The Power of Silence Read Online Free PDF Page B

filled with both revulsion and admiration. He could perceive that the actor
was an irredeemable libertine, but he could also perceive equally easily that
there was something unique, although revolting, about him. It baffled the
nagual to see that the man's connecting link with the spirit was
extraordinarily clear.
    Finally the
attack ended. The woman stopped beating the actor. But then, instead of running
away, she surrendered, lay down and told the actor he could now have his way
with her.
    The nagual
observed that the man was so exhausted he was practically unconscious. Yet
despite his fatigue he went right ahead and consummated his seduction.
    The nagual
was laughing and pondering that useless man's great stamina and determination
when the woman screamed and the actor began to gasp. The nagual saw how
the black shadow struck the actor. It went like a dagger, with pinpoint
accuracy into his gap.
    Don Juan
made a digression at this point to elaborate on something he had explained
before: he had described the gap, an opening in our luminous shell at the
height of the navel, where the force of death ceaselessly struck. What don Juan
now explained was that when death hit healthy beings it was with a ball-like
blow - like the punch of a fist. But when beings were dying, death struck them
with a dagger-like thrust.
    Thus the
nagual Elias knew without any question that the actor was as good as dead, and
his death automatically finished his own interest in the spirit's designs.
There were no designs left; death had leveled everything.
    He rose
from his hiding place and started to leave when something made him hesitate. It
was the young woman's calmness. She was nonchalantly putting on the few pieces
of clothing she had taken off and was whistling tunelessly as if nothing had
happened.
    And then
the nagual saw that in relaxing to accept the presence of death, the
man's body had released a protecting veil and revealed his true nature. He was
a double man of tremendous resources, capable of creating a screen for
protection or disguise - a natural sorcerer and a perfect candidate for a
nagual apprentice, had it not been for the black shadow of death.
    The nagual
was completely taken aback by that sight. He now understood the designs of the
spirit, but failed to comprehend how such a useless man could fit in the
sorcerers' scheme of things.
    The woman
in the meantime had stood up and without so much as a glance at the man, whose
body was contorting with death spasms, walked away.
    The nagual
then saw her luminosity and realized that her extreme aggressiveness was
the result of an enormous flow of superfluous energy. He became convinced that
if she did not put that energy to sober use, it would get the best of her and
there was no telling what misfortunes it would cause her.
    As the
nagual watched the unconcern with which she walked away, he realized that the
spirit had given him another manifestation. He needed to be calm, nonchalant.
He needed to act as if he had nothing to lose and intervene for the hell of it.
In true nagual fashion he decided to tackle the impossible, with no one except
the spirit as witness.
    Don Juan
commented that it took incidents like this to test whether a nagual is the real
thing or a fake. Naguals make decisions. With no regard for the consequences
they take action or choose not to. Imposters ponder and become paralyzed. The
nagual Elias having made his decision, walked calmly to the side of the dying
man and did the first thing his body, not his mind, compelled him to do: he
struck the man's assemblage point to cause him to enter into heightened
awareness. He struck him frantically again and again until his assemblage point
moved. Aided by the force of death itself, the nagual's blows sent the man's
assemblage point to a place where death no longer mattered, and there he
stopped dying.
    By the time
the actor was breathing again, the nagual had become aware of the magnitude of
his responsibility. If the man