02-09-2010, 12:00 AM
The Third Series: First Group: The Center for Decisions
The most important topic for the shamans who lived in Mexico in ancient
times, and for all the shamans of don Juan's lineage, was the center for
decisions. Shamans are convinced, by the practical results of their endeavors,
that there is a spot on the human body which accounts for decision making, the V
spot- the area on the crest of the sternum at the base of the neck, where the
clavicles meet to form a letter V. It is a center where energy is rarefied to
the point of being tremendously subtle, and it stores a specific type of energy
which shamans are incapable of defining.
They are utterly certain, however, that they can feel the presence of that
energy, and its effects. It is the belief of shamans that this special energy is
always pushed out of that center very early in the lives of human beings, and it
never returns to it, thus depriving human beings of something perhaps more
important than all the energy of the other centers combined: the capacity to
make decisions.
In relation to the issue of making decisions, don Juan expressed the hard
opinion of the sorcerers of his lineage. Their observations, over the centuries,
had led them to conclude that human beings are incapable of making decisions,
and that for this reason, they have created the social order: gigantic
institutions that assume responsibility for decision making. They let those
gigantic institutions decide for them, and they merely fulfill the decisions
already made on their behalf.
The V spot at the base of the neck was, for those shamans, a place of such
importance that they rarely touched it with their hands; if it was touched, the
touch was ritualistic and always performed by someone else with the aid of an
object. They used highly polished pieces of hardwood or polished bones of
animals, utilizing the round head of the bone so as to have an object of the
perfect contour, the size of the hollow spot on the neck. They would press with
those bones or pieces of wood to create pressure on the borders of that hollow
spot. Those objects were also used, although rarely, for self-massage, or for
what we understand nowadays as accupressure.
"How did they come to find out that that hollow spot is the center for
decisions!" I asked don Juan once.
"Every center of energy in the body," he replied, "shows a concentration of
energy; a sort of vortex of energy, like a funnel that actually seems to rotate
counterclockwise from the perspective of the seer who gazes into it. The
strength of a particular center depends on the force of that movement. If it
barely moves, the center is exhausted, depleted of energy.
"When the sorcerers of ancient times," don Juan continued, "were scanning the
body with their seeing eye, they noticed the presence of those vortexes. They
became very curious about them, and made a map of them."
"Are there many such centers in the body, don Juan?" I asked.
"There are hundreds of them," he replied, "if not thousands! One can say that
a human being is nothing else but a conglomerate of thousands of twirling
vortexes, some of them so very small that they are, let's say, like pinholes,
but very important pinholes. Most of the vortexes are vortexes of energy. Energy
flows freely through them, or is stuck in them. There are, however, six which
are so enormous that they deserve special treatment. They are centers of life
and vitality. Energy there is never stuck, but sometimes the supply of energy is
so scarce that the center barely rotates."
Don Juan explained that those enormous centers of vitality were located on
six areas of the body. He enumerated them in terms of the importance that
shamans accorded them.
The first was on the area of the liver and gallbladder; the second on the
area of the pancreas and spleen; the third on the area of the kidneys and
adrenals; and the fourth on the hollow spot at the base of the neck on the
frontal part of the body. The fifth was around the womb, and the sixth was on
the top of the head.
The fifth center, pertinent only to women, had, according to what don Juan
said, a special kind of energy that gave sorcerers the impression of liquidness.
It was a feature that only some women had. It seemed to serve as a natural
filter that screened out superfluous influences.
The sixth center, located on top of the head, don Juan described as something
more than an anomaly, and refrained absolutely from having anything to do with
it. He portrayed it as possessing not a circular vortex of energy, like the
others, but a pendulumlike, back-and-forth movement somehow reminiscent of the
beating of a heart.
"Why is the energy of that center so different, don Juan?" I asked him.
"That sixth center of energy," he said, "doesn't quite belong to man. You
see, we human beings are under siege, so to speak. That center has been taken
over by an invader, an unseen predator. And the only way to overcome this
predator is by fortifying all the other centers."
