The Art of Dreaming Read Online Free PDF

perhaps without even knowing it, they created dreaming .
    One day, as
we strolled around the plaza in the city of Oaxaca, don Juan gave me the most
coherent definition of dreaming from a sorcerer's standpoint.
    "Sorcerers
view dreaming as an extremely sophisticated art," he said,
"the art of displacing the assemblage point at will from its habitual
position in order to enhance and enlarge the scope of what can be
perceived."
    He said
that the old sorcerers anchored the art of dreaming on five conditions
they saw in the energy flow of human beings.
    One, they saw that only the energy filaments that pass directly through the assemblage point
can be assembled into coherent perception.
    Two, they saw that if the assemblage point is displaced to another position, no matter how
minute the displacement, different and unaccustomed energy filaments begin to
pass through it, engaging awareness and forcing the assembling of these
unaccustomed energy fields into a steady, coherent perception.
    Three, they saw that, in the course of ordinary dreams, the assemblage point becomes
easily displaced by itself to another position on the surface or in the
interior of the luminous egg.
    Four, they saw that the assemblage point can be made to move to positions outside the luminous
egg, into the energy filaments of the universe at large.
    And, five,
they saw that through discipline it is possible to cultivate and
perform, in the course of sleep and ordinary dreams, a systematic displacement
of the assemblage point.
     

 
2. - The First Gate of Dreaming
    As a
preamble to his first lesson in dreaming , don Juan talked about the
second attention as a progression: beginning as an idea that comes to us more
like a curiosity than an actual possibility; turning into something that can
only be felt, as a sensation is felt; and finally evolving into a state of
being, or a realm of practicalities, or a preeminent force that opens for us
worlds beyond our wildest fantasies.
    When
explaining sorcery, sorcerers have two options. One is to speak in metaphorical
terms and talk about a world of magical dimensions. The other is to explain
their business in abstract terms proper to sorcery. I have always preferred the
latter, although neither option will ever satisfy the rational mind of a
Western man.
    Don Juan
told me that what he meant by his metaphorical description of the second
attention as a progression was that, being a by-product of a displacement of
the assemblage point, the second attention does not happen naturally but must
be intended, beginning with intending it as an idea and ending up with
intending it as a steady and controlled awareness of the assemblage point's
displacement.
    "I am
going to teach you the first step to power," don Juan said, beginning his
instruction in the art of dreaming . "I'm going to teach you how to
set up dreaming ."
    "What
does it mean to set up dreaming ?"
    "To
set up dreaming means to have a precise and practical command over the
general situation of a dream. For example, you may dream that you are in your
classroom. To set up dreaming means that you don't let the dream slip
into something else. You don't jump from the classroom to the mountains, for
instance. In other words, you control the view of the classroom and don't let
it go until you want to."
    "But
is it possible to do that?"
    "Of
course it's possible. This control is no different from the control we have
over any situation in our daily lives. Sorcerers are used to it and get it
every time they want or need to. In order to get used to it yourself, you must
start by doing something very simple. Tonight, in your dreams, you must look at
your hands.".
    Not much
more was said about this in the awareness of our daily world. In my
recollection of my experiences in the second attention, however, I found out
that we had a more extensive exchange. For instance, I expressed my feelings
about the absurdity of the task, and don Juan suggested that I should face it
in terms