The Art of Dreaming by Carlos Castaneda Read Free Book Online

dream as being my
first genuine attempt at dreaming , and that this meant I had succeeded
in reaching the first gate of dreaming .
    During
another discussion, at a different time, he abruptly brought up the subject
again. He said, "I'm going to repeat what you must do in your dreams in
order to pass the first gate of dreaming . First you must focus your gaze
on anything of your choice as the starting point. Then shift your gaze to other
items and look at them in brief glances. Focus your gaze on as many things as
you can. Remember that if you glance only briefly, the images don't shift. Then
go back to the item you first looked at."
    "What
does it mean to pass the first gate of dreaming ?"
    "We
reach the first gate of dreaming by becoming aware that we are falling
asleep, or by having, like you did, a gigantically real dream. Once we reach
the gate, we must cross it by being able to sustain the sight of any item of
our dreams."
    "I can
almost look steadily at the items of my dreams, but they dissipate too
quickly."
    "This
is precisely what I am trying to tell you. In order to offset the evanescent
quality of dreams, sorcerers have devised the use of the starting point item.
Every time you isolate it and look at it, you get a surge of energy, so at the
beginning don't look at too many things in your dreams. Four items will
suffice. Later on, you may enlarge the scope until you can cover all you want,
but as soon as the images begin to shift and you feel you are losing control,
go back to your starting point item and start all over again."
    "Do you
believe that I really reached the first gate of dreaming , don
Juan?"
    "You
did, and that's a lot. You'll find out, as you go along, how easy it'll be to
do dreaming now."
    I thought
don Juan was either exaggerating or giving me incentive. But he assured me he
was being on the level.
    "The
most astounding thing that happens to dreamers," he said, "is that,
on reaching the first gate, they also reach the energy body."
    "What
exactly is the energy body?"
    "It's
the counterpart of the physical body. A ghostlike configuration made of pure
energy." "But isn't the physical body also made out of energy?"
    "Of
course it is. The difference is that the energy body has only appearance but no
mass. Since it's pure energy, it can perform acts that are beyond the
possibilities of the physical body."
    "Such
as what for example, don Juan?"
    "Such
as transporting itself in one instant to the ends of the universe. And dreaming is the art of tempering the energy body, of making it supple and coherent by
gradually exercising it.
    "Through dreaming we condense the energy body until it's a unit capable of
perceiving. Its perception, although affected by our normal way of perceiving
the daily world, is an independent perception. It has its own sphere."
    "What
is that sphere, don Juan?"
    "Energy.
The energy body deals with energy in terms of energy. There are three ways in
which it deals with energy in dreaming : it can perceive energy as it
flows, or it can use energy to boost itself like a rocket into unexpected
areas, or it can perceive as we ordinarily perceive the world."
    "What
does it mean to perceive energy as it flows?"
    "It
means to see . It means that the energy body sees energy directly
as a light or as a vibrating current of sorts or as a disturbance. Or it feels
it directly as a jolt or as a sensation that can even be pain."
    "What
about the other way you talked about, don Juan? The energy body using energy as
a boost."
    "Since
energy is its sphere, it is no problem for the energy body to use currents of
energy that exist in the universe to propel itself. All it has to do is isolate
them, and off it goes with them."
    He stopped
talking and seemed to be undecided, as if he wanted to add something but was
not sure about it. He smiled at me, and, just as I was beginning to ask him a
question, he continued his explanation.
    "I've
mentioned to you before that sorcerers isolate in their dreams scouts