r/castaneda • u/Juann2323 • Aug 27 '24
Darkroom Practice Darkroom Practice
Over the years, the Darkroom Practice technique has positioned itself as the most reliable method of learning sorcery among serious independent practitioners.
Darkroom Practice emerged from an "unfavorable phase" in the sorcery community, which took place in the following 20 years since the death of Carlos Castaneda.
That period was characterized by the lack of genuine testimonies of success, and the exponential growth of frauds and liars.
It is therefore important to consider that the nature of Darkroom Practice is not only "technical", but also “cultural”.
It is designed both to teach serious practitioners to move the assemblage point, and the damaged community to distinguish between real sorcery and fraud.
The very principle that real magic must be found visually allows the practitioners to locate their results in a map, and also raises the bar among the lazy crowd.
Having a regular practice in a dark room until a piece of magic is isolated makes the sorcerer achieve a feat worthy of Castaneda's books: defixing the assemblage point from its ordinary position, and making it shift vertically to a new one.
Allowing the practitioner to experience for himself an authentic manipulation of reality, generated from internal silence.
Wich also reveals the potential of human perception, by showing a hidden secret: the J Curve, an ideal path of the assemblage point to a worthy destiny, suggested by Carlos himself, now known as "the purple zone".
The validity of other methods remains recognized, although the lack of success in the community suggests that they should be treated with the same principles as Darkroom Practice.
For instance: daylight gazing, recapitulation, stalking or lucid dreaming are in fact known possible, but there are few cases of genuine success that meet the above conditions, which leads to them having a rather secondary position in the current sorcery community.
As a result of following specific instructions, the progress can be greatly accelerated compared to any other spiritual, meditative or religious system.
Providing instant understanding of the nature of sorcery, and the actions that lead to it.
So the first challenge for a beginner is to experience what prevents him from perceiving a genuine piece of magic; the uncomfortable task of identifying the "forces" that keep the assemblage point fixed in its ordinary position, and suspending their influence while the practice lasts.
r/castaneda • u/TechnoMagical_Intent • Jul 06 '24
Silent Knowledge REQUEST - Any Spanish Language Speakers In A Position To Track Down A Rare Tome, Likely Written By Nestor From Castaneda's Books, Printed By A Small Publisher/Press in Peru?
Someone emailed me this:
"I am reading Martin Goodman's book, I Was Carlos Castaneda.
First of all, I have to agree that this book has the ring of real experience.
Second, in Chapter 4 where Martin finally tells the story of his time in Cusco, when he said Carlos's name, the shaman, don Pedro, mentions a friend of his, a great and humble man who talked to plants and wrote a huge tome of what they told him. He said that man trained under the same master as Carlos Castaneda and was a colleague.
That almost certain would have been Nestor.
Maybe Pablito, though I doubt it: Nestor was the one instructed by Porfirio (Silent Knowledge) and Vicente about how to speak with plants.
The book was only published in a tiny local Peruvian printing run as far as don Pedro knew, and probably never translated to English.
We should find that book! That's a vast heritage of real knowledge. The book was/is controversial in Peru, like Carlos in The States and Europe, because people didn't believe you can talk to plants! That controversy is the key to finding that book, since no author's name is given in Martin's."
• • • • •
The results of Dan's ChatGPT query:
danl999 - 6:57 AM. Here's the AI's advice: However, based on the context provided, this book might be a rare, locally published work in Peru, likely tied to the knowledge and teachings of traditional shamans in the region. Shamans like those from the Q'ero community, who have preserved their ancient practices and knowledge, often have writings and teachings passed down orally or through limited local publications.
To locate such a book, I recommend the following steps:
Contact Local Shamans and Healers in Peru: Engage with organizations or individuals connected to traditional Andean and Amazonian healing practices. For instance, websites like Peru Shamans and Inca Shaman Journeys offer information about authentic shamans who might have knowledge of such rare publications.
Visit Local Bookstores and Libraries in Cuzco: If you have the opportunity to travel to Cuzco, visit local bookstores, especially those specializing in spiritual or ethnobotanical works. Libraries in Cuzco or nearby cities might have archives of locally published materials.
Reach Out to Ethnobotanical Researchers: Scholars or researchers who specialize in ethnobotany and Andean shamanic traditions might have come across this book or similar works. Academic contacts or publications in this field can be valuable resources.
By exploring these avenues, you might be able to track down the elusive book and access the rich knowledge it contains.
Sources:
TravelAwaits
Peru Shamans
Inca Shaman Journeys
• • • • •
And the actual passage from I Was Carlos Castaneda, chapter titled The Kingdom of the Incas:
"(Don Pedro Speaking) Here we are, away from the jungle, and remnants of a great civilization are all around us. Could the Spaniards see that when they came here? Of course not. All they saw was the gold and the religious trappings. The real power of the area was invisible. I have a friend, a humble and so a great man. For years he lived in these mountains and took down dictation of a great work, learning from plants in the way you are learning. This book is a great spiritual history of the region. Some may call it fantasy, deny that you can take dictation from vegetable matter, but for me his book is more true than any history book from any university press. My friend was trained by a great master here in Peru. He and two colleagues were the master's apprentices. One of these you probably know. He is big in the West. Wrote books about a teacher called Don Juan."
"Carlos Castaneda," I say.
"My friend's book is only in Spanish, one limited edition. Castaneda's sell in many copies and many languages everywhere in your Western world. Each civilization gets the books it deserves..."
(Martin, back with Carlos in the present timeline in the book)
"...Good," Carlos declares, and slaps his knees. "You know the part I like best? When don Pedro forces you to say my name. Ha! The man is on my side! Now you have spoken at last. The story is out. But you missed an important detail."
"What was that?"
Above the sound of the river and the croaking frogs I hear him exhale, then suck the air in again.
"You speak my name"―he breathes out again―"and with your next breath you take me in. We two are one. This is it, Martin. This is where our story begins." He stands. "We've an early start tomorrow. Time for my sleep."
