The 2nd gate of Dreaming

[Mornings Son]

Don Juan said:







"You reach the second gate of dreaming when you wake up from a dream into another dream. You can have as many dreams as you want or as many as you are capable of, but you must exercise adequate control and not wake up in the world we know."
Don Juan said that there are two ways of properly crossing the second gate of dreaming. One is to wake up in another dream, that is to say, to dream that one is having a dream and then dream that one wakes up from it. The alternative is to use the items of a dream to trigger another dream, exactly as I had done.

[Mornings Son]

"Think for a moment. You've already experienced the outlandish joy of examining your dreams' contents. Imagine yourself going from dream to dream, watching everything, examining every detail. It's very easy to realize that one may sink to mortal depths. Especially if one is given to indulging."

"Wouldn't the body or the brain naturally put a stop to it?"

"If it's a natural sleeping situation, meaning normal, yes. But this is not a normal situation. This is dreaming. A dreamer on crossing the first gate has already reached the energy body. So what is really going through the second gate, hopping from dream to dream, is the energy body."

"What's the implication of all this, don Juan?"

"The implication is that on crossing the second gate you must intend a greater and more sober control over your dreaming attention: the only safety valve for dreamers."

"What is this safety valve?"

"You will find out for yourself that the true goal of dreaming is to perfect the energy body. A perfect energy body, among other things of course, has such a control over the dreaming attention that it makes it stop when needed. This is the safety valve dreamers have. No matter how indulging they might be, at a given time, their dreaming attention must make them surface."

[glance left]

So, this works...for sure Once lucidity is established in dreaming and the dream opens up...has that surge of energy + awareness, which feed into it...then there's the option of holding onto that subtle state as long as possible. It's a delicate balance between not getting too excited, which results in awakening...and not getting too absorbed in all the weird details of dreaming, which results in losing lucidity. And then, one needs enough dreaming energy, as well, to keep things going. One of those weird details is the phenomenon of "portals" in dreaming.....items/occurences which lead me from one dream to another. The dream changes, like magic, right in front of my eyes as I go through these portals (which sometimes manifest as tunnels...but not always). And the challenge is to hold onto lucidity while moving through these portals. A very common experience for me happens frequently amidst at OBE type dream....a dream in which I go into dreaming directly from a waking state in which I roll out of my body into the dreaming double. I'll be standing there in my bedroom, beside the bed...sometimes looks exactly like my room, with me there sleeping in the bed..but more often its only similar to my bedroom, with subtle shifts here and there. So that's the first gate, in a nutshell. No the only way to get to the first gate...but its a relatively frequent one for me. So...I'm standing there in my dreaming double in my bedroom. What now? Well....there's the option to leave the room! And that, more often than not, gives rise to the opportunity/challenge of the second gate. Because, more often than not, when I got to the bedroom door....or sometimes it happens when I get to the front door of my house.....and open it....that gesture takes me to another dream scene...another world, less familiar that that dream world I just left, which looks like my house. So now, the dream opens up and new stuff becomes available...the opportunity for weird interactions with weird beings....all of which are challenges for my dreaming attention. Can I keep my **** together? That....is the question .

Now, with respect to what Dreamer32 brought up.....a big time challenge associated with the 2nd gate phenomena is the challenge of following a IB scout. This is still a portal...but its a portal in which one willingly goes with some outlandish energetic being that is an expert in dreaming awareness/energy and follows it to its own turf. The analogy is, now I've agreed to go with some diplomat....get on his private jet...and fly to his country....a country of which is completely different from my own...the rules are different. I'm in THEIR dream. STranger in a strange land. Now things get very dicey indeed. Dreaming awareness is supported.....lucidity is supported...by all those professional dreaming entities around me who definitely have an ulterior motive, seemingly. It seems like their whole thing is about bringing in dreamers and keeping them there. From what I understand, and have experienced, they can't do it against my will...but they can act/put pressure on my weaknesses (of which I have a bunch! lol) in an almost preternatural way. They can be very enticing...and make a great sales pitch, to activate a dreamer's superficial desires in order to get them to stay. Or they act upon the dreamer's fears which then lend to projections of imprisonment which can actually entrap. That was my challenge (as is my challenge in the daily world, BTW). So the key to this challenge, for me, was the desire to sustain lucidity and a sense of freedom within dreaming. I didn't want to get stuck there, so I rallied something within me....something which manifested as detachment and as the ability to negotiate politely with my surroundings in order to regain freedom. The result was, I made it back! It was a second gate phenomenon...with a very specific test in the middle of it. I'm glad I did it, but won't be doing that one again, if I can help it. But, who knows!? Something is operative in me, beyond my current awareness, with respect to where I go/what I do in dreaming once I find lucidity there....and it's running the show, it seems. That's another weird thing about dreaming. Lucidity definitely brings something of my daily awareness into dreaming....but by no means does that mean that the "me" that operates "here" will be the full representation of the "me" that operates "there". There are other me's out there, and they've got plans I"m not aware of, apparently

