I have been really big on getting enough sleep. I focus on things like going to bed and waking up at the same time everyday. I have believed that's what's optimal for health and alertness. But I have begun questioning the validity of that assumption.
I am only on book #3, Journey to Ixtlan, but noticed that don Juan seems to stay up all night randomly every once in a while (or daily?) to do sorcery with Carlos. Carlos even mentioned in one of the first 3 books that don Juan follows an unconventional sleep schedule of waking for a few hours and then sleeping a few hours and repeating.
I would say that don Juan's health and focus is light-years better than mine. So his approach to health and focus must be better than mine.
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How can you best approach sleep and rest so that it sets you up to better be able and willing to silent your dialogue?
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Or is sleep inconsequential to don Juans health and alertness and I should just focus on being silent?
I am still in the beggining stages of this technology, but did notice my sleep has gotten better since I started really focusing a lot on removing internal dialogue during the day (or maybe not, idk).
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Is the removal of the internal dialogue more important for higher quality sleep (or feeling rested) than the sleep schedule/structure/approach you follow?
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Should sleep be treated without routine? In the Journey to Ixtlan, don Juan suggested forgetting about routine, should sleep be treated the same way? Just sleep whenever you feel the need? (would that approach help you have better health, focus and ability to stay silent?)
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Is it possible to optimize your health and sleep for better silence and focus?
Darkroom and Sleep:
I have been doing the darkroom during the day because I am afraid it will ruin my focus the next day if I did it in the middle of the night. Nevertheless, a week ago, I woke up in the middle of the night to do it. I only stayed up for less than 10 minutes because I was afraid it was going to cause me to be less vigilant the next day.
It did.
The next day I didn't silence my dialogue as much because I felt less alert and vigilant.
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If you do darkroom nightly, can you tell me how you manage to do that and continue being able to silence your internal dialogue during the day? Does it lower your discipline to continue returning to silence?
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Other than the assemblage point being looser, is it important to do darkroom at night?
I have rigged my room to become nearly pitch black even during the day and been doing my practice during the day time.
- I have still seen progress, but is it more effective to practice at night? Will one progress quicker in their skill of moving the assemblage point and silencing the monologue?
6 Comments
Hi, cannot talk about darkroom in the middle of the night (for probably what you said tbh) but can share about sleeping when you need it and staying active otherwise.
When I was a student I could do that and did it. It was wonderful. Sleeping when needed, awake when not. Fantastic. The "body" knows when it is time.
However, now for now have to work on a schedule and that is kind of deciding for me routine accordigly. So...
Although when you practice, even just a few minutes of silence can be more restful than a full night of agitated sleep :)) so yes silence and getting your energy back is actually powerful if you can do that
I've struggled with sleeping well for a long time. I recently have started recapping thoughts and dreams when about to fall asleep or waking up. So I'm laying in bed starting to drift off and If I'm just awake enough to recognize that my internal dialogue is obsessing about something, I sit up and do a recap before falling back to sleep. On waking, I sit up as soon as I recognize I'm awake, and recap whatever I was just thinking about - usually a dream - and as soon as I finish that, or I lose track of the dream, switch to recapping whatever was next in my mind - whatever person or memory shows up.
I've tossed out a lot of sleep routines this year. I've gone through phases where I'm napping once a day, not at all, napping multiple times a day. Using alarms and not using alarm, waking up with them and without them at a range of times. I think I feel better, but there are other factors.
" Just sleep whenever you feel the need? (would that approach help you have better health, focus and ability to stay silent?)" I think you should try it - figure out what works for you.
"I only stayed up for less than 10 minutes because I was afraid it was going to cause me to be less vigilant the next day. It did." Did the 10 minutes make you sleep deprived?
"5. Is it possible to optimize your health and sleep for better silence and focus?" if you aren't tiring yourself out in the day, you'll have trouble sleeping at night. Are you able to exercise sufficiently?
This feels like you're trying to ingratiate yourself to the sub, to show how serious you are.
Of course, you could simply be autistic like me. And thus you have a tendency to TMI.
But if it's the former, you'll never learn that way.
You're doomed if that's the case.
All you can afford to care about, when it comes to learning sorcery, is getting real magic visible as fast as possible, so that you can use it as a measure of how well you have gotten rid of your internal dialogue, and then use the progress into real magical realms, to test which parts of your link to intent you have cleaned well enough to go further.
In order of importance:
1 = remove internal dialogue.
2 = see real magic (the second attention)
3 = clean link to intent by pushing further and further into the unknown.
Anything else is largely noise, since in the long run what stops people is #1.
99% don't actually try to do that, even though it's what makes sorcery work.
Of the 99% that don't even try, around 10 are very verbose about their not-trying, wanting to substitute social interaction for doing real work.
Around 3 per week average are belligerent and have to be banned. Those are the ones who don't believe there's any real magic at all, and that you just have to be the biggest bully, in order to succeed at "sorcery".
Meanwhile, ingratiating yourself is a perfectly acceptable path in all other magical systems and religions, since they're all frauds designed to take your money.
Ingratiating yourself to con artists is always welcomed by them.
But not to the real thing. In a real magical system, success is so rare that it becomes a bit intolerant of personality quirks.
Not to mention, sorcerers reach "the place of no pity", where feeling sorry for yourself, or others, is odious to them.
That should be #4 in my list:
4 = reach the place of no pity
Somewhere way down the list is
342 = bedtime schedule.
Ok thanks.
Ignore my handle, it means nothing. I wouldn't try to do thing Don Juan did. He was on another level than most of us. Also, Don Juan was in his "dreaming body" a lot of the times Carlos thought he was talking to a real physical body, so you may not want to have your physical body do things that only dreaming bodies can do. All that said, cats do that. They sleep in spurts. I've often wondered if that was better, but I do not know. I'm leaning towards, sleeping all night at least 5-6 hours is good. 8 hours is best. Again, I don't know. But I've been following Castaneda and attempting real and true practices for 35 years. I wouldn't jump in too fast. Could cost a man his life.
I find I fall asleep fast if I remove internal dialogue while falling asleep. Still can’t find my hands….
Schedule your practice so it fits in with your life and responsibilities. Don’t stress yourself out to practice - I only practice during the day, I don’t recall practicing at night to be mandatory, it could be better, but that wouldn’t work for me.