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The topic is sorcery (the mastery of intent).
I had to reorder the posts in the highlighted space, and change the label of the "Free Tensegrity Classes" post to event; so disregard that it says "happening now."
This is one of the most active posts where this change/removal is being replaced:
https://www.reddit.com/r/redditchat/s/tnrdwNGldN
Note that creating a replacement chat by adding users manually one at a time (which sucks for the mods, anyway) is not workable for a public sub, due to the 100 member limit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/redditchat/s/0fE7TAM7bR
Hi everyone, maybe an idea is to make multiple 6/7 or 10 channel with the same subject and only the administrator ( or few more) can be in all channel.
Huh? That sounds unnecessarily complicated.
I have a question, does it make any sense to recapitulate the feelings of self importance? I can literally feel the feelings of pride, self pity, indignation at my life situation etc. I cant really sit there and try to think of more memories because all that seems to do is activate my internal dialogue. I could just brute force it and keep gazing but the feelings are annoying. Its like my pride and self pity is demanding all of my attention.
Death as an Advisor
I was already conditioned to expect death as a gory affair when my father was hospitalised in the terminal stages of alcoholism and nearly choked on his own blood while I was visiting. So I believed viscerally that his death was imminent.
The first incident occurred when I was about 12, coming home on the school bus. We were passing a busy junction when the bus slowed to a crawl. As I gazed out the window we passed a young boy lying on the road in a thick pool of dark red blood. A policeman was down on one knee, drawing his coat over the body in a grave and sober gesture. The heavy truck which had evidently run over the boy was parked at an awkward angle across the road. I took all of this in without reaction. It was just something that had happened.
A few years later I was visiting my friend whose family were farmers. My friend’s father and uncle had hold of a sheep and were inspecting its diseased hooves. I realised with mounting panic that they were going to kill it when one of them said damn I forgot my knife. The other took out a starting pistol, placed it on the sheep’s brow and pulled the trigger. There was a sharp crack and as I looked on aghast they released the sheep and it came kicking down the slope with frothy blood and brains pouring from its mouth.
The third incident occurred during a quest to find peyote, following don Juan’s assertion that mescalito teaches a man the way to live. I had identified an area where it grows in the northern desert of Mexico, and arrived in the small city on the edge of the desert the day before the weekly bus left for the interior. I dreamt that night of lying on my back in a sleeping bag on the desert floor. The bag was too short and tight, forcing me to spread my legs at the knees, while my arms were pinned to my sides. A few yards away before me stood a young man holding a big revolver. He had on a light coloured felt cowboy hat, and he raised his forearm to shield his moustache and nose from my body fluids as he fired the gun. I struggled trapped in the sleeping bag as the first shot hit me in the perineum, the second went thru the right side of my abdomen, the third thru the left side, and the fourth went thru my heart. My vision collapsed from the periphery to a single point of light in the center like an old TV screen, and I died. I awoke utterly terrified in the darkness of the hotel room, and promised myself that if the next wasn’t sunny I would take it as an unfavourable omen, give up the whole idea of having an encounter with mescalito and return home to a conventional life. But there was not a cloud in the morning sky, and I proceeded to my mark.
Periodically over the years I returned to Mexico, hiking the backwoods in search of a location where I could have a traditional peyote ceremony over the course of several nights. Since I would need a bonfire each night, the spot would have to be far from dwellings. But I would also need a source of potable water. That is a tall order in most of Mexico, where water is at a premium for human habitation.
The year prior to my father’s haemorrhage I found such a spot.
Last week was gazing at the jar with a small pothos
plant and I started getting my gaze on specific spot with a spark. With time i felt my left eye doing a thing
It made the view of it double, i have all my attention to it i was zoomed in, and they started separating opening a dark space between them. All whish grey and in shades of grey.
From the dark fog space a thing like the head of David Jones from pirates of Caribbean started emerging. It
Was moving in it's own in slow motion. All 3D and realistically moving. Took a goldish spark and integrated it. It slowly took a human body form with the david Jones head.
I told it, i don't like the David jones look take a better one. It did take the form of a man with a long beard then not facial hair. He started showing me something on a wall but i forgot it and didn't write about it.
Now that you did write it down, you're certain to get more...and remember!
BTW, the public chat channel has been closed by Reddit, as the earlier announcement stated.
Messages no longer go through, though it's still listed and the log is still visible.
So maybe it will stay like that. Inactive, but technically accessible...?
The MEGATHREAD probably won't push through notifications, though. So people will have to check/refresh it manually to see if there's anything new at the top.
Why dont you guys write a book of the practices? It would be easier to understand than all this. Youd have an index, table of conents, detailed explanation per topic, glossary, organization, etc.
Here is an index and an introduction for you, you can find it on your phone by clicking "wiki" at the top:
https://www.reddit.com/r/castaneda/wiki/introduction/
https://www.reddit.com/r/castaneda/wiki/index/
The subreddit statement is the closest we’ve written to that:
https://www.reddit.com/r/castaneda/wiki/index/statement
What do practitioners do to regain focus and consistency? That's my question. All tips/tricks welcome, thank you.
