Toltec dreaming: Radical Shifts in Perception
Posted on Jul 15th, 2008
by 
Centria
Centria
Years ago Carlos Castaneda wrote a series of books about his encounter with a Toltec shaman, Don Juan. The works were later criticized as inauthentic, inaccurate and wrought with discrepancies and contradictions. In the books, Carlos, a budding anthropologist, was identified by don Juan Matus as having the energetic configuration of a naugual who, if the spirit chose, could become a leader of a party of seers. He also used the term "nagual" to signify that part of perception which is in the realm of the unknown yet still reachable by man, implying that, for his party of seers, don Juan was a connection in some way to that unknown. Castaneda often referred to this unknown realm as nonordinary reality, which indicated that this realm was indeed a reality, but radically different from the ordinary reality experienced by human beings who are well engaged in everyday activities as part of their social conditioning. (italicized sentences from Wikipedia).
What does this Toltec path have to offer as a guidepost along the way to finding this "freedom"? Don Juan proposed that we humans perceive the world via a fixed location of our assemblage point. This assemblage point allows us to view the world from a set bundle of awarenesses. Perhaps in more scientific terms we might say that our brain's neural pathways are grooved into specific ways of seeing and interacting with the world. There are a multitude of bands of awareness in the universe; we only perceive those illuminated by our assemblage point.
For those wishing to perceive beyond the bounds of our specific assemblage points, Don Juan offered a multitude of specific techniques to loosen the habitual location of this point. These techniques are too numerous to replay here, although some of the common ones include erasing personal history, recapitulation (reclaiming lost energy through specific recollection and breathing), acting as a warrior with complete sobriety and impeccability, practicing controlled folly, hunting power, and stopping internal dialogue.
He advocated two practices (referring to them as two predilections, as many of us have a natural inborn way of applying these teachings) calling them Dreaming and Stalking. Both mean something somewhat different than the ordinary usages of the words, so deeper study of the work may be necessary to fully intuit the energy of what he attempted to describe in words. Dreaming, in a crude explanation, is the ability to move the assemblage point and perceive marvelous new worlds, beyond the deepened grooves of habitual perception in our human brains. Stalking is the ability to fix the assemblage point at the new position and to hold it steady. Stalking also often refers to ways of gathering the necessary energy and power by which to accomplish these amazing feats.
Dreaming is not just something one does while sleeping; it is an act of power. One is able to travel the bands of awareness in infinite ways, to perhaps become other beings, to break out of the mold of being locked in human perception. Of course, madmen do this everyday. The key is to travel into these bands with detached sobriety. This is not an easy task. We have human bodies and awarenesses for a reason; we need a certain amount of energy and power before we can even begin to imagine this. Therefore, stalking is the natural balance for this act of ultimate freedom.
Some individuals begin this journey by stalking power, by stalking new positions of the assemblage point. Others begin by dreaming, having a more natural inclination to explore other awarenesses. Most people dream while asleep (in which case lucid dreaming is a technique advocated by Don Juan) and still others dream when awake. Don Juan seemed to have a great difficulty attempting to get Carlos to move his assemblage point in the beginning; he actually used a drug to jump-start the process. In a later book, when Carlos was trying to figure out the value of drugs and power plants, Don Juan actually suggested that this was only used as a last resort, for individuals too challenged to move their assemblage point without assistance.
The Toltec way as advocated by Don Juan, beyond any words one uses to describe it, offers a unique and interesting path to discovering the freedom to perceive infinite bands of awareness and radical shifts of perception.....and the freedom to choose the path of the next action, with full sobriety and awareness.
Access: PublicTagged with: Toltec, Don Juan, Carlos Casteneda, dreaming, stalking, non-ordinary reality, assemblage points
assemblage points
August 2008 
Centria,
Thanks for writing this blog. You've inspired me to re-read the works of Castaneda, which I read a long time ago. All too often, I find myself getting stuck in my habitual ways of thinking and being and need to be jolted out of my comfort zone. Perhaps by re-reading Castaneda, I will find ways to shift my “assemblage point.”
I don't know if there is such a thing but I've been practicing detached intoxication for years…it's fun and effortless….with not a whole lot of discipline required. About five years ago I ditched all practices and I actuially have been the happiest I have ever been. The yoke was lifted.
The Tao is called the Great Mother:
empty yet inexhaustible,
it gives birth to infinite worlds.
It is always present within you.
