you.
Read more about it in the Wiki if you haven't yet!
https://www.reddit.com/r/castaneda/wiki/index/
The Key is to return daily. And to push for deeper Silence all the time.
In Sorcery you do not learn by storing facts, but only through moving your AP.
Let your practice grow organically. Pick some passes you enjoy and go from there.
But never forget your silence.
If you can't find the energy for the Tensegrity yet, Chair Silence might also be of help to you to get accustomed to movements of your AP.
A Sleeping Mask and Open Eyes can be of benefit here as well. You can Practice Chair Silence with closed eyes, but I prefer doing it with my Mask and open eyes on days where I struggle to perform.
There is a practice for any life Situation here!
Over time the knowledge will unfold. You just have to return to your daily practice.
It is a difficult path, but also the reason why it is so rewarding, so keep at it!
Dans most recent post might also be of value.
A Chance, to have a Chance:
https://www.reddit.com/r/castaneda/comments/1jo1ypx/a_chance_to_have_a_chance/?share_id=FDf94ZJA1Z2srEmys9KMa&utm_content=1&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1
Thanks, this is all super helpful. I was hoping that by making this post I would be inspired to take practice more seriously. My day to day fatigue has so far hindered my progress and motivation but this has given me what I need to take my practice further!
Did I understand correctly, You had this one lucid dream and now your ordinary dreams are draining you?
Since you are asking advice here and not from the lucid dreaming subreddit i have to ask you, do you do any other practice like tensegrity, silence , recapitulation and waking dreaming?
My advice will be to do those and to let the sleeping dreaming part. Better do waking dreaming, what we call Darkroom. Something is draining you so you have to learn to protect yourself, forge your energy body and redeploy your energy. These things happen with the other practices. Carlos wasn't doing only sleeping dreaming, he was also doing all the other practices he just he wasn't writing about all of them in the same book.
Even in the same book (Art of Dreaming) other practices are mentioned (that have been practiced for years):
"You are not yet ready for a true merging of your dreaming reality and your daily reality," he concluded. "You must recapitulate your life further."
"But I've done all the recapitulating possible," I protested. "I've been recapitulating for years. There is nothing more I can remember about my life."
"There must be much more," he said adamantly, "otherwise, you wouldn't wake up screaming."
I did not like the idea of having to recapitulate again. I had done it, and I believed I had done it so well that I did not need to touch the subject ever again.
"The recapitulation of our lives never ends, no matter how well we've done it once," don Juan said. "The reason average people lack volition in their dreams is that they have never recapitulated and their lives are filled to capacity with heavily loaded emotions like memories, hopes, fears, et cetera, et cetera.
"Sorcerers, in contrast, are relatively free from heavy, binding emotions, because of their recapitulation. And if something stops them, as it has stopped you at this moment, the assumption is that there still is something in them that is not quite clear."
"To recapitulate is too involving, don Juan. Maybe there is something else I can do instead."
"No. There isn't. Recapitulating and dreaming go hand in hand. As we regurgitate our lives, we get more and more airborne."
I swear I had these quotes in mind when writing the comment but i couldn't remember which book they were from!
Once again, you mic dropped!
Sooo…. The guy from Memento could never be a Nagual? He can’t even recap what happened an hour ago!
The guy from Memento IS the Nagul, my Nagul... 😎
I’m baffled how Don Juan would trust human memory!!
Do you think only Naguals do recapitulation? Every sorcerer in the books did recapitulation.
"The reason average people lack volition in their dreams is that they have never recapitulated and their lives are filled to capacity with heavily loaded emotions like memories, hopes, fears, et cetera, et cetera.
"filled to capacity with heavily loaded emotions" "like memories, hopes, fears, et cetera, et cetera." the heavily loaded emotions is the problem (and the guy from Memento definitely has that).
Don't waste your time on theoreticals that don't pertain to you.
Also... Quite often the witches would immediately recapitulate after an event happened, so that takes care of the time limit given.
Ive loved Castaneda since 1990 when I read the first 4-5 books! I searched for a teacher like that for 10 years after! And then I found out he faked everything! No ethnographic field notes, nothing! That makes him even more amazing- his imagination, his writing! Amazing writer! Charismatic writer! Yet man of knowledge? Not even close! Cult leader, somewhat pervy, very likable yes, but nagual?? Ha!
