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Toltec Recapitulation
- Thread starter giovanni
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It would be better if you gave a breakdown / interpretation / tutorial etc of the technique, how it's done and what it does. Maybe with some references to specific parts or chapters in (which) books of the authors.
For anyone interested in working with the Toltec Recapitulation, here are two useful sources that provide clear explanations of the technique:
These can be helpful references for understanding the foundations of the practice and exploring different approaches to it.
marco baston also has YouTube videos where he explains the method in a simple and direct way.
there are some books also from letizia boccabella but are available only in italian
- Victor Sánchez – The Toltec Path of Recapitulation, all the book is on the subject
Contains a practical overview of the method and how to apply it as a daily practice. - victor sanchez the teachings of don carlos
- Marco Baston – The Recapitulation
These can be helpful references for understanding the foundations of the practice and exploring different approaches to it.
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marco baston also has YouTube videos where he explains the method in a simple and direct way.
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there are some books also from letizia boccabella but are available only in italian
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Putting aside Castenada's tall tales, there's a good general idea in recapitulation but he demonstrated he had no idea how to accomplish it.
I can say this because (and you won't find this in books or explained by so-called teachers) when you do this and related sort of energywork properly your aging slows down. We have here an objective benchmark that depends on no one's fantasies, claims, dogmas, revelations or anything else. Factually, he died younger than average (and then his followers offed themselves).
I can say this because (and you won't find this in books or explained by so-called teachers) when you do this and related sort of energywork properly your aging slows down. We have here an objective benchmark that depends on no one's fantasies, claims, dogmas, revelations or anything else. Factually, he died younger than average (and then his followers offed themselves).
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I haven’t read the books you mentioned but I used to be this huge Castaneda fan from my teens onwards until I finally woke up one day and stopped wasting my time on the guy and his fabrications.
Wasn’t there something about recapitulation in one of the books by the Witches (Donner-Grau? Abelard?), how she spent ten years in a cave doing nothing but recapitulation? It’s probably the most toxic of Castaneda’s ideas, a surefire recipe to become hopelessly self-centered, as if nothing in the world mattered than you and your precious self-development. In Castaneda-speak, the arena a warrior should prove his or her mettle should be everyday life in the Now; focussing exclusively on the past while letting the present pass you by is unhealthy, in my opinion.
Wasn’t there something about recapitulation in one of the books by the Witches (Donner-Grau? Abelard?), how she spent ten years in a cave doing nothing but recapitulation? It’s probably the most toxic of Castaneda’s ideas, a surefire recipe to become hopelessly self-centered, as if nothing in the world mattered than you and your precious self-development. In Castaneda-speak, the arena a warrior should prove his or her mettle should be everyday life in the Now; focussing exclusively on the past while letting the present pass you by is unhealthy, in my opinion.
There is another book where is well described the recapitulation-
In her book-there are some methods very similar to Qigong. She was recommended to work in the garden for a while to get grounded, also practiced recapitulation in a cave for some period. Anyway, it is not a complete system, just some pieces of it..
"Patiently she explained that the recapitulation is the act of calling back the energy we have already spent in past actions. To recapitulate entails recalling all the people we have met, all the places we have seen and all the feelings we have had in our entire lives—starting from the present, going back to the earliest memories—then sweeping them clean, one by one, with the sweeping breath.
I listened, intrigued, although I couldn’t help feeling that what she said was more than nonsensical to me. Before I could make any comments at all, she firmly took my chin in her hands and instructed me to inhale through the nose as she turned my head to the left, and then exhale as she turned it to the right. Next, I was to turn my head to the left and right in a single movement without breathing. She said that this is a mysterious way of breathing and the key to the recapitulation, because inhaling allows us to pull back energy that we lost, while exhaling permits us to expel foreign, undesirable energy that has accumulated in us through interacting with our fellow men.