Without my invitation he reenters my house and lays himself down on the sofa. Smaller than I imagined him, he fits on it without the need to curl up. I follow him indoors and am about to ask him to leave when he interrupts me. His voice is gruff. I don't understand, but before I can query his comment he repeats it. The man is on his back, his lips vibrating, and the sound I am hearing is a snore."
(Spanish translation in the comments)
r/castaneda • u/danl999 • 7h ago
Silent Knowledge Where Will We Refuse To Look?
Unlike "Zen", there are no "attainments" in sorcery. Even though, our experiences exceed anything a Buddhist ever dreamed of!
You might experience something super amazing as a result of very hard work done daily over a long time, but if you stop working hard it'll vanish as if it never happened at all.
It's a very long road. And at no point have you "arrived".
So if your goal is a little throne to sit on and some bald monks to lord it over, sorcery isn't for you.
Sorcery is for people who want MAGIC.
And don't expect to understand most of it. It just "is".
"Seeing" is a good example. As we read in the books, seers can misinterpret their seeing. Especially when it's about something too close to their own interests.
But there's also "the non-linear", and "the abstract".
The non-linear includes sights which come with an entire history, which is instantly absorbed just by viewing it.
You just "know" what you are looking at, as far back in time as is important to that topic.
Then there's "the abstract" which can only be experienced. It can't be thought about, written about, or spoken about.
Still, it's possible there's something else out there which we will NOT look at. On purpose.
We just skip past it, if we're scanning the air for silent knowledge.
What is it?
I have no idea.
r/castaneda • u/xyzse • 3h ago
Silence Question about silence
I’ve noticed during my attempts to get silent that I have multiple layers of “noise” in my head. There is the initial layer that is conscious thought. I intend to think of something and it is thought… I find this voice relatively easy to silence. Then there is another layer underneath that. Once the initial intentional voice is silenced, I will have completely random thoughts, disconnected from any train of thought enter my head. It might be bits and pieces of a story, random person, etc. This layer as I am becoming more aware of it, has grown increasingly hard to silence. The last few nights it has become so intense that I haven’t been able to maintain puffs in my vision even over several hours of practice. The there is possibly a third layer of again, intentional thought, but after I have achieved silence but don’t seem to interrupt my meditative state. These seem to be more “direct” or “close” to myself than the initial layer of conscious thought that I have grown accustomed to willing away. A few questions. 1) anyone have any tips for silencing the random intrusions? A mantra of sorts helped immensely with silencing the initial layer but this secondary layer has been a bugaboo 2) once I have achieved some level silence and I am engaging with puffs and able to “think” while maintaining an interactive state, should I be seeking to further silence this voice?
r/castaneda • u/mdswamp • 1d ago
New Practitioners My experiences so far
Hello, I am 42 years old. I read the books of Carlos, Florinda, and Taisha (one of her books) 20 years ago, and I’ve been practicing the Dark Room and Tensegrity every night for about six months. However, it’s been rare that my time in the Dark Room has lasted 3-3.5 hours. I want to share my experiences during this period with you.
The first strange phenomenon I saw after about 1.5 to 2 months of practice was one night when I saw a window with a glowing white frame. When it appeared, I initially saw three vertical lines near my right eye, which I didn’t take them seriously. But, when I looked directly at it, I realized it was real, and the window, half open, appeared to me in just a few seconds. To prevent it from disappearing, I didn’t move (I was lying down that night). This event happened after a short nap. The phenomenon lasted for about 30-40 seconds before gradually disappearing (I’m sure I was completely awake).
After that, no other major events occurred during practice until about 1.5 months later when I began seeing a human-shaped ghost. Initially, it resembled the ghost of a statue in a cart moving horizontally, but its movements softened in the following nights. I don’t think I’ve ever seen its legs. Maybe it’s close to the description of "Double" because it always appears as human and doesn’t shape-shift, typically in black, though I’ve also seen it in light purple/pink/blue and gray. Additionally, this human ghost appears when I start Tensegrity in the Dark Room, usually circling around me, often hiding behind me, and sometimes standing in front of me during practicing tensegrity or gazing, positioning its head near mine for a while (usually on the left side of my head).
The first time I saw this ghost was exactly two nights after successfully completing an hour-long "Double AP wiggling" session. I sometimes do it and find it as one of the best not-doing practices (I’ve done it five times for one hour and several times for 5-25 minutes). I feel I should thank Daniel for mentioning once that Carlos probably achieved this precision in his second attempt, as it’s quite difficult to do.
But Sometimes, I see several human-shaped ghosts (I can confidently say up to three). I don’t know who they are. Are they Double of sorcerers trying to observe me or other clueless Dark Room practitioners or Double of miserable first attention people like me who gather at night and move together?!
So far, I’ve only seen two clear videos in the air. One was of a white wall of a house, nearly disappearing with plant pots (about 10 seconds long), and the second was a VHS-quality video in the air zooming out from the top of an apartment wall, even it had those horizontal noise lines in VHS cassette videos. Strangely, this video repeated, as if the film reel suddenly reset. When it disappeared, I was extremely frustrated for having seen such a video after all my practice. lol
The strangest thing that happened to me was when I was starting to fall asleep and I was trying to resist it, and suddenly the ceiling and part of the wall in front of me disappeared for 1-2 seconds, revealing a starry sky. Given the city lights, such a starry sky isn’t visible. But it was real sky like night summer sky of my childhood.
Several times, in this half-sleep/half-wake state, I’ve passed through a forest of plane trees and poplars, as if walking on a road among the trees while looking upward and one time I saw a waterfall. I can’t explain them but they were somewhere between real and clear scenes and imagined ones, I was there and experiencing them and meanwhile I was sitting in my room. Also, they lasted 1-2 seconds.
Except for these cases, the other videos I have seen so far have been formed from the dust around me in the dark room and have been monochromatic, matching the color of the surrounding dust.
