I see a lot of videos and threads that speak about recapitulation but I don’t see enough people posting the benefits it has produced in their life. I just would like to see more testimonies on people who have been practicing it for a while. I want to know what were the benefits of this spiritual practice and also real life experiences from people who have been practicing it for years.
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Do you understand how to do it? Cos it's not clear to me. There is the headsweep technique and also the recapitulation passes.
In the books, I think Castaneda mentioned another technique where he writes down a list of his memories? And he goes over them one by one.
It's confusing to me. Like do you manually just try to imagine the memories in your head trying to replay it or do you do the headsweep technique and that will bring up / replay your memories automatically. It's confusing to me, or perhaps I'm just dumb lol
I do think I understand why they do it however, seems to be to reclaim lost energy, but I have no idea how to do the technique correctly.
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The technique is explained really well in the book Magical Passes. The Recapitulation.
From the side bar: https://www.reddit.com/r/castaneda/wiki/recapitulation/ there's a link to a video demonstration with a timestamp.
In my experience, memories do not "automatically replay", but, if a memory is "automatically" coming to mind, I try to notice it, and recapitulate it - meaning try to remember what I was feeling, what my motivations were, how I felt at the time, what I noticed, what I thought others were doing. And doing that until the breath changes significantly and moving the head becomes easier. Try it!
Talking about it's benefits on a personal level might not be beneficial to others. Experiencing the benefits by practicing it is more likely to convince you of the authenticity of this type of magic.
During a recapitulation session, a sorcerer can live the equivalent of many lifetimes in terms of intensity. You reclaim energy which you have left behind and return energy which has been left behind in you.
Like the magical passes, the benefits come of themselves..all the while doing this " for the hell of it" might relieve you of that merchant mind telling you " what's in it for moi".
Basically it lets one re- examine the repetituousness in our lives.
It gives a tiny moment extra, if you will .
And it improves memory
You start to see the difference between the story that you tell yourself, about yourself, via the internal dialogue and what actually happened.
So much of that internal dialogue narrative is DRENCHED in invented self-pity, that's it's quite frankly ridiculous!
And you see that repeated over and over again.
See it. Not just surmise it, theoretically, or write down yet more thoughts about it.
You then begin to ACTUALLY let go of that self-manufactured narrative, memory by memory by.......
How does the process of reviewing a self-puty worthy memory result in letting the overpowering feelings about it go? How does that review process look like, step by step?
I feel that this needs clarification because many will fall into the trap of simply overthinking the situation/life episode and then end up in even worse trouble. Recap requires consistency, time and privacy on a regular basis. You can’t do it while walking after you just had lunch.
The sweeping breath, is how.
We’re not thinking about the memory when engaging in the recapitulation. We’re intending to actually re-live it, from the perspective of inner silence.
And how is one to know whether he is doing it properly?
There is no universal step-by-step process.
You simply reached a threshold, after putting in enough effort. After which, things saliently change.
Experientially.
https://www.reddit.com/r/castaneda/comments/lx7mjs/comment/gpltf2n/
https://www.reddit.com/r/castaneda/comments/yhf9te/the_usher_full_passages_from_the_active_side_of/
This just triggered my remembering a mysterious event that happened to me around the pandemic.
I used to do yoga and diaphragmatic breathing. One sequence in particular triggered a horrific core memory that I was actually re-living in real time instead of thinking about it.
The sequence was sitting cross legged on the floor and taking slow but deep breaths while sweeping my head. Initially, I sweeped my head in a circular fashion.
Clock wise slow deep breath starting with chin to chest and ending with chin pointing to sky and head pulled back. Slow exhale from chin pointing to sky and ending with chin pointing to chest. Repeat in counter clockwise fashion.
Naturally started sweeping head from left to right and right to left. Slow inhale left to right and slow exhale right to left. I didn’t plan this sequence as it happened on its own.
Over time my mind was blank while doing the sequence. I sometimes would have gaps in memory where I would “lose consciousness” while performing the sequence.
Even more weird that I didn’t fall over flat on my face nor hit the back of my head on the floor. Each time I regained consciousness, I was still upright on the floor cross legged with a straight back.
During the absentmindedness, my head would stop sweeping. I’m not sure if that was through my own volition in my trying to account for my gaps in memory. Nonetheless, I would voluntarily continue the head sweeping and breathing from diaphragm.
