Castaneda, Toltec, "Tensegrity" and NEW/Kundalini

[Vic Sage]

Well met once again, Robert!

Promise I'll be as clear and concise as possible.

1.) Are you aware of these traditions of awakening -- the sort of shamanism, Toltec, and Tensegrity described in Castaneda's books -- and if so, how do they relate to the awakening of the kundalini energy?

Also,

The description of the individual who has mastered this tradition seems to possess abilities that are similar, but with very specific differences from the individual with awakened, risen and active kundalini.

2.) Do you have any idea why this might be? Are they completely different kinds of energies or energetic systems or something? Or is it merely a matter of belief in what one's capable of doing, and what one believes they need to do to get there based on what their ancestor's arcane traditions teach them?

For instance, from what I know of kundalini lore, the fully-awakened individual has almost Christ-like abilities, including a kind mastery over death which involves "ascending," like raising one's vibration to take one's physical body with their consciousness into higher dimensions (much like the "ascension" attributed to Christ, to Virgin Mary, and to the raptured Christians described in Revelation).

The Toltec master's conscious mind is instead said to be able to avoid the fate of being absorbed by the "Eagle," and live on indefinitely without a physical body. It sounds a lot like what I know of vampirism, where the human stores up enough energy in the etheric body to remain on that level longer than usual, feeding on the living in order to fight the etheric body's decay. The only difference seems to be that either the Toltec master is not bound by this feeding process, or if he is, there is no mention of it.

EDIT: I've been reading The Art of Dreaming, and there are descriptions of a "death defier," whose physical lifespan is measured in centuries. He apparently is an energy vampire, making pacts with sorcerers for gifts of power in exchange for some of their energy, which he infuses into his own physical body to defy death.

I appreciate any illumination you can shed. :)

Best,

--V

(Edit: Since the posts in their entirety have been moved to the Kundalini forum, I've condensed everything here as much as possible.)

[Vic Sage]

EDIT: I just started reading The Art of Dreaming, which contains a sort of recap in the beginning, so here's an edit for those who are interested. Some of these are included to clarify or correct some of what I stated above, while others are things that I found which further illustrate the similarities and differences between the two topics.

If anyone has more specific questions, you can PM me and I'll see what I can dig up. There's been talk about taking this post, once it's answered, and putting it into whatever forum is most relevant for further discussion. Based on conversations I have with other members via PMs, I can compile further points of interest and add them to this thread as needed (though my intuition tells me I should avoid making this thread even more complicated than it already is :wink:), or if it's feasible, we can copy this post to another forum now and begin discussion immediately.

Let me know what you guys want to do.

1.) The "assemblage point" is not necessarily between the shoulderblades, but instead traditionally lay (on most people) about two feet directly behind the uppermost part of one's right shoulderblade.

2.) The sorcerer seems to "see" without seeing. I'm not sure yet if it's an image in one's mind's eye, or if it's a very specific tactile sensation, or some kind of imperceptable knowing. There's a ton of very visual imagery used, but it may just be a metaphor used to explain otherwise unknowable concepts.

3.) A person's energy self is described as a globe, an egg shape, or a tombstone shape, which, for whatever reason, seems to have slowly changed from the former to the latter over the course of thousands of generations. What the sorcerer "sees" is this shape surrounding the human body, with the tennis ball-sized assemblage point flush on the surface in the aforementioned position, collecting a certain number of the infinite "filaments" of energy of which the universe is made and assembling them into a coherent set of data for the individual's mind to interpret.

4.) However, the sorcerer does not "see" auras. I'm not sure how, or even if, this works in real time, but it's made clear that when they view huge crowds of people, they are not seeing a bunch of egg shapes passing through each other. Instead, according to the description, they "see" only one globe of energy collecting filaments at the assemblage point, hanging alone in the universe, for each individual.

5.) The first step on this journey down the path of the sorcerer (referred to as the Art of Dreaming), according to Don Juan's instructions to Castaneda, is to look at one's hands during a dream. Here lay some startling similarities to things I've read in Astral Dynamics. Castaneda even goes into detailed explanation about how, when he finally began becoming aware of the fact that he was dreaming and could regularly remember to look at his hands, they often did not appear to be his. In fact, he mentions that sometimes they would look "nightmarish."

6.) Much of these early stages of the sorcerer's process deal with developing lucidity in dreaming, and Don Juan even says that the instructions for Castaneda to look for his hands was not because his hands were important, but because the activity of looking would stimulate his awareness that he was dreaming.