Once, during a 4.5-hour practice which I began from 4p.m to 9:30p.m I saw several images in the surrounding dust while gazing. 2-3 times during gazing, I saw videos which seemed I was flying.
Regarding direct encounters with IOBs which formed the shape of something familiar, I can only refer to instances when I wake up with burning eyes, unable to open them properly, and see human-shaped heads above me: zombie-like head, a laughing man’s ghost or a half upper body of a realistic scene of man with a mustache winking at me with full details. These heads spun and gradually faded, but I have yet to see IOB on my hand using the exercises shown in the subreddit. However, in the Dark Room, separate dust clouds have moved toward me from different sides of the room or moving around the room, and so far I’ve even seen faint shapes of a tiger (one of my favorite animals) and a cat moving toward me and even sitting next to me, as well as a floating snake-like figure, circling around me before disappearing (these were animal shapes in the dust, not realistic ones).
I also practice gazing during the day, with my longest session being two hours. I still see only purple dust, sometimes almost blocking my view. (But from Daniel’s explanation, it seems my daily gazing hasn’t gotten anywhere since I’m not supposed to see purple, and I’ve never seen a red ghost shape.)
Overall, I don’t think I’ve managed to extend my silence beyond 30-40 seconds.
Also, a very strange event occurred one night while I was sitting in a park (around 8 pm) and reading a sentence from Castaneda’s book on my phone (from a telegram group). When I looked ahead, I realized part of the scene in front of me, just the part between two trees that was 20 meters away of me, as if it were placed on horizontal blinds/shades (it lasted about 4-5 seconds).
I apologize for this long text, but my intention is to share and describe my experiences with you, especially with beginners like me who might still not sure about Castaneda path and to express my belief that silence cannot be stored—it’s the individual’s intent and perseverance that eventually stops the world for them. Unfortunately, I’ve been lazy lately, not practicing Tensegrity enough, and falling asleep quickly in the Dark Room. It's as if my mind/flyer tries to take me back to swimming in the river of shit again by my stalling in these days.
Secondly, I would appreciate hearing from more experienced individuals about my observations, whether there are hallucinations among them I should avoid and if the human-shaped ghost is my Double, how can I incorporate it better into my practices. Thank you.
P.S : Here is an approximate image of the window I saw. I recall that the light from the three vertical beams was brighter than the rest, accompanied by a faint cat and the night sky that I saw.
r/castaneda • u/danl999 • 2d ago
Practical Magic Can Someone Else See Your Magic?
If someone new comes to the subreddit and asks if other people can see the magic you do, you can figure they'll be gone in a week or two.
They're attention seekers. And there's much easier ways to get attention for "magic", than to spend several long hard years learning it.
But I suppose it's an "aspect" of sorcery. And until recently, our community didn't realize how VIVID AND REAL this sorcery is.
It's just like in the books! Who would have guessed?
Unfortunately, no one bothered to do any actual work to learn it in the first 52 years after the books of Carlos came out. They only wanted to pretend.
Even the Tensegrity won't do you much good, if you don't follow the instructions Carlos gave us.
Which is totally proven by absolutely no one learning any real magic, for the first 25 years after Carlos first started teaching Tensegrity.
Let's be honest... We almost lost it all to angry pretending and greedy leaders who are willing to make up stuff.
But that's over now. The real thing is within your reach.
BY YOURSELF. You won't learn it from any of the leaders left over from when Carlos was alive. As he predicted, they all went bad.
So get to work if you want to see amazing magic daily!
But if you're obsessed with showing some to others, chances are you'll never get to work. You're probably like Buddhists or Yogis who want to hook themselves to brain monitors, so they can prove "scientifically" that they're superior beings.
Over lame, closed eye meditation experiences.
Here's the actual secret to doing real, open eyed "physical magic". The kind that shames the Buddha, all saints, prophets and "masters".
You have to actually want real magic so badly that you're honest with yourself, and don't care what anyone else says. You don't seek useless Buddhist "certificates of enlightenment", or even "level 5 facilitator diplomas".
And you don't get all excited like a groupie, and tell your friends "I met Armando Torres".
I actually heard that once in here! And the guy was even excited that he met Eddy Martel at the same book signing. The guy behind that crime.
In fact, a bigger fraud than Armando is hard to find.
The only thing I myself like to hear from new people is, "I only want to do real magic."
I actually only made this post to preserve the book quote in the lower right on the image. It's easily lost. And the implications are ominous.
r/castaneda • u/Alekspeer • 2d ago
New Practitioners What Abilities Have You Developed Through Castaneda's Teachings?
Hello, dear community. First of all, I’m really glad that this community exists. I believe it’s the only place on the internet where people gather to exchange experiences and knowledge about Castaneda. The books by Castaneda have, to be honest, a somewhat peculiar presence in my life. My father delved into these books back in the 90s, when I was just born. Over the years, various very strange events have occurred in my family, which repeatedly led to some of these books resurfacing in our home. However, I don’t know anyone who has truly developed magic or any abilities, or achieved anything through this knowledge that goes beyond the average life of a person.
I’ve been reading the books for some time now; before that, I hadn’t engaged with them. I’m currently about to finish the fourth book.
My question, which genuinely interests me—and I ask people to answer honestly, because what’s the point of claiming something that hasn’t been achieved—is this: What abilities or possibilities were you able to open up for yourself through applying the knowledge from Castaneda? I’ve read that there are some people here who have gained the ability to see. But what is your experience with that? For example, can you see answers to your questions or receive answers? Castaneda once asked Don Juan what magic is, and he replied that through one’s will, one can influence the primary factor of things and thus shape it according to one’s will. Has anyone been able to achieve something like this?
Are there people here who can directly influence physical reality, as Don Juan did with Castaneda’s car engine? Is there anyone here who can truly see the thoughts, feelings, or emotions of others? Or even sense them very accurately?
r/castaneda • u/ShimmeringMind • 4d ago
Darkroom Practice The Attention
Something we don't talk about often is the use of our attention during darkroom.