"Isn't it a bit paranoiac to feel that we are under siege, don Juan?" I
asked.
"Well, maybe for you, but certainly not for me," he replied. "I see energy,
and I see that the energy over the center on the top of the head doesn't
fluctuate like the energy of the other centers. It has a back-and-forth
movement, quite disgusting, and quite foreign. I also see that in a sorcerer who
has been capable of vanquishing the mind, which sorcerers call a foreign
installation, the fluctuation of that center has become exactly like the
fluctuation of all the others."
Don Juan, throughout the years of my apprenticeship, systematically refused
to talk about that sixth center. On this occasion when he was telling me about
the centers of vitality, he dismissed my frantic probes, rather rudely, and
began to talk about the fourth center, the center for decisions.
"This fourth center," he said, "has a special type of energy, which appears
to the eye of the seer as possessing a unique transparency, something that could
be described as resembling water: energy so fluid that it seems liquid. The
liquid appearance of this special energy is the mark of a filterlike quality of
the center for decisions itself, which screens any energy coming to it, and
draws from it only the aspect of it that is liquidlike. Such a quality of
liquidness is a uniform and consistent feature of this center. Sorcerers also
call it the watery center.
"The rotation of the energy at the center for decisions is the weakest of
them all," he went on. "That's why man can rarely decide anything. Sorcerers see
that after they practice certain magical passes, that center becomes active, and
they can certainly make decisions to their hearts' content, while they couldn't
even take a first step before."
Don Juan was quite emphatic about the fact that the shamans of ancient Mexico
had an aversion that bordered on phobia about touching their own hollow spot at
the base of the neck. The only way in which they accepted any interference
whatsoever with that spot was through the use of their magical passes, which
reinforce that center by bringing dispersed energy to it, clearing away, in this
manner, any hesitation in decision making born out of the natural energy
dispersion brought about by the wear and tear of everyday life.
"A human being," don Juan said, "perceived as a conglomerate of energy
fields, is a concrete and sealed unit into which no energy can be injected, and
from which no energy can escape. The feeling of losing energy, which all of us
experience at one time or another, is the result of energy being chased away,
dispersed from the five enormous natural centers of life and vitality. Any sense
of gaining energy is due to the redeployment of energy previously dispersed from
those centers. That is to say, The energy is relocated onto those five centers
of life and vitality."
The Third Series: First Group: The Magical Passes for the Center for
Decisions
1. Bringing Energy to the Center for Decisions with a Back-and Forth Motion
of the Hands and Arms with the Palms Turned Downward. The arms shoot out to the
front at a forty-five-degree angle with an exhalation, the palms of the hands
facing down (fig. 125). Then they are retrieved to the sides of the chest, under the axilla,
with an inhalation. The shoulders are raised in order to main the same degree of
inclination (fig. 126).
In the second facet of this movement, the arms are extended downward with an
inhalation, and pulled back with an exhalation.
2. Bringing Energy to the Center for Decisions with a Back-and-Forth Motion
of the Hands and Arms with the Palms Turned Upward
This magical pass is like the preceding one, and it is executed in exactly
the same fashion, except that it is done with the palms of the hands turned
upward (fig. 127).
The inhalations and exhalations are also exactly as in the preceding movement.
Air is exhaled as the hands and arms move forward at a forty-five-degree level
of inclination, and it is inhaled as the arms move backward. Then air is inhaled
as the hands and arms move downward, and exhaled as the hands and arms retrieve.
3. Bringing Energy to the Center for Decisions with a Circular Motion of the
Hands and Arms with the Palms Turned Downward
This magical pass begins exactly like the first one of this group, except
that when the hands reach their fully extended position, two complete circles
are drawn with the hands and the arms going away from each other to reach a
point about six inches beyond the rib cage. When the hands complete the circles
(fig. 128), the
arms are retrieved to the sides of the rib cage under the axilla.
This magical pass consists of two facets. In the first, air is exhaled as the
circles are drawn and inhaled as the arms are retrieved backward. In the second,
air is inhaled as the hands and arms draw the circles and exhaled as the arms
are retrieved.