“In order to live and interact, we need energy,” Clara went on. “Normally, the energy spent in living is gone forever from us. Were it not for the recapitulation, we would never have the chance to renew ourselves. Recapitulating our lives and sweeping our past with the sweeping breath work as a unit.”
“When you recapitulate, try to feel some long stretchy fibers that extend out from your midsection,” she explained. “Then align the turning motion of your head with the movement of these elusive fibers. They are the conduits that will bring back the energy that you’ve left behind. In order to recuperate our strength and unity, we have to release our energy trapped in the world and pull it back to us.”
She assured me that while recapitulating, we extend those stretchy fibers of energy across space and time to the persons, places and events we are examining. The result is that we can return to every moment of our lives and act as if we were actually there.
She said that the initial stage of the recapitulation consists of two things. The first is the list, the second is setting up the scene. And setting up the scene consists of visualizing all the details pertinent to the events that one is going to recall.
“Once you have all the elements in place, use the sweeping breath; the movement of your head is like a fan that stirs everything in that scene,” she said. “If you’re remembering a room, for example, breathe in the walls, the ceiling, the furniture, the people you see. And don’t stop until you have absorbed every last bit of energy you left behind.”
“How will I know when I’ve done that?” I asked.
“Your body will tell you when you’ve had enough,” she assured me. “Remember, intend to inhale the energy that you left in the scene you’re recapitulating, and intend to exhale the extraneous energy thrust into you by others.”
Clara explained that we must start the recapitulation by first focusing our attention on our past sexual activity.
“Why do you have to begin there?” I asked suspiciously.
“That’s where the bulk of our energy is caught,” Clara explained. “That’s why we must free those memories first!”
“I don’t think my sexual encounters were all that important.”
“It doesn’t matter. You could have been staring up at the ceiling bored to death, or seeing shooting stars or fireworks—someone still left his energy inside you and walked off with a ton of yours.”
I was totally put off by her statement. To go back to my sexual experiences now seemed repugnant. “It’s bad enough,” I said, “to relive my childhood memories. But I won’t hash up what happened with men.”
Clara looked at me with a raised eyebrow.
“Besides,” I argued, “you’ll probably expect me to confide in you. But really, Clara, I don’t think what I did with men is anyone’s business.”
I thought I had made my point. Clara resolutely shook her head and said, “Do you want those men you had to continue feeding from your energy? Do you want those men to get stronger as you get stronger? Do you want to be their source of energy for the rest of your life? No. I don’t think you understand the importance of the sexual act or the scope of the recapitulation.”
“You’re right, Clara. I don’t understand the reason for your bizarre request. And what’s this business of men getting stronger because I’m their source of energy? I’m nobody’s source or provider. I promise you that.”
She smiled and said that she had made a mistake in forcing a confrontation of ideologies at this time. “Bear with me,” she begged. “This is a belief I have chosen to uphold. As you progress with your recapitulation, I will tell you about the origin of this belief. Suffice it to say that it is a critical part of the art I’m teaching you.”
“If it’s as important as you claim, Clara, perhaps you’d better tell me about it now,” I said. “Before we go any further with the recapitulation, I’d like to know what I’m getting into.”
“All right, if you insist,” she said, nodding.
She poured some camomile tea into our mugs and added a spoonful of honey to hers.
In the authoritative voice of a teacher enlightening a neophyte, she explained that women, more so than men, are the true supporters of the social order, and that to fulfill this role, they have been reared, uniformly the world over, to be at the service of men.
“It makes no difference whether they are bought right off the slave block, or they are courted and loved,” she stressed. “Their fundamental purpose and fate is still the same: to nourish, shelter and serve men.”
Clara looked at me, I believed, to assess if I was following her argument. I thought I was, but my gut reaction was that her entire premise seemed wrong.
“That may be true in some cases,” I said, “but I don’t think you can make such sweeping generalizations to include all women.”
Clara disagreed vehemently. “The diabolical part of women’s servile position is that it doesn’t appear to be merely a social prescription,” she said, “but a fundamental biological imperative.”
