Clinical Energetics of the Astral Body; notes on: The Art of Dreaming; 1993; Carlos Castaneda.

Clinical Energetics of the Astral Body;

notes by ted on:
The Art of Dreaming
a book by Carlos Castaneda
1993

Sorcery and Supernatural powers and

Shamanism
● 1. dreaming -- the act of embodying some specialized theoretical
and practical premises about the nature and role of perception in
moulding the universe around us.
● 2. the natural everyday world and the unseen world called the 2nd
Attention.
● 3. the most important art is called the art of dreaming.
● 4. we have been energetically conditioned to perceive solely our
world.
● 5. to enter (another reality) we have to {wish, desire, intend} to and
we have to have sufficient energy
● 6. their inaccessibility is entirely a consequence of our energetic
conditioning.
● 7. a set of practices, called the art of dreaming, devised to correct
our conditioning.

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● 8. dreaming is the practical way of putting ordinary dreams to use. It

is not, having dreams, daydreaming, wishing, imagining. Through it
we can perceive other worlds.
● 9. energetic configurations of awareness.

Chpt 1
● 1. sorcerers -- dark Adepts of Atlantis, dark morbid minds.
● 2. obsessive fixation on practice and techniques, and influence over
people.
● 3. seeing -- to perceive the energetic essence of things; to perceive
energy directly. the social base of our perception should be the
physical certainty that energy is all there is.
● 4. first this is a world of energy, then its a world of objects.
● 5. the essence of the universe resembles incandescent threads
stretched into infinity in every conceivable direction, luminous
filaments that are conscious of themselves. depicting human beings
as luminous giant spheroids.
● 6. a round spot of intense brilliance, the size of a tennis ball, inside
the luminous ball, flush with its surface, about 2 feet back from the
crest of a person's right shoulder blade, named the assemblage
point; perception takes place on that spot. The universe's conscious
luminous energy filaments (UCLEFS) which pass through the
assemblage point, glow with more luminosity. Each assemblage
point has a surrounding glow. assemblage points can move. When
they are in their normal position, perception and awareness seem to
be normal. when they move to another position ... awareness is
different.
● 7. the assemblage point automatically assembles a few UCLEFS
into a steady perception of the world. Millions of UCLEFS pass
through the assemblage point. The glow is dim in the someone who
is unconscious and in those near death.
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● 9. Two kinds of assemblage point displacement:

❍ a. a shift to any position on the surface or in the interior of the

luminous ball; all these are still within the human domain.
❍ b. a movement to a point outside the luminous ball, beyond the

human realm. Once we have energy, seeing happens to us by

itself. The hard part is convincing yourself it can be done.
● 11. The luminous spheroid-egg is our energy self.
● 13. the indispensability of energetic uniformity and cohesion for the
purpose of perceiving.
● 14. the key is the fixation of the assemblage point. the human
domain when one is an energy ball is whatever filaments pass
through the space within the ball's boundaries. the larger the ball (or
line) the more one perceived.
● 15. When one sees the human energy shape, one sees one single
ball of energy. No crowds of balls. There are only single individuals,
alone, surrounded by the boundless.
● 16. to enter into the 2nd attention by retaining the assemblage point
on its new location.
● 17. a most disturbing state of unequaled clarity. to remember is to
relocate the assemblage point on the exact same position when the
2nd attention occurred.
● 18. the assemblage point is very easily displaced during sleep.
● 19. Dreaming - the art of displacing the assemblage point at will from
its habitual position. There are five conditions:
❍ 1- only the UCLEFS that pass through the assemblage point

can be assembled into coherent perception

❍ 2- the smallest displacement results in a change

❍ 3- during dreams the assemblage point is easily displaced

❍ 4- a movement of the assemblage point outside the luminous

egg is possible
❍ 5- through discipline, during sleep and ordinary dreams, a

systematic displacement of the assemblage point is possible.

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Chpt 2 The 2nd Attention as a progression:

1. as a curiosity rather than a possibility
❍

❍ 2. then, it can only be felt

❍ 3. this evolves into a state of being, a realm of practicalities, or

a preeminent force that opens worlds.

● the 2nd attention does not happen naturally but must be intended
❍ 1. first as an idea

❍ 2, and ending up intending it as a steady and controlled

awareness of the assemblage point's displacement.