None of the teachings are fake. You don't need any teacher by the way, it's all done through inner silence, exactly like Don Juan taught.
You can read through any of this that you like:
https://www.reddit.com/r/castaneda/wiki/reputation/
and then you can read through this to get started:
https://www.reddit.com/r/castaneda/wiki/index/statement/
If we don’t need a don Juan, then why did Carlos?? Carlos surely didn’t write step by step directions of EVERYTHING Don Juan taught him! I read the books many times over! They’re detailed but not like a recipe! Of course a teacher is required. Who would’ve introduced Carlos to Mescalito? Who wouldve prepared the concoction?? Or picked the right plants?
This whole business of shutting the inner dialogue- do you really believe that someone you’ve never met can do that just coz they claim so? Someone saying it on a social media platform??
I go hiking every day and when im 3 miles in, i meditate. Sometimes i myself am not sure if i had any thoughts during a certain meditation! I can swear i was silent! But… still… maybe they were so so quiet!😉 How can i trust when someone else says it with certainty (and a bit of superiority to boot!)
When it comes right down to it, I don’t trust that anyone can do what they claim, without at least meeting that person in person.
Don't trust us. Just practice, when you start verifying it for yourself, then you'll know.
Sorcery is not a matter of being taught anything, it's a matter of being convinced.
Fundamentally, you'll always regret it if you don't give it your best try at least once.
Try as many of the practices as you can manage, you'll see that it happens faster than you think.
Just test the books out.
In regards to power plants here are Don Juan's own words on the matter (did you miss these words in Journey to Ixtlan?):
"Why did you make me take those power plants so many times?" I asked.
He laughed and mumbled very softly, "'Cause you're dumb."
I heard him the first time, but I wanted to make sure and pretended I had not understood.
"I beg your pardon?" I asked.
"You know what I said," he replied and stood up.
He tapped me on the head as he walked by me.
"You're rather slow," he said. "And there was no other way to jolt you."
"So none of that was absolutely necessary?" I asked.
"It was, in your case. There are other types of people, however, that do not seem to need
them."
Hahahaha I fckn ADORE their discourse! And I don’t think he meant dumb! I think he meant stubborn, set in his academic/rational ways- that is dumb to Don Juan! Lol!😂❣️Then tbh I’m just as dumb and just as in need of those plants! Hey, know thyself, right? Be honest with thyself. Been my policy for a long time. Most see me as filterless and crazy; few appreciate it. The few are my allies (not in that sense); even married the handsomest lol! Or rather he married me! Jeez logorrhea! Sorry!😅🙏
You're right. Carlos was stubborn and you are being just as dumb right now.
But the mixtures are in history, no one has the recipe right now (and if they say they do, they are much less trustworthy).
The only one you can rely on for this is yourself, no one else.
When you have questions about your practice, freely ask them.
I don't think you are just as dumb, though. I studied accounting (and got on the Dean's List) because Don Juan learned bookkeeping and is a stockholder and a businessman.
You were only sidetracked, that's all.
just an observation, but it kinda sounds like your ego is still way too alive. Framing your personality as how you believe other people you know may or may not perceive it without even being prompted to do so in any way makes me wonder why you view your own self as if you were an outsider looking at someone else? How other people receive you can not be the thing that defines you. If it is, you are kinda missing the entire point of the Castaneda books, which is simply that your intent must be pure... that is like the literal opposite of your perspective. It is quite possible that I will get blocked or banned in like 20 seconds for offering up another perspective, but I mean no harm. I'm just out here chatting with all my other selves tonight.
Not everyone is an expert. We all start somehow and somewhere. I know very well what I am. I have a strong case of logorrhea and I’m socially awkward (possibly on the spectrum). Doesn’t mean you need to point my shortcomings; I’m painfully aware and working towards rectifying that.
A teacher is required unfortunately. But teachers can come from another world as well.
What are you talking about? You don't need a human teacher at all.
Did I say human?
She said she searched for a teacher like Carlos for 10 years. That is a human teacher and was what I was commenting on.
That teacher is your other self. Per spective?
The teaching is not fake. I read many channeling books, mystics, modern mystics, occults, they are similar to the teaching. The teaching is even talking about archons in a different way. About prison planet. How to liberate yourself.
I don't know bout Castaneda, but I just go by the Teaching itself
What exactly are you doing here? Wasting your time?
This doesn't have anything to do with mysticism...
