Tensegrity Seminars

Pasadena - November 1996 [ 1996 Index | Previous | Next ] To:   alt.dreams.castaneda Date:   Wed, 18 Dec 1996 18:29:07 -0500 (EST) Pasadena Dreaming This account conveys some personal feelings and observations from the Pasadena workshop. A word of caution: What I have read about this and past workshops has not been always factually accurate and often lacking in spirit. We interpret these things from our energetic view point which is often nothing to brag about. Never should workshop accounts be taken as “the real thing”. The intensity and paradoxical nature of the sorcerers’ world deflects any attempts to pin it down. 1.  Set and Setting Workshop surroundings were nice and quiet due to the thanksgiving holidays. North Wind with clear skies charged the air. Cleargreen managed the workshop professionally. Service and security functioned well. Cleargreen persons were as usual always helpful when needed. 2.  Participants About 750 people participated in the workshop. As far as I was able to figure out the people came rather evenly from South and North America and Europe including Russia. I didn’t detect any blacks and only one Asian. The most striking feature about the participants was that there was nothing striking about them! The ages of the participants ranged from 18 up to 60, maybe a bias to the age group 20 - 40, a couple of kids under 18. About equal numbers of the different sexes, probably rather even occupational distribution. They looked, felt, thought and behaved as a standard normal human beings would. If pressed hard I could admit grudgingly that there were a few proper tonals, maybe even a couple of beings with inner grace. The superficial reasons for participating vary: search for love, need to be discovered, need to find answers to personal VERY IMPORTANT questions, need to gather status by meeting the famous Carlos Castaneda, curiosity, hope to gain some insights and power by rubbing against the sorcerers, need to find spiritual leader or mother or father figure. Some came because they had to without knowing for sure why or they came for learning the passes or just for listening. The obvious common denominator for everybody is that they have read of the books and have been impressed by them. I liked the general mood of the seminar which was relaxed and to the point. I think that during the workshop most were able to be less of the usual asshole and more the silent being who is going to die. 3.  Passes The passes were taught by two groups of six practitioners. The groups were male and female. I like them, they seem to be modest in the right way, proper tonals. The first series taught, heat series, forges the luminosity of the two separate sides of the body. The movements are not very complex, but they can anyway be difficult to execute properly. One has to give everything to them, the mood has to be of power and vigor, even positive aggressiveness. The mass of the participants and presence of the nagual facilitated the learning and proper execution of the passes tremendously. When I went home I noticed that it is altogether too easy to fall into flimsy execution without much effort. It is good advice to do the heat series sparingly as Carlos wrote afterwards. I overdid them and ended up being over-energized to the point that I couldn’t sleep and I felt like continuously burning inside. Powerful stuff! It is easy to fall into conducting the heat series as physical exercises. For sure everybody noticed their muscular effects (where did those muscles pop into existence!) but the abstract purpose - forging the two sides of the body - is their intent. If I understood it right the instructions stressed that the explosive energy for the strikes comes from the abdominal region in contrast to some other passes where the energetic center is in the kidney region. Although the heat series is done with great force I have not noticed any physical injurious effects. It was instructed never to extend the arms fully during the strikes and never to do the passes obsessively. Relaxation and tension should alternate also in the crab strike where it is too easy to tense shoulders continuously. Searing pain is for sure a sign of wrong technique or over doing of the passes. The primate series is one of the most fun passes. Many other passes are strange, dreamlike, impersonal and abstract but the primate series delivers familiar feelings from our close ancestors. Feels good! The egg series is also fun. I can almost see that shining egg now. The pass for the left side is rather complex especially for persons whose kinesthetic memory is not well developed but with the help of my friends I was able to learn it. It is true that it can give sad feelings but doing it more I have learned to love it. It is silent, modest, abstract and elegant. It is but it is not. Two breaths and beginning of the series for tendon energy or energy center manipulation were taught. I am not sure if it was the mass of the workshop, the nagual, the passes, manipulation of the energy centers or what but I was able to enter into dreaming awake a couple of days after the seminar. Waves emanating from the left side and currents of “electricity” running on the body and back of the scull started during the seminar and culminated in a brief cancellation of the learned interpretation system when I did the passes at some odd hour and place. The happy part was that it happened so smoothly. I was dreaming awake in a most natural way! And after that - nothing. Carlos is right when he says we all see energy as it flows in the universe and that sorcery is actually very simple. But it takes time to perfect the transition and make it *intentional*. I suspect that it has to do with the fact that we would decay or be lost if we would stay in the second attention before we have the required discipline, energy and sobriety. I made the mistake of the old sorcerers when the left side started to wake up. Excruciating vigilance must be maintained from moment to moment to eliminate self congratulation, heightened sense of self worth and greediness. The most one can hope for is to witness the world outside ourselves. We are truly nothing. 