“Wait a minute, Clara,” I protested. “How did you arrive at that?”
She explained that every species has a biological imperative to perpetuate itself, and that nature has provided tools in order to ensure that the merging of female and male energies takes place in the most efficient way. She said that in the human realm, although the primary function of sexual intercourse is procreation, it also has a secondary and covert function, which is to ensure a continual flow of energy from women to men.
Clara put such a stress on the word “men” that I had to ask, “Why do you say it as if it were a one-way street? Isn’t the sexual act an even exchange of energy between male and female?”
“No,” she said emphatically. “Men leave specific energy lines inside the body of women. They are like luminous tapeworms that move inside the womb, sipping up energy.”
“That sounds positively sinister,” I said, humoring her.
She continued her exposition in utter seriousness. “They are put there for an even more sinister reason,” she said, ignoring my nervous laughter, “which is to ensure that a steady supply of energy
reaches the man who deposited them. Those lines of energy, established through sexual intercourse, collect and steal energy from the female body to benefit the male who left them there.”
Clara was so adamant in what she was saying that I couldn’t joke about it but had to take her seriously. As I listened, I felt my nervous smile turn into a snarl. “Not that I accept for a minute what you’re saying, Clara,” I said, “but just out of curiosity, how in the world did you arrive at such a preposterous notion? Did someone tell you about this?”
“Yes, my teacher told me about it. At first, I didn’t believe him either,” she admitted, “but he also taught me the art of freedom, and that means that I learned to see the flow of energy. Now I know he was accurate in his assessments, because I can see the wormlike filaments in women’s bodies for myself. You, for example, have a number of them, all of them still active.”
“Let’s say that’s true, Clara,” I said uneasily. “Just for the sake of argument, let me ask you why should this be possible? Isn’t this one-way energy flow unfair to women?”
“The whole world is unfair to women!” she exclaimed. “But that’s not the point.”
“What is the point, Clara? I know I’m missing it.”
“Nature’s imperative is to perpetuate our species,” she explained. “In order to ensure that this continues to take place, women have to carry an excessive burden at their basic energy level. And that means a flow of energy that taxes women.”
“But you still haven’t explained why this should be so,” I said, already becoming swayed by the force of her convictions.
“Women are the foundation for perpetuating the human species,” Clara replied. “The bulk of the energy comes from them, not only to gestate, give birth and nourish their offspring, but also for ensuring that the male plays his part in this whole process.”
Clara explained that ideally this process ensures that a woman feeds her man energetically through the filaments he left inside her body, so that the man becomes mysteriously dependent on her at an ethereal level. This is expressed in the overt behavior of the man returning to the same woman again and again to maintain his source of sustenance. That way, Clara said, nature ensures that men, in
addition to their immediate drive for sexual gratification, set up more permanent bonds with women.
“These energy fibers left in women’s wombs also become merged with the energy makeup of the offspring, should conception take place,” Clara elaborated. “It may be the rudiments of family ties, for the energy from the father merges with that of the fetus, and enables the man to sense that the child is his own. These are some of the facts of life a girl’s mother never tells her. Women are reared to be easily seduced by men, without the slightest idea of the consequences of sexual intercourse in terms of the energy drainage it produces in them. This is my point and this is what is not fair.”
As I listened to Clara talk, I had to agree that some of what she said made sense to me at a deep bodily level. She urged me not just to agree or disagree with her, but to think this through and evaluate what she had said in a courageous, unprejudiced and intelligent manner.
“It’s bad enough that one man leaves energy lines inside a woman’s body,” Clara went on, “although that is necessary for having offspring and ensuring their survival. But to have the energy lines of ten or twenty men inside her feeding off her luminosity is more than anyone can bear. No wonder women can never lift up their heads.”
“Can a woman get rid of those lines?” I asked, more and more convinced that there was some truth to what Clara was saying.