"It is," he assured me. "This is another of the sorcerers' contradictions: it's very difficult and yet it's the simplest thing in the world. I've told you already that a high fever could move the assemblage point. Hunger or fear or love or hate could do it; mysticism too, and also unbending intent, which is the preferred method of sorcerers."
Are you practicing the techniques from Castaneda? If not, move on.
Jeez why so aggressive? Why gate keep this? Doesn’t interfere with your progress in any way.
People are just mean.
It's fairly simple.
The whole idea behind prison planet nearly guarantees that you won't make it through to freedom, because you won't put in the effort needed and get defeated by tiredness, just like Don Juan said about Old Age as one of the enemies of knowledge. If he doesn't correct himself, he likely will not make it through to freedom, worth a bit of "aggression" maybe?
This sorcerer's description is of course our ultimate nemesis; we don't want to believe that we are being raised for food. In this sense, naturally, the sorcerers' tradition is at total variance with any other kind of spiritual tradition. Sorcerers say, and believe me, not out of cynicism, that every ideal we deal with in terms of spiritual traditions, religions, etc, is a device concocted by the flyers to keep us in a lull. Imagine our disquietude upon examining, weighing and pondering this proposition.
https://www.reddit.com/r/castaneda/wiki/inventories/
"And mixing outside stuff is like mixing different jigsaw puzzles into a giant pile on the floor; really stupid, if you have any actual interest in putting together the puzzle."
Btw, it's not aggressive, I'm just blunt.
Don Juan made it.
Don Juan made it because he didn’t have stuff like prison planet corroding him. If you die you become food, you don’t come around again.
You only have one chance…
So please don’t advise people like they have more than one chance.
It is more than moving the assemblage points. It is a teaching of liberation. Just like Don Juan said the old sorcerers want power, the new one wants freedom.
Unless you are practicing some of the techniques here, you are not doing sorcery, you are doing mysticism which is not unbending intent and has nothing to do with Don Juan.
Don’t get me wrong - there is NOTHING I wish for more than for Carlos and Juan Matus to have been… the real deal! I’d rather that than a million dollars in my account!! It CRUSHED me when I found out! I’m still not over it!😫
I’d imagine you have a different idea of what “the real deal” is than most in here would have.
And it’s likely not very pragmatic.
Could be you expected saintliness, but it’s more likely you picked up the residue of the bad blood that Castaneda’s anthropological contemporaries had against him. For various, and very dubious, reasons.
Many of which came out of the woodwork to cry foul when Carlos didn’t vanish in a puff of light in front of TV cameras, and instead died (superficially, anyway) like a man.
And we have some of his original field notes available, by the way.
I was an anthropology student for 3.5 years before I switched to music and got 2 MM in music. So yeah… I have a different definition of the real deal. Unfortunately for me. Or … who knows anymore. All I know is I hate this feeling. Like I’m grieving a friend.😫
Have you done any fieldwork? The way you come barging in here shows you clearly haven't done your homework and still aren't ready for the real work. Also, it seems you're ignoring everything Carlos has said about anthropology., which makes me wonder whether you really have read all the books and whether you have actually studied anthropology. Something tells me you're not what you're claiming to be.
I don’t claim to be ANYTHING. As a matter of fact I AM nothing to you! To myself- Just curious. Maybe you’re hearing/seeing things from within. Don’t define me please. You don’t know me from dirt.
I gave up anthropology and my spiritual quest and beat myself up for a long time after I “found out” about Carlos. It really hit me hard…
Michael Harner, a well known author and anthropologist who studied Shamanism and native culture and who knew Carlos personally, points out that Castaneda never claimed to be doing an anthropological study of "authentic" Yaqui Shamanism.
He was presenting his experiences with and study of a member of the Yaqui tribe who belonged to a sub-group that had persisted through the centuries inside of the native cultures of meso-america.
A sorcerer. With their own distinct culture.
It was anthropology, "the social science that studies the origins and social relationships of human beings," just not an anthropology his contemporaries were keen to recognize, much less validate.
Because they didn't "believe" in it.
Very scientific 🙄
Harner states this in the more recent documentary done on Castaneda:
The Secret of Carlos Castaneda (2018)
Scientists/anthropologists are not supposed to partake in those kinds of rituals. They are supposed to observe only. So yes, what Carlos did was not very scientific, but obviously intriguing and interesting if it was real. If it came out of his own imagination, then it’s even more amazing.
