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Sedona Journal - Oct 1996 JOURNEYS WITH CARLOS CASTANEDA'S TENSEGRITY Elizabeth Kaye McCall P.O. Box 6894 Malibu, CA 90264 Tel: (3IO) 457-7679  Fax: (310) 457-004l TALES AND TEACHINGS FROM THE NAVIGATORS OF INFINITY Los Angeles, California, July 30,1996 -- I went to Tensegrity armed with a journalist's self-importance. The workshops forged by Carlos Castaneda to teach "magical passes" (movements) discovered by the shamans of ancient Mexico were quickly gaining notoriety, and I wanted to do an article on the unusual-sounding seminars before they hit the mainstream. What I encountered caused me to drop a role, my dictaphone and notepad and deal with experiences that are unique by any workshop standard. Others I've met through Tensegrity have also generously shared their perceptions. "I was first introduced to Carlos by a friend, and I didn't know anything about him. I had not read one word of any of his books," said Greg Mamishian, a Topanga Canyon, California, electrician who participated in classes taught by Castaneda several years ago, before the name "Tensegrity" was adopted. "We just called them `the experimental classes.' He introduced the name of Tensegrity later on." Back then a group of 30 to 35 students would meet and learn one small movement in each session, according to Mamishian, in contrast to the more elaborate passes since taught, which typically involve "a lot of movements strung together." For several months Mamishian attended the classes once or twice a week. Then as now, the passes often involved vigorous physical movement, and the teaching was often interspersed with Castaneda's tales of his apprentice-ship with the Mexican Indian shaman, or sorcerer, don Juan Matus. "Oh, he'd tell the funniest stories; he's just a masterful storyteller," raved Mamishian. For those who attend Tensegrity now, Castaneda's frequent but unscheduled talks at the seminars is a highlight of the event for many. "I remember the first thing he told us: `You are all beings that are going to die.' And that's always been the starting point," reflected Mamishian on a theme that pervades Tensegrity and Castaneda's work. Mamishian, a long-time Zen meditation practitioner, also distinctly remembered his first encounter with Castaneda when the person he would soon come to know as the nagual was looking for a parking spot outside the meeting place. Mamishian promptly offered his own. "What impressed me, I think, almost as much as anything else, was how much he (Castaneda) appreciated that, genuinely appreciated somebody giving him a parking spot," he said, recounting that memorable day. By the end of the evening and Castaneda's over three-hour talk on the sorcerer's world, the daytime electrician was inspired to learn as much as he could. "I had no preconceptions, and I'm so glad it was that way because I had no idea of his (Castaneda's) past. I just saw the end result of 35 years. I saw the end product and I instantly liked it," reflected Mamishian. Castaneda's frequent remarks on having a "love affair with knowledge" held a special significance. "He loves the unknown. He's totally captivated by it, and now I am, too." Mamishian quickly devoured all the books Castaneda had ever written and very early on experienced the unusual sort of dreaming that they repeatedly describe. "Dreaming as the sorcerers dream is an exercise of awareness and an exercise of perception," explained Mamishian, while describing how he'd followed the method outlined in Castaneda's books to remind himself at bedtime to "look for your hands when you dream." One night, in the midst of a normal dream, Mamishian experienced a nagging feeling about something he was supposed to remember. "All of a sudden it struck me, and I said to myself, Look for your hands, stupid! and I did. I held my hands out in front of me and I looked, and there were my hands, and it triggered an awakening in my dream," he continued. "I was so stunned at being awake and yet being in a dream. I tell you, it is nerve-shattering, because we're used to only being awake here." Now, with the added experiences of three Tensegrity workshops, Mamishian commented on their effect upon his dreaming state: "At night, that's when I'd notice the difference. I would have enough energy to become aware." As before, the opportunities the workshops offered to hear Castaneda and his cohorts talk about their seemingly unbelievable lives, stood out. "I loved seeing Carlos. I loved listening to him. What the seminar allows you to do is to kind of have a little taste of their world ... and the Tensegrity is a part of that, because the aim or intention of Tensegrity has nothing to do with our everyday life. It changes your point of perception very subtly and you get a chance to taste the sorcerer's world." Like a number of people who have attended the workshops, Mamishian regularly practices Tensegrity with one or more of the groups that have spontaneously emerged in Los Angeles and other cities where people meet to do the movements. Although not affiliated with Castaneda or Cleargreen Inc. (the Santa Monica-based company that organizes Tensegrity), the practice groups provide many people with a regular venue for reviewing the expanding collection of passes. News on upcoming workshops, Internet announcements (Cleargreen now has a Web page at http://www.castaneda.org) and Castaneda