You can use it any way you want. ~ The Tao Te Ching
Clear and simple, Carlos Castaneda was a genius. He encouraged people to reconnect to ancient, sacred ways without naming them, to assist people in breaking the “mold of man” aka to avoid becoming a “sheeple”. To create the evolutionary pathway in one's life with humility, devoid of ego. To live life fully and in joy without ever coming from a place of self-pity or indulgence. And to see the magic unfold from the mundane. Kind of like the Tao.
Just think Centria, if it weren't for Carlos' teachings, you and I may have never had that appointment with power in the center of the wormhole called “the dream” all those years ago.
Thank you for your beauty, your impeccability, authenticity, integrity and personal power. You are a testament to these teachings.Lenore, I read the Carlos Castaneda books three times. The first time: a lovely story, almost impossible to comprehend, and yet something in my soul recognized what was being said. The second time: more comprehension, but it wasn't a linear understanding. It's as if the books were written in the language of dreamingand can only be understood in second attention, or an attention beyond our everyday rational thought. By the third time, many years into the spiritual journey, it was as if the words had penetrated into action. My advice for anyone reading or re-reading these works: don't struggle with intellectually trying to resolve or understand anything. Read with feeling. Read as if you're in the middle of a dream with no need for the mind to understand. Something in us already knows….aim for that which already knows what the heck Don Juan is talking about.
Tom, I know exactly what you're talking about. (well as much as anyone can know what another person is talking about….you have to move your assemblage point to another place on the spectrum to even begin to have a clue….) Here's what I think. For some of us, there's a time to seek and a time to quit seeking. There's also sometimes a desire to seek freedom and then there's a ceasing of that desire to seek freedom. We're all different and if we listen really deeply to that inner knowing, we'll know when to keep seeking freedom and when to recognize that the freedom we're seeking was there all along. I also like the way you attempt to move other's assemblage points when people get stuck in self-importance or abstract thought. You steadily move it back into “ordinary”. You are a gift, I keep telling you!
Oh Cloud, how to even respond to your precious comments? My first reaction: bittersweet tears. Second: hysterical laughter at the term “wormhole called the dream”. I am still chuckling at that, the next day. And your term “sheeple”……..here's part of what I think of you: If anyone is seeking real freedom, if anyone is not afraid of what it might require (only to completely drop ego, only to completely and daily lose the self we tend to so cherish): you are the person for the job. You will help lead a person to find that freedom. However, most people don't seem prepared to walk this path advocated by Don Juan. Most of us want to lose our ego more gently, with less friction. We truly like our egos, thank you, we don't want to become completely fluid. We like our points of view. We like our individual selves. We bristle at terms like “sheeple”. We're still clinging to certain perceptions. We're scared to death to leap into the abyss, to have nothing to hang on to, to be free-falling into infinity. Also, thank you for those incredible words as a testament to the teachings. And, in the spirit of being totally honored and totally detached to them, feel free to speak your truth with any and all opposite impressions any time the energy needs shifting! Much love…..
Wonderful blog and thread…even the three comments were juicy. I read the Casteneda books many years ago and didn't have a clue…in fact reading them gave me a headache because I was so into intellect and analysis. lol Reading this blog motivates me to reread at least one of his books with my feelings instead of my head. Thank you so much.
Hi Helen….yes, I understand the headache part! (laughing) Even a couple years ago I was still trying to pin down the definitions and the intellectual understanding. Somewhere recently, when it all fit in place better, I realized that it could only be understood in “second attention” or something below our need to label and categorize. But the exciting part is that it can be translated directly to action, that it can be utilized & lived. Hurrah!
I read some Castaneda years ago and I found it enjoyable. But I don't remember it clearly now. Maybe I'll delve back into those books again someday.
I can't say I have much understanding of Castaneda's ideas. However, “second attention” brings to my mind Arnold Mindell. Have you heard of him? Here is an excerpt from a book of his where he speaks a bit about Don Juan.
I just went and read that excerpt that you mentioned from Arnold Mindell. I had to read it in the same manner as Don Juan. If I tried to read the words, they all sounded like intellectual mind prattle. But if the assemblage point moved into “dreaming” or “feeling the words”, then they started to make sense to the energy body. Thanks for contributing, Ben! Your input means a lot….
I have so many vivid memory-snippets from the stories in the Castaneda series. But “genius” is not one of them, as referring to Carlos himself…but Don Juan, I'd say he's the genius in this story. Carlos did a fine job of portraying himself as the bumbling, dense, never-gonna-get-it, resistant fool of a student!
I remember understanding the story in an intuitive way, and I don't remember stumbling through the series. In fact, I remember I gobbled them up and was pretty pissed off that I couldn't generate the power necessary to lucid dream or shape shift. And, I remember being quite angry at Carlos for bumbling his way through this precious gift of knowledge!