One of the ones I like the best is to install a dawn alarm on your phone, and set an alarm that goes off at dusk, "the darkness of the day". By dusk I usually have all lights off in the house, or the minimum necessary.
He asked me what I did at home when it was dark. I said that invariably I would turn on the lights or I would go out into the lighted streets until it was time to go to sleep.
"Oh!" he said incredulously. "I thought you had learned to use the darkness."
"What can you use it for?" I asked.
He said the darkness—and he called it "The darkness of the day"—was the best time to "see." He stressed the word "see" with a peculiar inflection. I wanted to know what he meant by that, but he said it was too late to go into it then.
How many hours should be spent in darkroom (eye mask method) before energy puffs become visible?
No one can say that. Or how long it should, or could, take to silence enough of your internal dialogue to see bonafide puffs.
Just have to be persistent, and trust that over time that will overcome any resistance.
Do tensegrity in the Darkroom, Don't only sit and gaze. Your silence levels determine how long it will take you to see the puffs.
Family Members in Dreams can be IOBs from very far away? Should one interact with them or not?
What matters with respect to dreaming is to follow the instructions:
"Drop it!" he said imperatively. "It's not helping anything. All you're doing is distracting yourself from the purpose of dreaming, which is control and power."
If you can't tell right away whether you should avoid them, then it's just a dream.
"A rule of thumb for dreamers is to assume that the third type of scout is present whenever they feel perturbed by their parents or friends in a dream. Sound advice is to avoid those dream images. They are sheer poison."
Would a post regarding a “scientific perspective/explanation” on Tensegrity be welcome here? It would dwell a lot on reasoning and possibilities rather than direct knowledge from seeing, but would be in the same tone as the post on the “advantages of Schizophrenics”. It would risk being self-important for some specific factors. Somehow I have a memory of it already being posted here before but don’t think it actually has been.
Without knowing the content of it, I can’t say.
But any “scientific” analysis would be best to primarily focus on the muscle tension (contraction and relaxation) as it is described in the book Magical Passes.
And maybe how that ties into the nervous system, and thus allowing the more primal areas of the brain to temporarily supersede the frontal lobe, when saturated by somatic activity.
It’s along the lines you mentioned. But it ties in with magical terminology to explain concepts that are privy to sorcerers/witches/practitioners. It’s hard for me to describe without any of it written down.
Something weird happened, I've been subbed here for a couple years now but fell out of practice for various reasons. Yesterday I realized I hadn't seen this sub in my feed for a long time. I thought it had been closed or I had unsubbed somehow.
I checked and sure enough it's here, I'm still subbed. The posts just stopped appearing in my feed for some reason. I know that Reddit's algorithm prioritizes content even in your home feed, but it's not like the content was deprioritized. It was completely hidden for at least a year I think. I also regularly check "rising", "new" and "controversial" and it never appeared there either.
It's now showing up again like normal.
It's difficult to know what's up with the algorithms these platforms employ. Could just be as simple as you hadn't accessed this subreddit for a while and that was why you weren't seeing the posts from it?
I don't think so, as I said I also check New and Controversial sorting regularly and it never appeared there either. My understanding is these feeds are not algorithmized like the home feed.
Also, "deprioritization does not mean content is removed from the platform entirely, only that it is less likely to be proactively surfaced by the primary personalization algorithms"-- it wasn't like I saw r/Casteneda in Home "Best/Hot" less frequently, it was completely hidden.
I guess we're not the cool kids 😐
i came across this blog by thomas ropp. there are 3 articles about castaneda on the website. the author met carlos in article 2 and his former wife in article 3:
When Ravens Come Calling: The Passageway to Carlos Castaneda
The Booming caws of two desert ravens awakens a sleeping journalist and leads him to the world’s most famous literary sorcerer — Carlos Castaneda, author of “A Yaqui Way of Knowledge” and “A Separate Reality.”
Luminous Beings: My Lunch With Carlos Castaneda (and Kylie)
The writings of Carlos Castaneda were both brilliant and controversial. Was he really an apprentice to Yaqui sorcerer Don Juan, or was he a fake? After a personal encounter with Castaneda and non-ordinary events before and after the meeting, one journalist has no doubt that Castaneda was the real deal.
Margaret and Adrian: Carlos Castaneda's Real Family.