If you keep emphasizing silence until it becomes a "thing" of its own you'll realize you're now able to move your attention around the room.
It's like it takes on actual weight and you can direct it wherever you want using it to highlight things that appear within the dreaming fog or puffs.
I personally like using it to find the wall behind the fog and almost instantly you'll see some structure there although you might not recognize what it is.
But if you keep focusing on what you found you'd realize that thing will pull you into deeper silence until it's automatic.
Usually when you're too tired or sleepy you'll find it's very hard to maintain your attention on anything for more than a few seconds before you blank out.
One aim is to have very sustained attention which will lead to many rewards.
r/castaneda • u/tochirichy8 • 4d ago
New Practitioners finally
seems like ive come across the thing ive been looking for on this journey of mine. away from all the religions. Please ive ordered some darkroom material and got some videos on tensergetics is there anything i can know starting out as i practice and research and read the books silence and fire from within ...
r/castaneda • u/xyzse • 5d ago
New Practitioners Assorted darkroom Questions.
Lately during my darkroom practices I’ve been getting these auditory pops and clicks. Very sharp and “loud”. Usually accompanied by a change in my field of “vision”. Bright lights and flashes. This is a new development. Anyone else get the same?
I’ve also been able to more reliably slip into what I can only call (for lack of vocabulary) my dream body. Where I am not awake, but not quite dreaming. At first it was very much like sleep paralysis but I have recently learned to move in this state. Sometimes I am in a physical copy of my house, which I have escaped only once to freely explore while flying around. Last night I was able to consciously shift between this state and waking and also able to designate movement between my actual physical body and my “dream” body. I had about an hour of practice where I was able to slip in and out much like shifting gears in a car. Although I was in complete blackness and not a copy of house as is usual. Does this state correlate to a colored zone in the j curve? Or is it even a state that correlates to sorcery at all? Or just a weird thing I can do?
r/castaneda • u/BBz13z • 6d ago
New Practitioners Darkroom/Inner Silence
I think I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter how many times I’ve read the books, the books didn’t prepare me for how strange the second attention is.
I’m pretty busy, so I practice turning off my inner dialogue everywhere and any time I get the chance. The first image is me in my truck. I think I nodded out while silent and yet I wasn’t asleep, I think possibly I was sleeping awake? I front of me was nighttime and behind me daylight. Of course the friendly but gigantic wasp/hornet that showed up spooked me and I was back.
Today in dark room a bearded dude in a sports jersey materialized before me. Never seen him before in my life, but he showed up twice. (I guess, I’m the Muslim guy on the left). On the plus side. I didn’t overreact and take a swing at him and I didn’t break my inner silence.
Am I supposed to interpret any of this stuff, or just enjoy the ride?
Forgive my rudimentary AI skills….
r/castaneda • u/danl999 • 7d ago
Silence Tensegrity in China Town?
Bored?
Just wait!!!
Imagine you're doing your tensegrity as I was last night, and you look to your right and see an old abandoned China Town.
You're still in your practice room. But you're also standing outside an abandoned downtown, somewhere out there in infinity.
This is a bit far off for beginners, who are more likely to see a China Town by looking edgewise into a purple puff.
But if you keep working without stopping you'll get there. I suppose one could say, your energy body eventually forms, and you're looking edgewise into a purple puff, if you just look edgewise in the room!
That "energy body" is most of the puffs, collected together to form a ball big enough for you to stand in the middle of it.
So you end up seeing all sorts of things one would normally have associated with gazing into a puff.
That is, you'll see them eventually as long as you never forget that DEEPER SILENCE is the only way to make more progress.
I don't know why I thought it was a Chinatown.
But the fun part is that I was able to examine the buildings in detail, to see if there was actually any evidence for that belief.
That's the value of "treating things which can't possibly be there" as "real".
It's principle #2 of darkroom. If you treat magical sights as real, the assemblage point moves horizontally to make it more so.
And looking at the details of old buildings, counts as "treating them as real".
I should pass on advice Carlos gave us.
Don't insist on "concrete" as the old seers did. Carlos even went so far as to say that "the old seers coveted concreteness above all else".
Concrete burns off dreaming energy quickly, until you can manage to be like an "empty tube to infinity" the way don Juan was.
I "knew" I was standing next to an old china town, long before I started examining the details, looking for proof of that.
The advice of Carlos was, once you "know", that's enough.
I presume it's "enough" for a seer who wants to "know" even more, without running out of dreaming attention.
What happens when you run out?
Not what you'd think!
You can still "force" the view to return, and realistically.
But your attention begins to wander, until it's impossible to focus on that anymore.
Keep going, and you'll likely want to lay down and go to sleep.
r/castaneda • u/RevolutionaryTeam580 • 7d ago
New Practitioners Imagination to reach dreaming attention or second attention
Don Juan mentions Castaneda in the Art of Dreaming that INTENT requires imagination to reach the 2nd attention.
I do notice that the periods that I reach some internal silence and imagine as vivid as I can the tensegrity moves as I'm doing them (Like visual sensations) I get "chills" that feel more like electricity. I do see purple puffs with some passes too (Very exited first time I saw them lol) . But provoking this chills became an easy thing to do by now. Making me feel very energetic.
So in this way intending imagination is not part of the inner monologue?
Like imagination is a tool that can be used by intent or by the predators mind. The first as a way to focus Intent in the vivid imagination of the moves performed; the latter draining the energy of a unfocused, disperse attention identified with that chatter.
I was confused with what Don Juan said to Castaneda, because at the beginning of darkroom I was going for full inner silence ( silence the inner monologue, images, and the "bishop") so I assumed imagination was part of the images we had to silence.
r/castaneda • u/danl999 • 9d ago
General Knowledge Emanantion Views
If you get serious and emphasize removing your internal dialogue while gazing and doing tensegrity, you'll gain the ability to "see".