[Mornings Son]

GlanceIt have been found and is completely logic that there are more than two kind of IOB (Water and Fire)
There is many entities out there and there for many dreaming realms as well. 
I wonder why Don Juan's lineage was bonding with that kind. 
If we think about Don Elias Dreaming skills, could it be do to that kind of IOBs gifts of power? 

As I still have to read further in the Art of Dreaming, the IOB travel instruction has not been reread... 
For me it is all about shifting Dream scenes and casting glances getting the details in the scenes

Your Dream gate to the 2nd gate of Dreaming ))
It is very clear how you share it. Thank you. 
It give me a clear understanding of how it can be experienced ))))

[Draco Fellicci]

To have energy is to have freedom

[glance left]

MS, yeah i agree with you 100%...there are many many kinds of IOB's. Don Juan even said that himself...that they were as diverse as human beings are diverse. Some humans make great "allies"....and others make terrible "allies". Same figure of speech goes for dealing with IOB's, I guess...."choose your friends wisely"

[Draco Fellicci]

In the end it's all just a assemblage point or emmanation position.

[glance left]

And, until then....it's everything else that appear, like a magical shimmering mirage, before my eyes. I'll navigate this dream, with affection and appreciation, until the end when it all turns to light

[Draco Fellicci]

Darkness cannot be defeated only circumvent.

[Draco Fellicci]

*Darkness cannot be defeated only circumvent, through outward gaze.
In inner sense it is exactly conversely.

[glance left]

Yeah, that's why I like the word "navigation"....it means implies being in constant motion while carefully moving around potential pitfalls...."darkness"...whatever one wants to call it. I mean, that's kind of what life is all about, once I step out of the infinite void where everything is unified without distinction....once I step out into the dream of being something separate and alive. Now I'm a probe of awareness, checking out the universe. And the object of the game is to see as much as I can see before I get reabsorbed back into infinity. How long can I go? How much awesomeness and beauty can I pack into this little being's awareness before I relinquish my individuality? Hopefully.....a bunch!

[Draco Fellicci]

How far I can go and bear witness tnagual until my individuality runs in to sort the place ?

[glance left]

LOL...can you rephrase the question?

[Draco Fellicci]

All the sorcerers I know, who managed to get into infinity, told me at some point same thing, that they managed to find their selves by traveling far into unknown.

[glance left]

Yeah, and it seems to me that, "going far into unknown" simply means progressive letting go of the "known" right here where I'm sitting. The known is only known by because of skimming...because of habit, self talk and mental preoccupation. The known becomes progressively unknown when I give it my sustained attention...uphold awareness that doesn't fix things in place

[Draco Fellicci]

, I agree, but sometimes letting the will to fix totaly is kinda needed too.

So I was for quite long while, looking for way out of a certain loop in dreaming that occupied me more and more, my awareness was simply unable to get out of perception that was made of black and gray proportions.
It took quite a quick end in the end, I was dreaming and delving into the dark side of nagual, utter void, as I was going/swimming/flying which became unrecognizable along with time which felt like eons. I almost bumped into sorcerer, almost unrecognizable from the void all around, the situation took me by suprise and the sorcerer which was made of the darkness asked me "Why are you here?" I gave him straight answer "Darkness", he smilled a little and said "You should be looking for the light in the darkness" then he raised his hand and I was swayed through dreaming into bodily sensation that felt light and crystal clear it was similiar to the when my ally boosts me, but felt much more natural it was more like beign the quality then intention.

[Guest]