“A woman carries those luminous worms for seven years,” Clara said, “after which time they disappear or fade out. But the wretched part is that when the seven years are about to be up, the whole army of worms, from the very first man a woman had to the very last one, all become agitated at once so that the woman is driven to have sexual intercourse again. Then all the worms spring to life stronger than ever to feed off the woman’s luminous energy for another seven years. It really is a never-ending cycle.”
“What if the woman is celibate?” I asked. “Do the worms just die out?”
“Yes, if she can resist having sex for seven years. But it’s nearly impossible for a woman to remain celibate like that in our day and age, unless she becomes a nun, or has money to support herself. And even then she still would need a totally different rationale.”
“Why is that, Clara?” .
“Because not only is it a biological imperative that women have sexual intercourse, but it is also a social mandate.”
Clara gave me then a most confusing and distressing example. She said that since we are unable to see the flow of energy, we may be needlessly perpetuating patterns of behavior or emotional interpretations associated with this unseen flow of energy. For instance, for society to demand that women marry or at least offer themselves to men is wrong, as it is wrong for women to feel unfulfilled unless they have a man’s semen inside them. It is true that a man’s energy lines give them purpose, make them fulfill their biological destinies: feeding men and their offspring. But human beings are intelligent enough to demand of themselves more than merely the fulfillment of the reproduction imperative. She said that, for example, to evolve is an equal if not a greater imperative than to reproduce; and that, in this case, evolving entails the awakening of women to their true role in the energetic scheme of reproduction.
The Sorcerer's Crossing: A Woman's Journey
by Taisha Abelar. I read it and there are many interesting things, also about sexuality, the strings created this way and how to cut them off.In her book-there are some methods very similar to Qigong. She was recommended to work in the garden for a while to get grounded, also practiced recapitulation in a cave for some period. Anyway, it is not a complete system, just some pieces of it..
Post automatically merged:
I will post here some excerpts from Taisha Abelar's book:, what she writes about sexuality will be quite mind blowing for some people..
"Patiently she explained that the recapitulation is the act of calling back the energy we have already spent in past actions. To recapitulate entails recalling all the people we have met, all the places we have seen and all the feelings we have had in our entire lives—starting from the present, going back to the earliest memories—then sweeping them clean, one by one, with the sweeping breath.
I listened, intrigued, although I couldn’t help feeling that what she said was more than nonsensical to me. Before I could make any comments at all, she firmly took my chin in her hands and instructed me to inhale through the nose as she turned my head to the left, and then exhale as she turned it to the right. Next, I was to turn my head to the left and right in a single movement without breathing. She said that this is a mysterious way of breathing and the key to the recapitulation, because inhaling allows us to pull back energy that we lost, while exhaling permits us to expel foreign, undesirable energy that has accumulated in us through interacting with our fellow men.
“In order to live and interact, we need energy,” Clara went on. “Normally, the energy spent in living is gone forever from us. Were it not for the recapitulation, we would never have the chance to renew ourselves. Recapitulating our lives and sweeping our past with the sweeping breath work as a unit.”
“When you recapitulate, try to feel some long stretchy fibers that extend out from your midsection,” she explained. “Then align the turning motion of your head with the movement of these elusive fibers. They are the conduits that will bring back the energy that you’ve left behind. In order to recuperate our strength and unity, we have to release our energy trapped in the world and pull it back to us.”
She assured me that while recapitulating, we extend those stretchy fibers of energy across space and time to the persons, places and events we are examining. The result is that we can return to every moment of our lives and act as if we were actually there.
She said that the initial stage of the recapitulation consists of two things. The first is the list, the second is setting up the scene. And setting up the scene consists of visualizing all the details pertinent to the events that one is going to recall.
“Once you have all the elements in place, use the sweeping breath; the movement of your head is like a fan that stirs everything in that scene,” she said. “If you’re remembering a room, for example, breathe in the walls, the ceiling, the furniture, the people you see. And don’t stop until you have absorbed every last bit of energy you left behind.”
“How will I know when I’ve done that?” I asked.
