energy body

Journal of Applied Hermeneutics – Perception Must Be Intended In Its Completeness

A Journal of Applied Hermeneutics, Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, Uncategorized / By / 2 minutes of reading

Castaneda presents the third premise of the warriors’ way: “Perception Must Be Intended In Its Completeness”. He relays that don Juan Matus taught that all perception is inherently neutral, and must be accepted without judgment. Don Juan distinguished his teachings as entries from a “book of navigation” detailing sorcerers’ direct perceptions. The key to this premise is reinterpreting energy without the mind, an act requiring the whole being. This complete interpretation is achieved through the union of the physical body and the “energy body”. Therefore, intending perception in its completeness means reinterpreting energy with both of these essential parts of oneself fully engaged.

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Journal of Applied Hermeneutics – The Energy Body

A Journal of Applied Hermeneutics, Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, Uncategorized / By / 2 minutes of reading

In this section, Castaneda introduces the fourth unit of the warriors’ way: the Energy Body. He relays don Juan Matus’s description of it as a mirror-image energy configuration to our physical body, also called the “double” or “dreaming body”. Don Juan taught that the only true dualism is between the physical body and the energy body, which are naturally a single unit but are pushed apart from birth. Castaneda explains that a sorcerer’s discipline aims to bring the energy body closer, which allows for forging it into a solid “double”. The assemblage point serves as the link between the two bodies, and don Juan believed that death occurs when this connection is finally severed.

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Silent Knowledge – The Westwood Series

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, Silent Knowledge, Uncategorized / 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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The First Gate of Dreaming

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Art of Dreaming, Uncategorized / By / 22 minutes of reading

Don Juan began Castaneda’s formal instruction in the art of dreaming by teaching him about the first of seven gates. He told him he had to learn to “set up dreaming,” which meant taking control of a dream and not letting it shift. The first task was to look at his hands in his dreams. After months of failure, don Juan explained that Castaneda had encountered the first gate of dreaming, which is crossed by becoming aware of the sensation of falling asleep. To do this, one must *intend* it, a concept he explained was understood not by the rational mind but by the “energy body.”

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The Second Gate of Dreaming

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

After mastering the first gate of dreaming, Castaneda began to hear a nagging voice in his dreams, which don Juan identified as an entity from another world. Don Juan instructed him to command it to stop, which he did successfully. This marked my readiness for the second gate: waking up from a dream into another dream. This task proved difficult, but eventually, he found himself being pulled from one dream scene to another, and then another, a process he confirmed was the correct way to cross the second gate. He then introduced Castaneda to the concept of inorganic beings—conscious, energy-based life forms that are long, opaque, and candle-like. Don Juan explained that by crossing the first two gates, he had set bait for them and that the jolts of fear he was experiencing were their way of making contact.

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The Third Gate of Dreaming

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Art of Dreaming, Uncategorized / By / 38 minutes of reading

Don Juan introduces Castaneda to the third gate of dreaming, which is reached when one finds oneself in a dream staring at one’s own sleeping body. The task of this gate is to move the energy body, an act which deliberately merges the dreaming and daily realities and helps to complete or consolidate the energy body. Castaneda finds himself stuck in his initial attempts, either waking up screaming or being paralyzed in the dream. Don Juan explains this is due to remaining emotional debris and prescribes another, more fluid round of recapitulation. After this, Castaneda is still unable to “walk” in his dreams until don Juan reveals the riddle: the energy body does not walk, it moves like energy itself—by being willed to soar or glide. Upon learning this, Castaneda finds his energy body is complete. Don Juan then reveals the true task of the third gate: to deliberately see energy in dreaming. This ability becomes the ultimate validation, allowing a dreamer to distinguish between a real, energy-generating world and a phantom dream.

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Stalking the Stalkers

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Art of Dreaming, Uncategorized / By / 25 minutes of reading

After becoming ill from the cognitive dissonance of meeting his fellow apprentices in the world of everyday life, Castaneda is given the final task of the third gate of dreaming by don Juan: a maneuver called “stalking the stalkers.” This involves deliberately drawing energy from the inorganic realm to make a physical journey into another world, using awareness itself as an energetic medium for travel. Because the feat requires immense energy, Castaneda must perform it with Carol Tiggs. In a Mexico City hotel, they attempt the maneuver, but instead of the intended controlled process, they are violently hurled into another world, waking up naked in a primitive shack. They realize they are in a trap set by the inorganic beings, where the world’s overpowering realness threatens to erase their memories of their origin. By shedding the world’s clothes and maintaining their focus, they manage to escape, waking up in their hotel room eighteen hours later. Don Juan explains that they succeeded in traveling physically but failed the task’s true intent, as the inorganic beings had hijacked the maneuver to trap them, just as they had trapped the sorcerers of antiquity.

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The Tenant

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

Don Juan informs Castaneda that his formal dreaming instruction is ending, but before it does, the spirit dictates that he must be told about the fourth gate of dreaming. This gate concerns the energy body’s ability to travel to concrete places, either in this world, out of this world, or to places existing only in another’s intent. For a final lesson, don Juan takes Castaneda to the plaza of a small Mexican town, a place historically connected to the sorcerers of antiquity. There, he reveals that Castaneda is destined to meet the “tenant,” the ancient death-defier who has been giving “gifts of power” to the naguals of don Juan’s line for centuries. Overcoming extreme fear, Castaneda is led to the local church where don Juan points out the tenant—who appears as an unassuming woman. Castaneda bolts in terror, shocked by the revelation. Don Juan explains that for such a sorcerer, gender is a matter of choice, a result of manipulating the assemblage point, and that this is the first part of his lesson. After being goaded by don Juan and the dreaming emissary, Castaneda agrees to face his unavoidable appointment.

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