Tensegrity Seminars

Santa Monica - April 1998 [ 1998 Index | Previous | Next ] To:   The Ixtlan Mailing List Date:   Wed, 08 Apr 1998 01:54:21 PDT Santa Monica April 4th (Part I): Hello all you sexy, sex starved people out there in warrior land. I am Juan Jose Yera. So pleased to address everyone again. The Santa Monica workshop was a very special event for me cause, I met many of the people that are behind the post at IML and Tango. I first want to thank them all and send my warmest affection. It was a joy to see you and do Tensegrity with all of youz. LA was again being affected by El Nino. It seemed to be constantly drizzling the whole time. The skies were marvelously gray and dreary, with an occasional splash of sun. The temperatures were also rather low. The seminar was held in the gymnasium of a local College campus in Santa Monica. Reports are that Santa Monica is an area that the Sorcerers frequent. Not far from the campus is the Mysterious Blue cafe, a Cuban restaurant where Castaneda has had some interviews and where he and his cohorts have been seen, by people on this list, eating Cuban food. Really traumatic events, from the gossip I have heard, but can say no more about it without revealing my sources. The only advise I can give is that if you go to that place, when you leave make certain you have packed a bag. You may get lost on your way home and end up going west when you thought you were going east, as I know my car pool buddy and I did. Upon arrival to the sight the number givers were out side. At the tables were the arrays of people seated giving out the badges and collecting the disclaimer forms. One of the people sitting at the table was Miles from the book. Oddly, there were no security persons searching bags and no wands. The Tensegrity greeters were there, as ever, checking the stinking badges. The inside walls were lined with folded bleachers and the overhead was crisscrossed with steal girders, ducting and pipes of various sizes. The floor, a hard wood basket ball deck. Unlike at other seminars the lights were turned on full and remained so the whole time. No cameras were set up this time around. There were about 419 participants. One thing that caught my attention was a group of people that were wearing Groucho Marx glasses. Quite bizarre if you ask me, but I guess it takes all kinds to be a warrior. Of all the people I could have possibly seen first as I entered the arena was my petty tyrant from the last seminar. She was right in front of me and just so happen to have a number in the same line that I had to stand in. She ended up right in front of me in the line. I was not ready to confront my petty tyrant there and then so I just gawked and made certain I did not end up next to her on the mats, power spots be dammed. The afternoon started promptly at 2 o'clock. All three of the witches were there seemingly the whole time and did the passes as we did them. The only speaker was Florinda. Her talk was a mere 10 minutes long very halting and broken. She seemed, to me, to be quite drifty this time around. Perhaps in an altered state. It seemed she could not say anything right unless she was reading it straight from her Q-cards. She touched upon what Tensegrity was and some of the normal definitions of the warriors way which frankly I can not remember. The focal point of her talk, for me, was her recounting of an encounter with a person which at first she did not want to reveal their sex, however in the course of her story she kept on saying "she" and then would immediately say "I mean he", and then say "they" in an effort to cover up that she had said she. She seemed compelled to say "she" even though she appeared to be truly perplexed at the fact that she was constantly "spilling the beans" so to speak. Well her story was about how "he" was frustrated about following the warriors way and that "he" was doing Tensegrity and things but could not feel any thing, had not noticed any change. However, to Florinda and the cohorts the changes they saw in "Her" were very dramatic. Florinda wanted to tell "her" just take a look in the mirror but unfortunately since she had no mirrors at home she could not. Her talk ended quite abruptly as she said lets start doing the passes. Shortly after, two Elements came out I really cant tell you their names but I know one is the Argentine guy that is energetically in the same cycle as miles and his childhood friend. Perhaps some one can refresh our memories as to his name. The other Element, was a very thin, but firm looking young man, very light on his feet. This was the first time Iv seen him on the stage but he was wandering the floor at the LA not doings, giving pointers and helping. They started with the the loosening up moves. Swinging arms horizontally back and forth, tapping the opposite shoulder with the opposite hand as it swings. Then the arm swings, vertically. First forward and then back, left then right. They proceeded to teach the individual movements of the Westwood series. No big difference in the passes except #9 in the Center For Decisions. Bringing Energy To the Center for Decisions from the Knees. It is back to doing a lasso motion instead of the flat hand facing down in a circular motion, before flinging it out. They first did the individual movements then they taught the long forms. While the passes were being taught Kylie and Miles were walking around the floor doing some one on one. Kylie was Her normal friendly self smiling and hugging people she recognized or even spoke to her. Several times she interjected or accentuated several problems that she identified to the instructors. The two, fully acted as if they were in charge of the situation and controlling the pace of the instruction. At one point she jumped up on the stage and said" OK you all seem to be standing there dreaming" so she did some of her now characteristic 1,2,3 freeze 1,2, jump,"turn on" exercises and sort of woke up the whole place. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Santa Monica April 4th (Part II): Before the break they started doing the Not-doings (can I say that?). To start with I'll just list the first twelve passes for the Wheel of Time, Which is what they taught. Four energy, Trackers Haley and Nuri Alexander, on one of the stages and two other trackers on another stage, came out. Perhaps some one out there knows their names and will let us know. The first six leg movements: 1.  Planting the Foot 2.  Dragging Energy with the Heel 3.  Stirring Energy with the knee 4.  Bringing energy to the groin with the Heel 5.  Pushing energy to the Zenith 6.  Pushing Energy Toward the Sides of the Body The first six hand movements: 1.  Downward slash of the Wheel at the Level of the Face 2.  Horizontal Slash of the Wheel at the Level of the Face 3.  Using the wheel like a fan. 4.  Vertical push of the Wheel at the Level of the Face 5.  Horizontal Push of the Wheel at the Level of the Face 6.  