A journalist with a non-ordinary connection to Carlos Castaneda sees the world's most famous literary sorcerer through the eyes of Castaneda's real family.
i briefly read one of these articles (the one about carlos' family) and found it interesting and i thought you might be interested too. it was not written by an opponent, but also not by a believer. the author described an experience that i would describe as an omen (visit by raven in the desert).
from 3. article:
".. Carlos called C.J. Cho-cho. C.J. called Carlos Kiki. They were inseparable. Carlos took C.J. to the movies, the beach, the mountains, even to his classes at UCLA. Carlos frequently carried the little blond boy on his shoulder and walked him hand in hand to school. Castaneda even mentions C.J. in “Tales of Power” as the little boy with the blond head. .."
see https://strangedaystheblog.com/carlos-castaneda-trilogy/
The articles we have linked in the Wiki written by Thomas Ropp are as follows:
Catching Up With Castaneda - Arizona Republic - August 1 ,1997
Luminous Encounter - Arizona Republic - August 3, 1997
These blog posts might either be rearrangements of those articles, or possible expanding versions. Along with an additional piece.
Will have to go through and compare...
Mod note, in case anyone was wondering:
Was listening to a an older episode of Pete Holmes' "You Made It Weird" podcast with Jason Sudeikis where he said a quote that stuck with him:
"The harder you work, the luckier you get "
It's a great way to frame the concept of an intent gift, on a behavioral level. You get more of what your focusing on, with your actions.
Recapitulation is mentioned in books (especially in Taisha's books) as the main method of preparation for a dreaming, for energy return. If you think in terms of a dark room, how necessary is it? The transition in a dream requires a lot of energy, but in the case of a dark room, we lure a double into the real world, and not vice versa. Ultimately, is it also energy-consuming and requires recap?
Remaining in silence is what’s difficult. Recap makes it less taxing.
Darkroom is kind of a cheat in that if you’re able to place enough of your attention onto what can shift your assemblage point in the dark, you can move to where you forget what kicks you out of silence at the blue line.
But then when you’re back in general awareness the next day, you’re almost at square one again, without having a regular recapitulation practice.
And that sucks!
So be grateful that the recap process works on what it does!
Often in a dark room the events of the past day and memories climb into my head. Probably worth starting a recap with these thoughts and events of the past day?
Question. When you get to the point of being able to pilot the double body, are you able to interact with another practitioner who's also piloting their double body in a shared space? Would you be able to relay information to each other as accurately as typing a message, or would there be too many distortions to get anything intelligible across.
Absolutely yes to the first part. And as to accuracy/distortions, the prime problem is remembering! And then, context. Meaning, why would people's doubles be concerned with the details of this "meat reality?"
In darkroom we practice bringing the double into this world, as that is the requisite beginning to what you're suggesting. The best real world example being the Nagual Elias living in one part of Mexico, while his double was a practicing Curandero hundreds of miles away, directly interacting with people.
Facinating. So it is possible if one has a way to deal with the memory problem and able to coral the double to care enough about the task without losing interest.
The memory problem is a problem of energy. If you happen to recall Carlos was plagued by memory problems. Recapitulation lets you recall when you place your assemblage point at the exact position it was when it happened.
Hmm is there a way to get there without recapitulating the whole day? It feels like re-watching a whole movie just to find that one part you were actually interested in. Is there a way to bookmark the memory for quicker access?
Everything is bookmarked. The books are clear on it.
Looks like our Iranian practitioners have a REAL problem on the horizon:
https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/not-just-censorship-its-digital-isolation-iran-plans-to-cut-ties-with-the-global-internet-and-vpns-may-not-help-this-time
😢
After some empirical testing, I was able to determine that backups can still be made to archive.org for posts made in November 2025 (exact cutoff date unknown, as **batch submission no longer works** and individual posts from November-December SOMETIMES go through) and earlier, but if the post was made in December 2025 and later NO BACKUPS CAN BE MADE on archive.org :(
This is, no doubt, due to the deal Reddit made with Google which allows them to use their data to train AI models, and the shady scraping practice that competing AI training companies were employing, using archive.org as a workaround to direct scraping.
We can only hope that they do not request removal of the backup-data for the November 2025 and earlier posts. Something they can absolutely do, as other sites have done so in the past...resulting in them no longer being represented in the WayBackMachine; even if they have been defunct for years.
Meaning that they are now **lost**. A failure of the entire mission statement of the Internet Archive!*!#!!
But, legally, they have little recourse. And not enough resources to fight Google.
My hope is that Reddit acknowledges that those November 2025 and earlier posts have already been scraped and used in training (old data), with very few newer comments being made in them, and that they are prioritizing newer data for relevancy to current AI training for Google's own model(s).
We'll have to see if the same new rule holds true for Reddit Wiki pages. Maybe newly create ones will also refuse to backup on archive.org...
So, archive.today, which is independently funded (via an endowment?) and located outside of the United States, and does not comply with requests for data removal, is the de facto choice for new backup efforts. Unfortunately, batch submission does not work on the site, necessitating manual submission of posts one-at-a-time. So backups, listed here, will take longer...
User-posted playlist of vintage interviews on ritualistic postures:
How should i use the internal dialogue in recaptulation practice? I tend to drift off my main line of thinking or the topic of my recap if i speak too much to myself.
Should i be forcing silence while doing it? And if so, how do i aproach the topic of the recaptulation?
How far should we take our dedication to practice?
It feels like life or death for me and so I've taken drastic maybe even extreme steps to free myself from anything tying me down or occupying my free time. Is this the right move?
