Carlos Castaneda’s Don Juan’s Teachings

M: Both. The “connection” generally occurs simultaneously. If you are not aligned at the time, the perceptions will be more “scattered.” There IS sufficient ability to interact “only” with the body, just for a note, however this technique, since it is not complete with the luminous form (the double being a component of the form), is generally used as an “attention getting device” for a candidate.

R: In the years of reading Castaneda, I’d always assumed that much of what he described as happening to himself was actually happening to his double.

M: Not necessarily. It can happen in the physical form. On occasion, to get the attention of an (early) apprentice, the technique of altering his/her heart and breath rate, and perhaps, altering their body temperature (hot to cold or the inverse) has been used.

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R: No one ever told me to study when I was growing up and I cheated my way through, never studied, and finally dropped out. Now I’m worried that my son is copying my mistake. The problem is that I scold him for it rather than talking to him about it.

M: Place the equivalent of a mantra for you – always – before you approach him on this subject. Suggested concept of a mantra “this problem is my petty tyrant to learn from.” You may be letting your petty tyrant win the battle with you. If you can learn to make this a structural management problem and not experience negative emotion, then you will bond better to him, and get a job done for BOTH of you. The structural management problem, from your report, has become an emotional problem of resentment, and that’s a loose-loose situation for both of you. My interactions with you are devised to help you loose the human form, and this specific situation with you son can be of great benefit to you.

M: In this specific situation, the subject of this E-mail could easily have been seen as “a parent’s responsibility to a child that will benefit the parent.”

R: Michael, you’ve said, “There can be no “got to’s” except driven by one’s own imperatives. Learning those imperatives, then placing into practice true self-impeccability, is the task and the challenge as defined by each of us as we operate into the realities that we form and perceive.”

M: Why, yes indeed…expanded to explain that impeccability here also can utilize this situation in the model of the petty tyrant that serves such an important purpose for “us” to evolve. Petty tyrants are one of the best resources that we have available to us.

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Ed: When I was about 22 years old, had an experience that was rather unusual. One evening just before going to sleep, as I was laying on my side, felt a pressure on my back, as if someone had their hand on my back. Needless to say, I was in the bed alone. This went on for about 5 minutes. Used to ascribe this experience to “ghosts” but can now see that maybe it was an ally trying to get my attention.

Ed: Would be most interested in hearing how one goes about channeling an ally. This also raises the question about the character and type of ally that one is summoning. Do allies exist that are not beneficial to our well being? If so, how does one avoid them? Is there a selection process for allies? Or do they select us?

R: This is exactly what happened to me on a number of occasions over the last 25 years. It was only recently that I realized it to be happening to my dreaming double, while, for years, I’d “known” that someone/thing had been touching my physical self. For me, knowing that it happens in dreaming, makes it much more repeatable as it puts it into the realm of a second attention experience. I don’t know what it was that finally allowed me to make the distinction. It seemed to have something to do with a series of many dreams where I was lying in bed unable to move, also now distinguished as a second attention experience, the dreaming double. For the longest time I’d also thought those to be my physical body’s experience. Now I understand that they never were. I would ask Michael, but I’m guessing that the significance of being able to finally making the distinction is in what I can possible do “from” there the next time it happens. I plan to intend myself to get up and move around next time. They seem to occur for me in groups. That is, I will have those dreams for a few days in a row, and then they stop and I can no more call them back than I can fly to the moon.

M: The 1st attention can be connected with the 2nd attention, with physical results. Only the “freedom” of the third attention dramatically severs the “need” and interconnection to physicality.

M: The process is relatively simple. Adopt the attitude that “there’s something here that might be valuable for me” and be open to the experience. This, basically, facilitates the contact/communication, and if open to the extent of being vulnerable (while knowing within that one can deal with anything through will/intent, and without violent actions). Remember that with the evolution of sufficiently high self-esteem, without arrogance without ego, without overconfidence, “being vulnerable evolves to being invulnerable.” Relative the “allies” that are not beneficial: one is tested. On the surface, one could confront an “ally” that is appears to not be beneficial. They, in general, take the form of approaching the candidate in a manner that would imply dependency upon them, which would imply that the candidates’ energy would be either suborned or otherwise drained. If this is the case, then one of two items could be in force: either the “ally” is not an ally but a tyrant that wants a piece, or more, of your energy, OR, it’s a true ally attempting to test the candidates’ impeccability. Be impeccable, and there will never be a problem in either case. For a specific example: once on a journey in the third attention, in limitless space, a luminous form appeared that then metamorphosed into a human form, as something like a priest. The message from this figure was something to the effect of “come with me, I will take you to god.” While panning around my cocoon in the study of this image (a common observational technique in the third attention) it was processed that if there was a deity as that implied, it was silly that a figure would be required to “take me to him,” so in carefully processing of this “opportunity” my intent-response was “no, this concept is not possible” and POOF! the image of the figure dissolved instantly, and my travel was reversed. It was a difficult decision (this was a very early travel experience) and it required a commit to my own impeccability, but it held and the test was passed. There were also a sequence of very frightening forms that appeared at various times over perhaps a month: more early experiences. These forms came out of the torus that had been forming. In this mode, there is absolutely no question that my being was bridging between the attentions, since there was full awareness of all the attentions through the torus. The images, holding against my body in the 1st and 2nd attentions simultaneously, would metamorphose into some really dynamically, “scary” images, and occasionally play the roles of observers, actors, and in the more “awful” forms, charge at me. With the process of other empirical backgrounds, it was understood that there was (easily) sufficient ability, by intent and will, again without any violence, fear, arrogance et al, to “intend” them away in a linear instruction: without words, but by intent of thought projection. After many nights of these apparitions, and having observed their antics and their approaches to my wife (who was sleeping beside me), finally it was decided that the curious observation of them was sufficient so basically a command was given, in effect: “Stop. Enough. Go away!”; no words, just intent. That was a few years ago, and they haven’t been seen since. On the command, there was no resistance. They departed instantly as they dissipated into a fog and were drawn back into the torus. With respect to the last question: after one is identified as a candidate, they appear to you. The individual basically has to already be “known” as a candidate, or there would not be contact. Impeccability demands, always, that energy be utilized efficiently and this applies to allies as well.

M: There has been information on occasion to some of you about the existence of a consortium that propagates through the attentions. The allies are part of that consortium, and it is universal.

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R: I was considering today while walking, how … what these exchanges between us are all about is exactly the losing of the human form of dependences. It struck me how tenacious are the patterns of the past and how freeing ourselves from those patterns is the primary challenge.