dreaming

The Tenant – The Art of Dreaming

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Art of Dreaming / By / 32 minutes of reading

In this chapter, don Juan Matus informs Carlos Castaneda that his formal instruction in dreaming is over, but he must outline the fourth gate of dreaming. He takes Castaneda to a town in southern Mexico for a final lesson, which is to be delivered by a mysterious visitor. This visitor is revealed to be the “tenant,” an ancient sorcerer also known as the death defier. Castaneda is overcome with panic and revulsion when he discovers the tenant, who he had previously met as a man, is now a woman. Don Juan explains that for such a powerful sorcerer, gender is a matter of choice, achieved by shifting the assemblage point. Castaneda must now face the tenant alone to make a decision about accepting or rejecting the tenant’s “gifts of power,” a choice that every nagual in their lineage has had to make.

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The Woman in the Church – The Art of Dreaming

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Art of Dreaming / By / 33 minutes of reading

After being left by don Juan, Carlos Castaneda kneels in the church next to the death defier, an ancient sorcerer who appears as a woman. Initially terrified, he is mesmerized by her voice and presence. He offers her his energy freely but refuses her obligatory “gifts of power.” The woman then pulls him into the second attention, revealing the church and town as they existed in a different time, a product of her own intent. She explains the sorcerers’ art of creating veritable realms in dreaming through visualization and the technique of “twin positions.” Castaneda explores this tangible dream world with her, learning that only she generates energy within it. The experience culminates in a terrifying realization that their current reality might also be a shared dream, causing him to lose consciousness in a spinning descent into blackness.

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Flying on the Wings of Intent – The Art of Dreaming

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Art of Dreaming / By / 31 minutes of reading

After a prolonged encounter with the death defier, Carlos Castaneda awakens to find his fellow apprentice, Carol Tiggs, caring for him. Disoriented and partially paralyzed, he learns from her that he is in a hotel after being found naked near the church. Carol, displaying a new lucidity, explains that they are both intending in the second attention, a gift from the death defier that allows them to dream themselves into another time. Castaneda is consumed by affection for her but is soon pulled into a vortex. He later awakens alone and discovers from a distraught don Juan that he has been missing for nine days and that the real Carol Tiggs was never there. Don Juan deduces that the death defier used her own energy and Castaneda’s to create a “dream Carol” of pure intent, and that both the real Carol and the death defier have now merged and escaped this world, flying on the “wings of intent”—an abstract gift and a fate now shared with Castaneda.

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Taisha Abelar – exclusive interview with Keith Nichols

Agglutination point, Art, Interviews, Stalking, Warrior Path, Way of the Warrior / By / 13 minutes of reading

“Reflections on don Juan by Carlos Castaneda”by Keith Nichols Real root expansion of thought is one that causes us to reevaluate the way that we interpret our reality. Although at first it may only affect our intellectual perspectives, its repercussions

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Stalking, Intent and The Dreaming Position – The Fire from Within

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Fire from Within / By / 22 minutes of reading

Don Juan continues his teachings on the mastery of awareness, introducing the three cornerstones of the new seers’ practices: the mastery of stalking, the mastery of intent, and the mastery of dreaming. He explains that stalking, a systematic control of behavior, subtly shifts the assemblage point and was uniquely developed by the new seers to handle people. The mastery of intent involves understanding and purposefully guiding “will,” the energy of alignment that shapes perception. Don Juan then elaborates on dreaming, revealing it as the most effective way to move the assemblage point, starting with its natural shift during sleep. He details the dangers of dreaming, stressing the necessity of sobriety and the warriors’ way to cultivate the inner strength needed to guide the assemblage point. Castaneda witnesses Genaro’s dreaming body in action, a non-human luminous blob, and learns that true mastery allows one to wake up in different “dreaming positions.” The chapter emphasizes that impeccability and unbending intent are key to achieving these shifts and the full potential of a warrior, enabling even collective dreaming among seers.

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Silent Knowledge – Introduction

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, Silent Knowledge / By / 6 minutes of reading

In this introduction, Castaneda presents the core concept of “silent knowledge,” described by his teacher, don Juan Matus, as the ultimate goal of the sorcerers of ancient Mexico. This state of awareness, where all pertinent knowledge is revealed directly to the being, is born from its matrix: “inner silence,” a state free from the internal dialogue. Castaneda recounts his difficulty in grasping these abstract ideas until don Juan offered a more modern analogy: becoming “readers of infinity.” He explains that rigid procedures are useless for this path; the key is reinforcing one’s link with a universal force called “intent.” Castaneda also introduces the “magical passes” as a practical means to achieve the physical and mental well-being necessary for this journey. Finally, he reveals that because he and his companions are the end of don Juan’s lineage, they have decided to make the magical passes public under the name “Tensegrity,” and he outlines the five main topics of the book that lead to silent knowledge.

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Silent Knowledge – The Magical Passes

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, Silent Knowledge / By / 4 minutes of reading

In this chapter, Castaneda recounts his first in-depth discussion with don Juan Matus about the “magical passes,” which began with a criticism of his physical condition. Don Juan reveals he had been teaching Castaneda the passes all along, disguised as his habit of “cracking his joints.” He explains that these movements are not mere exercises but are truly “magical” because they can halt the mind’s normal “lines of similarity” and interrupt the mundane flow of reality, which is perceived as fixed and unchangeable. Don Juan also makes the startling claim that the mind is a “foreign installation” and that the passes help to overcome its influence. He reveals that the origin of the passes lies in the *dreaming* practices of ancient sorcerers, who discovered them as a way to recreate states of well-being and prepare for their “navigations into the unknown.”

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Silent Knowledge – Dreaming

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, Silent Knowledge / By / 4 minutes of reading

In this chapter, Castaneda explores the “art of dreaming,” which he defines as the sorcerers’ technique for breaking the parameters of normal perception to travel into the unknown. Don Juan explains that sorcerers’ dreaming (*ensoñar*) is different from ordinary dreaming (*soñar*) and is based on the deliberate displacement of the “assemblage point” from its usual position. This practice originated from the ancient sorcerers’ observation that the assemblage point moves naturally during sleep. The key to this art is the development of “dreaming attention,” a focused awareness that allows the practitioner to control the dream state and enter other real, energy-generating worlds. The art of dreaming is complemented by the “art of stalking,” which is the ability to hold the assemblage point fixed in its new position, allowing for a full exploration of these other realms.

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Silent Knowledge – The Westwood Series

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, Silent Knowledge / By / 29 minutes of reading

This final chapter is dedicated to “The Westwood Series,” a specific sequence of magical passes designed to integrate the other four “concerns” of the ancient sorcerers: the center for decisions, the Recapitulation, dreaming, and inner silence. Don Juan explained that the magical passes themselves act as an “agglutinating force,” a vibration that binds these other areas of practice into a single, functional unit. The chapter serves as a practical manual, organizing the series into four distinct sections, each corresponding to one of the other concerns. It then provides detailed descriptions and instructions for performing each of the individual passes within these four categories, outlining their specific movements and energetic purposes.

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