It's almost too late to pull back. I have a final leap to make and I'm scared to do it. Is this path ideally taken along with asceticism and or isolation?
I suspect that's a false concern.
You still have to earn a living, and still have people you care about.
So most of your time is already used up.
At any rate, no one knows the answer to this because what we're trying to do has never been done.
There's never been a learning method that didn't involve being given to an old seer as a child, or being tricked by a new seer who is actually teaching using the Nagual's blow, and all the rest is just a distraction to keep the apprentice amused.
As don Juan said, "Real learning takes place there." That was in the context of "heightened awareness" coming from the Nagual's blow.
I like to say things which are merely designed to warn people off of pretending to be saintly, or following a path based on modifying your behavior or giving up things.
Both of those will absolutely prevent you from learning sorcery.
Because they're in the realm of thinking.
Here’s a random find about parallel lives that seems to relate:
https://www.reddit.com/r/castaneda/comments/1sjzdpm/i_have_a_double_life_here_and_in_another_universe/
What is going on with Techno? All his comments etc. appear 'deleted' and https://www.reddit.com/user/TechnoMagical_Intent/ shows -> 'This account has been banned'. ??
Huh. That sucks. That means, we beginners, are cooked.
It’s on ongoing situation with Reddit, that happened very suddenly yesterday morning. Some glitch that (we hope) will be rectified in a few weeks.
I suppose I should come out and say that this is one of my alternate accounts that I had actually created before u/TechnoMagical_Intent
Thanks for the reply Techno, I'm not on discord so I tried here :) Glad that it's just temporary and all will be 'restored'.
We hope 🤞
That would be a very weird glitch.
Considering the stuff that has been happening lately.
I’m soospicioose
It has definitely kicked up the general paranoia level.
You know what’s the worst thing about Castaneda’s books? People love to complain how alien his view of the world is because of concepts such as it being a “predatory universe”, “overbearing” and “filled with the unknown” and “infinity”.
I only ever managed to read “the active side of infinity”. But the problem are not these concepts. These concepts are homely. The problem is that there is a promise of “awesomeness”, “magic” and “sorcery”.
Life is boring.
The average paradigm most people live in will NEVER allow them to experience the “awesomeness”. Some people will even get a good taste of it and never be able to dwell in it again (like me, maybe).
Everything that has to be done is boring, and prevents us from doing magic. It’s almost bizarre the situation it’s possible to find yourself in, crave magic, and be prevented from it.
The tonal is boring, and seems to cover everything it touches with shit.
Any idea about the leather harness that castaneda and other hang from trees with it?
A picture would be great.
i was asked on discord if i could post the articles, i had found, somewhere in the sub, so they don’t get lost.
rare interview with carlos from 1997 in lapis magazine #5. pics of lapis magazine #5 from 1997 with table of contents:
https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/lapis-magazine-york-open-center-issue-1875110054
internet archive backup from 2025-09-26 of lapis magazine website with an castaneda interview. guess is, it's the same as in the printed lapis issue #5:
https://web.archive.org/web/20100926221033/http://www.lapismagazine.org/an-interview-with-carlos-castaneda-on-navigating-into-the-unknown/
there it was said: "This interview by Daniel Trujillo Rivas was first published in Chile and Argentina in the magazine Uno Mismo, February 1997."
"Uno Mismo" interview from february 1997 by daniel trujillo:
https://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/colecciones/BND/00/RC/RC0139510.pdf
translated: "Rosa Coll acted as an intermediary between Carlos and Trujillo. The interview for *Uno Mismo* was conducted in writing. Trujillo did not meet Carlos."
from https://discord.com/channels/723123778896527441/723123779558965300/1516239158140600370
and that rosa is a friend of hers and jadey:
see https://discord.com/channels/723123778896527441/1462924034776891493/1516837004598579425
proof that trujillo never met carlos: he wrote an article 1998-12-19 and used a wrong picture for carlos:
https://www.bibliotecanacionaldigital.gob.cl/visor/BND:290306
pictures of lapis - the inner meaning of contemporary life #5 1997.
cover:
pictures of lapis - the inner meaning of contemporary life #5 1997.
table of contents, left side:
pictures of lapis - the inner meaning of contemporary life #5 1997.
table of contents, right side:
Hello! This is something I want to share with ypu people.
When I was a child in the 1980’s, I use to watch tv until programs ended and the ”snow” started (dunno what it’s called, noise I think?). I then went close to the screen and started looking into it.
First thing I noticed there was kind of propellers coming towards me indefinetly. Then I could visualize different shapes, if I wanted to visualize a car, I could see it outlines and move it how I wanted it to. Apple spinning, things like that. It was this certain visual snow, it didn’t work with just any, if there was this darker more dense, I couldn’t see those propellers, and couldn’t start the visualizing process.