And Kathy, I remember the stories we talked about, they're embarrassingly racy, and also how they link to the wormhole Don Juan would open up…it looked just like female genitalia.
Actually, as I was rereading one of my posts, I found hints of the lessons I learned from Castaneda. He usually referred to being a warrior. I was reading the books in the days that the other book, Way of the Peaceful Warrior came out in the bookstores. Ever since, when I say Warrior, that's what I mean: living in awareness. Expanding our awareness.
Jessica, you know what I started wondering in the bathtub yesterday? (so many interesting thoughts start in the bathtub…..) What if Carlos really was a genius by portraying himself as the bumbling, dense, never-gonna-get-it, resistant fool of a student!
That thought had never occurred to me before. What if it was an exericse in an attempt to completely destroy his self-importance? It may not have been, but it's a thought anyway.
And, yes, I agree with you. Warrior, to me, means Living in awareness….and expanding that awareness.
Glad to hear you've read and absorbed Castaneda….
You hit the nail on the head. I realized that when I was typing the comment; oh, what if that's just what he wants us to believe?
But, alas, I've never met the man, so I can't say…
And for me, all the interesting thoughts start in the car, while I'm driving and simply can't write them down. I've tried carrying a journal in the car and scribbling during stoplights and traffic jams, and I've tried carrying one of those darned audio recorders that burn through batteries like digital cameras… no good solution yet.
I read 2 or 3 books about 5 years ago - like a Castaneda binge. I wanted to “understand” them, and I did on some level. My life was in a complete mess at the time.
I will try the 2nd and maybe 3rd read, because there was something calling to me, but I wasn't ready. You are right, there is a way to read spiritual stuff and it isn't through intellectual understanding. It's like reading poetry and going with the flow and staying in it. Like being in The Zone.
Hello Jessica and Mimi! Jessica, you know what thought just came through? Carlos and his notebooks, scribbling down everything Don Juan said, everything that happened, trying to capture it all in words. I think Don Juan told him to keep scribbling; it would occupy his ego so he could “get out of his own way” or something similar. At the same time, he made endless fun of his scribblings. Yet, aren't we all glad that he kept up his notes, and we have all these fascinating works to read?
Mimi, I'm so glad you stopped by to comment. Yes, “Like being in the Zone.” I think that's the key to reading Castaneda. That may even be partly what he means by “second attention.” The layer beneath our intellectual minds: going with the flow and staying in it.
I don't know if we can ever be completely ready for these books…..I wasn't ready when I first read them. But maybe, when you read them the first time five years ago, you got what you needed from them. If your life isn't so challenging right now. And, if you read them again, maybe you'll peel off another layer of the onion. Every reading, for me, was another exercise in absorbing the parts for which I was ready. Let us know what you think if you re-read them again!
You are a wise one and express things so well and simply. I like that. Would you please tell me which 2 books would be best to read first. Dont make me look it up! ;>) hahaha)
I re-read my “spiritual” books and always find some new angle or understanding.The Zone is an amazing thing - when the observer/critic/whatever is not present. After brain injury, I couldn't read-decipher the words on the page. However, I could still touch type about 80 words a minute. When I thought about “typing” - how I was doing it- I immediately lost the ability. When brain fog lifted after 2-3 years, I found I could read again, and poetry became in the zone reading automatically.
I truly believe in and experience the “unkown reality” that is where our true existence lies - not in the manufactured silliness created –the one that does not serve the spirit, but distracts us/keep us from knowing a different reality.
Hi Mimi! I am glad we're now friends and can explore things like this together. Which two books to read…..such a good question…..does anyone out there have any advice for Mimi? (looking heavenward, hoping someone might have better advice than that which I'm going to offer.)
The way my rational mind works is to suggest you start with the first book again, which is Journey to Ixtlan. (Which, upon looking at the few books that I have here in the house, turns out is not the first book….so maybe it's the non-rational mind suggesting this after all!)
The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge is the actual first book, followed by:
A Separate Rality, Further Questions with Don Juan
A Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan
Tales of Power
The Second Ring of Power
The Eagle's Gift
The Fire from Within
The Power of Silence
The Art of Dreaming
(and there may even be more)
I would recommend reading one of the first three initially. The latter ones keep getting more and more abstract. The first three have more to satisfy the rational mind.
If anyone else wants to recommend something else to Mimi, please do so!
Also, I like what you say: I truly believe in and experience the “unkown reality” that is where our true existence lies.
Blessings!