How come observe only? That sounds almost religious!
Anthropologists are scientists. They’re not supposed to be part of the rituals or religions or customs, traditions they observe coz being a participant changes your frame of mind. No longer objective. So in order to not be partial, that’s why they keep “at an observable distance.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observer%27s_paradox - “The observer’s paradox is a situation in which the phenomenon being observed is unwittingly influenced by the presence of the observer/investigator; and more specifically, in the social sciences, in the challenge faced while doing fieldwork, where the task of gathering data is undermined by the researcher’s presence itself.”
I like where this is going. And yes, of course the observer will have some impact just by observing! Reminds me of quantum states! So fragile! And then here I go down a thought rabbit hole: Roger Penrose/Stuart Hameroff proposing consciousness itself arises from quantum processes within the microtubules of brain neurons.
Sorry. Logorrhea! Back to your point. I guess there are levels and levels of impact. Scientists/anthropologists try to tread lightly.
That feels like a textbook "moving the goalposts" to me. Are you simply arguing because it's fun? If so, could you do it elsewhere?
In the description of this subreddit: The purpose of this subreddit is to aid in the pragmatic application of the works of Carlos Castaneda, Florinda Donner, Taisha Abelar, & Carol Tiggs to how we experience existence.
If you aren't interested in pragmatic application, this subreddit won't be for you and you aren't in the right place.
Yall REALLY don’t like it when people MILDLY and POLITELY challenge your ideas! You feel you must attack that which doesn’t agree! Speaks volumes! Byeee!
No, it's just not interesting at all, to constantly deal with arguments that don't do one single thing to get you walking on the sorcery path.
For example, here is something you could do. Practice your gazing powers during your 3 hour hikes, by gazing at a pile of dry leaves.
Silence your internal dialogue, gaze at a pile of leaves, and take note of any visual changes.
Here is some advice that was given to Taisha Abelar that really helped me:
"As we let go of our ideas of the physical body, little by little or all at once," he said, "awareness begins to shift to our soft side.
"In order to facilitate this shift, our physical side must remain absolutely still, suspended as if it were in deep sleep.
"The difficulty lies in convincing our physical body to cooperate, for it rarely wants to give up its control."
"How do I let go of my physical body, then?" I asked.
"You fool it," he said. "You let your body feel as if it were sound asleep. You deliberately quiet it by removing your awareness from it.
"When your body and mind are at rest, your double wakes up and takes over."
"I don't think I follow you," I said.
Clara snapped, "Don't play the devil's advocate with us, Taisha.
"You must have done this in the cave. In order for you to have perceived the nagual, you must have used your double. You were asleep and yet aware at the same time."
How about stop answering my comments and I won’t have to keep coming back to answer!🤣Sooo simple!
You said you read the books several times, yet come out with that? Try reading them sober!
So quick to judge! Don Juan would be proud. 🙄
Narrow mindedness?? Narrow mindedness to try to not interfere?? Wow! Ok. You do you.
Is that what you' re doing now?" Trying "not to interfere? You' re full of contradictions. What else are you here for other than drawing attention to yourself? You misuse don Juan saying that " what would DJ have to say about your judginess"? Whilst maintaining that don Juan was " made up". What are you trying to prove?
Ummm communication breakdown. Thats NOT what I meant. Nvm.
WTH r u talking about??? Wow!
Yes, I have seen the 2018 secret of Carlos Castaneda.🙏
I don’t know …you all can make any claim and then say that of course ‘normal’ people are not gonna understand it because they are not part of this separate reality that you are part of. So then you can claim to be or see or know anything! And it’s never provable and we just have to trust that it is how you say it is. Cause I’ve tried all these lessons and I know many people who have dedicated decades and they have not succeeded in doing anything. But I guess the stock answer here would be: they’re not brujos/talented/special/whatever! I’m done here. Respect to yall and good luck!🍀
Because they both failed to silence their internal dialogue to the required degree, and couldn't unstick themselves from whatever extraneous intent was untowardly influencing their "esoteric" endeavors/experiments.
That's it. Sorcery is not very complicated, when it all boils down.
You can only do what was done before. And, at the start, take what is given.
And we're only given what we expect (that's a big, big issue!).