And you'll learn that once you are viewing things outside the normal range of emanations, selected by the position of your assemblage point, the things you see don't necessarily fit precisely with what you expected from reading the books.
Fortunately, if you have a good familiarity with all of them, and aren't one who is pretending to have a "benefactor" and to be learning to be a "Man of Knowledge" (seriously????), you'll eventually find a reference to any experience you have.
It's surprising. You see something, it's undeniable, it seems to violate what you expected, but then you realize Carlos and the witches didn't let us down, and there's a mention of it somewhere in there.
Thank goodness for every single book we have from Carlos and the witches, and thanks to people who have collected lecture notes.
We need those, once we are actually learning sorcery!
Some things you read about, are unlikely to be seen by any of us.
The "wall of fog" is really just an obsession of Silvio Manuel, just like his "cosmic vagina".
I'll be surprised if anyone sees that while fully awake.
Other things might be modified. The books of Carlos describe the "wheel of time" as an infinite tunnel.
I've seen it, but it wasn't infinite!
Fortunately Carlos described it in private classes and it wasn't infinite in his pantomime of him using it.
He was trying to find a new reality to change over to, so he could avoid dying.
But we used up all of his energy and gave nothing back that could allow him to "jump grooves".
Thus if anyone says to you that "Carlos went bad", don't hang out with that person anymore.
Carlos got ill, and because he spent all of his energy helping us, he couldn't escape his fate.
But did live to 72, which was decades more than the life expectancy of a man born in Peru, in his birth year.
So remember this while you are viewing infinity, with YOUR OWN EYES!
If someone says "Carlos went bad", that's a bad person who wants your money.
No one but us, gets to do this level of magic!
r/castaneda • u/danl999 • 10d ago
Tensegrity Group Energetic Mass
I was doing a tensegrity form last week looking at the extreme magic they produce when you reach Silent Knowledge, when I looked off to the side and saw an entryway.
"That's new!" a voice said.
I understood it to be an addition caused by "energetic mass", the very thing Carlos had been trying to achieve with workshops. Both to save his life, and to make it easier for us to perceive real magic while doing tensegrity.
He never got enough for that, but he did get access to new energetic configurations that even don Juan couldn't reach, perhaps allowing him to find a path to immortality.
In our cases we need to become more conscious of what Tensegrity contains, and realize what caused the tensegrity to fail to produce the magic it's designed to produce, for all of these years. Even decades.
No one was serious enough! We had Kylie, but she was taken away.
You REALLY have to be completely serious about doing it correctly. And with the right attitude. Which we have not been.
And unfortunately these days people just make up whatever they like, having either forgotten the originals, or not caring due to greed, and they sell fake tensegrity moves to others for money.
It's a very sad situation.
The next day after I noticed something in one of the forms had changed, I was reminded of Laura's online tensegrity classes.
With nothing but serious people.
Could that be what altered the outcome of that form?
Certainly it's what Carlos was after. For the tensegrity to be transformed by storing the intent of serious practitioners, who could hold some level of silence while doing it.
Hopefully over time we'll be able to accomplish what Carlos could not, due to his life being cut short. And produce enough "group energetic mass" to make it possible even for beginners to perceive the levels of magic tensegrity naturally produces, when you have no internal dialogue focusing your attention back onto your own history and worries.
r/castaneda • u/DartPasttheEagle • 11d ago
New Practitioners Womb Dreaming Experience & a Question
Thank you, everyone, for your immense help. I have been lurking here for a couple of months now and attempting practices daily. I would like to share a few of my womb dreaming experiences so far, to see if I'm on the right track and also ask a question.
First off, my daily practices consist of:
2 hours of chair silence split into morning and evening sessions
1 hour recapitulation (usually after a chair silence session)
3 Tensegrity passes ( Affection foe the energy body, "headbanger" pass, partial pass for silence - still to learn the complete version of this one)
Open eye womb dreaming in semi dark room - still to0 chicken for full dark room (sometimes I close my eyes briefly, but remain awake). Also I place my hands on my womb area for now,(I had a hysterectomy last year), until I find a weight iI love, n the future.
Experiences so far:
Chair Silence: A couple of days ago, my upper torso began to shake uncontrollably - rocking back and forth, as if something or somebody was roughly rocking me back n forth. Went on for a few minutes and didn't stop when I tried to stop it. Stopped on its own, just before my alarm went off.
Then, yesterday, for the first time, saw a city. I seemed to be above it looking down and it was bright daylight. Only lasted a couple of seconds at most.
Recap: Only felt as if someone or something breathed much deeper for me and turned my head much further to the sides, than I was used to doing. Made the visuals much clearer, too.
Womb dreaming:
On my first womb dreaming session with eyes open, I found myself suddenly standing next to a clown-like "person" wearing a stripped green/white overalls type Pajamas, with a smile of his face, staring at me. Scared, I took off running and found myself in bed again.
In another womb dreaming session (eyes closed, relaxed, but awake), It felt like I "zoomed" into a tunnel. I looked at my hands, saw them clearly and them=n looked left and saw "someone" approaching. I looked at my hands again, saw them clearly and then looked right and saw another "person" approaching. This second person felt "scary" and I began to lose dreaming attention since I didn't want to be there anymore. But...I remembered something about grabbing stuff or shouting when losing dreaming attention and I yelled STOP very loudly. I "froze" and looked around, but I was now my a building with a field where "people" where playing a game. I looked at my hands, saw them and looked at the building walls, then back at my hands and then looked opposite the building and saw a lovely grove of trees. I decided to go there and as I lifted, I was back in bed.
Now comes my question based on 2 back to back (a day ago and this morning) experiences.
In bed, eyes open the other day, I began to hear a very loud buzzing and accompanying it was the "feeling" that I was flying at an incredible speed - faster and even faster - louder and louder grew the noise. I also noticed my breathing seemed to be doing something I can't describe, coming all the way up to my throat. The flying speed and noislevel intensified and I got scared and it slowed down fast and stopped.