4. Bringing Energy to the Center for Decisions in a Circular Motion of the
Hands and Arms with the Palms Turned Upward
This magical pass is exactly like the preceding one, with the same two facets
of inhalation and exhalation, but the two circles are drawn by the hands and
arms with the palms of the hands turned upward (fig. 129).
5. Bringing Energy to the Center for Decisions from the Midsection of the
Body
The arms are bent at the elbows and kept high, at the level of the shoulders.
The fingers are kept loosely pointing toward the V spot, but without touching it
(fig. 130). The
arms move in a teeter-totter fashion from right to left and left to right. The
motion is not accomplished by moving the shoulders or the hips, but by the
contraction of the muscles of the stomach, which moves the midsection to the
right, to the left, and to the right again, and so on.
6. Bringing Energy to the Center for Decisions from the Area of the Shoulder
Blades
The arms are bent, as in the previous movement, hut the shoulders are rounded
so that the elbows are heavily drawn toward the front. The left hand is placed
on top of the right. The fingers are held loose, pointing toward the V spot
without touching n, and the chin juts out and rests on the hollow spot between
the thumb and index finger of the left Figure 130 hand (fig. 131). The bent elbows are pushed
forward, extending the shoulder blades, one at a time, to the maximum.
7. Stirring Energy Around the Center for Decisions with a Bent Wrist
Both hands are brought to the V spot on the base of the neck, without
touching it. The hands are gently curved; the fingers point at the center for
decisions. Then the hands begin to move, the left first, followed by the right,
as if stirring a liquid substance around that area, or as if they were fanning
air into the V spot with a series of gentle movements of each hand; these
movements are accomplished by extending the whole arm laterally and then
bringing it back to the area in front of the V spot (fig. 132). Then the left arm strikes out in
front of the V spot, with the hand turned sharply inward, using the wrist and
the back of the hand as a striking surface (fig. 133). The right arm executes the same
movement. In this manner, a series of forceful blows are delivered to the area
right in front of the V spot.
8. Transferring Energy from the Two Centers of Vitality on the Front of the
Body to the Center for Decisions
Both hands are brought to the area of the pancreas and spleen, a few inches
in front of the body. The left hand, with the palm turned upward, is held four
or five inches below the right one, which has the palm turned downward. The left
forearm is held at a ninety-degree angle, extended straight out to the front.
The right forearm is also at a ninety-degree angle, but held close to the body,
so that the fingertips point to the left (fig. 134). The left hand makes two inward circles
about a foot in diameter around the area of the pancreas and spleen. Once it has
completed the second circle, the right hand shoots out to the front and strikes
with the edge of the hand, to the area an arm's length in front of the liver and
gallbladder (fig.135).
The exact same movements are performed on the other side of the body by
reversing the position of the hands, which arc brought to the area of the liver
and gallbladder, with the right hand circling and the left hand striking forward
to the area an arm's length in front of the pancreas and spleen.
9. Bringing Energy to the Center for Decisions from the Knees
The left hand and arm draw two circles about a foot in diameter in front of
the V spot, a bit toward the left (fig. 136). The palm of the hand is facing
downward. Once the second circle has been drawn, the forearm is raised to the
level of the shoulder and the hand strikes away from the (ace, diagonally to the
right, at the level of the V spot, with a flick of the wrist, as if holding a
whip (fig. 137).
The same movements are performed with the right hand.
Then a deep inhalation is taken, and an exhalation follows as the hands and
arms slide downward until they reach the tops of the knees, with the palms
facing up. A deep inhalation is taken there and the arms are raised, with the
left arm in the lead; the right arm crosses over the left as they go over the
head until the fingers rest on the back of the neck. The breath is held as the
top of the trunk moves three times in succession in a teeter-totter motion; the
left shoulder goes down first, then the right, and so on (fig. 138). Then the air is exhaled
as the arms and hands move back downward to the tops of the knees, again with
the palms of the hands facing up.