lore is also plentiful at the groups. "There is such a sense of mystique about all these people that rumors swirl around them like a cyclone," said Mamishian. "There's so much secondhand knowledge... people love little bits and pieces." So much, however, that at one point Castaneda used the Internet to make it known that he did not wish to be worshipped as a guru. Yet beyond Castaneda's immense popularity, people's experience with Tensegrity are diverse. Few things can set off ego, judgments and habitual behavior patterns faster than walking into a room of 200 plus strangers, which I encountered at my first Tensegrity workshop November 10-12, 1995, in Los Angeles. Even with the prohibition on notetaking (which exists for all participants), my mind chattered incessantly with the details I was attempting to remember. It was immediately apparent that the organization was well-run. From traffic directors monitoring the parking area to greeters by the well-positioned registration tables, "the look" exuded the expertise of professional meeting and event planners. Once inside, my detached observations began to crumble. People who have attended a number of Tensegrity workshops say that each one is different. November's was marked by a buzz of activity that was apparent from the start. The immediate sight of veteran Tensegrity participants (people who know what this is about, my mind added) quickly caught my eyes. Little could I then imagine myself subsequently enacting the pawing, ground-hog-inspired movements of the pass "Being from the Ground" that I saw enthusiastically practiced by small groups scattered around the room. Meanwhile the slogans on those sporting Tensegrity T-shirts hinted at what was ahead. "Self-importance kills ...do Tensegrity," said one, echoing a key theme. Another reading "The magic is in the movement" zeroed in on the hours spent at every workshop learning to perform the different passes. But the shirt with "The energy body is not where you are... do Tensegrity" distilled primary reasons for performing these high-powered movements. The passes are said to retrieve portions of the energy body that have become separated from our physical selves through the course of daily living. They also help to stop the incessant internal dialogue that robs us of inner silence. It is always a mystery at Tensegrity workshops as to who will appear on stage. The lectures are given by any or all of don Juan's four disciples - Carlos Castaneda, Carol Tiggs, Florinda Donner-Grau and Taisha Abelar - based on the energetic configuration of the moment. Conditions were such last November that all appeared in the course of the weekend (an unprecedented event). Also, for the first time a slim young woman named the Blue Scout left the pages of Castaneda's book (The Art of Dreaming) to join the cast of literary characters sprung to life at this workshop. The female sorcerers, whom Castaneda is quick to call "the witches," are gifted speakers who captivate the audience with tales and teachings from their multidimensional existences. Seasoned workshopgoers were on their feet applauding before I realized that Castaneda had entered the room. After the surprise of seeing him in the flesh (he reminded me of a leprechaun or a jockey), I was struck by his incredible sense of humor. Were he ever to agree to be filmed, he would be a great guest for Jay Leno or David Letterman. At one point in his hour-long talk, he smiled as if sharing a secret and said, "I'm empty inside." And it looked as if there was nothing beneath the animated pant legs that spun around the stage with his words. Along with premises on energy and perception that are central to the sorcerer's world, Castaneda talked of an ongoing workshop theme - self-importance - and joked about what his life might have been like (parking cars, he laughed) had it not been for the shaman teacher don Juan, who basically recruited him. Castaneda quickly educated anyone unfamiliar with the works of this Who's Who in America author on how the human energetic form has shifted from an egg shape of the past into a configuration now more like a sphere. He explained how perception of different realities results from the movement of a luminous point behind the shoulder blades (the "assemblage point") where perception is assembled. Given the approximately 600 different points around the human sphere, a subtle shift of the assemblage point can presumably mean a voyage to other worlds. It was Carol Tiggs who was the first I heard call Castaneda and his group "navigators of infinity." Attractive, charismatic and witty, Tiggs paced the stage to map out its boundaries after stating her name as a sorcerer (protocol for the world she inhabits). Tiggs "jumped grooves" as she explained a process (which some might call channeling) to access another time and told of experiences from her life on the sor-cerer's path. Like a master mind reader tuned to the nonstop thoughts that consume most human attention, Tiggs voiced the endless talking that goes on inside one's head. Florinda Donner-Grau later laughed that Tiggs had wanted to title the workshop "What About Me!!" to emphasize the ego's desperate battle as it fights to keep control. Tiggs brought seven people to the stage and pushed them into a moment of silence as the room grew hushed and virtually throbbed with electricity. After seating them side by side, Tiggs walked down