So, now I have been looking for authentic recording of that ”electric snow” and I cannot find any. All I could find is a re-creations on youtube, and they are short looping videos and they won’t work, they are not ”real” noise. One video worked somehow, but alas, no propellers.
But I noticed something peculiar, there is a moving ball where I look in the noise. It’s kind of bulging glass if you can understand, like a glass ball. I can’t get objects or those propellers to appear.
Do you have any possibility to get info where I could get authentic recording or way to get access to real recording of visual noise?
I am very interested about this phenomenon. We live a HD-time and it’s strange that there is no single real recording of these.
Oh, and maybe the first Poltergeist-movie had something to do about my interest in trying that as a child.
I think the white noise sound was so soothing also. And the electric feel of a old tv-screen, heh.
Oh, it’s called static noise!
This has the moving ”ball” if you want to try 😅 just keep staring it and don’t think anything. I see a ball moving in my center view, and it kinda moves all the time, it cannot be stopped lol
https://youtu.be/x2bdVgnjg6c
Hi! How to make lucid dreams useful? I have them quite often. I find my hands, look at some object, then look at hands again. If I am not thrown out immidiately, I just do not know what to do next. I tried screaming WANNA PLAY type of thing and nothing happened, of course. A year ago I managed to do tensegrity in my conscious dreams, that was cool. Sometimes I could attract an object. *Sigh* I know they are consideered useless, but sleeping is wasteful already.
Read Art of Dreaming carefully and follow the instructions as they are written.
So, if you want to make your dreams useful, follow the steps one by one, treat it like an instruction manual:
"Every time you look at your hands you renew the power needed for dreaming, so in the beginning don't look at too many things. Four items will suffice every time. Later on, you may enlarge the scope until you can cover all you want, but as soon as the images begin to shift and you feel you are losing control go back to your hands.
"When you feel you can gaze at things indefinitely you will be ready for a new technique. I'm going to teach you this new technique now, but I expect you to put it to use only when you are ready."
good call, thank you!
I'm only a couple of days into doing the Magic Passes again (last time was in 1997 ish), I'm starting with Janey YT video of Westwood series, and the first night after practising the first set I revisited - The Series for Centre for Decisions - I had clear dream of doing two passes that arent in there.
I ignored it as I recall back in 1997 I started drifting into a similar pattern and someone said at the time, don't do that, stick to the defined ones only. I understand the reasoning as its imbued with intent going back through all those that have engaged in them.
My question is, what is anyone's view on that? What do we do with those? I havent dreamt any more since, and though I did do them physically to "anchor" the memory, and wrote down a note to keep them in case they might be of value later, I am going to stick to the recommended passes only this time. I was just interested to hear other people's view on this phenomenon and whether it is just distraction of if there is a way to validate something that might be appearing for a good reason in dreams.
"Fun" recap effect. I successfully maintained civil relationship with my mom. Lately, been doing recap for about a month, and I can't tolerate her anymore. Every I interaction is catastrophic. I feel extreme emotional charge towards her. I just started to recap, try not to recap the mom yet. But I've recapped a few bibs and bobs about her because it was out there. Common side effect? With other people, I don't see much difference in my behavior although I see some patterns now. Btw, I don't write them down to not make them the focus, do you?
Salut la team tolteque.
Y’a des français dans le sub ?
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Just don't use your fame to promote our subreddit, or you could destroy it.
And you should be fine. Aside from the fact that you might never be able to find the time to practice daily.
Even the unfamous among us have a terrible time fighting off their daily life, to find quality time to practice.
We all have our personal burdens that make it more difficult to learn sorcery. Those are what we "clean", in order to learn.
Sorcery is in fact based on "Cleaning your link to intent".
Which isn't as mysterious as it sounds once you can actually do a little real sorcery, and see the results. And realize that reality is indeed formed from your internal dialogue.
I'll see if the AI can draw a reasonable example.
Left side is when your link to intent isn't clean, and on seeing the vague outlines of a house, your internal dialogue goes crazy with greed and you prevent it from ever becoming real. Call it a "Level 2" clean link to intent.
Below level 2, you aren't likely to see a full scene like this.
Right side is where your link to intent has been cleaned better by repeated practicing. By learning how not to let your mind become involved in fantasizing about it, when you get lucky and see real magic. Call that a "Level 3" clean link. It's the start of true sleepwalking.
I could add a third where you're actually walking around in the scene, still sitting on the bed at the same time. That requires a "level 4" clean link. Without level 4, the confusion of going from this reality to an alternate reality, is overwhelming and your rationality is greatly damaged. It "looks away".
Meaning that even though you are experiencing it, you don't notice until later.
Level 5 likely can't be described at all, which is one of the curses of sorcery. The "good stuff" can't be talked about, written about, or even thought about.
When you try, it comes out as nonsense. Such as something I saw last night and decided was very profound and useful except that when I tried to describe it, it was a mummified cat in a black blanket.
But level 5 magic can be shown in a video! It's just that none of the AIs can draw such a thing, so you have to manually animate it yourself using old school tools. I'm working on a video like that, but it's been at least 6 months since I started it.