See that kind of argument can be used for anything: you just didn’t try hard enough! How do I trust that? Uuugh! All time high frustration. I guess I’m alone at this! Nothing to do but stumble and try and stumble and try til I succeed! But lemme tell you: I’m a classical concert pianist- if I had to teach that to myself I would have never gotten to the level I’m at now! So how do I expect to get anywhere without a teacher?!🥺
Stop overtly seeking human teachers?
Allies/Inorganic Beings are better at teaching this sort of stuff anyway!
But you do have to get far enough along that/where you can perceive them...
Thank you for being kind and patient with me! I do appreciate it!🙏❣️
I don't think you're telling the truth. Perhaps you're making it up that you studied anthropology to come across as less confused. It's not working ! Lol
So judgmental! Do you, dude.
I’m fckn blown away!! There ARE field notes?!?! wtf!!!?? I’m soooooo confused!!!😫😫😫
I don’t think that’s why the academic community saw him as a fraud: because he didn’t turn into some Jedi upon his death! Lol! More to do with leading a cult and making millions of dollars yet preaching that a man of knowledge has no family, no possessions. Discrepancies, inconsistencies! Like Karam saw! And said no thank you to being his protégée! And I never expected sainthood! Juan Matus- when I thought he was a real person- was mischievous and funny and a bit of a pain in the ass lol! Definitely no saint!
There's a big difference between a group pragmatically laboring to overcome the restrictions that society has burdened us all with, which necessitates a degree of separatism, and a cult:
https://www.reddit.com/r/castaneda/comments/tu4ujr/was_carlos_castaneda_running_a_cult/
https://www.reddit.com/r/castaneda/comments/fw0uvy/on_cults_fraud/
Don Juan, a verifiable "man of knowledge" per the books, had a family and was in actuality a "chairman of the board" in some import export business. He even had an swanky apartment in Manhattan
Something that shook and "blew away" Carlos's mind, almost more than the power plants did, when don Juan told him this in a later book.
And on Carlos's own financial success: one of the skills/attributes of sorcery is to be impeccable in what you pursue. If/when you are in a businessman/business-woman role, then you fulfill that occupation or task to the utmost level of impeccability you can muster.
You succeed, or "do well" at it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/castaneda/comments/m6byve/hey_didnt_carlos_get_a_book_deal_and_isnt_it/
People needed to actually read the books for him to accomplish his task! Meaning they had to buy them, in the pre-internet era.
And when Carlos first started teaching, he did so in public parks for free.
He got heckled constantly, making it difficult for those in attendence who were serious and wanted to learn, and this necessitated a more private space; the minimal rental cost of which was, at first, equally shared between himself and the students. So they were "invested" in being there. Focused.
What if Don juan was just a figment of Carlos Castaneda’s imagination? You don’t even allow that possibility… to be a possibility???
Why are you bothering us?
Can't you go to a fake Castaneda discussion group, and try your routine over there?
We know why.
But you'd have to read to learn about that.
Hint: You've been Jedi mind tricked.
You’re on a PUBLIC platform!😂😂😂
And your self importance is laughable!
We're storytelling apes (or ape-like creatures). And the stories we tell ourselves uphold our reality.
Literally.
Facts and testimony (which does exist from multiple persons, both living and deceased) about Don Juan's existence aside, it still wouldn't matter.
Only the story, matters. Albeit, somewhat tangentially.
The whole "finger pointing at the moon thing."
And none of it would work, in practice, anyway if it was just a story with no actual foundational intent behind it.
History. Evaluated via direct experience, if you actually follow the instructions as presented.
Which almost no one who thinks like you seem to actually does.
The job of a sorcerer, if they are at all concerned with the propagation of their craft to future generations, must find the best way to present (or if necessary repackage) their technology in as impactful a way as is possible given the media of the time they're alive in.
And Castaneda did that!
In past generations it was simply word of mouth; ie. oral traditions. And we all know how much things change with each retelling....but somehow they still did the "magic," almost as if the finger pointing (biographical facts of the story) wasn't the actual point.
I so appreciate your patience with me, your knowledge and compassion. Thank you for taking the time to “speak to me”!Kindly!🙏🙏🙏
You're completely misinformed on this.
Maybe read in the wiki.
The "academic" community is a pit of greedy self-important, self-entitled people who go along with group think, and will slander anyone if it furthers their career.
At least, until the internet came along it was like that.
It's getting better.
And Carlos lived exactly as he wrote. I'm not sure what discrepancies you're talking about.
There certainly aren't any.
