01-18-2012, 12:01 AM
"How did the old sorcerers invent those magical passes, don Juan?" I asked.
"Nobody invented them," he said sternly. "To think that they were
invented implies instantly the intervention of the mind, and this is not
the case when it comes to those magical passes. They were, rather,
discovered by the old shamans. I was told that it all began with the
extraordinary sensation of well-being that those shamans experienced
when they were in shamanistic states of heightened awareness. They felt
such tremendous, enthralling vigor that they struggled to repeat it in
their hours of vigil.
"At first," don Juan explained to me once, "those shamans believed that
it was a mood of well-being that heightened awareness created in
general. Soon, they found out that not all the states of shamanistic
heightened awareness which they entered produced in them the same
sensation of well-being. A more careful scrutiny revealed to them that
whenever that sensation of well-being occurred, they had always been
engaged in some specific kind of bodily movement. They realized that
while they were in states of heightened awareness, their bodies moved
involuntarily in certain ways, and that those certain ways were indeed
the cause of that unusual sensation of physical and mental plenitude."
Don Juan speculated that it had always appeared to him that the
movements that the bodies of those shamans executed automatically in
heightened awareness were a sort of hidden heritage of mankind;
something that had been put in deep storage to be revealed only to those
who were looking for it. He portrayed those sorcerers as deep-sea
divers who, without knowing it, reclaimed it.
Don Juan said that those sorcerers arduously
began to piece together some of the movements they remembered. Their
efforts paid off. They were capable of re-creating movements that had
seemed to them to be automatic reactions of the body in a state of
heightened awareness.
Encouraged by their success, they were capable of re-creating hundreds
of movements which they performed without ever attempting to classify
them into an understandable scheme. Their idea was that in heightened
awareness, the movements happened spontaneously; and that there was a
force that guided their effect without the intervention of their
volition."
"Magical Passes: The Practical Wisdom of the Shamans of Ancient Mexico"
"Nobody invented them," he said sternly. "To think that they were
invented implies instantly the intervention of the mind, and this is not
the case when it comes to those magical passes. They were, rather,
discovered by the old shamans. I was told that it all began with the
extraordinary sensation of well-being that those shamans experienced
when they were in shamanistic states of heightened awareness. They felt
such tremendous, enthralling vigor that they struggled to repeat it in
their hours of vigil.
"At first," don Juan explained to me once, "those shamans believed that
it was a mood of well-being that heightened awareness created in
general. Soon, they found out that not all the states of shamanistic
heightened awareness which they entered produced in them the same
sensation of well-being. A more careful scrutiny revealed to them that
whenever that sensation of well-being occurred, they had always been
engaged in some specific kind of bodily movement. They realized that
while they were in states of heightened awareness, their bodies moved
involuntarily in certain ways, and that those certain ways were indeed
the cause of that unusual sensation of physical and mental plenitude."
Don Juan speculated that it had always appeared to him that the
movements that the bodies of those shamans executed automatically in
heightened awareness were a sort of hidden heritage of mankind;
something that had been put in deep storage to be revealed only to those
who were looking for it. He portrayed those sorcerers as deep-sea
divers who, without knowing it, reclaimed it.
Don Juan said that those sorcerers arduously
began to piece together some of the movements they remembered. Their
efforts paid off. They were capable of re-creating movements that had
seemed to them to be automatic reactions of the body in a state of
heightened awareness.
Encouraged by their success, they were capable of re-creating hundreds
of movements which they performed without ever attempting to classify
them into an understandable scheme. Their idea was that in heightened
awareness, the movements happened spontaneously; and that there was a
force that guided their effect without the intervention of their
volition."
"Magical Passes: The Practical Wisdom of the Shamans of Ancient Mexico"