“Your body will tell you when you’ve had enough,” she assured me. “Remember, intend to inhale the energy that you left in the scene you’re recapitulating, and intend to exhale the extraneous energy thrust into you by others.”
Clara explained that we must start the recapitulation by first focusing our attention on our past sexual activity.
“Why do you have to begin there?” I asked suspiciously.
“That’s where the bulk of our energy is caught,” Clara explained. “That’s why we must free those memories first!”
“I don’t think my sexual encounters were all that important.”
“It doesn’t matter. You could have been staring up at the ceiling bored to death, or seeing shooting stars or fireworks—someone still left his energy inside you and walked off with a ton of yours.”
I was totally put off by her statement. To go back to my sexual experiences now seemed repugnant. “It’s bad enough,” I said, “to relive my childhood memories. But I won’t hash up what happened with men.”
Clara looked at me with a raised eyebrow.
“Besides,” I argued, “you’ll probably expect me to confide in you. But really, Clara, I don’t think what I did with men is anyone’s business.”
I thought I had made my point. Clara resolutely shook her head and said, “Do you want those men you had to continue feeding from your energy? Do you want those men to get stronger as you get stronger? Do you want to be their source of energy for the rest of your life? No. I don’t think you understand the importance of the sexual act or the scope of the recapitulation.”
“You’re right, Clara. I don’t understand the reason for your bizarre request. And what’s this business of men getting stronger because I’m their source of energy? I’m nobody’s source or provider. I promise you that.”
She smiled and said that she had made a mistake in forcing a confrontation of ideologies at this time. “Bear with me,” she begged. “This is a belief I have chosen to uphold. As you progress with your recapitulation, I will tell you about the origin of this belief. Suffice it to say that it is a critical part of the art I’m teaching you.”
“If it’s as important as you claim, Clara, perhaps you’d better tell me about it now,” I said. “Before we go any further with the recapitulation, I’d like to know what I’m getting into.”
“All right, if you insist,” she said, nodding.
She poured some camomile tea into our mugs and added a spoonful of honey to hers.
In the authoritative voice of a teacher enlightening a neophyte, she explained that women, more so than men, are the true supporters of the social order, and that to fulfill this role, they have been reared, uniformly the world over, to be at the service of men.
“It makes no difference whether they are bought right off the slave block, or they are courted and loved,” she stressed. “Their fundamental purpose and fate is still the same: to nourish, shelter and serve men.”
Clara looked at me, I believed, to assess if I was following her argument. I thought I was, but my gut reaction was that her entire premise seemed wrong.
“That may be true in some cases,” I said, “but I don’t think you can make such sweeping generalizations to include all women.”
Clara disagreed vehemently. “The diabolical part of women’s servile position is that it doesn’t appear to be merely a social prescription,” she said, “but a fundamental biological imperative.”
“Wait a minute, Clara,” I protested. “How did you arrive at that?”
She explained that every species has a biological imperative to perpetuate itself, and that nature has provided tools in order to ensure that the merging of female and male energies takes place in the most efficient way. She said that in the human realm, although the primary function of sexual intercourse is procreation, it also has a secondary and covert function, which is to ensure a continual flow of energy from women to men.
Clara put such a stress on the word “men” that I had to ask, “Why do you say it as if it were a one-way street? Isn’t the sexual act an even exchange of energy between male and female?”
“No,” she said emphatically. “Men leave specific energy lines inside the body of women. They are like luminous tapeworms that move inside the womb, sipping up energy.”
“That sounds positively sinister,” I said, humoring her.
She continued her exposition in utter seriousness. “They are put there for an even more sinister reason,” she said, ignoring my nervous laughter, “which is to ensure that a steady supply of energy
reaches the man who deposited them. Those lines of energy, established through sexual intercourse, collect and steal energy from the female body to benefit the male who left them there.”
Clara was so adamant in what she was saying that I couldn’t joke about it but had to take her seriously. As I listened, I felt my nervous smile turn into a snarl. “Not that I accept for a minute what you’re saying, Clara,” I said, “but just out of curiosity, how in the world did you arrive at such a preposterous notion? Did someone tell you about this?”