Downward Slash of the Wheel at the Level of the Face,       Arching from Above the Head The leg movements were completely and utterly excruciating. They were a series of grabing the feet, knees and ankles and manipulating them more or less as the pass name sounds. It seems as if you are supposed to use your hand, torso and arm muscles to make your legs move. That is the best description I can give. Some of us will gain a lot of flexibility with these. Like Number 4 is exactly what it sounds like, you are supposed to bring the heel of the foot into contact with your groin. All of these were done sitting down on the mats. The inactive legs are bent or crooked as you manipulate the other leg The hand movements were performed with the "Rubber Thingy". First in one hand and then in the other. What the leg movements had in muscle strain these had in beauty of simplicity, grace and harmony. They are done almost exactly how their name sounds. They stress that the movements must be performed as perfectly as possible. Another thing is that when doing the passes your body should be constantly tense. During the Hand movements your torso and hands must be offering resistance to the mirrored movements of the hand that has the Wheel Of Time in it. When the Energy trackers came out The Blue Scout, such a delightful being, gave a brief talk about the passes and the significance of the wheel of time. I did take some notes on this, I felt incapable of remembering so I did not want to chance not being able to recount this. Her talk was mainly about the wheel of time itself and its relationship to the passes. In practicing the wheel of time passes, she said, the goal is to make the body resemble a ball. The passes help you to manipulate time and space. The ancient sorcerers identified time with intent and space with infinity. Time is a product of intent and can not be defined. Except that at one time she referred to time as being round. Modern man retains a small portion of intent and it can be redeemed. Space, or infinity is the some total of mans endeavors and is more accessible to us. She stated that these concepts are not abstracts, they are actually workable units. She went on to describe the wheel of time as a tunnel of infinite length and width with an infinite number of furrows. To be in that furrow meant to live that furrow. The goal was to make the furrow turn. One can gaze into any furrow. When gazing into a furrow one gazes back and forward in time. This, she said, is an energetic fact. With this capability sorcerers are able to foresee the flow of time. In doing the passes the body turns into a ball and in the furrows one has the distinct sensation of seeing the flow of time. She went on to state that the passes had to be taught and learned in a slow, patient manner and could not be learned in one session. I believe she said that there were around 65 passes in the series. The Running Man opens the gate. The other passes fixate your awareness and the Wheel of time conducts you trough awareness. We then went on to perform the fist six leg movements and then took a dinner break. At the return they announced the different seminars coming up and the book "The Wheel Of Time" that would be out in a few weeks. They also said that they had problems finding a publisher for the book because of its unique character. We again had a very brief lecture by Haley Alexander Van Austin. The person that is said to be the same as the Blue Scout. As all the other speakers do at all the talks she introduced herself and spoke a little about the mysterious importance of names and that the name she had was a power name given to her by The Blue Scout the Nagual and the other cohorts. She said something thatis very mysterious and magical to me. That she did not know her power name until it was told to her, but that the Blue scout had always known her name. She went on to talk about energy. She said that a perfect entry into awareness required perfect concentration. Only if energy is taken in this way can there be a true change in behavior. She went on to talk about how the new Nagual spoke about meeting the old party of sorcerers. He thinking that a sorcerer was an old person, barefoot, dressed in feathers, smoke and mirrors. A mysterious and frightening event he thought. But the dissonance experienced by him when, what he met instead, was a group of well groomed impeccably dressed modern men and women in superb physical and mental condition. These people acted as if all their idiosyncrasies had been washed away. Even though those idiosyncrasies were still there. They had great admiration for them and found it impossible to breach the dissonance between their expectations and what they truly were. Their motto was "I Don't complain, I don't explain". Perfection in accomplishing the passes lead them to great highs of implacability with out complaint or praise. She also spoke about the Wheel of Time. She said it was like a circular tunnel where they made furrows and moved from furrow to furrow. You can move symbolically from furrow to furrow as you move the wheel of time. She stated that the Wheel of Time was not a figment of the imagination. She went on again to talk about the new Nagual and the cohorts. She explained that just going to the movies with them was a daring act. They demanded total attention and total recall. But when they were kidding around they demanded total kidding around. The old party she said was more serious. She recounted the story of how the new Nagual described in awe how he had seen 16 Shamans Burn with a bright light and then they were gone. She finally admonished us to try and perform the not doing passes to perfection. We then did the first six passes for the hand. We continued right into the Running Man. Nuri spoke a bit about the Running Man and said that originally they were only fillers to be practiced inbetween the other passes, but through time they came to realize that when they did all 12 of the fillers they ran in a strange way and *saw* that the changes were extraordinary. They were a bit different that I remembered them from Pomona but not drastically. Some how I had the inward and out ward circle were backwards. In the Inward Circle#3 the feet circle down-out-up and repeats. #4 The Outward Circle the feet circle up-out-down and repeats. 11 and 12 the feet seem to lift a bit more this time with more knee movement. In Rubber Feet I thought It had been alternating flipping the feet out but it is both feet flipped out together, again with apparently more knee movement. The movement were taught while sitting up with various counts and speeds. Finally we did the movements to Vivaldi's 4 Seasons. They said lets see if our feet can take flight. At the end they simply walked off the stage and we all had a big group hug and went home. The workshop ended at about 21:30. If any one remembers any more or perhaps something different that what I have recounted I would like to hear your coments. Oh one last thing welcome to all of those that joined our merry band after Santa Monica Yours truly, Juan Jose. [ 1998 Index | Previous | Next ]

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