And no one can help but learn to ignore the lure of whatever is part of their daily life, or it's utterly impossible to reach free flowing Silent Knowledge.
Fame isn't any different. Being a dishwasher might actually be a bit harder than being famous. More "real" worries.
In the lineages, they seem to have often picked up derelict or homeless people, following what they "saw" instead of what they wanted. Once inside the lineage, the apprentices couldn't become homeless like they could before they were picked up.
So the normal method is secrecy, and a group that's strong enough to support all members even into the future. They passed down incredible wealth, as any continuously operating business group would after 800 years.
Thanks so much for answering (and elaborately!)
No worries about mentioning the subreddit, I tend to avoid mentioning things that make me look nuts.
If you don’t mind further discussion, I asked Gemini to back up the claim about other people holding your assemblage point fixed, with quotes from the books and it gave four pretty damning examples. I gather these are not to be taken as gospel as such?
3 and 4 are particularly relevant, I think:
—
Don Juan doesn't just treat fame as a mental posture or a psychological ego-trap; he frames it as a physical, energetic obstruction caused by the collective focus of other human beings.
In the cosmology of the books, the assemblage point is held in its habitual location by the collective intent and fixed expectations of the people around us. When people hold a fixed image of you in their minds, their intent literally pins your assemblage point in place, preventing it from moving freely.
Here are the key passages and quotes where Don Juan explains this structural, energetic mechanics:
1. The Collective Intent Pinning the Assemblage Point In The Fire From Within (Chapter 6: "The Fixation of the Assemblage Point"), Don Juan explains that human beings hold each other's perception in place through shared, rigid expectations.
Don Juan: "Our fellow men are force fields that act upon our own energy fields. The reason we are locked into the world of daily life is that our fellow men hold our assemblage points fixed right at the position where it is... They do it by projecting their intent onto us. The intent of all human beings around us acts as an anchor that keeps our assemblage point glued to its habitual position."
2. The Energetic Net of Other People's Thoughts In Journey to Ixtlan (Chapter 1: "Erasing Personal History"), Don Juan breaks down how being known by others creates a physical energetic web that restricts movement:
Don Juan: "When people know you, they take you for granted. And from the moment they take you for granted, you are unable to change the path of your thoughts or your actions... If you have no personal history, no one’s thoughts take you for granted. You see, we only have two choices: we either take everything for granted and real, or we don't. If we follow the first, we end up bored to death with ourselves and with the world. If we follow the second and erase personal history, we create a fog around us, a very satisfying and mysterious state where nobody knows where the rabbit will pop out, not even ourselves."
3. The Danger of Being "Known" (Fixing the Shield) In Tales of Power (Chapter 2: "The Secret of the Nagual"), Don Juan explains that an unknown warrior remains fluid, while a famous or well-known person becomes energetically rigid because they are forced to match the mental picture millions of people have constructed for them:
Don Juan: "To be known by others is to be pinned like a butterfly to a board. Once you are known, your actions are expected, your thoughts are anticipated, and your energy is bound by the consensus of those who know you. The moment thousands of minds hold an idea of who you are, your assemblage point is clamped in place by their collective gaze. You become a prisoner of their definition."
4. The "Luminous Filaments" and External Projections In The Active Side of Infinity, Don Juan details how people’s thoughts toward a public figure create literal energetic cords (filaments) that pull on the individual's luminous sphere:
Don Juan: "Every person who knows you, every person who holds a judgment or an image of you in their mind, extends a filament of intent toward your energetic body. Imagine thousands of such filaments pulling at you. How can a warrior shift their assemblage point into unknown regions of perception when they are anchored to the ground by thousands of lines of human concern?"
For Don Juan, this is why absolute anonymity, secrecy, and erasing personal history are not merely philosophical preferences—they are strict operational requirements. If external minds are constantly projecting a defined identity onto a practitioner, that collective pressure locks the assemblage point in standard human reality, making real sorcery impossible.
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Dan posted pictures of himself, others even videos. If those quotations were correct it should be impossible for them to move their AP's for example into silence, or work with the magical passes. Sorcery would only be available for lottery winners. Julian would not have been able to direct his allies when he adopted Juan, until Juan would have been far enough as a sorcerer to dislodge his own filaments from his teacher, freeing him from being "pinned down". You should not worship the books to the last letter.
Good points, thanks!
I've been extracting fascinating info using AI. I was surprised to find that our belief Zuelica's house is up near Vicam (we got it down to a mile or two away from Fort Ortiz), Taisha's unpublished book says that was a stalking location and the actual house was further south.
I suppose Taisha might have planned to give more accurate locations in here "Stalking with the Double" book, knowing that it would be given out only to a few private class / inner circle people, and wouldn't spread into the pesky "me-too" community until long after everyone was gone.
*** Here's why vicam isn't really where "the witch's house" was located ***
The reason Vicam (specifically Vicam Station) is not listed as a permanent, senior household in the core catalog is because of a brilliant distinction between a permanent physical estate and a temporary stalking outpost.
