In Taisha Abelar's last book, don Juan explains how to reestablish the connection with our double—a connection that, for the vast majority of human beings, has become weakened or is virtually nonexistent, even from the moment of conception or birth.
Reestablishing that connection and learning to perceive and interact with the world through the double is of paramount importance. Not only because the double is an inseparable and indispensable part of our total being, but also because it grants us access to a realm of perception and resources that far surpass the limitations of the physical body and ordinary awareness.
I am sharing this excerpt from the book because it clearly summarizes one of the most important concepts in don Juan's teachings—an idea that runs throughout Castaneda's entire body of work: the need to reestablish our connection with the double in order to expand our field of perception and recover an essential part of ourselves.
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Removed for "Low Effort Posting." Instead, find a related post and place your question or content there as a comment, ask it in the MEGATHREAD, or join the Discord Server.
No low effort posting, pretending, or wasting people's time. - Especially problematic posts that could be answered by either practicing, or by reading more posts or from the books, will (upon review) be removed, and users who make similar repeated posts will be banned for a set period.
Pretend sorcery which does not emphasize silence, and is based only on thinking and mood, will not be tolerated. Posts which lack sobriety and are cryptic or crazed, rambling comments with no point but to distract, etc...are not the mood we reinforce in here.
Don Juan also suggests the following as creativity, do not succumb to "congratulating ourselves for having covered so much ground" when you have barely started. Practice much, much more, all of the information is contained in the wiki.
https://www.reddit.com/r/castaneda/wiki/index/
"That's not creativity," he said. "That's only molding. We can mold anything with our hands, personally or in conjunction with the hands of other tonals. A group of tonals can mold anything, superb structures as you said."
"But what's creativity then, don Juan?"
He stared at me, squinting his eyes. He chuckled softly, lifted his right hand over his head and twisted his wrist with a sharp jerk, as if he were turning a door knob.
"Creativity is this," he said and brought his hand with a cupped palm to the level of my eyes.
It took me an incredibly long time to focus my eyes on his hand. I felt that a transparent membrane was holding my whole body in a fixed position and that I had to break it in order to place my sight on his hand.
I struggled until beads of perspiration ran into my eyes. Finally I heard or felt a pop and my eyes and head jerked free.
On his right palm there was the most curious rodent I had ever seen. It looked like a bushy-tailed squirrel. The tail, however, was more like a porcupine's. It had stiff quills.
"Touch it!" don Juan said softly.
I automatically obeyed him and ran my finger on its soft back. Don Juan brought his hand closer to my eyes and then I noticed something that threw me into nervous spasms. The squirrel had eyeglasses and big teeth.
"It looks like a Japanese," I said and began to laugh hysterically.
The rodent then started to grow in don Juan's palm. And while my eyes were still filled with tears of laughter, the rodent became so enormous that it disappeared. It literally went out of the frame of my vision. It happened so rapidly that I was caught in the middle of a spasm of laughter.
When I looked again, or when I wiped my eyes and focused them properly, I was looking at don Juan. He was sitting on the bench and I was standing in front of him, although I did not remember having stood up.