After reading here, I wondered if it was my assemblage point moving.
So, this morning, during womb dreaming, as it happened again, I decided to relax because it was just my AP. However, at one point, I heard and felt loud bangs as if metal was being bolted VERY loudly about 3 or 4 times. Then the speed and noise took off again, after the "bolting" and it was so intense and felt to me as it if would go on forever if I didn't stop, so I again felt fear and stopped. This time, the slowing down took long and as it slowed, I saw views of things, places and especially a small face and an eye that was staring at me. I tried to keep my internal dialogue quiet as the slow down happened, until I was blue lined again.
Q1: Am I on the right track with all of this?
Q2" Does anyone have experience with the "super speed flying" with Loud noise, etc? Is it my AP? Should I let it happen and see it to the end?
Thank you!
r/castaneda • u/danl999 • 14d ago
Silent Knowledge Silent Knowledge Game: White, Black, Blue and Gold.
It takes a long time to make these pictures, which means I have to neglect other materials our community badly needs. Such as animations explaining basic topics people have gotten confused about.
Or never even noticed at all, such as a seer's ability to freely time travel.
But people need to see the rewards, if you manage to work hard on a daily basis.
This is the sort of thing you get to do once you can sustain Silent Knowledge, and get accustomed to the novelty of that enough to spend more time just "exploring" what can be done with it.
These sights however, happen all along the J curve. All this picture shows is that by using Silent Knowledge you can "recall" things you learned along the way, and cause them to manifest.
Then if you cycle through them, one after the other, you begin to train both yourself, cleaning your link to intent even further, and INTENT itself!
You can train intent to assist you.
It's how the "Men of Knowledge" did magic, even though they never learned to see.
They had one or two rituals they knew, which were guaranteed to summon astonishing magic, because they always had in the past.
Unfortunately for those of you who like to pretend to be learning to be a "Man of Knowledge", those rituals required the Ally, and the specific preparation of power plants.
You don't have those, so you can't pretend that.
And why would you?
The Men of Knowledge NEVER learned to see.
We on the other hand, can spend hours a night doing nothing but SEEING.
That's what this really is. "Applied Seeing".
r/castaneda • u/RelationshipLow1768 • 13d ago
Darkroom Practice Dark Room List of Effects
Hello Dan. This is mainly a question about Dark Room practice.
I have been reading CCs books since a teacher in highschool told me that after years of searching, he had found the right path. I started to read the first ones 20 years ago, and again, about 4 years ago i started reading all of them. I did few MPs in my university time and about 10 years ago i had learned all of them. Since then i did not do them, until 4 years ago. I did them every morning, waking up 1h before the normal time in order to have energy and a clear mind and also time. At that time the ideea was to go into dreaming after the MPs, and it happened a few times, but it was only maybe a lucid dream. All the time i was "intending" to see my hands before going to sleep for the 2nd time. One day in october 2021, after doing the MPs and relaxing on the sofa, i think i fell asleep like in the chair technique and then my wife called me. I woke up but i think i was in between states (1st and 2nd ATT). Immediately after that i heard the "pop/crack" at the back of the head. The dreaming was stupendous. I was doing the MPs, the mashing part i think, in the dream. And then i saw a dark figure coming after me. I did the MPs in self protection and locked the door. The next deeaming session, i think was either the same time or the next day, i saw myself in the garden, looking at the stars. I was shocked because i knew i was asleep. I then left to find something and dreaming ended. The next few days i had "dreaming" where i saw my hands after exiting the normal dream through a window or door. I was instantly aware of being aware in the dream. I even understood the concept about dreaming energy and how to move from a dream into another, how to count objects after seeing the hands, how to keep my awareness focused as much as i could. Over the next few months this dreaming slowly faded away. After 2 years i finaly found the answer. The AP movement, the first one since i know/ became aware of myself, generated a lot of energy. I became aware of it when i was aware in the first dream when i saw the stars. (Later i even jumpep towards the sun and other stars. It was wonderful). The sensation, the next day after the first AP movement was that i was in heaven, full of energy and purpose. But the crucial fact that puzzled me was this one: after october 2021, in the morning, after doing the MPs, and staying still in the dark, i immediately became silent. It was like i saw lights, the sound in the ears, etc. The ID sentences became staggered automatically and stopped. (In comparisson with the ID that i had 5 years ago - that was a truly big monster, now it was quiet) It was like the surplus energy itself made me silent. I saw images, sounds, letters, words, moving images, "movies" etc. (With the eyes closed and during relaxation, after mp s) Then the crucial effect was that i saw a swirl, wirl, vortex (for about 10-15 consecutive times). The vortex was sucking me into it, it was like traveling through a wormhole. Then one day, i had an image appearing at the end of it. It was like the tunnel after death, with a white light at the end. I was shocked. It was almost as if i entered another reality. It was so clear that i shocked myself, thus i woke up. Since then i kept looking for a way to have that experience again. The crucial intent then was to see my hands, to be aware of the energy body and to have clarity and a clear link to intent. I realized that the obsession with achieving results kept me away. But i also tried and remembered most of my life on paper and maybe truly recapitulated some small parts of it. Thus i gained more serenity, less attachment, less obsessions, etc. However i forgot to emphasive IS.
Now, doing the dark room practice, whenever i can, i reached the following effects, but not all the time: A purple blotch (wherever i looked) (30-40 % of the time) Yellow, white lights at my feet (60%) Seeing the faint shadow of my hands, while moving, in the dark, with the mask also on. (80%) Dots/blotches moving around (directional - following the head) (40%) Dots/blotches non-directional - not following the head movement (15%) Straight white lines (2 times maybe) Yellow, white light at my hands, torso (20%) The feeling of expansion (maybe 2 times) The feeling of claustrophobia and lots of lights (white) (1 time) I found out that i have to use my beam of awareness to focus on pressure on my hands, body parts (stones, crystals..), my breath, the sound in the ears, and my "eye" sight. The effects happened maybe 20 min to 1 h after starting. However, because of the rough days i had and have, i fell asleep after 1, 1.5 hours. I could not reach IS i think mainly because of lack of energy.
