Page:Para leer a Carlos Castaneda.djvu/132

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

“After another long silence, don Juan explained that ancient Mexico shamans believed, as he had already said, that we have two minds and that only one of them is ours. I had always understood that our minds had two parts, and that one of them was silent because the strength of the other part denied the ability to express. Beyond what don Juan said, I always took it metaphorically to perhaps explain the apparent dominance of the brain left hemisphere over the right, or something like.

—Recapitulation contains a secret option —don Juan said—. As I told you that death contains a secret option, an option that only shamans use. In the case of death, the secret option is that human beings can retain their vital force and only renounce to their consciousness, the outcome of their lives. In recapitulation, the secret option only shamans choose is enhancing their real minds..." C.C.

JOURNEYS THROUGH THE DARK CONSCIOUSNESS SEA

All the Castaneda works can be seen as an onion construction. Thin layers wrapped around the "magic of the spirit". The reader will need to read over and over again, "Tales of power", until finding their "abstract center". If the reader does not have enough "personal power", reading will be pleasant but inconsequential. But if they manage to gradually penetrate the "literary onion", will begin to remove one by one, the delicate knowledge layers and more and more, will get a deeper perception and at the same time "disturbing" of Don Juan teachings.

Through what is at first seen as "parables" and "indian tales", the reader discovers that these are perfectly clear and devastating concepts of our docile and domesticated world. The works in general, in addition to provocative is frightening. Leaves the deep reader naked of protecting ideas, hence helpless. This is why many "reason scholars", discard the work and brand it as fanciful. But the years pass and the work is still there, unshakeable.

Don Juan explains Castaneda that by virtue of "recapitulating" he has begun to have more energy. This has given him enough "inner silence", which in turn allows him to break "time continuity", which totally binds to "our world".

Throughout the work Don Juan always tells Castaneda that the "lace point" shifting is the master key to open all the Toltec knowledge gates. The "reality" is one of the many realities that surround us and that we do not perceive. Don Juan says that there are about 600.

"Reverie" is the art that allows the warrior to "change" the lace point to another reality that generally we do not perceive. This art was discovered by ancient Mexico knowledge men, when they saw that when an individual dreams, their lace point naturally moves slightly. Developing this natural ability to the point of being able to perceive real worlds in other realities. The "dream attention" is the possibility of giving specific attention or focus on a type of special consciousness over elements of a common dream.

"Throughout my apprenticeship, don Juan also had told me that shamans were divided into two groups: a group consisted of dreamers; the other of stalkers. Dreamers were those who moved the lace point with ease. Stalkers were those who could maintain the position of the new lace point with great ease. The dreamers and stalkers complemented one another and working in pairs, affecting one another with their innate proclivities.

132