A deep inhalation is taken, and then the air is exhaled as the hands are
raised from the knees to the level of the V spot, with the fingers pointing
toward it, without touching it (fig. 139). The hands are brought once more to the
knees with an exhalation. A final deep inhalation is taken and the hands are
raised to the level of the eyes, and then brought down to the sides as the air
is exhaled.
The next three magical passes, according to don Juan, transfer energy which
belongs only to the center for decisions from the frontal edge of the luminous
sphere, where it has accumulated over the years, to the back, and then from the
back of the luminous sphere to the front. He said that this energy transferred
back and forth goes through the V spot, which acts as a filter, utilizing only
the energy that is proper to it and discarding the rest. He pointed out that
because of this selective process of the V spot, it is essential to perform
these three magical passes as many times as possible.
10. Energy Going Through the Center for Decisions from the Front to the Back
and the Back to the Front with Two Blows
A deep inhalation is taken. Then the air is slowly exhaled as the left arm
strikes out at the level of the solar plexus, with the palm of the hand turned
upward; the palm is held flat and the fingers are together.
Then the hand is clasped into a fist. The arm moves to the back, striking
from the height of the hips with a backhand blow (fig. 140). The exhalation ends as the hand opens.
Another deep inhalation is taken. A slow exhalation follows while the palm of
the open hand, still in back of the body, taps ten times as if lightly hitting a
solid round object. Then the hand is clasped into a fist before the arm moves to
the front in a swinglike punch that strikes an area in front of the V spot, an
arm's length away from it (fig. 141). The hand opens as if releasing something held in it. The arm
moves down, back, and then over the head and strikes with the palm down in front
of the V spot, as if breaking whatever it has released. The exhalation ends then
(fig. 142). The
same sequence of movements is repeated with the right arm.
11. Transferring Energy from the Front to the Back and the Back to the Front
with the Hook of the Arm
A deep inhalation is made. Then the air is slowly exhaled as the left .inn
moves forward with the palm of the hand turned upward. The hand is quickly
clasped into a fist. The fisted hand rotates until the back of the hand is
turned upward and strikes over the shoulder to the back. The fisted palm faces
upward. The hand opens and turns to face downward, and the exhalation ends.
Another deep inhalation is taken. Then a slow exhalation begins as the hand,
made into a downward hook, scoops three times, as if rolling a solid substance
into a ball (fig. 143). The ball is tossed upward to the level of the head with a flick of the
hand and forearm (fig. 144), and quickly grabbed with the hand bent again at the wrist like a hook
(fig. 145). The arm
moves to the front, then to the height of the right shoulder and strikes forward
to an area right in front of the V spot an arm's length away from it, using the
wrist and the back of the hand as a striking surface (fig. 146). The hand then opens as if to
release whatever it had trapped, and the arm moves down to the back and over the
head to strike it with great force with the flat palm. The exhalation ends as
the whole body shakes with the force of the strike. The same movements are
repeated with the other arm.
12. Transferring Energy from the Front to the Back and the Back to the Front
with Three Blows
A deep inhalation is taken. A slow exhalation follows as the left arm strikes
forward with the hand open, the flat palm turned upward. The hand is quickly
clasped into a fist, and the arm retrieves as if to deliver an elbow blow to the
back. Then it moves laterally to the right and delivers a side punch with the
forearm rubbing on the body (fig. 147). The elbow is retrieved again as if to
deliver an elbow blow to the back. The arm is extended and moved out to the left
side and to the back, to deliver the fourth blow behind the body with the back
of the fisted hand. The exhalation ends as the hand opens (fig. 148).
A deep inhalation is taken again. A slow exhalation follows as the hand, bent
downward into a hook, scoops three times. Then the hand grabs as if it were
clasping something solid (fig. 149). The arm swings to the front at the level of the center for
decisions. It continues to the right shoulder; there the forearm makes a loop
upward and delivers a back-fist blow to the area in front of the V spot, an
arm's length away from it (fig. 150). The hand opens as if to release something that it was
clasping. Then it moves down, goes behind the body, comes above the head, with
the palm of the hand down, and smashes whatever it released with a forceful blow
of the open hand. The slow exhalation ends there (fig. 151).