“Yes, my teacher told me about it. At first, I didn’t believe him either,” she admitted, “but he also taught me the art of freedom, and that means that I learned to see the flow of energy. Now I know he was accurate in his assessments, because I can see the wormlike filaments in women’s bodies for myself. You, for example, have a number of them, all of them still active.”
“Let’s say that’s true, Clara,” I said uneasily. “Just for the sake of argument, let me ask you why should this be possible? Isn’t this one-way energy flow unfair to women?”
“The whole world is unfair to women!” she exclaimed. “But that’s not the point.”
“What is the point, Clara? I know I’m missing it.”
“Nature’s imperative is to perpetuate our species,” she explained. “In order to ensure that this continues to take place, women have to carry an excessive burden at their basic energy level. And that means a flow of energy that taxes women.”
“But you still haven’t explained why this should be so,” I said, already becoming swayed by the force of her convictions.
“Women are the foundation for perpetuating the human species,” Clara replied. “The bulk of the energy comes from them, not only to gestate, give birth and nourish their offspring, but also for ensuring that the male plays his part in this whole process.”
Clara explained that ideally this process ensures that a woman feeds her man energetically through the filaments he left inside her body, so that the man becomes mysteriously dependent on her at an ethereal level. This is expressed in the overt behavior of the man returning to the same woman again and again to maintain his source of sustenance. That way, Clara said, nature ensures that men, in
addition to their immediate drive for sexual gratification, set up more permanent bonds with women.
“These energy fibers left in women’s wombs also become merged with the energy makeup of the offspring, should conception take place,” Clara elaborated. “It may be the rudiments of family ties, for the energy from the father merges with that of the fetus, and enables the man to sense that the child is his own. These are some of the facts of life a girl’s mother never tells her. Women are reared to be easily seduced by men, without the slightest idea of the consequences of sexual intercourse in terms of the energy drainage it produces in them. This is my point and this is what is not fair.”
As I listened to Clara talk, I had to agree that some of what she said made sense to me at a deep bodily level. She urged me not just to agree or disagree with her, but to think this through and evaluate what she had said in a courageous, unprejudiced and intelligent manner.
“It’s bad enough that one man leaves energy lines inside a woman’s body,” Clara went on, “although that is necessary for having offspring and ensuring their survival. But to have the energy lines of ten or twenty men inside her feeding off her luminosity is more than anyone can bear. No wonder women can never lift up their heads.”
“Can a woman get rid of those lines?” I asked, more and more convinced that there was some truth to what Clara was saying.
“A woman carries those luminous worms for seven years,” Clara said, “after which time they disappear or fade out. But the wretched part is that when the seven years are about to be up, the whole army of worms, from the very first man a woman had to the very last one, all become agitated at once so that the woman is driven to have sexual intercourse again. Then all the worms spring to life stronger than ever to feed off the woman’s luminous energy for another seven years. It really is a never-ending cycle.”
“What if the woman is celibate?” I asked. “Do the worms just die out?”
“Yes, if she can resist having sex for seven years. But it’s nearly impossible for a woman to remain celibate like that in our day and age, unless she becomes a nun, or has money to support herself. And even then she still would need a totally different rationale.”
“Why is that, Clara?” .
“Because not only is it a biological imperative that women have sexual intercourse, but it is also a social mandate.”
Clara gave me then a most confusing and distressing example. She said that since we are unable to see the flow of energy, we may be needlessly perpetuating patterns of behavior or emotional interpretations associated with this unseen flow of energy. For instance, for society to demand that women marry or at least offer themselves to men is wrong, as it is wrong for women to feel unfulfilled unless they have a man’s semen inside them. It is true that a man’s energy lines give them purpose, make them fulfill their biological destinies: feeding men and their offspring. But human beings are intelligent enough to demand of themselves more than merely the fulfillment of the reproduction imperative. She said that, for example, to evolve is an equal if not a greater imperative than to reproduce; and that, in this case, evolving entails the awakening of women to their true role in the energetic scheme of reproduction.