● 21. In your dreams you must look at your hands

● 22. Turning dreams into dreaming, attitude for:
❍ 1. integrity and seriousness

❍ 2. in laughter

❍ 3. with the confidence of someone who doesn't have a worry in

the world. the dreaming attention is a veiled faculty. There are

SEVEN GATES, experienced as obstacles. We cross the first
gate's threshold by becoming aware of a particular sensation
before deep sleep, a heaviness, suspended in darkness.
● 24. to understand intending as a subject not for your reason but for
your energy body. to intend that your energy body becomes aware
that you are falling asleep.
● 25. Put your silent determination, without a single thought, into
convincing yourself that you have reached your energy body and
that you are a dreamer.
● 26. Intending is both the act of convincing yourself and the act of
being convinced. It requires imagination, discipline and purpose.
● 27. Looking at your hands in a dream is a subterfuge. The real issue
is to become aware that one is falling asleep.
● 27. Sustaining the view in a dream. Constant earnest determination
to be aware that I was falling asleep.
● 28. Dreaming is a process of awakening, of gaining control. Our
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dreaming attention must be systematically exercised.

● 29. Dreams are
❍ a) a 2-way street,

❍ b) a hatch/door into other realms of perception

● 30. shifting our glance from thing to thing in a dream; able to sustain
the sight of any item in our dreams
● 31. the energy body is the counterpart of the physical body. A
ghostlike configuration made of pure energy. Dreaming is the art of
condensing/tempering the energy body, of making it supple and
coherent by gradually exercising it. It is an independent (perceiving
body)
● 32. It sees or feels energy directly. We all have a determined
quantity of basic energy. As all our available energy is already
engaged (in ordinary perception) there is none left for extraordinary
perception.
● 33. We have to scrounge energy for ourselves, by cutting out the
superfluous in our lives.
● 33. moulding the awareness of being alive.
● 34. Everything new in our lives, such as the sorcerers' concepts,
must be repeated to us to the point of exhaustion before we open
ourselves to it.
● 35. gaining the capability of being thoroughly aware that I was falling
asleep. something dormant becomes suddenly functional.
● 35. exercising the dreaming attention
● 36. the active element in training oneself to be aware of the level of
dreams is persistence. Entering into the 2nd attention gives one a
sense of self-assurance
● 37. the energy needed to release our dreaming attention from its
socialization prison comes from redeploying our existing energy.
● 37. the most effective is "losing self-importance". Self-importance is
not only the sorcerers' supreme enemy but the nemesis of mankind.
Most of our energy goes into upholding our importance. This is most
obvious in our endless worry about the presentation of the self,

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about whether or not we are admired or liked or acknowledged.

● 40. You reach the 2nd Gate of Dreaming when you (wake up from a
dream into another dream) and are able to change dreams in an
orderly and precise manner.
● 42. You must intend a greater and more sober control over your
dreaming attention. Perfect control over the dreaming attention
makes it stop when needed. 43. I was pulled by every feature of the
landscape 44. increasing interference, jolts of fear or discomfort
● 45. inorganic beings are slow, long, opaque and candle like with
long calm deep lives.
● 45. life means having consciousness; it means having an
assemblage point and surrounding glow of awareness 46. sooner or
later the inorganic beings show up 47. send a feeling of power,
confidence, strength, detachment to them 49. inorganic beings --
allies
● 51. his contention was that the 2nd attention is available to all of us,
but, by willfully holding on to our half- cocked rationality, we keep the
2nd attention at arm's length. 52. friendship consists of a mutual
exchange of energy ch 4
● 58. manipulation of the assemblage point - a vast and ominous
subject. the inorganic beings love slavery and I love freedom. they
love to buy, and I don't sell.
● 59. my understanding is that the old sorcerers perhaps as far back
as 10,000 years ago (8000 bc). They ruled from 5000 bc to 1000 bc.
63. They were at their peak at 1000 bc.
● 64. the voice of the dreaming emissary, an impersonal force; alien
energy that purports to aid dreamers. It can only tell what they
already know or should know. most listeners take their suggestions
as sacred advice.
● 66. the whole realm of inorganic beings is always poised to teach -
but their price is too high - our lives, energy, devotion, freedom.
● 67. They teach that which fulfills the needs of our basic self, its
fears, greed, envy, etc. Involvements of this nature curtail our search

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for freedom by consuming all our available energy.