the line and said, "Look into my left eye," meanwhile gently pushing each of the "chosen ones" to recline, "She did it for everyone in the audience," said one woman, later discussing what had happened. "If everyone can stop thinking I wish I was up there and open yourself to the moment, she (Tiggs) will reset everyone in the room. As you get moments of silence, you get more and more empty," the woman continued - which creates the opportunity for choice, according to Castaneda. Donner-Grau, the self-described somnambulist (dreamer) of the group, explained that sorcerers often share and can mutually experience other realities- even to the extent that entities from her dreaming world have at times shown up in the everyday world, where her cohorts also perceived them. Donner-Grau stressed the importance of setting the intention to keep the two worlds separate to avoid having one bleed through to the other. When the cat-rabbit entity from her dreaming world showed upon the streets of Los Angeles, one of Donner-Grau' associates also saw it and became ill for nearly a week. Conversations with people about Tensegrity invariably bring up the question of whether or not the stories told by Castaneda and his fellow sorcerers are real or if they are instead a symbolic journey. According to the four navigators, it's as real as this world that we consider to be "it." So real, in fact, that one of them compared our daily world to a little window we look out, and then think the window is "it." (A memory flashed - high school - and a story by Plato about people who lived in caves and thought the shadows were the real world.) Unlike the other speakers, who were surrounded by a flurry of activity as they entered the room, Taisha Abelar quietly appeared on stage. Standing alone, she described her travels to the edge of infinity with a warrior dog named Manfred when he departed from the world, and how that journey forever changed her life - a part of her never returned .Emotion and affection saturated the air as Abelar shared with us her final moments with Manfred, a sorcerer incarnated in a dog-body, who became her teacher, companion and friend. As Abelar spoke of Manfred and later of Castaneda, her voice transmitted immense affection and the power that she said exists when affection comes from a place of non attachment. A slim young woman who said she lives in two worlds introduced herself as the Blue Scout. She explained that it is hard for her to keep weight on because she's restless; as a scout, her role is t h e o n e who goes ahead. In this world she is the daughter of Carol Tiggs and Carlos Castaneda, the woman said. Then she read poetry written years before by her father that expressed the thoughts and feelings of a man who traded the academic life for the sorcerer's world. The Blue Scout's own poetry emerged this year in Carlos Castaneda's Readers of Infinity (formerly The Warriors' Way), A Journal of Applied Hermeneutics, which is published by Cleargreen Inc. (Hermeneutics, which was first a method for interpreting sacred, often biblical texts, now addresses historical, social and other aspects of our world.) A substantial portion of every workshop is focused on learning and practicing the movements handed down from the ancient sorcerers. Three women brought these magical passes to the general public in 1995 - Kylie Lundahl, Reni Murez and Nyei Murez. Then identified as the chacmools (a Mayan category of warrior guardians) at a collection of workshops held throughout the United States and in Mexico, the seemingly tireless trio taught thousands of people to enact the passes. In December 1995 a major restructuring occurred at the year's final seminar in Anaheim, California. The chacmool unit was dissolved and a new instructional format was implemented with the start of 1996. Reincarnated into a six-member group called the Energy Trackers, Lundahl, Murez and Murez now teach the magical passes, paired with three other female instructors. Richard Jennings, a former corporate lawyer in the entertainment industry and currently executive director of Hollywood Supports (in Los Angeles), has participated in nearly every Tensegrity workshop since tracking them down on the 1nternet. His first encounter with Castaneda's "witches" at the spring 1995 Omega workshop in New York was moving: "I had this experience driving up that is basically indescribable," said Jennings. "It started with a sense of how alive everything was all around me. I felt the entire history of Manhattan as I was wading through traffic to the main artery to get out of town. It was just a level of deep awareness." Jennings contends that during the drive he gained an insight on everything that had happened to that point in his life. "I suddenly knew why I'd done so many things," he remarked. Other issues were clarified in the course of the weekend. "I'd been fascinated by all of Castaneda's books, but I had a lot of doubts," said the California native. "It was really Omega that convinced me that they are doing what they were talking about... that they were authentic." Another avid Tensegrity participant, who was so moved by his first workshop that he relocated to Los Angeles to attend last summer's intensive three-week course, had a similar mystical experience. But his came before any of the workshops. After convincing a friend who had attended Tensegrity in Arizona to show himself and a