During practice I've encountered different types of dreams. There's the ones that you get a mental impression of before they appear in the puff, ones where your mind lapses for 1 second and find you're staring at a dream image, ones where large areas in front of you change and one like you're viewing images on burst mode.
The first one I always encounter if I have my gaze wide open like I'm trying to shoot lasers through my eyes.
At first you're scanning around and you get a mental impression at one spot. Meaning you see the image in your head first then you see the same image in the puff infront of you. This usually but not always starts off vague.
As long as you can maintain the image it will become more video, but it's not a big deal if you lose it as you'll get quite a few mental impressions to do it again.
The other where you're already staring at a dream I do when my gaze is more relaxed, your mind laspes and then your staring at a dream scene.
The 3rd I'm not too sure about, I've encountered it in extreme silence while staring at the minute details and there's a feeling like you're a balloon expanding or your surfacing above water is the best I can describe it.
Like recently my hands were under the sheet, but another hand briefly appeared beside me and was holding a cell phone. Another time the scene in front my me changed I forgot most of the details but I remember looking at my head in the scene don't remember if it looked back or head was turned.
The last one is just images rapidly appearing across your vision, your eyes roll up a bit and it's like someone turns burst mode on. Don't ask me how to do it I myself am not sure.
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I’ve been playing around with this some recently myself, eyes wide, going into a trance, I will stare up at the leaves, I’ve noticed it works better when the sky is just at twilight or after sundown, I stare up at the leaves, I allow my focus to go, my eyes will begin to pulse like a heart beat, I can physically see my pupils dilating like a pulse, then the sky becomes a sheet, the darkness of the leaves in contrast to the nights sky, almost looking like a sheet of stars, the leaves create a pattern between the sky and I begin to start feeling like I am blasting into the sky. Idk how to explain it really, it’s a strange sensation. I’ve also noticed that with eyes closed, when I reach a point of connection with spirit, I will begin to see a pinkish purple orb forming in the center of my forehead, it will look like it is moving away from me, sending out, looping over and over. When I begin to see it, I know I am entering the liminal space. Pretty interesting stuff
Rather the second attention (or second ring of power). A small, but important correction.
Thank you, I’m actually very novice with Castaneda’s work. I will begin to look into this concept more. I guess I should have said, “the threshold” as it would be more fitting. I just take it as a confirmation that I am moving into that space
Yea, there's some "outside stuff" going on with Jackie.
However, if it's a woman, they can get away with it. Not advisable, but not a barrier to moving the assemblage point.
What exactly are you saying?
You can't learn sorcery.
It's not possible.
It's not like juggling, where each day you get a little better.
If you can juggle for 15 seconds without a mistake, you know that the next day you can probably get that up to 30 seconds or more.
We learn, by programming our muscles, and memorizing procedures and results.
That won't work with sorcery. There are no meaningful procedures.
For instance, in the first books don Juan taught Carlos about power plants.
"Little Smoke" was one.
Huge elaborate process. Preparing just the smoking mixture took a full year, and a journey all over Mexico.
And all that not to get high, but to summon the spirit, "Little Smoke".
People confuse her with the smoking mixture.
The smoking mixture was just to loosen his assemblage point, so Little Smoke could give him a demonstration of magic.
Later, when Carlos was dying, he taught us to summon little smoke ourselves.
He pointed to the water cooler (they like water), and said she was over there.
Then he pointed to our far left on the floor, and said she'd flown over there now.
She "swooped" us.
That's how he introduced her to his classes.
All the procedures were useless.
In the dark room, you'll "discover" things. Like this magic:
Notice how you lift the arms, to summon an alternate dream reality.
It's on the cover of one of Carlo's books.
But if anyone else does that dream summoning, besides me, it probably won't work.
It's not a "procedure" for doing magic.
It's a relationship with a force shamans call, "The great spirit".
We call it, intent.
Your ENTIRE reality is built using that force.
But we're so used to that reality, we don't even notice it being built.
If you venture outside this reality, as we want to do, it's not as solid as the real thing, at first.
Those alternate realities don't have billions of people focusing their energy on them.
So they're "ghost like" until you go back again and again.
And they can reform into something else, based on what you "know".
Your expectations can alter their contents.
We're trying to find a passage back to the inventors of this form of sorcery.
The Olmecs. Thousands of years ago.
If we hook to that, we'll get "help" along the way, from what they did.
It's the ONLY way to learn.
Unfortunately, outside "systems" are in it for the cash, and can't go around telling people you can't learn what they are selling.
They have to agree you can learn it, as long as you pay your workshop fees, or put money in the temple donation box.
