01-02-2007, 12:00 AM
Don Juan taught Carlos about "agreements from the world around him". He also referred to this phenomena as "reaffirmations". He also taught him about "stoppping the world".
At one point when Carlos saw a piece of cloth caught in a cactus, thinking that it was some kind of animal, Don Juan said that for a short time he actually had "stopped the world". Later he pointed out that another small instance of "Agreement" or "Reaffirmation" was also "stopping the world". This confused Carlos and he asked about it saying somthing like; "I thought you said I already "Stopped the world."
Don Juan's answer was very important. He said that "Stopping the world" comes a little at a time and then all at once.
When I "stopped the world", as far as I know there were only 4 Castaneda books published at the time. I had been living the excecises in those books for about a year and a hal to two years. They were my constant companions and I followed all of Don Juan's recomendations; I left a successful band that I belonged to, got my body in good shape, practiced "not doing" excercises in perception and left my family and friends an moved 300 miles from everything I knew.
In short, I was living the life of a warrior as best I knew how. I had been experiencing "reaffirmations" for a long while, like I said 1 1/2 to 2 years when the world actually "stopped" for me.
Nothing I had done was sufficient to have prepared me for what happened that night. I had taken some mushrooms and when they took effect I was in the dining room/ party room in the house that I rented a room in. Some of the guys who also rented rooms there were playing cards and I was sitting talking with them. Their faces began to change into other beings, some were aware that my perception had begun to change and began taunting me. I heard and felt a "snap" in the base of my skull and I knew at that moment that I was not going to be "coming down" the next day. Or the day after either.
I taunted back and forth with the demons while at the same time guarding what I said so that the people in the oom had no idea that this was going on. It's hard to explain except to say that everything had more than one meaning.
As the evening wore on, Language began "coming apart". Words had no meaning and I lost my ability to speak. Actually it was more than that. It was as if I knew the words, but their meanings were so inadequate that it was no use talking. Then everything started to dissolve. But it was not like anything I had ever experienced before. It was as if everything was dissolving from the point of my navel. Everything that I saw and felt was turning to grey and coming apart along lines. I could hold it together by using my will at the center of my body but I was losing the battle and the world kept dissolving along these geometric paths or lines that seemed to hold everything together and yet began at my navel.
That was the night my world stopped. And i was right in my knowing that night. I did not come down the next day or the next. It was actually a matter of months before I began to feel that I was come back to any kind of normal life again. And even then, sometimes just a cup of coffee would start to send me back into that state of awareness.
During that two month period the reaffirmations were Constant. That is the best way to describe it, or maybe living in two worlds at once. The television spoke to me as did peoples conversations not meant for me. Lcence plates on automobiles and addresses on houses that I walked by began forming a code that I could read and understand. It was as if the loss of language that first night created a void within me that had to be filled with another language. It was as if it were an automatic response in my mind to create a new language to supplement the old.
Over that period of time there were many sensual changes, not just visual. At one point I was able to hear a leaf rolling across the street a half a block away. Another time, I woke up to find that everthing was "short".
I mean everything was short and fat. If I had a ruler, I would not have been able to prove it because it too would have been short when held vertically and long when held horizontally. If I had to guess, I would say that proportionally, everything was half as tall as it should have been and two times as long and wide. I spent a whole morning amazed by this phenomena.
For two months my perceptions were assaulted in various ways along with constant guiding and affirmations from all around me while at the same time the presence of beings superimposed on peoples faces. And sometimes just the beings by themselves without people being there.
Nuff said for now.
Bob
At one point when Carlos saw a piece of cloth caught in a cactus, thinking that it was some kind of animal, Don Juan said that for a short time he actually had "stopped the world". Later he pointed out that another small instance of "Agreement" or "Reaffirmation" was also "stopping the world". This confused Carlos and he asked about it saying somthing like; "I thought you said I already "Stopped the world."
Don Juan's answer was very important. He said that "Stopping the world" comes a little at a time and then all at once.
When I "stopped the world", as far as I know there were only 4 Castaneda books published at the time. I had been living the excecises in those books for about a year and a hal to two years. They were my constant companions and I followed all of Don Juan's recomendations; I left a successful band that I belonged to, got my body in good shape, practiced "not doing" excercises in perception and left my family and friends an moved 300 miles from everything I knew.
In short, I was living the life of a warrior as best I knew how. I had been experiencing "reaffirmations" for a long while, like I said 1 1/2 to 2 years when the world actually "stopped" for me.
Nothing I had done was sufficient to have prepared me for what happened that night. I had taken some mushrooms and when they took effect I was in the dining room/ party room in the house that I rented a room in. Some of the guys who also rented rooms there were playing cards and I was sitting talking with them. Their faces began to change into other beings, some were aware that my perception had begun to change and began taunting me. I heard and felt a "snap" in the base of my skull and I knew at that moment that I was not going to be "coming down" the next day. Or the day after either.
I taunted back and forth with the demons while at the same time guarding what I said so that the people in the oom had no idea that this was going on. It's hard to explain except to say that everything had more than one meaning.
As the evening wore on, Language began "coming apart". Words had no meaning and I lost my ability to speak. Actually it was more than that. It was as if I knew the words, but their meanings were so inadequate that it was no use talking. Then everything started to dissolve. But it was not like anything I had ever experienced before. It was as if everything was dissolving from the point of my navel. Everything that I saw and felt was turning to grey and coming apart along lines. I could hold it together by using my will at the center of my body but I was losing the battle and the world kept dissolving along these geometric paths or lines that seemed to hold everything together and yet began at my navel.
That was the night my world stopped. And i was right in my knowing that night. I did not come down the next day or the next. It was actually a matter of months before I began to feel that I was come back to any kind of normal life again. And even then, sometimes just a cup of coffee would start to send me back into that state of awareness.
During that two month period the reaffirmations were Constant. That is the best way to describe it, or maybe living in two worlds at once. The television spoke to me as did peoples conversations not meant for me. Lcence plates on automobiles and addresses on houses that I walked by began forming a code that I could read and understand. It was as if the loss of language that first night created a void within me that had to be filled with another language. It was as if it were an automatic response in my mind to create a new language to supplement the old.
Over that period of time there were many sensual changes, not just visual. At one point I was able to hear a leaf rolling across the street a half a block away. Another time, I woke up to find that everthing was "short".
I mean everything was short and fat. If I had a ruler, I would not have been able to prove it because it too would have been short when held vertically and long when held horizontally. If I had to guess, I would say that proportionally, everything was half as tall as it should have been and two times as long and wide. I spent a whole morning amazed by this phenomena.
For two months my perceptions were assaulted in various ways along with constant guiding and affirmations from all around me while at the same time the presence of beings superimposed on peoples faces. And sometimes just the beings by themselves without people being there.
Nuff said for now.
Bob