The same movements are repeated with the right arm.
The most important topic for the shamans who lived in Mexico in ancient
times, and for all the shamans of don Juan's lineage, was the center for
decisions. Shamans are convinced, by the practical results of their endeavors,
that there is a spot on the human body which accounts for decision making, the V
spot- the area on the crest of the sternum at the base of the neck, where the
clavicles meet to form a letter V. It is a center where energy is rarefied to
the point of being tremendously subtle, and it stores a specific type of energy
which shamans are incapable of defining.
They are utterly certain, however, that they can feel the presence of that
energy, and its effects. It is the belief of shamans that this special energy is
always pushed out of that center very early in the lives of human beings, and it
never returns to it, thus depriving human beings of something perhaps more
important than all the energy of the other centers combined: the capacity to
make decisions.
In relation to the issue of making decisions, don Juan expressed the hard
opinion of the sorcerers of his lineage. Their observations, over the centuries,
had led them to conclude that human beings are incapable of making decisions,
and that for this reason, they have created the social order: gigantic
institutions that assume responsibility for decision making. They let those
gigantic institutions decide for them, and they merely fulfill the decisions
already made on their behalf.
The V spot at the base of the neck was, for those shamans, a place of such
importance that they rarely touched it with their hands; if it was touched, the
touch was ritualistic and always performed by someone else with the aid of an
object. They used highly polished pieces of hardwood or polished bones of
animals, utilizing the round head of the bone so as to have an object of the
perfect contour, the size of the hollow spot on the neck. They would press with
those bones or pieces of wood to create pressure on the borders of that hollow
spot. Those objects were also used, although rarely, for self-massage, or for
what we understand nowadays as accupressure.
"How did they come to find out that that hollow spot is the center for
decisions!" I asked don Juan once.
"Every center of energy in the body," he replied, "shows a concentration of
energy; a sort of vortex of energy, like a funnel that actually seems to rotate
counterclockwise from the perspective of the seer who gazes into it. The
strength of a particular center depends on the force of that movement. If it
barely moves, the center is exhausted, depleted of energy.
"When the sorcerers of ancient times," don Juan continued, "were scanning the
body with their seeing eye, they noticed the presence of those vortexes. They
became very curious about them, and made a map of them."
"Are there many such centers in the body, don Juan?" I asked.
"There are hundreds of them," he replied, "if not thousands! One can say that
a human being is nothing else but a conglomerate of thousands of twirling
vortexes, some of them so very small that they are, let's say, like pinholes,
but very important pinholes. Most of the vortexes are vortexes of energy. Energy
flows freely through them, or is stuck in them. There are, however, six which
are so enormous that they deserve special treatment. They are centers of life
and vitality. Energy there is never stuck, but sometimes the supply of energy is
so scarce that the center barely rotates."
Don Juan explained that those enormous centers of vitality were located on
six areas of the body. He enumerated them in terms of the importance that
shamans accorded them.
The first was on the area of the liver and gallbladder; the second on the
area of the pancreas and spleen; the third on the area of the kidneys and
adrenals; and the fourth on the hollow spot at the base of the neck on the
frontal part of the body. The fifth was around the womb, and the sixth was on
the top of the head.
The fifth center, pertinent only to women, had, according to what don Juan
said, a special kind of energy that gave sorcerers the impression of liquidness.
It was a feature that only some women had. It seemed to serve as a natural
filter that screened out superfluous influences.
The sixth center, located on top of the head, don Juan described as something
more than an anomaly, and refrained absolutely from having anything to do with
it. He portrayed it as possessing not a circular vortex of energy, like the
others, but a pendulumlike, back-and-forth movement somehow reminiscent of the
beating of a heart.
"Why is the energy of that center so different, don Juan?" I asked him.
"That sixth center of energy," he said, "doesn't quite belong to man. You
see, we human beings are under siege, so to speak. That center has been taken
over by an invader, an unseen predator. And the only way to overcome this
predator is by fortifying all the other centers."
"Isn't it a bit paranoiac to feel that we are under siege, don Juan?" I
asked.