One day, I all of a sudden started to relive a painful memory. The memory itself isn’t painful when I think about it. This time, the memory was painful in the sense that I felt the same exact strong emotions when I experienced the event as a child.
My present self was transported back in time and was experiencing the event as a child. Completely unaware of my physical body performing the left to right to left sweeping motion of head nor breathing.
I was crying a lot and couldn’t continue with the other yoga sequences I had originally planned to do. Felt better after taking a shower.
Same thing kept happening for the next several days. It never happened with other sequences. It only happened with sweeping my head from left to right & vice versa while synchronizing my breathing with it.
I could not explain it no matter how hard I tried. Especially with the surge of energy that followed it. It melted my chronic illness away, and I could function again. The best I’ve felt since I was a child.
Your comment made me realize I was unawaredly performing recapitulation.
It occurred to me today that therapy could help stimulate our memory for better recall during recapitulation. However, this would be an accessory to the practices, such as the recapitulation series (tensegrity) and making the list.
It's NOT a spiritual path. Nothing in sorcery is spiritual.
Spiritual = pretending to get human attention
This produces DRASTIC real results, leading you off into alternate locates in the multi-verse.
For real. In your physical body.
Like I said, it's not spiritual so it's not pretend.
Nothing you've ever seen or studied, is anything but ugly pretending run by greedy con artists (AKA priests or "masters").
Here's a cartoon of what it's like at intermediate levels. I'm point directly to that point in the video, hopefully it'll go there. If not, just skip the womb dreaming part.
Recap is all about time travel.
Just when I thought “finally, a constructive post by dan!” I read the part that says that no other “real” magic exists. Come on. You may say that other systems are like elementary school compared to university knowledge, but saying that they are non existent is completely incorrect. Shamans exist on every continent and are probably hidden, just like when don Juan’s lineage had to work as church personnel in order to stay undercover. Do I really have to name examples?! Aborigines, siberian, numerous african tribes, pacific ring tribes, Kahuna, Polynesian, Druids and all that without the americas. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Point to one that you believe produces real magic.
Not to a list of them.
To one single system which we can see is real, by looking at what you pointed to.
That means, not to claims by one of their leaders.
Not by some religious history and tons of sacred texts.
So real evidence that people are actually practicing that, and having success beyond meditative effects.
You can say those are real, even if t hey only produce the same results as praying the catholic rosary, or if they involve meditation which produces the same basic results as all other forms of meditation.
With your eyes closed.
But that's just the base level of being half asleep due to the interrupt of your internal dialogue.
Something that happens to all humans, without those techniques.
Go ahead, point to one!
Not to 10, or to some reddit group where there's just a bunch of beginners asking if what they did is correct.
Listen, I don’t know where that tone of yours is coming from, but I just wanted to point out that some other systems have been around since ancient times and that by saying that real magic doesn’t exist apart from toltec magic is simply incorrect.
I will start with cc’s work, as I had to defend his accountability from my dear friend’s scepticism, because he insisted that the whole thing might have been a fairly tale. Of course, his opinion was influenced by some writers who were trying to “debunk” carlos. Anyway, in the end, I couldn’t come up with any REAL EVIDENCE, except the one that were in my head. How could I prove him that I talked to the emissary in my dreams? Eventually, I gave up and just told him to try out the easiest technique in the whole teaching, which is to try to find ones hands in a dream. He managed to do it, but rightfully claimed that this doesn’t prove anything besides that very technique. To which I refuted with, of course, therefore I suggest that you try other methods as well and see all of it yourself. That was too much of a fuss and he quit altogether.
Now, If I was unable to showcase real magic in front of my friend, how am I to do it online with systems I know even less about. I can’t fly on demand, I can’t invite an ally by intending to do so, I can’t transform into a crow by will force. If any of you guys can, please make a video and prove all those sceptics how wrong they were.
As far as I know, there are videos of Kahunas walking on hot coal. Firewalking is well documented. Also, there are some videos of filipino shamans doing surgeries with bare hands. These are documented. Voodoo is also a well known example. I know of first hand accounts of petty magic like maiz-pinto and alike. That would be dark magic, but I have seen it at work. All these systems probably don’t have as comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanisms that make these spells effective and possible, but that doesn’t mean that they are to be neglected. Considering the 100th monkey effect, it might be that olmecs started a domino effect all around the world and that’s why we have some magic in every corner of our planet. However, the intent behind it was usually health and prophecies, not personal quest for freedom.