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thank you juanitos
I truly appreciate what you shared here. Your contribution adds a lot of value to the discussion.
I still recommend the books I mentioned earlier, since they seem to me a little bit more practical and directly applicable to the Toltec Recapitulation work. They offer clear guidance and hands-on methods, which I find very useful.
if I'm not wrong the book the teachings of don carlos by victor sanchez is available on archive.org
I truly appreciate what you shared here. Your contribution adds a lot of value to the discussion.
Post automatically merged:
I still recommend the books I mentioned earlier, since they seem to me a little bit more practical and directly applicable to the Toltec Recapitulation work. They offer clear guidance and hands-on methods, which I find very useful.
Post automatically merged:
if I'm not wrong the book the teachings of don carlos by victor sanchez is available on archive.org
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I could share some personal experiences related to Castaneda..
I had a mysterious connections with the books of Carlos Castaneda..I got his books around 27-26 years ago and started to read them..it was a weird attraction..even if at that time I was not able to understand too much..
I do not know for sure if his books are just his own made stories, pure imagination or else.. but some things are really genuine.. I read and re-read them...and I have noticed something extremely weird.. I started to experience some of the things he described in the books..even if I was not looking for them purposely!
The main idea one may borrow from his teaching is notion of "assemblage point" that affects our perception. After a lot of inner work , a real nagual was able to shift one's assemblage point -in this way he was able to change his perception and was able to perceive other worlds.. Meditation, prayer, breathing work, fasting, extreme situations, sex, drugs, alcohol, can change quickly our perception..
I found useful also the concept of impecability- to do your best in everything you are doing..this way you increase also your personal power.
To have Death as your advisor...this helps you keep your awareness and not waste one's time with stupid decisions..
I have practiced just for a short period the recapitulation- i could say that it helps to change/reframe your perspective about your past experiences.
About practicing in caves...The taoist monks also used to meditate in caves..also yogis from Himalayas.. The master Mantak Chia has also some Dark room retreats in absolute darkness..that helps in inner alchemy
Also unique was his chapter about little tyrants and how to face them.. In the book Art of dreaming he explains about lucid dreaming.. I got some glimpses of lucidity sometimes in my dreams , too.. Several times, I was even starting to modify the dream as I wished..but just for a brief period of time. .. To be able to got lucid in one's dreams..one needs to practice meditation in daytime..and need more energy- that's why he had also some magical passes...
Something very weird..It is recorded that some maya cities just stopped suddenly to be inhabited..as if the citizens literally disapeared. Casteneda said that they mastered the art of passing into other worlds..literally..
I want to point out that that this system was quite eccentric an Not for the faint hearted.. I got inspired somehow from his books and 2 things I did nearly costed my life.
The first one was an experience with mushrooms that I collected myself from the forest ( a different type, not the type described by Castaneda)- I made a mistake and took too much as a result I stayed in come for 7 hours and had a NDE..was able to experience what he named as " the dark sea of awareness" absolutely magical experience beyond words..
The second one.. In his books he describes that his final test was jumping off literally a mountain peak... Eventually, I did that in basejumping, I jumped off some mountain peaks with trackingsuit and wingsuit, just some jumps- but I had had already a good experience in skydiving. .. I had also 2 accidents- close calls , broke also my back once...Jumping off a mountain is pure madness..like staring Death itself in the eyes.. Doing any extreme sport - is about experiencing that state of No Mind- pure stillness..like in meditation...that's why I consider any extreme sport a form of spiritual path because you face Death on a regular basis.. That's the warrior way...
Osho also said that any spiritual practice that lacks the awareness of Death is not deep/consistent enough! Memento mori!
Buddha recommended that his disciples meditate in cemeteries.. Many christian saints had in their cell a skull- St Jerome or St Mary Magdalene..