Some people never get around to doing any actual work to learn anything, but believe they can go from system to system, accumulating information, and somehow learn that way. Become "experts" on enlightenment for example.
Which might work a tiny bit with some forms of meditation, but it harms you with sorcery.
Because each idea in your mind, sends you down a different path.
And you won't find the one back to the Olmecs.
You'll purse sorcery, but you won't get any help from intent.
So where you end up won't be worth all the work.
The best thing you can do to learn sorcery, is forget everything everyone out there is teaching, about magic and enlightenment.
It's all harmful to learning sorcery.
At first, it's hard to see what I'm talking about, but later you'll realize some of what you read or heard, contributed to a bad understanding of what you are trying to learn with sorcery.
So someone who's done lots of Astral Travel for example, is ruined for learning sorcery.
It's so filled with bad explanations, you'll never get those out of your mind long enough to see the real thing, so that you keep going.
They typically just get angry, because others won't recognize their "accomplishments". And they leave the subreddit, or get thrown out for angry tantrums.
Bad understanding is messy on multiple levels. And it can be something as simple as calling something "energy flow", when it's not. I saw that the other day in private chat.
My witch friend Cholita created a phantom copy of our house, to use for playing with her spirits.
In that reality, they can be 100% human. Look human, talk human, behave like humans.
But in this reality they're transparent, change shapes, and can't actually speak.
If I want to be friends with her spirit "Minx", that's the only place I can go.
Into that virtual reality she made.
And there's no way in hell to find the entrance.
I could show someone where it is in the house. It's only around 4 feet wide.
Same as the one in the compound Carlos had. The entrance there was around 3 feet wide, behind a wooden beam.
I watched Cholita create that reality, and she gave me entry quite a few times.
But without her, I can't go in.
And if I piss her off, forget it.
Our situation with magic is like that. We need to find the entrance to the virtual reality the Olmecs created. It's still viable.
But it's nearly impossible for "seekers" to understand, because it's a unique situation.
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Sorry, as I said. I am still very novice to these concepts, I am just discovering Castaneda. My experience was based more on experimentation during meditative/trance states. And I’m just trying to grasp what you are saying, when you say there are “outside stuff” going on, or that if I’m a woman I can get away with it, but it’s not advisable?
Women have talent, but no laser focus the way men do.
Outside stuff will deviate you down untrue path, while doing sorcery.
You have to stick to the original as closely as possible, if you want the past sorcerer's discoveries to pull you along.
We got pulled into this reality too, it's just that there's billions pulling. So it's very hard to escape it.
That's what we're doing. Actually, for real, escaping it during practice.
You won't want the false understanding of outside systems to mess that up.
However, it wouldn't stop you from doing magic. You'd just be off in solitary witch territory.
Cholita searches for skulls, and can zip up into the clouds on a good day.
As I recall, one of the witches could travel straight up into the sky, by looking for "worms".
(Worm = eye dust on steroids).
That's the precursor for me too. They seem to condense as they move away and turn brighter. It used to be little pieces as they get to the end, they eventually started to become larger shapes. Definitely signals a transition for me. If you start seeing the manta-ray looking floating sets of lines, you'll be in for an interesting treat in my experience.
Good discernment! I have slightly different interpretations of them, and how each type starts, but I completely recognize them.
Try to get the kind that floats in the air, and doesn't matter if you lose it, so you can repeat that process over and over.
Not the same dream. Just anything at all. And it's ok if you have to scan your head to look for another one.
If you can gaze and watch them, you can find the "key element" in each one.
Something that you can "feel", or remember, or are familiar with.
For instance, if you're looking at Queen Elizabeth having tea, maybe her tea cup gives off a familiar energy.
Find the most "real" thing in the dream perhaps, even if it's not important.
The thing with some "pull".
Then, gaze at that element only. Consider it "downhill", as if you could lean forward and do a little jump, and you'd naturally fall that direction.
If you get it right, you'll "zip" right into that dream.
Just take a look around to see if it's the same scene, and turn your head back.
Don't stay in it! I'd say you have 3 seconds before you have to zip back or this won't work.
Once you get back, look for another.
Zip in and out of a few dreams like that, and you'll find one that has its own energy.
Not a phantom realm, a real with some real existence in it.
Pay careful attention when you zip into that one.
Basically, you're "looking for a better offer", and intent picks up on it.
Imagine the power of mastering that technique!
But you can't afford it. We're trying to get somewhere. It's ok to smell the flowers, but not to plant a flower bed and water it each day.
You'll get stuck.
Our reality is merely a place we got stuck.
We don't want to "re-stick", we want to get free.
This was all really detailed and helped a lot.
Funnily enough I had a dream about this type. Puffs were moving past me and then I picked up 1 particular puff in the dream and it had the scene of a red car in it.