"Well, maybe for you, but certainly not for me," he replied. "I see energy,
and I see that the energy over the center on the top of the head doesn't
fluctuate like the energy of the other centers. It has a back-and-forth
movement, quite disgusting, and quite foreign. I also see that in a sorcerer who
has been capable of vanquishing the mind, which sorcerers call a foreign
installation, the fluctuation of that center has become exactly like the
fluctuation of all the others."
Don Juan, throughout the years of my apprenticeship, systematically refused
to talk about that sixth center. On this occasion when he was telling me about
the centers of vitality, he dismissed my frantic probes, rather rudely, and
began to talk about the fourth center, the center for decisions.
"This fourth center," he said, "has a special type of energy, which appears
to the eye of the seer as possessing a unique transparency, something that could
be described as resembling water: energy so fluid that it seems liquid. The
liquid appearance of this special energy is the mark of a filterlike quality of
the center for decisions itself, which screens any energy coming to it, and
draws from it only the aspect of it that is liquidlike. Such a quality of
liquidness is a uniform and consistent feature of this center. Sorcerers also
call it the watery center.
"The rotation of the energy at the center for decisions is the weakest of
them all," he went on. "That's why man can rarely decide anything. Sorcerers see
that after they practice certain magical passes, that center becomes active, and
they can certainly make decisions to their hearts' content, while they couldn't
even take a first step before."
Don Juan was quite emphatic about the fact that the shamans of ancient Mexico
had an aversion that bordered on phobia about touching their own hollow spot at
the base of the neck. The only way in which they accepted any interference
whatsoever with that spot was through the use of their magical passes, which
reinforce that center by bringing dispersed energy to it, clearing away, in this
manner, any hesitation in decision making born out of the natural energy
dispersion brought about by the wear and tear of everyday life.
"A human being," don Juan said, "perceived as a conglomerate of energy
fields, is a concrete and sealed unit into which no energy can be injected, and
from which no energy can escape. The feeling of losing energy, which all of us
experience at one time or another, is the result of energy being chased away,
dispersed from the five enormous natural centers of life and vitality. Any sense
of gaining energy is due to the redeployment of energy previously dispersed from
those centers. That is to say, The energy is relocated onto those five centers
of life and vitality."
The Third Series: First Group: The Magical Passes for the Center for
Decisions
1. Bringing Energy to the Center for Decisions with a Back-and Forth Motion
of the Hands and Arms with the Palms Turned Downward. The arms shoot out to the
front at a forty-five-degree angle with an exhalation, the palms of the hands
facing down (fig. 125). Then they are retrieved to the sides of the chest, under the axilla,
with an inhalation. The shoulders are raised in order to main the same degree of
inclination (fig. 126).
In the second facet of this movement, the arms are extended downward with an
inhalation, and pulled back with an exhalation.
2. Bringing Energy to the Center for Decisions with a Back-and-Forth Motion
of the Hands and Arms with the Palms Turned Upward
This magical pass is like the preceding one, and it is executed in exactly
the same fashion, except that it is done with the palms of the hands turned
upward (fig. 127).
The inhalations and exhalations are also exactly as in the preceding movement.
Air is exhaled as the hands and arms move forward at a forty-five-degree level
of inclination, and it is inhaled as the arms move backward. Then air is inhaled
as the hands and arms move downward, and exhaled as the hands and arms retrieve.
3. Bringing Energy to the Center for Decisions with a Circular Motion of the
Hands and Arms with the Palms Turned Downward
This magical pass begins exactly like the first one of this group, except
that when the hands reach their fully extended position, two complete circles
are drawn with the hands and the arms going away from each other to reach a
point about six inches beyond the rib cage. When the hands complete the circles
(fig. 128), the
arms are retrieved to the sides of the rib cage under the axilla.
This magical pass consists of two facets. In the first, air is exhaled as the
circles are drawn and inhaled as the arms are retrieved backward. In the second,
air is inhaled as the hands and arms draw the circles and exhaled as the arms
are retrieved.