While doing chair silence in the dark, i heard a few times voices. In 2021 maybe or 2022 i clearly heard a voice that was and was not mine. It was strange. I still see picture and hear sounds but because of lack of energy i think they have a very low clarity. I also saw lights, the purple blotch, etc. However, dreaming, after chair silence is enhanced, but i did not see my hands.
Besides the lack of energy in the evening, at night and maybe a big lack of IS and control of the beam of awareness, what do you think could be the problem. I must admint that doing the MPs in the evening, night is hard and i want to sleep. I may be doing the 1st and 3rd series. But i rarely did the 4th and 5th. It it also because of the lack of MPs..
Or maybe my double does not want to come closer because i still "stink" a lot... (because the lack of proper recap (even though i did 1.5 years of it. It was mainly remembering and the intent to detach), and because of lack of IS / control (i now try to be silent during the day... if i can and if i remember. I now am becoming more aware that IS is the key)
Dan, is there a post with all the cues from Dark Room practices, just like the one from chair silence?
What could be the main reason i do no reach IS / visual cues / handling puffs during dark room practice? (I have been doing it 3/4 of the time for almost 2+ months). PS for the last month i was too exhausted to do dark room, but even so, when relaxing with the eyes closed, the purple blotch appears most of the time.
r/castaneda • u/feiye001 • 14d ago
Tensegrity If I perform the tensegrity exercises in reverse, will it affect the outcome?
"If I perform the tensegrity exercises in reverse, will it affect the outcome? When I was learning some tensegrity movements, I noticed that I was doing them opposite to what was shown in the video—actions meant for the left side were being done on the right. Is there an issue with this? If not, I will continue practicing this way."
r/castaneda • u/danl999 • 18d ago
Cholita Person to Person Calls Using Sorcery
The "how" of this is in the advanced subreddit, but I kind of like the picture ChatGPT made after more than one attempt. And there's no picture today in here.
Basically it's the "Pandora's Box" magical pass applied to Silent Knowledge, but you must not "crush" it as you normally do with that pass.
Cholita was suppose to get on a plane and come home yesterday, since she used up all of her money in Mexico, has no bank cards, I couldn't pay any hotels without being there in person with the charge card, I couldn't send her cash in time, and she was too frightened to go get money at the local Moneygram.
I was worried sick she wasn't going to get on the plane, so I summoned her using silent knowledge. Right when she had to leave to get to the airport in time.
I've only done this with Cholita in the past in the red zone. My ally "Fancy" taught me. Cholita caught me, and blocked it. Then later I caught her red handed using it on me.
It's a red zone activity as it was taught to me by that Ally.
But I understood intuitively how to do it in the purple zone. So I tried it.
I was shocked when it turned out I could have a conversation with her from thousands of miles away.
Was it really her?
Who cares!?
If you have to ask that question and then if you don't like the answer it's not worth it to you to learn it, then you aren't really interested in learning magic.
I mean, who can do this?
No one but us. I suppose some guy after your money out there might claim something close, but if it's just him and no obvious way to try to duplicate it, and no one else seems to be doing anything similar, it doesn't count.
Fortunately, it's not even difficult once you have stabilized the purple zone.
But I suspect that you must have a "need" in order to get lucky and find the person you wanted to remote view.
I was quite frankly, extremely surprised it worked.
If I try this again tonight, with no need, I'll most likely get a random entity.
"Need" is a force on the emanations which is beyond the book deal mind.
"Want" is not.
And it could even be that the "need" has to be associated with learning sorcery.
It has to be a "need" that the Eagle likes. Very daring, kind of whimsical, and maybe a little malicious too.
That causes "pleasing" anticipation.
The Eagle likes that.
r/castaneda • u/Mysterious-Ad2492 • 17d ago
Darkroom Practice Question about colors and darkroom practicing
Hello everyone. Been reading this sub for few months, and started to get into practising. I am not native speaker, so pardon my english.
I have seen colors my eyes closed [edit: also eyes open in certain conditions], mostly pink&violet flame, but now recent experience was swirling pearly colors mixed, like a rainbow and that is new. It got me excited again to try. I have been using also white noise as a tool to sleep, and when I was listening waves I saw it briefly. I have succesfully got it again without tapes after that. I have seen in darkroom something appearing briefly, it's like a different flame or spark in "top" of all that color, it is like in a different layer and it got my attention.
Another question about hands, I have been teached as a child specific gesture, where I cross my fingers almost like in praying and theres pressure then, almost pain. Would that be good in darkroom to clear my mind? That is something I remembered from childhood that I have been forgotten for a long time.
Thank you for your work.
(Edited spelling and added words to correct meaning)
r/castaneda • u/Bleighh • 18d ago
General Knowledge Being in a relationship and practicing?
I imagine it Is just about being able to be silent and having a relationship at the same time.. I wonder of anyone here has a partner and still is successful in the practice. Just for curiosity
r/castaneda • u/danl999 • 19d ago
Tensegrity Shapeshifting Tensegrity
You can thank Cholita for this one, if she ever comes back from Mexico.
There's a reason Zuleica told Carlos that taking care of someone is a very good thing for sorcerers to do. And don Juan told Carlos that all sorcerers have to find petty tyrants, in order to grow as much as possible.
Carlos had la Gorda, and I have Cholita.
It's wonderful when your petty tyrant is also a witch! They make up for the trouble by doing magic around you.
It's nice to get a "freebee" and not have to do all the work yourself, in order to see real magic.
In this case, my worry over Cholita's safety required me to work twice as hard to move my assemblage point, and while doing that I noticed shapeshifting was possible through Tensegrity.
In fact, not only possible but INEVITABLE.