Tony on the other hand, was greedy for attention from an "authority" and only hanging out around Carlos, because he couldn't hang out around that con artist the Dali Lama.
Which is part of why sorcery requires someone to prove their commitment.
Tony had to have sex with Carol, but wouldn't, so that "test" worked just fine.
I was asked to have sex with Florinda, but didn't understand the meaning of it, and Carlos had made me celibate, so I said no.
If I had, likely I'd be where Kylie went, when she left with Taisha and Florinda.
How about you be more honest, and point out one of your discrepancies, so we aren't just gazing into mud here.
You might be shocked to find out it's the precise opposite of a discrepancy!
One day Tony Karam will realize his horrible mistake!
But it's very luck for us that he isn't still around.
He'd be sitting on a little throne if he was, like his idol the Dali Lama.
THERE'S what a discrepancy looks like!
I guess it’s all about perception and I don’t share yours. But I respect it. I AM an academic person and respect my peers as well. There’s room for all kinds of knowledge in this world. As long as people speak the truth and don’t just pretend to know.
You’re attacking Buddhists and the Dalai Lama and I’m not sure why. I know the Dalai Lama had his own ethical problems, but apparently, so did Carlos. And it is upsetting to see you downing on a belief system they because it doesn’t agree with yours.
I had hopes for this subreddit but I guess my search will continue alone.
Just go away... No one cares about your ill-informed arguments.
It's hard to care, when you nightly get to kick the Buddha's delusional butt, and surpass all Yogis who ever lived, for hours at a time.
Did you even bother to look around in here, before you went on an attention seeking binge?
And you won't get any respect from me based on university degrees.
Though likely Carlos valued those.
I don't.
I eat PhDs for lunch!
If your belief was this strong, you would not be bothered by the likes of me or anybody who doesn’t believe in Carlos. The fact that you get this butt hurt proves that you know he’s nothing but a fraud yet you’re probably getting something out of pretending you’re a Brujo. Probably attention and women. Just like he did. I’ve had enough of you! Go away and stop responding to me.
And this is a public platform so you can leave yourself if you don’t like it.
We get 3 like you each week, and have for the last 4 or 5 years, almost without fail.
It's nothing new.
In fact, you're a training exercise for intermediate people. We discuss the "bad players" who come along in chat.
You so have me wrong. But ok. Believe what you will.🙏
I didn't realize you were a witch.
Can't tell male or female from the ID pictures anymore!
Ignore everything I said. You're welcome here as far as I'm concerned.
I have Cholita living with me, who is perhaps the worst possible person to be living with. You might easily wake up dead one day.
Of fall victim to one of her many spells, populating the house and yard. Each touch activated like corn kernel magic.
As dangerous and unpleasant as she is, she levitates light objects, commands visible Allies and creates fully realistic phantom copies of our home which I can visit, lifts me into the air with a single finger when she gets aggressive, walks through solid walls to see what I'm practicing at night, and does far more things than I can remember, which blow away any men Carlos taught.
Carlos imported her from a peyote site near Mexico City, to help with the lineages accumulated wealth (which he had to disperse and sell off).
Without Cholita, we wouldn't have proof of such dramatic ways to break the laws of physics, which is important for something as hard to comprehend as "seeing".
It's good to see the physical effect at work too!
So even if you have most likely been mislead by bad men outside this subreddit, there's still the natural talent of women to take into account
But it feels like you haven't read enough of the books (there's 20 to read) because you used the term "Brujo", not understanding seers DO NOT want to be "men of knowledge".
Those guys never learned to see, and were only interested in self-promotion and taking wealth from others.
By the way, we have the 2 allies of Carlos in here.
They're available to you too.
Little Smoke, and the Devil's weed entity.
"Fairy", and "Minx" now.
I renamed them. YOu get to do that with Allies. In fact, one of the witches recommended to do that right away.
Jadey (another private student who helps in here) got access to Taisha's Ally "Phoebus".
Probably... They don't come with nametags.
We're only sure about the allies of Carlos, because he made a ceremony of passing them on to us, before he died.
I’m so baffled. Why do you say I’m a witch?? I come from a long line of (5 generations) of Romanian/Transylvanian healers. I have Roma blood. And I’ve experienced some (let’s call them) unexplained things in the past, but… (??) that doesn’t mean much.