4. Bringing Energy to the Center for Decisions in a Circular Motion of the
Hands and Arms with the Palms Turned Upward
This magical pass is exactly like the preceding one, with the same two facets
of inhalation and exhalation, but the two circles are drawn by the hands and
arms with the palms of the hands turned upward (fig. 129).
5. Bringing Energy to the Center for Decisions from the Midsection of the
Body
The arms are bent at the elbows and kept high, at the level of the shoulders.
The fingers are kept loosely pointing toward the V spot, but without touching it
(fig. 130). The
arms move in a teeter-totter fashion from right to left and left to right. The
motion is not accomplished by moving the shoulders or the hips, but by the
contraction of the muscles of the stomach, which moves the midsection to the
right, to the left, and to the right again, and so on.
6. Bringing Energy to the Center for Decisions from the Area of the Shoulder
Blades
The arms are bent, as in the previous movement, hut the shoulders are rounded
so that the elbows are heavily drawn toward the front. The left hand is placed
on top of the right. The fingers are held loose, pointing toward the V spot
without touching n, and the chin juts out and rests on the hollow spot between
the thumb and index finger of the left Figure 130 hand (fig. 131). The bent elbows are pushed
forward, extending the shoulder blades, one at a time, to the maximum.
7. Stirring Energy Around the Center for Decisions with a Bent Wrist
Both hands are brought to the V spot on the base of the neck, without
touching it. The hands are gently curved; the fingers point at the center for
decisions. Then the hands begin to move, the left first, followed by the right,
as if stirring a liquid substance around that area, or as if they were fanning
air into the V spot with a series of gentle movements of each hand; these
movements are accomplished by extending the whole arm laterally and then
bringing it back to the area in front of the V spot (fig. 132). Then the left arm strikes out in
front of the V spot, with the hand turned sharply inward, using the wrist and
the back of the hand as a striking surface (fig. 133). The right arm executes the same
movement. In this manner, a series of forceful blows are delivered to the area
right in front of the V spot.
8. Transferring Energy from the Two Centers of Vitality on the Front of the
Body to the Center for Decisions
Both hands are brought to the area of the pancreas and spleen, a few inches
in front of the body. The left hand, with the palm turned upward, is held four
or five inches below the right one, which has the palm turned downward. The left
forearm is held at a ninety-degree angle, extended straight out to the front.
The right forearm is also at a ninety-degree angle, but held close to the body,
so that the fingertips point to the left (fig. 134). The left hand makes two inward circles
about a foot in diameter around the area of the pancreas and spleen. Once it has
completed the second circle, the right hand shoots out to the front and strikes
with the edge of the hand, to the area an arm's length in front of the liver and
gallbladder (fig.135).
The exact same movements are performed on the other side of the body by
reversing the position of the hands, which arc brought to the area of the liver
and gallbladder, with the right hand circling and the left hand striking forward
to the area an arm's length in front of the pancreas and spleen.
9. Bringing Energy to the Center for Decisions from the Knees
The left hand and arm draw two circles about a foot in diameter in front of
the V spot, a bit toward the left (fig. 136). The palm of the hand is facing
downward. Once the second circle has been drawn, the forearm is raised to the
level of the shoulder and the hand strikes away from the (ace, diagonally to the
right, at the level of the V spot, with a flick of the wrist, as if holding a
whip (fig. 137).
The same movements are performed with the right hand.
Then a deep inhalation is taken, and an exhalation follows as the hands and
arms slide downward until they reach the tops of the knees, with the palms
facing up. A deep inhalation is taken there and the arms are raised, with the
left arm in the lead; the right arm crosses over the left as they go over the
head until the fingers rest on the back of the neck. The breath is held as the
top of the trunk moves three times in succession in a teeter-totter motion; the
left shoulder goes down first, then the right, and so on (fig. 138). Then the air is exhaled
as the arms and hands move back downward to the tops of the knees, again with
the palms of the hands facing up.
A deep inhalation is taken, and then the air is exhaled as the hands are
raised from the knees to the level of the V spot, with the fingers pointing
toward it, without touching it (fig. 139). The hands are brought once more to the
knees with an exhalation. A final deep inhalation is taken and the hands are
raised to the level of the eyes, and then brought down to the sides as the air
is exhaled.