few friends some passes from the workshop, the group headed to the mountains. "While we were practicing them on this rocky outcropping overlooking a valley, a small fox came up to us. We were standing in a circle and the fox kind of walked up... then it went to each person in the circle and it sniffed them just like a dog might do, or a cat. After doing that, it went and sat a little bit away and watched us for quite a while as we did the passes" said the now-Westside (Los Angeles) professional. With three workshops already under his belt for 1996 (the only other this year was for women only, "The Female Energy Body"), Jennings made some comparisons with others he's attended. "Oakland (April 19-21, 1996) was a new milestone. It definitely took things to a whole new level. Each witch's individual lecture was more powerful, more focused than I'd ever seen them. They were talking about things we haven't heard about before. "Carol Tiggs topped it off. She was powerful like we've never seen her... weaving a11 these threads together, describing her interactions with don Juan, talking about how she's tried to carve her perception of things, get rid of ego..." Jennings reflected. The passes learned in Oakland brought additional comments. "They really engender, more than the previous passes, an immediate sense of inner silence. They're briefer. There is a very set order," Jennings explained. The set consisted of five warm-ups and ten passes that participants were instructed to perform exclusively for the next month, at the nagual's (Castaneda) request. This contrasts with the general format with relatively few constraints. Jennings also remarked on the receptiveness of the audience. "There was more suspension of judgment than I think I've ever seen and that allowed them (Castaneda's cohorts) to go deeper and to tell us things that they haven't been able to tell us before." A reference made in the January Oakland workshop about the sorcerer's book of navigation resurfaced during the April Tensegrity weekend. "I had a sense that they were giving us at least chapters out of this book of navigation, if not the complete book," said Jennings. The workshop also stressed the importance of recapitulation (one of the topics to be taught at a week-long workshop July 20-25)."They've given us over the past year the first-level Tensegrity to start honing our energy bodies," said Jennings. "But to really go further with that, to create a new home for our increased energy, we have to really take a serious look at all our encounters, the way we repeat ourselves through our lives... and to release the energy from those various situations." Some of the changes Jennings has noticed in himself as a result of doing Tensegrity are weight loss and the reduction of bad habits and compulsions. "I gave up sugar, gave up caffeine and feel a lot more sober as a result," he said. "You don't need stimulants anymore." It's about practical options that help us open up to what's around in the world, including energy as it flows." Another workshop regular commented on changes he has experienced since doing Tensegrity: "1 stopped drinking coffee right away." Increased physical vitality and an increase in level of energy were also noted after he quit the coffee." The amount of energy that you have seems to be a really important factor in anything you do in any field of endeavor" the man noted. "From meditation, to your job, to going grocery shopping or whatever - just enjoying life." I had expected Tensegrity to be a local (Los Angeles) event. What a misperception! There were people from Italy, France, Argentina, Venezuela, Canada, Mexico and beyond. Some people drove to the workshop all night from San Francisco; others flew from points across the United States. There was one ten-year-old, to some seventy- year-olds, a high percentage of men and an absence of the usual tight-fitting, bright-colored garb common at many southern California functions. "Everybody has a different idea,' said Mamishian, who has often wondered about why others do Tensegrity and the results they experience "What's happened to them as a result of Tensegrity is totally different. It's a very very open thing, and people's intention are very different. It's like an open architecture," he remarked. "I don even drink soda pop, but yet I've had experiences that could only described as psychedelic, but with one difference - that they came about totally naturally. Just from me saving energy and redeploying energy in a very specific way." As Tensegrity continues to reincarnate from 1995's Year of the Chacmool into the Energy Trackers in 1996, ongoing evolution appears certain. "They'll always change. It will never set in stone," smiled a certain Mamishian. When l last heard Castaneda speak during a question-and-answer period someone asked him where the assemblage point of the Earth is located. Castaneda paused and reflected, at if looking like he was going to make a joke out of the response. Then he; seriously, "Maybe Los Angeles... I d know. Don Juan left us here." Footnote: Tensegrity is derived from an architectural term combining tension and integrity. It was deemed i name for Castaneda's modernized version and teachings of the magical passes because they incorporate selective tension and relaxation of key body parts. Copyright October 1996 Sedona Journal

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