The Art of Dreaming

The Blue Scout – The Art of Dreaming

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Art of Dreaming / By / 19 minutes of reading

Following a perilous dream experience, Carlos Castaneda wakes up severely depleted of energy in don Juan’s home, discovering he was pulled out of the inorganic beings’ world. His companions, especially Florinda Grau, explain his “energetic wounding” and how he became “charged again” but with a disturbing new energy. Don Juan eventually reveals that Castaneda’s physical body was abducted by inorganic beings after his energy body entered their realm to free the **blue scout**. Don Juan, along with Carol Tiggs and others, intervened to rescue him by displacing their assemblage points. The chapter highlights the unprecedented nature of this event within their lineage and the grave implications for Castaneda’s future, as he is now tasked with freeing the scout, a challenge don Juan suggests he can resolve by consulting the emissary.

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The Third Gate of Dreaming – The Art of Dreaming

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

Carlos Castaneda enters the **third gate of dreaming**, where the goal is to merge his dreaming reality with daily reality by consolidating his **energy body**. He struggles with the compulsion to be absorbed by mundane details within his dreams, a challenge don Juan attributes to the energy body’s inexperience. Don Juan emphasizes the role of the **assemblage point** in this process and reveals that Castaneda’s physical body was abducted by inorganic beings, only to be rescued by don Juan and his companions, including Carol Tiggs, who collectively shifted their assemblage points. Castaneda learns that his struggle to move in dreams is due to his trying to “walk” his energy body, when it should glide or soar. Don Juan then sets the next task: to practice **seeing energy** in his dreams, the true measure of whether he is in a real world or a mere phantom projection.

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The New Area of Exploration – The Art of Dreaming

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

In this chapter, Carlos Castaneda progresses to the “new area of exploration” in dreaming, focusing on **seeing energy** by voicing his intent. He recounts his initial struggles with this practice, as items in his dreams would vanish or change. Don Juan explains that his previous dreams were merely “phantom projections” and that true seeing occurs when the **energy body** perceives energy-generating items in a real world. Castaneda describes a vivid dream where he saw objects glow and encountered an aggressive, hateful energy. Don Juan reveals this was a real journey to another layer of the universe, where an entity attacked him due to his “availability.” Don Juan further reveals the profound and disturbing truth that the energy sorcerers use to move their **assemblage points** comes from the **inorganic beings’ realm**, a legacy from ancient sorcerers. Despite the danger, Castaneda is urged to continue his practices, maintain **impeccability**, and strive for **freedom** by subtly “stalking” the inorganic beings and taking their energy without succumbing to their influence.

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Stalking the Stalkers – The Art of Dreaming

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

Carlos Castaneda recounts his struggles with the collapsing boundary of the **second attention**, leading to fatigue and a need for don Juan’s aid. Don Juan proposes “stalking the stalkers” as the final task of the **third gate of dreaming**, which involves deliberately drawing energy from the **inorganic beings’ realm** to perform a sorcery feat: a journey using awareness as an energetic element. Carol Tiggs joins Castaneda for this dangerous endeavor. Their attempt results in an unexpected, terrifying abduction of their physical bodies into an unknown world by the inorganic beings, a trap previously set for ancient sorcerers. Don Juan explains that their combined energy, though substantial, wasn’t the primary factor in their journey; the inorganic beings’ manipulation was. He warns them that their unique situation makes them targets and advises them to avoid each other to prevent future abductions. Castaneda’s dreaming practices are then re-focused on **seeing energy** in various states.

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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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Author’s Note – The Art of Dreaming

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Art of Dreaming / By / 8 minutes of reading

In this introductory note, Carlos Castaneda clarifies his use of the term “sorcery” to describe the teachings of his mentor, don Juan Matus, distinguishing it from conventional definitions. He explains that for don Juan, sorcery is about manipulating perception to access other real worlds, a practice called “the art of dreaming.” Castaneda recounts his own experiences learning this art, his interactions with two distinct groups of apprentices, and the challenges of reconciling his experiences in the “second attention” with everyday reality. He states that the purpose of this book is to rearrange and present don Juan’s lessons on dreaming in a linear fashion, made possible by years of dedicated practice, and to ultimately explain the legacy don Juan left to his final students as an act of gratitude.

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Sorcerers of antiquity: an introduction – The Art of Dreaming

Ancient Cycle, Authors, Carlos Castaneda, The Art of Dreaming / By / 28 minutes of reading

In this chapter, Carlos Castaneda recounts don Juan’s explanation of the foundational principles of sorcery, established by brilliant but obsessive “sorcerers of antiquity.” Don Juan contrasts their focus on concrete power with modern sorcerers’ search for abstract freedom. The core discovery of the ancients was the ability to perceive energy directly, which they called “seeing.” This led to the identification of the human energy form as a “luminous egg” and its crucial feature: the “assemblage point,” a spot of brilliance that assembles filaments of universal energy into our perception of the world. Castaneda learns that displacing this point—either as a “shift” within the luminous egg or a “movement” outside of it—is the key to perceiving other worlds and is the basis for the “second attention” and the art of “dreaming,” which is defined as the willful displacement of the assemblage point during sleep.

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The second gate of dreaming – The Art of Dreaming

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

In this chapter, Carlos Castaneda details his journey through the “second gate of dreaming.” After mastering the first gate by developing his “dreaming attention,” he is instructed by don Juan that the next task is to learn to move from one dream into another. This practice leads him to experience jolts of fear, which don Juan reveals are the initial contacts from conscious, non-biological entities called “inorganic beings.” These beings are attracted to the energy charge created by dreamers. After Castaneda’s dreams become fixated on two candle-shaped inorganic beings, don Juan guides him to confront them in the waking world. Castaneda physically wrestles one of the beings, an act which establishes a “watery” or emotional connection that don Juan warns is dangerous and can lead to dependency, even as it opens the door to forming alliances and exploring other worlds.

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