I had a mysterious connections with the books of Carlos Castaneda..I got his books around 27-26 years ago and started to read them..it was a weird attraction..even if at that time I was not able to understand too much..
I do not know for sure if his books are just his own made stories, pure imagination or else.. but some things are really genuine.. I read and re-read them...and I have noticed something extremely weird.. I started to experience some of the things he described in the books..even if I was not looking for them purposely!
The main idea one may borrow from his teaching is notion of "assemblage point" that affects our perception. After a lot of inner work , a real nagual was able to shift one's assemblage point -in this way he was able to change his perception and was able to perceive other worlds.. Meditation, prayer, breathing work, fasting, extreme situations, sex, drugs, alcohol, can change quickly our perception..
I found useful also the concept of impecability- to do your best in everything you are doing..this way you increase also your personal power.
To have Death as your advisor...this helps you keep your awareness and not waste one's time with stupid decisions..
I have practiced just for a short period the recapitulation- i could say that it helps to change/reframe your perspective about your past experiences.
About practicing in caves...The taoist monks also used to meditate in caves..also yogis from Himalayas.. The master Mantak Chia has also some Dark room retreats in absolute darkness..that helps in inner alchemy
Also unique was his chapter about little tyrants and how to face them.. In the book Art of dreaming he explains about lucid dreaming.. I got some glimpses of lucidity sometimes in my dreams , too.. Several times, I was even starting to modify the dream as I wished..but just for a brief period of time. .. To be able to got lucid in one's dreams..one needs to practice meditation in daytime..and need more energy- that's why he had also some magical passes...
Something very weird..It is recorded that some maya cities just stopped suddenly to be inhabited..as if the citizens literally disapeared. Casteneda said that they mastered the art of passing into other worlds..literally..
I want to point out that that this system was quite eccentric an Not for the faint hearted.. I got inspired somehow from his books and 2 things I did nearly costed my life.
The first one was an experience with mushrooms that I collected myself from the forest ( a different type, not the type described by Castaneda)- I made a mistake and took too much as a result I stayed in come for 7 hours and had a NDE..was able to experience what he named as " the dark sea of awareness" absolutely magical experience beyond words..
The second one.. In his books he describes that his final test was jumping off literally a mountain peak... Eventually, I did that in basejumping, I jumped off some mountain peaks with trackingsuit and wingsuit, just some jumps- but I had had already a good experience in skydiving. .. I had also 2 accidents- close calls , broke also my back once...Jumping off a mountain is pure madness..like staring Death itself in the eyes.. Doing any extreme sport - is about experiencing that state of No Mind- pure stillness..like in meditation...that's why I consider any extreme sport a form of spiritual path because you face Death on a regular basis.. That's the warrior way...
Osho also said that any spiritual practice that lacks the awareness of Death is not deep/consistent enough! Memento mori!
Buddha recommended that his disciples meditate in cemeteries.. Many christian saints had in their cell a skull- St Jerome or St Mary Magdalene..
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My personal final take on Castaneda’s books is that they are about his own brand of romantic mysticism and definitely should not be read as practical manuals. Recapitulation reminds me of 1970ies psychotherapy (don’t ask me according to which school) where the theory is that only by relieving past traumas of their emotional charge, you can start healing in the present. Nagualism or whatever those copycats call it now is not a viable spiritual path, in my opinion, or only in combination with other, more practical teachings.
From my experience, the Recapitulation is a bit of a tough exercise, but it’s definitely worth it. It can be challenging, yet the results feel real and meaningful.
I’m still quite new to Castaneda’s work, and people recommended Journey to Ixtlan as a good place to start. It’s been helpful for understanding the general mindset behind these practices, even though I haven’t taken the teachings to those levels myself.
I’m still quite new to Castaneda’s work, and people recommended Journey to Ixtlan as a good place to start. It’s been helpful for understanding the general mindset behind these practices, even though I haven’t taken the teachings to those levels myself.