● 68. clearing debris from ones dreaming attention - the dreaming
emissaries teachings and guidance in our world are nonsense, for
which it charges us enormities in terms of energy.
● 69. art of dreaming -- displacement of the assemblage point art of
stalking -- fixation of the assemblage point on a new point, which
results in acquiring cohesion, and clarity of perception
● 73. reason is only a by-product of the habitual position of the
assemblage point. By not knowing that the assemblage point exists
we are obliged to take the by-product of its habitual position as
something final and indisputable.
● 74. (lower self) expectations of power and gain
● 75. A voice (the emissary) that already and concisely told me in
three languages hidden things about anything or anyone I focused
my attention on.
● 75. children's assemblage points constantly fluttering, as if moved by
tremors
● 76. the act of countermanding ones perceptual habits and perceiving
energy directly is what transforms a person into a sorcerer. Once our
assemblage point is fixated at one point our perception can be
coached to interpret what we perceive more in terms of our system
than in terms of our senses. New categories of sensory data renders
our system inoperative.
● 77. Stalking perception -- acquiring cohesion outside the normal
world The Grand Adventure of the Unknown
● 78. Insane people have no preconceived purpose; they bring chaos
into chaos. sorcerers bring order to the chaos. their preconceived,
transcendental purpose is to free their perceptions.
● 79. the old sorcerers preferred the human unknown - we are after
the nonhuman unknown.
● 81. the nonhuman worlds require a great deal of detachment and no
self-importance whatsoever. What's the point, the % gain? ... spoken
like a merchant. the merchant mind does commerce. But freedom

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cannot be an investment. To seek freedom is the only driving force I

know.

Chapter 5
● 84. a current of foreign energy, a scout
● 85. Self -- the spirit self -- our indulging propensity
● 86. scouts come in search of potential awareness; they have
consciousness and purpose. inorganic beings are stationary; their
appearance, voice, emissaries are projections.
● 88. the gigantic dark brown sponge, a spongy world, countless
tunnels going in every direction; tunnels of energy
● 90. There are endless advantages for you. each tunnel will sell/teach
you something different.
● 92. shared energy makes kinship. energy is like blood.
● 93. the emissaries are most subtle salesmen ... I understand the old
sorcerers' preference for concrete practices. For perfect dreaming,
the first thing you do is shut off your internal dialogue.
● 94. Falling asleep at a moment of total internal dialogue silence
guarantees perfect entrance into dreaming, and it also guarantees
the enhancing of one's dreaming attention.
● 95. An enormous reservoir of attention is located behind the roof of
the mouth. press the tip of the tongue on the roof of the mouth.
● 96. the inorganic beings are going to cater to our most secret
wishes.
● 97. our system of sensory input interpretation By living in
accordance with the sorcerers' way, dreamers save and store the
necessary energy to suspend judgement and thus facilitate
deliberate and careful attempts to enlarge the capabilities of our
system of sensory input interpretation. To intend its revamping,
reconditioning, reconstructing and enlarging.
● 98-99. assumptions and prejudices about the nature of man, reality
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and perception.
● 99. the inorganic beings are after our awareness. they fish for it. they
are capable of catering to our desires, by pampering and indulging
us.. Beware of awareness that is immobile.
● 100. the labyrinth of penumbra. the pleasant, clear sensation of
being special, unique, exclusive.
● 101. power and uniqueness are unbeatable as corrupting forces.
watch out!
● 102. an increased capacity to intend.
● 103. the tricking of the inorganic beings
● 105. semi-prisoners of the realm of the inorganic beings
● 106. the inorganic beings set traps. undesirable dreamers are
effectively and permanently screened out
● 107. Whatever is given as the exercise to reach and cross a gate is
not really what that gate is all about. the 2nd gate of dreaming is
reached and crossed only when a dreamer learns to isolate and
follow the foreign energy of scouts.
● 109. to know what's needed is the virtuosity of sorcerers, but to take
only what's needed is the highest accomplishment.
● 110. energetic currents; circumstances more dreadful than death
● 113. overpowered by a wave of profound friendship, affection, trust,
elation, curiosity for them
● 116. "holding worlds in place with our intent"
● 119. incredible mobility, marvelous tunnels, staggering knowledge,
endless time, amazing beings, whim catered, unbelievable places

Chapter 7
● 140 the inorganic beings are forever in search of awareness and
energy