4.  Sorcerers Calumetto wrote that it is difficult to know what the sorcerers are. The mind enters into a void when trying to describe them. They are genuinely paradoxical. Feelings towards them tend to be also paradoxical and contradictory. I am not attempting here to draw not even an approximate picture of them because it will be impossible. I’ll just write without coherence some bits and pieces floating around. Sorcerers are true artists. All of them are superb speakers. Maybe their verbal expressions could be compared to the Art of Fugue. They are energetically stronger than anybody I have met and yet vulnerable to the core. The impression they give is massive silent energy on top of which their personalities play freely. Their energy is *very* intense and disconcerting. Next to them I feel like a wet rag. For me their mood was summed up by the statement that they only have their fight and the being who is going to die. They will fight whatever the outcome and it is impossible to take away the being who is going to die. In the final analysis freedom may be just a dream but the fight will remain to the end. I have the impression that they give their everything during the seminars. It is inconceivable that they wouldn't share the knowledge of the passes because there will be no lineage after them. Carlos said that he thinks dJ as well as the whole lineage before him got caught in tradition (the rule ?). The tradition required tremendous secrecy about the magical passes. “Go to the elders and ask. And the elders say: No, no.” That has changed now. Carlos is physically small but his energy makes him massive. I imagine it is like a dense block of dark stone lying on its side and extending to some distance off his physical body. Lots of people say that Carlos is like dJ. How do they know? ;-) Carlos said that all they can offer is work and discipline. They said that shit tends to float to the surface at the presence of the sorcerers (I think this was in connection with some description of their experiences with dJ). I for sure felt my shit hitting the fan the instant Carlos started talking. And of course I got mad to the imp who dared to do that to me ;-) Carlos is charming. He is funny beyond belief (my diaphragm still hurts). And he is not funny at all. He is scary because he doesn’t care to pretend to be concerned about your preciousness. They are not here to hold our hands like mamas and papas. My feeling is that they feel acutely responsible for the knowledge they are passing. So I think that they try to smooth out the rough edges which could send people freaking out. They attempt to bypass the (flyer) mind when speaking to us. A better name for flyer is "cosmic prowler". The name Los Voladores was inherited from the old sorcerers. dJ forced them to do outrageous not-doings. They will introduce more intelligent ones to us. The discussion about the more esoteric subjects like dreaming doesn't lead very far. When the inner silence is attained dreaming and other things will emerge by themselves. They have hoped that explaining things would help us arrive into realization and make the jump. Obviously there has not been much progress so in the future practical actions will be emphasized even more than before. Taisha's pass demonstrated the intent of the sorcerers. The pass exemplified in my mind dreaming and INFINITY. It was strangely familiar. Taisha stared into Infinity at the and of the pass and afterwards it was difficult for her to start speaking once again. Their acts create cognitive dissonance which destroys internal dialogue. When inner silence is attained anything is possible. The possibilities are endless, endless … (You should have *heard* how Carlos said this. Still gives me shivers.) As a sorceric task Carlos had to take care of the three witches. dJ said that to manage them is as difficult as changing the chain of a chain saw while it is running. Some people saw their eyes. Shivers… They are more human and non-human than anybody I have met before. When Carlos realized what was happening to him he was already cooking (follows a funny cannibal joke). dJ gave them no choice but Carlos would like us to choose the sorcerers' world. What sorcerers mean by power becomes evident at their presence. Who has glimpsed the annihilating force in the universe understands that there is no possibility to beg favors. The only way to stand infinity is power. Carol gave us a stupendous gift of power but how many were aware of it? dJ said: "Trust only infinity." 5.  Aftermath The question which have been posed is: is it worth while going to the workshops? To imitate Carlos I would say that this question can’t be answered meaningfully. Sorcery is not an asset. You don’t count gains and losses on the warriors way. I thank the sorcerers for a magnificent workshop. [ 1996 Index | Previous | Next ]

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