The next three magical passes, according to don Juan, transfer energy which
belongs only to the center for decisions from the frontal edge of the luminous
sphere, where it has accumulated over the years, to the back, and then from the
back of the luminous sphere to the front. He said that this energy transferred
back and forth goes through the V spot, which acts as a filter, utilizing only
the energy that is proper to it and discarding the rest. He pointed out that
because of this selective process of the V spot, it is essential to perform
these three magical passes as many times as possible.
10. Energy Going Through the Center for Decisions from the Front to the Back
and the Back to the Front with Two Blows
A deep inhalation is taken. Then the air is slowly exhaled as the left arm
strikes out at the level of the solar plexus, with the palm of the hand turned
upward; the palm is held flat and the fingers are together.
Then the hand is clasped into a fist. The arm moves to the back, striking
from the height of the hips with a backhand blow (fig. 140). The exhalation ends as the hand opens.
Another deep inhalation is taken. A slow exhalation follows while the palm of
the open hand, still in back of the body, taps ten times as if lightly hitting a
solid round object. Then the hand is clasped into a fist before the arm moves to
the front in a swinglike punch that strikes an area in front of the V spot, an
arm's length away from it (fig. 141). The hand opens as if releasing something held in it. The arm
moves down, back, and then over the head and strikes with the palm down in front
of the V spot, as if breaking whatever it has released. The exhalation ends then
(fig. 142). The
same sequence of movements is repeated with the right arm.
11. Transferring Energy from the Front to the Back and the Back to the Front
with the Hook of the Arm
A deep inhalation is made. Then the air is slowly exhaled as the left .inn
moves forward with the palm of the hand turned upward. The hand is quickly
clasped into a fist. The fisted hand rotates until the back of the hand is
turned upward and strikes over the shoulder to the back. The fisted palm faces
upward. The hand opens and turns to face downward, and the exhalation ends.
Another deep inhalation is taken. Then a slow exhalation begins as the hand,
made into a downward hook, scoops three times, as if rolling a solid substance
into a ball (fig. 143). The ball is tossed upward to the level of the head with a flick of the
hand and forearm (fig. 144), and quickly grabbed with the hand bent again at the wrist like a hook
(fig. 145). The arm
moves to the front, then to the height of the right shoulder and strikes forward
to an area right in front of the V spot an arm's length away from it, using the
wrist and the back of the hand as a striking surface (fig. 146). The hand then opens as if to
release whatever it had trapped, and the arm moves down to the back and over the
head to strike it with great force with the flat palm. The exhalation ends as
the whole body shakes with the force of the strike. The same movements are
repeated with the other arm.
12. Transferring Energy from the Front to the Back and the Back to the Front
with Three Blows
A deep inhalation is taken. A slow exhalation follows as the left arm strikes
forward with the hand open, the flat palm turned upward. The hand is quickly
clasped into a fist, and the arm retrieves as if to deliver an elbow blow to the
back. Then it moves laterally to the right and delivers a side punch with the
forearm rubbing on the body (fig. 147). The elbow is retrieved again as if to
deliver an elbow blow to the back. The arm is extended and moved out to the left
side and to the back, to deliver the fourth blow behind the body with the back
of the fisted hand. The exhalation ends as the hand opens (fig. 148).
A deep inhalation is taken again. A slow exhalation follows as the hand, bent
downward into a hook, scoops three times. Then the hand grabs as if it were
clasping something solid (fig. 149). The arm swings to the front at the level of the center for
decisions. It continues to the right shoulder; there the forearm makes a loop
upward and delivers a back-fist blow to the area in front of the V spot, an
arm's length away from it (fig. 150). The hand opens as if to release something that it was
clasping. Then it moves down, goes behind the body, comes above the head, with
the palm of the hand down, and smashes whatever it released with a forceful blow
of the open hand. The slow exhalation ends there (fig. 151).
The same movements are repeated with the right arm.