Your memory is entirely correct: Carlos and Taisha absolutely go to Vicam Station to meet Zuleica. However, the books explain that this Yaqui town was not her actual senior household; rather, it was a masterfully orchestrated staging ground.
Here is how the sorcerers' geography explains this difference:
The permanent, massive Spanish colonial "witches' house" belonging to Zuleica, Zoila, Silvio Manuel, and Marta is physically located in Guadalajara, Jalisco.
The Transition: When Taisha Abelar is first taken to this beautiful Guadalajara estate by Emilito, she is stunned by its luxury. Emilito has to explain to her: "Of course you know [the lady of the house]... You met her in Sonora. Her name is Zuleica".
The Vicam Station Outpost was a Stalking Disguise
When Taisha initially meets Zuleica "up north" in the Yaqui territory of Sonora, Zuleica is utilizing a temporary stalking setup:
The Stalking Double: Carlos later explains the mechanics of this to Taisha. Zuleica did not physically reside in that dusty Sonoran shack; she is a "consummate dreamer" who "stalks with her dream body". She projected her presence to Sonora to evaluate Taisha and help move her center of awareness.
Why the Yaqui Towns?
Carlos notes that the Yaqui towns (like Vicam, Potam, and Bacum) are where "don Juan and his associates gather to renew themselves" and "where their journey begins" because the energetic configuration of those lands helps to shatter our standard interpretation of the world.
So while Zuleica frequently "worked" and met apprentices in the simple, flea-ridden dirt-road environments of Vicam Station using her dream body, her physical, permanent senior household of the westerly direction remained the magnificent estate in Guadalajara.
*** Here's an early query on where all of the households were said to be located, across all of the books ***
The sorcery lineage of don Juan Matus is traditionally structured around sets of four households. To accommodate the various energetic requirements of training and to maintain their "controlled folly" in the physical world, the senior members of his generation (and their predecessors) lived in several highly specialized, geographically distinct locations across Mexico.
Here is the complete catalog of all the households housing the senior seers of the lineage mentioned in your books, along with their physical locations and surrounding context:
The Core "Witches' House" (Guadalajara, Jalisco)
Location: The outskirts of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.
The house is built on a massive power spot, which la Gorda suggests was literally "brought" to the location and held in place by Silvio Manuel's impeccable intent. It is here that Carlos spends years undergoing his "left-side" training in total darkness under Zuleica's direct supervision.
Clara Grau’s Estate (Navojoa, Sonora)
Location: Hidden in a forest near the city of Navojoa, Sonora, Mexico.
Its boundaries defy physical geography; the grounds appear far more extensive when viewed from a distance than when measured up close. Its physical layout shifts continuously depending on the observer’s focus because it was constructed and held together by the "sorcerers' intent" of prior generations.
Don Vicente's Household (Zacatecas / Durango)
Location: Northern Mexico, referred to in some accounts as being in the state of Durango and in others as Zacatecas.
Context & Metaphysics: Vicente is a highly educated man of Spanish descent who acts as the scholar and herbalist of the group, keeping the entire party healthy. He has a profound passion for botany and has read every book on their library's shelves. Carlos once accidentally "crossed boundaries" by visiting Vicente's house while driving through central Mexico, which deeply shocked la Gorda because they had completely forgotten his existence in their everyday awareness.
The Southerly Household (Southern Mexico)
Location: A remote mountainous area in Southern Mexico.
Context & Metaphysics: This household represents the direction of "the South"—associated with warmth, nurturing, and "the night". Don Juan describes the two southerly women as "two mastodons, scary in appearance but very friendly and warm".
Don Juan's Sonora Shack (Sonora)
Location: The Sonoran Desert, Mexico.
Context & Metaphysics: A very simple, temporary wattle-and-daub Yaqui farm shack. It consists of one large room for eating and sleeping, a flat thatched roof, a roofless kitchen, and a branch-covered front ramada. Don Juan utilizes this humble, harsh desert setting as his primary physical point of reference and renewal. He meets Carlos here to deliver his "right-side" teachings in ordinary awareness.
Don Genaro's Mountain House (Central/Southern Mexico)
Location: Perched on a steep mountain slope in a small town in the highlands of central Mexico.
Context & Metaphysics: A simple, humble adobe structure with a tiled roof and an open-air kitchen. Genaro keeps this house primarily to shelter and manage his male apprentices when they are in their state of normal awareness. The house sits near Genaro's favored energetic spot—a large rock on the west side overlooking a deep ravine where he performs gravity-defying leaps.
The House of the Nagual Julian (Durango)
Location: An old hacienda owned by the people of a sugar mill on the outskirts of Durango, central Mexico.
Context & Metaphysics: Before the Mexican Revolution, the Nagual Julian and his companions passed themselves off as the wealthy owners of this large estate. It was a magnificent old colonial mansion with high surrounding walls, balconies with flowerpots, airy corridors, and quiet patios shaded by enormous fruit trees.