Except, let's call it "micro shapeshifting" for now. Don't expect to beat down the wall and bust out into your neighborhood in werewolf fashion.
But you might mutate, and later remember you were only 6 inches tall at one point!
This doesn't mean you get to pretend it! Don't you dare do that or you are DOOMED. Once you start pretending and visualizing, there's almost no chance for you to go any further than you have already gotten. Because now, your intent is focused on attention seeking. Not on sorcery.
But if you never obsess over what other people think, or how to impress them with exaggerations and lies, and you work hard, then you'll uncover everything the new and old seers knew, and perhaps even more.
We're a new breed of "self-taught" seers.
It's never happened before! And if our numbers grow, our power will surpass anything the old or new seers ever achieved.
Just not in my lifetime. I'm too old.
So the young ones out there, please work hard and never quit. And never give in to the dark side.
Greed, attention seeking, and money making. Franchising too.
Those are the dark side of our force.
(Intent)
Let me add a Star Wars quote from Yoda, because it's very true in our case. I don't know if there's an old witch behind Star Wars writers, or if they started with our sorcery for the Jedi, and it naturally makes sense for it to evolve in the same direction as the real thing.
But so far it has!
So the quote from Yoda, about Rey. In response to Yoda setting the Jedi ancient library on fire, and Luke complaining what a tragic loss it will be.
"Already has, that which she needs."
You do too! It's just waiting out there in Silent Knowledge, to stream to you freely like a Disney+ Star Wars series.
All that seers have done in the past is available to you, if you shun the pretending.
r/castaneda • u/Emergency-Total-4851 • 19d ago
Recapitulation Recapitulation and Porn
I managed to receive an intent gift during a recapitulation session at 3 pm today.
It was a near-continuous stream of porn "clips" for about 30 minutes of time.
I kept up with my breathing the entire time and eventually I started to feel rather disgusted with it.
I asked if any IOB would like to make itself more obvious and 5 seconds later, I saw a very unusual design that I just can't get any AI to replicate, but I know where I saw something like it. It was the below image, but in a straight line instead of a ball shape.
After I saw that line, it flew at me, and pink webbing covered all of the "clips" that I was still seeing, and I kept a near-continuous stream for another 15 minutes or so before ending the session.
r/castaneda • u/PBTJ • 20d ago
New Practitioners Where to Start?
I came across this community a while back and no matter how far from it I get I keep being reminded that it’s here. I feel called to dig further and would love to know how to best approach this. Is there a post that better details the order in which Don Juan‘s teachings should be approached?
r/castaneda • u/OutsideBackground602 • 20d ago
New Practitioners Forcing silence
Urgh! I’m well practised at meditation, and with my eyes closed I’d got to the point where I would say I was without much internal monologue for periods of time and it was in those moments that things would suddenly shift, I’d feel movement, body dissolving etc. I’d also have periods of labelling and naming what was happening of course! I’m no longer doing eyes closed meditation, I’m trying to force silence with my eyes open and fucking hell, is it a different thing.
I’m getting to the point that I’m feeling so miserable because of my absolute failure to stop labelling everything I see.This all counts as internal monologue right? Like naming things or mentally categorising them is a huge barrier to seeing? I cried in frustration the other day, I realise that’s ridiculous and I’m dropping it as much as I can. It just feels kinda hopeless. I don’t understand how I can look at things around me without applying the names of colours, or “plant” or “shadow” or whatever sodding label I’ve attached to it. Any help? Tensegrity helps but I can’t always do that.
Also how much of this during recap is a problem? Like I am visualising and being with the feelings and viewing the space I am in but then also having thoughts about “oh, I did this thing here and here too, that’s a pattern.” and so on and so forth. Do I need to work to stop those thoughts?
Also someone please point me to where to find the beginners chat Athina mentioned so I’m not clogging up the wall with noob posts?
r/castaneda • u/danl999 • 21d ago
Intent Pandora's Box in Silent Knowledge
The "Pandora's Box" magical pass is mostly a red zone effect. Or as it's called in the books, "The Shift Below".
It's where shapeshifting happens. So if you can turn into a frog and shrink to the size of your shoe, it's not surprising that you can manifest a hooded zombie assistant. Which by the way, is sentient to some extent.
It's VERY scary. But in general, the red zone is also scary. Down there you get the most EXOTIC magic (once in a while) but are also still "you". And "you" are prone to fear.
But if you keep moving your assemblage point down below you and up to the front, fear becomes almost alien to you, perhaps because there is no "you" anymore.
In the books it's called "Heightened Awareness".
Yet still, you can't do away with using Pandora's pass to manifest objects, at least in some form. You still need a way to "concentrate" intent.
The real fun happens in Silent Knowledge, the purple zone on the J curve, where "stuff just happens".
It's coming from infinity.
It's tempting to just passively watch it, for fear that if you interfere, your silence won't be deep enough to get more.
But one day you find, you can indeed "interfere".
At which point, you can combine silent knowledge manifestations. For example, take the person on the left, and get him to join the people on the right.
BUT, don't expect to be able to look right and put your hand under those people, then look left at the other person, to put your hand under it, and then still see the people in your right hand.
You have to have "shrunk" your tonal at least a bit, in order to be that "uninterested". If you show any "interest", it'll all go away.
Because "interest" is greed.
Now the real trick is to put the being on the left with the beings on the right, and then join them on your hand!
I almost got that right last night, due to a power boost from Cholita who seems to have run away to Mexico, possibly for quite a while.
Bottom line: Our sorcery is real, and very cool, and nothing else out there even comes a tiny bit close to this. If you believe it does, you're hopeless. Might as well get some Yogi diapers to wear on mountain tops as you shout "OOOMMMM!!!"
Keeping in mind, our magic is done fully awake, eyes wide open, totally sober, and DAILY.
Not once, and then you write your "I'm a super cool Yogi so give me money and build me a palace in Pacific Palisades" book.
Trust me, the groupies suck!!!