P.s. I just remembered watching a high quality documentary on witchcraft in UK/Ireland. Many cases reached official court and some of these records are still preserved. This is the best real evidence I can think of. Official reports of ectoplasma, that’s quite weird isn’t it?
I suppose I should have limited my request to magic you can learn, with clear instructions somewhere and people obviously succeeding.
As you surely know, even Don opposed the Idea that Carlos writes everything without censorship. Therefore, some recipes, practices etc. are omitted on purpose. As far as I know, many other systems have initiation rites that require you to protect the knowledge by keeping it a secret so that external agents don’t spoil and degrade it. Besides, many of these people who are involved in magic are illiterate as well. African tribes, amazonian tribes, pacific island natives, aborigines… There are still some traditions that have a structured teaching, but many of those texts are exclusive for practitioners, not curios westernes. However, I can still name some teachings with at least serious amount of written material and instructions. Off the top of my head: gurdjieff material, wicca, kabbalah. Even some buddhist factions, but I know how much you despise Buddhists, so let’s leave them out. But yeah, such systems are usually passed on the way don’s lineage did it and that is why it is hard to find something similar. If it weren’t for Carlos, you would have probably been a critic of any paranormal activity just like those clowns were trying to prove how Carlos made it all up and published their own detective stories about the saga.
You're buried in glossing.
Carlos pointed that out in class once, when the Eurobuddhists were visiting.
I suppose now I understand why he said it.
He was frustrated that it was impossible to get through to some people, despite him having the only real magic they'd ever encounter.
But still, they stuck around causing doubt in beginners.
And why would omitting some knowledge result in improvement of any kind in such individuals or should I say, what was he hoping to accomplish with his little trick?
I told him that I had received letters from various people telling me that it was wrong to write about my apprenticeship. They had cited as a precedent that the masters of Eastern esoteric doctrines demanded absolute secrecy about their teachings.
"Perhaps those masters are just indulging in being masters," don Juan said without looking at me. "I'm not a master, I'm only a warrior. So I really don't know what a master feels like."
"But maybe I'm revealing things I shouldn't, don Juan."
"It doesn't matter what one reveals or what one keeps to oneself," he said. "Everything we do, everything we are, rests on our personal power. If we have enough of it, one word uttered to us might be sufficient to change the course of our lives. But if we don't have enough personal power, the most magnificent piece of wisdom can be revealed to us and that revelation won't make a damn bit of difference."
The last quote is so powerful. I remember a paraphrased version. What would be some ways of raising personal power? The first thing that comes to my mind is maintaining a good tonal. But then again, why did that escape cat (max?) have more of it than its fellow cat who died.
What exactly do you think we are encouraging you to do besides raise your personal power? There aren’t any secrets… just hard work
I didn’t want to point it out in me previous comment out of respect for you, but you are evading my questions. I know that some may be overbearing and tiresome, just like some of carloses were to don juan and he had to take a hold of himself in order to act impeccably. However, the questions from the previous comment of mine are of high importance and they have a constructive purpose. Especially the one about increasing personal power. Please provide actionable advice.
But, I did provide actionable advice, you just don't like the way it sounds. When I read the books, I got hooked on the idea of internal silence, so I aligned myself towards that goal. I had spent several hours each day, gazing at the ceiling, watching it changing colors and seeing things happen. This was before this subreddit existed, and, as far as I was concerned, everyone in the world said Castaneda was fake, but I didn't care.
Even that was work on my part, and with resources here, I improved my practice. So, the ACTionable advice, is read through resources, and ACT.
You simply stared without a sleeping mask??
I gazed, not stared. Sometimes stuff would happen like when outside gazing at sand, I would see it change into red brick or a concrete road. Too much stuff to count, really, and the basis is silence.
And, I guess I can include this for actionable advice, I do like what some other people have made for it!
https://www.reddit.com/r/castaneda/wiki/index/statement/
Back when I was doing recap daily it did a lot of stuff for me.
It made my dreams at night ultra vivid.
There was this female that really messed with my head. She played a lot of mind games with me. I recapped every encounter I had with her. It was pretty powerful I would experience while body sensations that I experienced while interacting with her. Also huge lightning bolts would rain down on me and I would feel this frigid cold while I reintegrated all the energy I took back.
I regained access to memories I had long forgotten.
It made those videos in the air more accessible and I ended up traveling into the sun and talking to the entities that live there
All sorts of cool shit happens.
You all do realize existence is just a dream, right? That's what makes sorcery possible in the first place.