The House of the Nagual Elias (Northern Mexico)
Location: Northern Mexico, though Elias originally came from the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico.
Why did the AI decide that the house of sorcerers is located specifically in Guadalajara?
Is there a specific text reference or an old interview where Carlos mentions Guadalajara in relation to the house that the AI might be aggressively scraping?
I asked it if it can quote passages that caused it to conclude this (I was surprised too). The AI said:
The location of the primary household of the sorcerers is verified across multiple accounts in the books. The texts explicitly name Guadalajara, Jalisco as the physical location of the Spanish colonial estate owned by Silvio Manuel, where Zuleica, Zoila, and other members of the Nagual's party resided (variously referred to as "Zuleica's house," "Silvio Manuel's house," or "the witches' house").
Here are the specific, verbatim passages that locate this house in Guadalajara:
In Taisha Abelar's Stalking with the Double, don Juan Matus explicitly tells Taisha that Zuleica is waiting for her in Guadalajara:
“Carlos will take you there,” he said. “Zuleica is in Guadalajara waiting for you.”
Taisha details driving into the city with Carlos and finding the physical house just off the central plaza:
"It was late afternoon by the time we reached Guadalajara. Carlos parked the car near the Hotel de Mendoza, near the long park-like plaza Tapatia."
As they stand in the plaza, the caretaker Emilito points out the house nearby:
"...he wanted to take me to meet his friend who lived in a house nearby. He pointed to the west and said that if we craned our necks, we could see the house from where we were standing. I could see the corner of a wooden balcony... the house that had the balcony with flowers, the one I had liked so much upon arriving at the plaza."
When they walk up to the house, Taisha describes entering it:
"Emilito took me to the most beautiful Spanish colonial house I had ever seen other than Clara’s. Outside, it had a plain facade with bars on the windows and several second story balconies... Inside, the courtyard was cool and dark."
When Taisha asks Emilito who lives there, he confirms its identity:
“Of course you know her,” Emilito said, surprised. “You met her in Sonora. Her name is Zuleica.”
Later in her training, after experiencing a dreaming-awake shift where she flies thousands of miles across the country, Taisha snaps back to her physical senses on the patio of this exact house:
"When the rushing stopped, I found myself back in Guadalajara, in the patio, slumped on the bench of Zuleica’s house."
In Being-In-Dreaming, Florinda Donner-Grau describes her stays at this exact estate, which she calls "the witches' house". She explicitly establishes that the other senior male sorcerers—including Silvio Manuel—live and operate out of this location:
"That place, known as the witches' house, belonged to all the sorcerers of the nagual Mariano Aureliano's group." "At the witches' house, I also met Vicente and Silvio Manuel, the other two sorcerers in the nagual Mariano Aureliano's group."
In The Fire From Within, Carlos Castaneda adds that while this house in central Mexico belongs to the group, Silvio Manuel officially poses as its owner:
"That house was actually owned by all the members of the nagual's party, but Silvio Manuel officiated as the owner and everyone openly referred to it as Silvio Manuel's house..."
Genaro's house (from AI):
To pinpoint don Genaro's mountain shack on a map, you have to look for specific physical features rather than official town names. In keeping with the sorcerers' practice of erasing personal history and stalking, Carlos Castaneda kept the exact names of the towns obscure. However, he left several highly specific, dramatic geographical landmarks that paint a vivid picture of where Genaro's house sits.
If you were to look at a map of Mexico, here are the landmarks and regions you should look for:
Don Genaro is a Mazatec Indian. The Mazatec people traditionally reside in the Sierra Mazateca—a rugged, cloud-shrouded mountain range in northern Oaxaca, bordering Puebla and Veracruz. Carlos notes that he would drive to Genaro's house in a small town in this mountainous southern region, and that they would frequently make quick day-trips down to the main square of Oaxaca City.
If you were looking at a local topographical map of Genaro’s immediate mountain slope, his house is surrounded by these distinct features:
The "Open Mouth" Mountain Cut (To the South): Looking south from Genaro’s barren hills, you would see a mountain range with a natural cut that looks like an open mouth. Between Genaro's house and this mouth-like cut are seven ancient Toltec sites, including the place where the "buried seers" lay under the earth.
Outer Landmarks (A Short Drive Away)
The 150-Foot Waterfall (Western Range): If you trace the dirt roads leading out of Genaro's village toward the "western mountains," you would cross a river that is 15 to 20 feet wide. This river leads to a roaring, 150-foot-tall waterfall. This is the massive vertical cliff face where don Genaro famously climbs and "rolls" across on his luminous fibers to demonstrate the equilibrium of the second attention.
***
Notice it's not too far from Maria Sabina! Another connection to Jacobo Grinberg. He and Tony Lama seem to have been an early attempt to pass this knowledge on, with male leaders.
Can't be because Grinberg was suitable. I've concluded his fantasies overrode his rationality and he was clueless about our sorcery.
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