04-14-2009, 12:00 AM
The Tenant tells Castaneda about the twin positions .Here is the part I quoted from the Art of Dreaming:
"She began then to whisper in my left ear. She said that the gifts she had given to the naguals of my line had to do with what the old sorcerers used
to call, the twin positions. That is to say, the initial position in which a dreamer holds his physical body to begin dreaming is mirrored by the position in
which he holds his energy body, in dreams, to fixate his assemblage point on any spot of his choosing. The two positions make a unit, she said, and it took the
old sorcerers thousands of years to find out the perfect relationship between any two positions. She commented, with a giggle, that the sorcerers of today will
never have the time or the disposition to do all that work, and that the men and women of my line were indeed lucky to have her to give them such gifts. Her
laughter had a most remarkable, crystalline sound.
I had not quite understood her explanation of the twin positions. Boldly, I told her that I did not want to practice those things but only know about them
as intellectual possibilities.
"What exactly do you want to know?" she asked softly.
"Explain to me what you mean by the twin positions, or the initial position in which a dreamer holds his body to start dreaming." I
said.
"How do you lie down to start your dreaming?" she asked.
"Any which way. I don't have a pattern. Don Juan never stressed this point."
"Well, I do stress it," she said and stood up. She changed positions. She sat down to my right and whispered in my other ear that, in accordance
with what she knew, the position in which one places the body is of utmost importance. She proposed a way of testing this by performing an extremely delicate
but simple exercise.
"Start your dreaming by lying on your right side, with your knees a bit bent," she said. "The discipline is to maintain that position and
fall asleep in it. In dreaming, then, the exercise is to dream that you lie down in exactly the same position and fall asleep again."
"What does that do?" I asked.
"It makes the assemblage point stay put, and I mean really stay put, in whatever position it is at the instant of that second falling
asleep."
"What are the results of this exercise?"
"Total perception. I am sure your teachers have already told you that my gifts are gifts of total perception."
"Yes. But I think I am not clear about what total perception means," I lied.
She ignored me and went on to tell me that the four variations of the exercise were to fall asleep lying on the right side, the left, the back, and the
stomach. Then in dreaming the exercise was to dream of falling asleep a second time in the same position as the dreaming had been started. She promised me
extraordinary results, which she said were not possible to foretell."
"She began then to whisper in my left ear. She said that the gifts she had given to the naguals of my line had to do with what the old sorcerers used
to call, the twin positions. That is to say, the initial position in which a dreamer holds his physical body to begin dreaming is mirrored by the position in
which he holds his energy body, in dreams, to fixate his assemblage point on any spot of his choosing. The two positions make a unit, she said, and it took the
old sorcerers thousands of years to find out the perfect relationship between any two positions. She commented, with a giggle, that the sorcerers of today will
never have the time or the disposition to do all that work, and that the men and women of my line were indeed lucky to have her to give them such gifts. Her
laughter had a most remarkable, crystalline sound.
I had not quite understood her explanation of the twin positions. Boldly, I told her that I did not want to practice those things but only know about them
as intellectual possibilities.
"What exactly do you want to know?" she asked softly.
"Explain to me what you mean by the twin positions, or the initial position in which a dreamer holds his body to start dreaming." I
said.
"How do you lie down to start your dreaming?" she asked.
"Any which way. I don't have a pattern. Don Juan never stressed this point."
"Well, I do stress it," she said and stood up. She changed positions. She sat down to my right and whispered in my other ear that, in accordance
with what she knew, the position in which one places the body is of utmost importance. She proposed a way of testing this by performing an extremely delicate
but simple exercise.
"Start your dreaming by lying on your right side, with your knees a bit bent," she said. "The discipline is to maintain that position and
fall asleep in it. In dreaming, then, the exercise is to dream that you lie down in exactly the same position and fall asleep again."
"What does that do?" I asked.
"It makes the assemblage point stay put, and I mean really stay put, in whatever position it is at the instant of that second falling
asleep."
"What are the results of this exercise?"
"Total perception. I am sure your teachers have already told you that my gifts are gifts of total perception."
"Yes. But I think I am not clear about what total perception means," I lied.
She ignored me and went on to tell me that the four variations of the exercise were to fall asleep lying on the right side, the left, the back, and the
stomach. Then in dreaming the exercise was to dream of falling asleep a second time in the same position as the dreaming had been started. She promised me
extraordinary results, which she said were not possible to foretell."