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Chapter 8
● the 3rd gate of dreaming is reached when you see yourself asleep.
At the 3rd gate you begin to deliberately merge your dreaming reality
with the reality of the daily world, completing/consolidating the
energy body.
● 142. viewing with care and curiosity avoids being caught in detail; to
be mesmerized in irrelevant, minute detail.
● 143. the drill of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd Gate. each gate is an obstacle.
● 147. the recapitulation of one's life (autobiographical exploration) is
a prerequisite for a true merging of the dreaming and daily realities.
The reason average people lack volition in their dreams is that they
have never recapitulated and their lives are filled to capacity with
heavily loaded emotions like memories, hopes, fears, etc
● 148. recapitulation: reliving the totality of one's life experiences by
remembering every possible minute detail of them ... thereby
redefining and redeploying energy, otherwise locked away.
● 149. (the last paragraph on this page seems odd)
● 151. the ability to concentrate, which I had acquired by means of my
dreaming practices. in your actual room, seeing your actual body
asleep.
● 155. to be impeccable -- put your life on the line in order to back up
your decisions, and then do quite a lot more than your best to realize
those decisions.
● 156. moving (glide, soar) in the energy body
● 159. his bedroom takes on the appearance of a giant cubist painting,
with obtuse & acute angles.
● 161. let your energy body intend to reach the ideal/optimum
dreaming position; intend to stay at that position. Intending is the
secret. There is no technique for intending.
● 162. the ideal spot and the fixation are metaphors
● 163. the 3rd Gate Drill -- moving your energy body by itself Now,
seeing energy with your energy body
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● 164. worlds in which one sees the energy are more real than worlds
in which one doesn't. energy generating items. the issue of your
dreaming is to determine whether an item is
❍ 1. energy generating, i.e. real

❍ 2. a phantom projection, i.e. unreal

❍ 3. foreign energy generating, therefore real.

Chapter 9
● 171. Cynicism doesn't allow us to make drastic changes in our
understanding of the world
● 172. the hinge of sorcery is the mystery of the assemblage point
● 174. ordinary dreams are the honing devices used to train the
assemblage point to reach the position that creates this energy-
generating condition we call dreaming
● 175. regard dreaming as something extremely dangerous!
● 176. a whitish glow was always the initial impact of seeing anything
that generated energy
● 176. the Grand Task of sorcerers is to bring forth the idea that, in
order to evolve, man must first free his awareness from its bindings
to the social order.
● 177. three types of alien energy (there are many more)
❍ 1. mild fizzling, like preboil water, effervescent

❍ 2. vibrating from within as if filled with a pressurized gas

❍ 3. those that hide in dream images of our parents or close

friends - a bright orange type of scout

● 179. My energy body used to react with horror even before I saw it.
● 181. Journeying to the world of the inorganic beings had always
meant to me, at an energetic level, a boost of dark energy. ????
There is no other viable energy for sorcerers. ?? To start dreaming
sorcerers need to redefine their premises and save their energy, but
that is only a start. To fly into other realms, to see energy, to forge
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the energy body: for these maneuvers, sorcerers need loads of dark
alien energy. ??

Chapter 10
● 186. dealing with awareness, as an energetic element.
● 189. intending and having enough energy.
● 198. to use awareness as an element of the environment states of
perception for which I had no lexicon.

Chapter 11
● 200. At the 4th gate of dreaming the energy body travels to specific
concrete places:
❍ 1. in this world

❍ 2. out of this world

❍ 3. in the intent-worlds of others

● 203. the aberrant practices of the sorcerers of ancient Mexico ...

guided by extremely selfish interests.
● 204. Only if they remain totally detached can they have the energy
to be free; detachment not from fear or indulgence but from
conviction; detached enough to be able to put aside a gift of power.
● 205. modern day sorcerers maneuver the assemblage point through
self-discipline.
● 214,. As payment for the energy taken from all those naguals the
tenant taught them exactly what to do to displace their assemblage
point to some specific positions, which it itself had chosen.
● 215. the tenant knows only of indulging; a line of indulging,
dependant, sorcerers
● 218 as old and mysterious as the tenant.

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Chapter 12
● 231. projecting intent -- the thought projection/reproduction of my
object, structure, landmark, scenery = visualization

Chapter 13
● 249. intending in the 2nd attention is the only way to cross the 4th
gate of Dreaming.
● 254. we are dreaming ourselves; dream your intent of me; intend me
forward.
● 260 This is dreaming. the possibilities of flying on the wings of intent.

END

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Acknowledgements
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