How time consuming is sorcery?

Hello everybody! I am a long time fan of the Castaneda books, which I have read and re-read several times already (excluding the magical passes and the witches). I was actually introduced to them when I was a teenager and spent months trying to practice forced silence, some form of presence/mindfullness and impeccability as best as I could understand it at the time. I had no tangible results and the whole experience left me feeling pretty morbid and morose. I felt overwhelmed and chose to discontinue my practice

I left the subject alone for nearly a decade although I did revisit it every once in a while. I notice that when I manage to "accumulate silence" I am more efficient and present in general, although these periods of not-so-heightened awareness come and go. I suppose they could be explained as a shift towards the green line of the J-curve.

Some weeks ago I accidentally stumbled across this page and have been lurking since. I gave darkroom a haphazard try a couple a days ago and within 5 minutes I managed to see some "hypnagogic imagery" - some stark white scribbly lines and for a split second some objects which I couldn't really make out. I also had the feeling of almost falling through the floor. What stopped me was a habitual discomfort I feel in the dark - I have a fear of jumpscares or something.

I am once again hooked! I have several questions regarding the practices. I hope I don't come across as a bad player. I am at a point in my life where I can barely find time to for myself, I have quite a hectic schedule and people depending on my. I feel that only complete hermit-like devotion to the practice would yield results and I am discouraged by that fact. I don't think I can find the necessary time to learn magical passes (they are literally hundreds), do three hours of recapitulation daily, gazing, not-doing, darkroom, leaving my family behind to practice stalking as a bum or something like that. Is that really the case? I don't believe my commitments are life-long, I will at some point achieve a degree of freedom to experiment, but not any time soon. With the little time I have, which practice am I better off dedicating to and which ones can I ignore?

Any comments on my experience are also welcome! Thanks!