Like I wrote last night (with help from a magic mushroom) without meaning to think of writing ANYTHING in particular- just burst out: “I feel introverted and curated to the extreme by an evil queen!😫”! And then I was in the hills, flying with the 2 crows I had a conversation with yesterday morning! Idk … society would call that delusional! Didn’t feel that way…🥺
"All women are witches if they just know it."
Florinda was assigned t teaching Cholita, and taught her that.
And it's true!
You don't need the shrooms...
those only hold people back.
You can duplicate anything those do every single day, using Darkroom.
And then go 3 times further!
It's on this map. The magic mushrooms only get you to the deep red station, but then they shift you so far to the right, that you lose your rationality, and your body is damaged.
If you tried to do what intermediate people in here do, all of which blows away magic mushrooms, you'd end up crippled from the shrooms.
All those do is interrupt your internal dialogue.
But you can learn to completely remove it!
I put a circle around where magic mushrooms are taking you.
Last time I was playing around there, I swiped the ceiling away with my hand, located a star, and leaped, in my physical body, across galaxies to land on a distant planet.
Something Zuleica taught Carlos in "Eagle's Gift" as I recall, so it's not surprising.
The surprising things in this case is, i was able to do it in my physical body.
We have advantages over how Carlos was taught, due to having to do it all ourselves.
Keep in mind, I do FAR MORE than that, every single day. I'm over in that purple zone at the end, where Carlos told us to go before he died.
Thank you for your in depth response!🙏🙏Much appreciated!!
You eat something for lunch and apparently it’s too much
Why was having s#x with the women part of the requisite at all ? Is it because women hold ancestral memories in their womb ?
It's likely a sign of commitment. There's also some energy connections created in that way.
I was invited to have sex with Florinda, just before Florinda and Taisha ditched us and took Kylie.
I assume it was an invitation to go along with them, but the ritual required that intimacy.
Tony was matched with Carol, because both are double beings.
I was matched with Florinda, because I'm a dreamer (obviously) and so is Florinda.
It seems clear if you read all of the books, and all of the lecture notes, that sex was indeed used in this way, in the lineages in Mexico.
No big deal perhaps, in Mexico.
But it seems horrible up here in the USA, I suppose because we evolved from Pilgrims...
We are indeed extremely prudish, and if you get to travel the world there's a period of "shock" when you visit the fun places in other countries.
It's a good thing most americans don't have to do business in Japan! They have no idea what a serious business night out is like there.
However, as a group we don't have to do such things anymore. Sex has no bearing on the current way people learn.
Still keep in mind, we have real magic.
We don't pretend to be Saints, to make up for not actually having any.
Saint = fraud.
The subconscious..the recapitulation is trying to bring the subconscious to the surface..we suppressed so much and embellished as well..
Thanks for your comment, this helps a lot. I accept that I have been far less involved with some of the other practices and I understand that I must remedy this immediately. To answer your question, I use the phrase 'lucid dream' only as a way of saying that I was self aware within the dream. I was simply practicing the same way that Castaneda described in The Art of Dreaming.
You certainly can't have one without the other. You know this relative plain is one of cause and effect. What you're trying to do is like going into a gym and lifting 500 lbs deadlight without ever having lifted a weight. You're going to break your mind, if you don't be careful. Have fun. Sending many blessings.
I'm new too to these practices, and had the opposite problem, recently I feel tired in daily life and is harder to focus on sorcery, you can stay awake 24/7 without issues about energy, as long as you rest with the physical body, in fact the unconcsious never rest totally, of course is not simple because there's no perfect instruction to do so, and require willpower and curiosity or interest to maintain the memory of how to do so, moreover this alone don't make you a good sorcerer, I could do it but made no good use of it for magical purposes and lost interest, recently I don't manage to repeat the experience but I'm trying to do so, anyway I had the experience and know It can be done without losing energy or physical repercussions
Controlling dreams seems the focus of the solution to your problems, but in my experience every little action helps, especially if you'r a beginner, you may also try to be careful about what you eat, relying too much on carbohydrates and sugar increase problems tied to Energy management
This is a link to DVD 1 by Cleargreen about passes to gather energy, I only tried the first 4 movements so far with positive results on my physical energy already
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y0DvSpJaLI&list=PLFTG1Woh0r3FWnpJzNQjG0-K4OpvXAsc4&index=2&pp=iAQB
These dreaming posts are always like chumming in shark infested waters….
I think you are in between worlds