7.) Don Juan goes on to instruct Castaneda to find an object in his dreams and fixate on it as soon as he became lucid, and then using that object as an anchor to provide a boost to his awareness when he noticed it was slipping and he was falling back into normal dream consciousness. Don Juan tells him to take his field of vision on small but increasing forays away from the focal object, taking quick glances around at everything surrounding him in the dream environment, and then returning his gaze to it to stabilize.

8.) Further interesting is that Don Juan mentions alien energies that pervade one's dreams like scouts from other dimensions of existence, manifesting as objects or people that the aware dreamer can identify by a sense of familiary or unfamiliarity, and that the dreamer can follow these energies to other dimensions of experience.

9.) There is a point where Castaneda explains to Don Juan that as he became aware of his dreams, and began following Don Juan's instructions, he found his obsessive nature greatly magnified, going so far as to describe the incessant inner monologue that was constantly reminding him of the tasks he needed to complete, the objects he needed to look at, etc. Don Juan asked Castaneda if it felt like it was coming from inside himself and he replied that it did not. Don Juan then instructs him to wait until it happens again, and then to get very angry and yell, "Stop it!" Castaneda reports that he does this, and the inner voice immediately stopped, never to return.

10.) Don Juan talks about everyone being born with a finite quantity of energy, and that in order to have enough energy available to begin walking the sorcerer's path, one must abandon unneccessary things. His discussion about how many people waste energy worrying about their appearance to others and about possible futures where things might go wrong, the problems they might have, etc., and how these things need to be cleared from the sorcerer's life in order to proceed down the path, sounds a lot to me like the death of ego.

Best,

--V
Edit: I have started a new thread for Vic in the "Kundalini and the Serpent of Fire" forum. Please put any responses there to keep this forum clean for Robert. Thanks!

[Robert Bruce]

G'day!

Kundalini is known by many names, and there are many ways to approach this, including those you describe here, and others like Yoga, etc.

Kundalini is an energy seed that exists in everyone, regardless of race or tradition or belief.

Kundalini energy, when awakened, begins to evolve a person to a higher level of consciousness. There are obviously many levels of consciousness and ability. How this evolution occurs, the speed it happens, and the end result, will obviously vary according to the individual undergoing the process. Some people with natural clairvoyant ability, will develop advanced minds eye vision ability. Those without this natural ability, will still develop some clairvoyant ability, but not to the extent of those with stronger natural ability preexisting.

The above obviously depends on how far a person evolves. Kundalin, once awakened, will evolve a person as far as that person is capable of evolving. For most, this invovles releasing the inner genious. Many will stop far short of ascending beyond normal life, but all will evolve a type of inner genius.

Kundalin, once awakened, involves a whole new level of energetic development. The awakened energy will take one so far. It is up to the individual how far this goes. By this, I mean it depends upon many variables, including the makeup, beliefs, and practices, of an awakened individual.

Once awakened, kundalini is a whole new level of spiritual and energetic development. This must be practiced and evolved to attain the higher levels.

Kundalini is not a raise once and its done phenomenon. Once triggered, it must be evolved through further practice.

Some awakened persons are happy to evolve some inner genius, and they may never go beyond this in one life. This can and often does happen naturally. An artist, for example, may experience kundalini awakening. This will be triggered by creative work and will involve the awakening of inner creative genius. Such a person may have few spiritual aspirations, and will thus never spiritually move beyond the genius artistic level.

Kundalini is a natural energy that exists in everyone. Everyone has this potential, to evolve to become more than they were. Some people will want to go all the way, to ascend mortal life, etc. This is possible for some, but not all, as it depends on their inner energetic and psychological makeup, and if they are ready for such a leap. Many try but few succeed. But all will evolve to become more than they were.

The vampiristic approach that you mention seems to be a way to sidestep natural kundalini evolution to achieve a kind of false immortality. But this would be very conditional and given the predatory nature of such a person, this would corrupt a person and turn them into a kind of demon. This may in fact be the origin of many demonic types.

The energy body is what it is. Many approaches will trigger kundalini energy. But how far this can go will depend upon the individual. To ascend beyond mortal life and consciousness, and stay sane, would require extensive inner work, spiritual development, and energetic practice. There are no safe short cuts.

As for the assemblage point... I have experimented with this, with varying results. This does appear to exist and one can come to grips with it using body awareness. Results are variable. If played with, it will tend to shift you into different realities. Most of these involve different aspects of your self, in parallel universes. If this point is manipulated, expect anything minor reality shifts to major shifts. I do not know of any way to accurately predict the results of manipulating this.

Robert Bruce