This is a quote from ”Stalking With The Double” (page 338) that stood out to me while looking up something unrelated, about the relationship between shimmer and gazing. I brought it up to other practitioners in chat, and one of them created the image to go with it. It was suggested that they be shared here:
‘Dreaming and gazing go hand in hand,’ Zuleica began. ‘You already caught on to that when you gazed at the ripples in the pond. Now let the sound of the water take you. That’s how you start. You find something in the world that shimmers or has a glow to it and you gaze at it. Then you find a sound, like rain, water from a stream, even the noise of the city will do, and you follow the sounds. Then you transfer it into your dreams by gazing in your dreams or hearing that sound in your sleep.’
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This seems to be designed to link your waking perceptions with your sleeping dream perceptions, through something physical in the world.
That's an important point here, because I might easily ask why you need to "dream" about it while asleep, when you can just saturate yourself with it while gazing out in the sunlit real world, and then ask to see it some more following darkroom practice when you are finally in Silent Knowledge. Both of those situations, being fully awake.
You could link it to sleeping dreams as Zuleica suggests, but you could also link it to waking dreaming.
Why do the harder one (sleeping dreams)? Even for the womb dreamers in here, that would be a "hit or miss" situation each night. Might be some who have enough control to do this any night they try. But the majority still have trouble remembering what they wanted to accomplish, each time they do womb dreaming.
With Darkroom, you can definitely ask to see specific things when you get close to completely stopping your internal dialogue, and can 'easily' move your assemblage point, daily, to the purple zone on that J curve.
I put quotes around 'easily' because, I have no idea if what I do to get to SK would be considered "easy".
Maybe not. I spent 8 hours doing that on saturday. And even on a week day, it often takes 2 hours to get there.
But to me "easy" means if you repeat what you did the night before and get the same success, that's "easy".
It's "easy" if you can reliably do it, even if it takes a huge effort forcing off your internal dialogue.
I'm not saying that in SK you get what you ask for instantly. Often there's a very long "intent delay" that causes you to forget what you were asking for, so that when it shows up it feels like a coincidence.
Such as me asking to locate Cholita's dreamer the other day, thinking I could "snatch" her.
Which just means viewing the flow of silent knowledge, until I also see Cholita inside a dream.
She often shows up near the door to my room, as if she just walked in.
Then I just go grab her!
Except she forbid that, so I just try to view her and get her attention by waving my hand.
In this case, perhaps 2 days ago, I couldn't find Cholita at all.
But around 1 hour later I realized I was sitting on a bench in a park, arguing with her.
And had been, for a long time. For more than 1 hour...
Without having gone to sleep.
Realizing that, I switched to gazing out into the "real" room, confused about whether I had fallen asleep, or not.
I didn't seem to have fallen asleep.
I suppose one might conclude, that trying to link magic to silent knowledge leads to timeline confusions.
Whereas trying to link it to your double, inside a sleeping dream, creates a more concrete connection?
And might actually help with a big problem men might have on reaching silent knowledge.
That the IOBs start to take too much interest in you.
They snatch you in your sleeping dreams and use up all of your time on stupid activities. Mostly, trying to escape their traps without them blocking you.
Last night I thought I had finally gotten away from them (inside a sleeping dream), and jumped out a window.
Only to find there people lined up for me to smash when I landed. Which expelled me from the sleeping dream.
Perhaps a link to a real world place you like to do gazing, might give you a better way to escape them?
Maybe you could rematerialize in the real world, where they can't easily follow you.
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cringe
”When you practice gazing you are really practicing dreaming while you are awake”
This is the second of the sorcerer’s secrets told by Zuleica. She presents us with three important techniques for practicing gazing and accessing dreaming. I recommend studying them and choosing one of them to practice:
https://archive.org/details/taisha-abelar-stalking-with-the-double/page/340/mode/1up
it as a training method for fixing and stabilizing attention, stopping the internal dialogue, and developing more controlled perception.
1. The Flame / Light — external fixation + internal visualization
This is the first technique and probably the most straightforward.
The explicit purpose is to develop focusing ability and mental control. The flame acts as a single point of attention that prevents the mind from becoming scattered.
In short:
Look at the flame → close your eyes → visualize it → hold it → move it mentally.2. The Object — merging with what you are observing
The second technique changes the approach completely. Zuleica uses a black crow’s feather, although she explicitly says that any object that is pleasing to you can be used.
The instructions are:
There is an important nuance here: Zuleica says that this is not about staring fixedly or straining the eyes. The eyes should gently “caress” the object. The intention is to stop the internal dialogue and allow one’s own sensitivity to merge with whatever is being observed.
She also gives a specific warning: do not use objects that are unpleasant or frightening, because she considers gazing to open energetic centers and believes the quality of the object can enter you.
In short:
Choose a pleasing object → breathe naturally → stop the internal dialogue → gaze gently → allow observer and object to merge into a single field of perception.3. The Circle — visualization of an inner form
The third technique no longer requires an external object. Zuleica proposes visualizing a circle.
The sequence is quite precise:
The circle also has a symbolic meaning for Zuleica: it represents the wholeness and completeness of the universe.
She insists that if the mind becomes distracted or starts wandering, you must immediately bring your attention back to the exercise. She also places particular importance on the movement toward the center, which she describes as a way of opening a “door” to another world.
In short:
Close your eyes → mentally draw the circle → enter its center → return to the edge → repeat → maintain concentration.The three techniques may appear different, but they are actually training the same fundamental ability: fixing awareness on a single point without allowing the mind to become scattered.
Zuleica first explains that there are two ways of achieving mental rest:
She recommends combining both: retreating from the outside world while practicing, while simultaneously fixing the mind through gazing.
This book really contains treasures of inestimable value, both for stalking and for stalking with the double.
“We must use our awareness to liberate awareness,” she said. “Just as we use a needle to take out a splinter in a finger
“When you sleep, you must allow your dream body to become aware, conscious oi itself. You do this first by looking at your hands, and then by getting up out of your bed to move around. Or you can find anything else you wish, such as the item you gaze at during the day. Or something in particular you wish to find. In other words, your dream body must respond to your commands. To stalk with the double is to control your movements in a specific endeavor and not expend all your energy in one crazy outburst.”
Zuleica said when I opened my eyes again. “Just as the sorcery passes strengthen your energetic body, your mental control can be sharpened through gazing techniques.”
“You are focusing the energy of intent, which is abstraction itself, and are moving away from the physical level into the realm of pure energy.
She explained that intent is the force that holds things together, gives them order and power. Gazing awakens the underlying awareness sorcerers call intent, that force that enables us to perceive, and links our body directly to it. It is also this firm and unbending force called intent, that distinguishes acts of power from the shallow, arbitrary acts of everyday life.
“Through gazing, your physical body is gradually transformed so that it matches your mental vitality. Finally, the body becomes so light that its is rendered into sheer energy. When this happens, one is dreaming with the totality of oneself. All one has to do is to intend something and the body will perceive it. This happens because one has linked oneself to intent and is dreaming oneself using the power of creation itself. Gazing techniques were designed by sorcerers of antiquity to arrive at this subtle manipulation of perception.”
Zuleica picked up the feather and let it fall gently onto the table.
“Practice gazing and you will eventually purify your body so that it will become as light as this feather,” she said. “When your body becomes transformed into pure energy like your mind, there will be no difference between what you think and what you are. The here and there of space and time will merge into a single awareness of now, and your mind and body will no longer be separate, but a single energetic unit of being here."