I figured the dream or some iob was trying to teach me how to get the floating type.
Could be. But either way, they're good tools for cleaning the link to intent.
Possibly when you blank out a bit and find yourself inside the dream, that's a "body change" dream.
However, if you enter that kind while standing up in the darkroom with eyes open, it's hard to explain why you don't crash to the floor and get a bruise somewhere.
Then there's the "continuous awareness during change over" kind.
There you just walk, or run, or jump into a dream scene you can see.
It's very hard to explain how that can work out.
It just does.
Fortunately we have accounts of that type in the books.
A most peculiar one involved Carlos at the food area of UCLA.
He didn't say so, he was obviously forcing silence. Maybe by then, it was habit.
He stopped the world.
Came to in bed in his apartment, perhaps 15 miles away.
UCLA to the tall apartment building across from the original Ship's restaurant is best I can figure.
Then there's the time La Gorda pulled him into a dream with her flying technique.
To him, there was no transition. She did the technique, he held on to her, and up they went.
But when it was over, he was laying on the dirt on his back, not remembering having fallen there.
So possibly, you can "relocate" with this type of dream.
This is more akin to the third type I mentioned smooth transition of the environment into a dream scene no lapse.
But I'm still not sure how to bring it on as the same thing doesn't always work.
That's what we're here to learn.
I suppose it's the same as "cleaning your link to intent".
Here's one theory on why it's so hard to repeat things.
https://pngtree.com/freepng/holding-a-spoon-and-fork-cartoon_5063040.html?share=3
Because you aren't repeating it! You're waiting for it.
However, there's also the "energy release" thing. After the first time, there isn't enough "new emanations in use" energy to make it real.
And then there's the excuse that the spirit wants us to learn, so we only get shown what's possible, and have to do it on our own.
And then there's the "bored IOB" theory.
The IOB loves to help you go beyond your skills, but not the second time.
He only gets his energy reward the first time.
I'm not too good on the digital art maybe you could do a post on the different types of dreams we see in darkroom with the ones we listed.
Would be more impactful with pictures.
I believe I did that months ago, but I'll have to go looking for it.
Dreams are so much fun, that if you can get there you have the motivation guaranteed!!
I've noticed things I see fit into your categories as well. The first is like I 'feel' the impression of what I'm about to see before I see it. It's not so much I see it in my mind's eye first, but I already know what I'm looking at before I see it. The images start to appear and then there's like this inner burst or 'woomph' feeling and I suddenly see it all in detail, then it fades. But if I hold onto that feeling that I'm looking at that thing it continues to return again and again.
The first one normally feels like 'I' am looking at something. My sense of self doesn't really change. With the second one there's a chance that my concept of self changes. I blank out for a sec and when I realise I am looking at a dream I might also be aware that I've been participating in it somehow, or I've been speaking and am only just now becoming aware of it. But this participator I find myself as might be a different person. I might be a man, or someone from another country, or something even more bizarre.
Third reminds me of when you suddenly see the whole room, it's just suddenly there all in front of you, but maybe it is different to what you are describing.
Fourth I don't think I've experienced since starting darkroom. It reminds me of if I am awake with a light fever or if I have alcohol in my system, but otherwise this doesn't happen much.
Another I've noticed is when I'm using my dream hands to do something, and then the visuals start around the action I'm doing. I think this is most similar to the first category but rather than getting the feeling I'm about to look at something and then seeing it I'm somewhat selecting what I'm about to see.
it's not always a mental image sometimes an impression like you said.
This is close and easy way to notice is if it's a smooth transition to seeing the scene without any lapse. Usually the environment smoothly changes. Everything is pretty much spot on as you've described though this is why it's important to have so many practicing we can confirm different things for each others.
I discovered another type I on the night of the full moon but not sure how to categorize it yet. Basically wherever I looked in the room a dream would form I could see vast landscapes and strange people in there. I wanted to get a closer look to solidify the details but it's like your flying with no control and can't stop to long on one scene. This was even happening while not inside the darkroom a couple hours before practice I was taken back at first, they weren't bright and vivid tho maybe due to not enough energy as yet.
I found a quote that sounds like it is referring to the fourth type, images on burst mode. Perhaps you can say better whether it sounds the same. I suspected that maybe it was caused by the AP moving but then not fixating on a position when someone else mentioned it a few months ago as it seems to make the most sense.
This does sound a lot like burst mode and might explained why it was experienced earlier on in practice for me.
Though burst mode isn't always random you can make a request and wait to see if images related to the request appears. This rarely happens but worth noting.
That’s interesting. I’ll keep an eye out and see if I notice it. Maybe there’s something else going on.