The First Gate
I`ve been lucid dreaming for a long time but I`m new to Don Juans dreaming techniques.
I`ve had a go at looking at my hands in a dream quite a few times and have no problem with that or remembering what I`m supposed to be doing. When I start to look around “glancing” at different objects the imagery in the dream becomes clearer and a lot more intense but the images start to change (generally into vivid trees and vegetation) I find I am struggling to keep up with the changing and also the intensity makes me anxious and I feel like something is coming up behind me. The result is in a short space of time I become sidetracked and go into another state of dreaming where I`m not as aware (n hence unable to do any dreaming practices).
Does that make any sense to anyone?
Do I just lack energy?
Is there anywhere I can read about the techniques to use in the first gate in more detail?
Thanks
D5 Creation
Have you read “The Art of Dreaming” yet? That’s the most in depth book on dreaming by Castaneda. However, there are other bits and pieces in “Journey to Ixtlan” and “Tales of Power” by Castaneda, and “Being In Dreaming” (by Florinda Donner)
Have you attempted “stopping the internal dialogue” in your waking hours? I’ve found that the type of concentration required to stop talking to yourself in your head is very similar to the type of concentration needed to remain focused in dreaming. Stopping the internal dialogue creates a calm clarity which is very useful in dreaming.
dream control is easier for me when i have a specific intent like flying and sex.
finding my hands doesnt really work for me. mantras work better . so maybe you just need to use what works for you. another way for learning to do dream control is work on your empathic sensitvity and and have someone who is adept in dreaming to share that lucid dream sensation (kinda trance state)with you.
blacksand
exactly ensonar, the waking hours are the real battleground, stopping the interior dialogue enhance our dreaming attention, impeccability in daily life leads to control and techniques are just techniques
This is the third gate. Use your hands as a stabilization when you see objects that take you from one dream into another. Start bridging objects.
i have often tried to find corralations between jungian psycology and nagualism. the following is just a hunch of mine, no more. the feeling of someone coming up behind you could be the “shadow”. i think you have unresolved issues in your waking hour. fears, hesitations. until you lose the human form you will still be subject to the forces of the human intent. my recommendation is that you recapitulate, if only just the things that have heavy feelings attached to them. Don Juan said “when we talk about dreaming get as heavy as you want, but when you dream, be as light as a feather.
Other than stopping of the internal dialogue, concentration exercises help to develop attention and awareness. Or the Power Walk (sry if called in a wrong way, not English) for its peripheral vision – and for stopping the internal dialogue, too, of course 🙂 Any tricks with vision help. Gazing helps. Not-doing.
Also as I understand you have to do your first recapitulation before the start of your dreaming practice, in order to get energy to stop the internal dialogue and do other things meantioned.
Thanks for the response.
I think that has given me quite a few things which would help.
I haven`t done any recapitulation to start with – so I will get on with that as soon as possible.
I have been using several buddhist meditations to help focus and to stop internal dialogue for the past couple of years. This has been quite successful and I have seen improvements in my dreaming practices when my meditation practice seems to be going well.
I have tried doing zen “just sitting” (pure awareness) meditations while dreaming and they seem to have a similar feel to the better states I get too when trying to follow castanedas dreaming techniques. How are the 2 related?
Blacksand mentioned using mantras in dreams. I have found this very pleasurable and it tends to help the visual dialogue from becoming too intense but after a while I did loose focus and forget what I was doing.
I think I get the idea of what I need to be doing – I need to work on my daytime practice before my dreaming`s going to improve.
esonar- I have read “The Art of Dreaming” but not the other books you mentioned I have got a copy of “Journey to Ixtlan” so maybe that will give me some more guidance.
Thanks again for all the advice I really appreciate this forum.
edrookie,
question. you meditate while dreaming?
It`s something I`ve tried a few times.
I`d been doing a lot of “just sitting” when I first thought of giving it a go. I found that visualizing myself in meditation posture within the dream automatically threw me into the practice which I was used to. I obviously have no body awareness within the dream so I cant use the awareness of the body to ground myself as you would do in a normal meditation. But I found it was possible to cultivate awareness of thoughts in the same way you would in a normal meditation, watching the thoughts as they arise. I did find it very difficult and have only been succesful for a few times for very short periods of time.
It seemed the logical thing to me, as I was trying to become more aware in a dream and the awareness meditation helps to build awareness. I`m not sure whether it`s right to call it meditation in the way I did it though.
I would love to know if this relates in anyway to Nagualist dream practices.