Thirty-seventh Session
Sunday, September 15, 1996, at Dance Home in Santa Monica (1 - 3 PM PDT)
by Corey Donovan

[Kylie, Talia, Julius, Grant, Brandon, Barbara and Ellis were on hand.]

Castaneda observed that there were fewer of us, that we were "getting thinner." [Actually, a couple of people were late.] He said that someone had called complaining about people being left out. [He indicated that they called him, but that seemed odd, because none of us would have had his number.] He then commented, "I didn’t exclude anybody -- that was Ellis [the Cleargreen staffer who was in charge of contacting people regarding sessions at that time, who would certainly never have "disincluded" anyone unless Castaneda had so directed]. Take it up with her." He told us this person "didn’t want to come anymore because the ‘tone was getting too morbid; there used to be more laughter.?quot; Castaneda’s response was, "Too bad. I don’t come here to entertain you. You’ve come too far to be entertained." He didn’t just want to "entertain you for two hours -- I want to see things happen." [The only person who was missing from the week before was Virginia.]

He repeated that, "This is a prison planet. When you really realize the horror of it -- how we are stuck here, that the worst has already happened," that is when we would need the "hot line" [to him], because "that’s when you will be screaming." Our "energy bodies have already been pushed away from us." He claimed that if don Juan had "accessed my energy body before dealing with me, my energy body probably would have said, ‘Let’s get rid of this guy.?quot; He said it "doesn’t take much to tune the energy body," and described it as "this beautiful thing." He said, "You can do all kinds of things with it . . . don Juan just did everything with the energy body. To get out of the prison, though, you can’t take your dolls with you. You have to leave it behind -- you’ve got to go naked."

He told us about a guy he knew who wanted to make movies that were "real." Castaneda told him, "That’s absurd. Then you’ll have an audience of one. You need a distributor, and they won’t distribute movies they don’t like." The guy insisted he was going to make movies "from his real self." Castaneda commented disparagingly that, "He can’t do that either. All he would be doing is making them from part of Bobby the Flyer -- the part that the rest of Bobby the flyer doesn’t like. We are so trapped that even when we think we are getting to our real self, that’s still just another part of Bobby the Flyer." He told us, "Art may be outside the Flyer’s mind, but it’s not the art that we see. The art that we see is only what critics have approved, so it’s already gone through the Bobby the Flyer."

Castaneda asked, "How can we be morose? Talia," he told us, "was very morose this morning." He claimed he’d never seen her looking so down. He imitated her frowning, and looking downward. All the way to class "I was singing tangos to try to cheer her up," but got only a weak laugh. So when they finally got up to the door he told her, "Now, tell me what’s going on, or you can’t come into the class." She said, "Oh, I read a sad story." His response was, "Fuck that. How ‘sensitive? to get down about some sad story. She read ‘David Copperfield.?Come on! We can’t be morose. The worst has already happened. We’re dead already. But don Juan’s idea was, ‘Let’s put up a fight before they find and prove that we’re dead.?Let’s deprive the Flyers of their nourishment. We can dry them up. If we deprive them of their nourishment, they’ll go away."

He told us that his favorite movie was "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."

Castaneda told us he had wanted to do an occasional map for us. He was not going to be able to go to Mexico [for the upcoming workshop there]. He would still like to go, he said, "but energy is very weird." He told us he would like to be able to show us things, and "maybe I’ll just go down long enough to show you and come right back . . . I’ll just be anonymous there." He told us that Tula is about 60 miles north of Mexico City. He told us there is a pyramid there with basalt figures, known as the Atlanteans. Behind them are pillars that have writing on them. He told us that they had found a chacmool in the plaza near the pyramids. He explained that the heads of the chacmools in Tula face left, whereas the ones in the Yucatan, as in Chichenitza, face right and are made of a lighter, "blonder" stone, with marble in it. The ones in Tula are darker. They found the first one in the Yucatan in a town called Chacmool, so that is why they called it "Chacmool." Because it has a flat surface on the top, archaeologists opined that it was "an incense burner." They just assumed that; "the Roman Catholic Church burns incense, doesn’t it, so they must have burned incense. We assume that everything has always been the same." But don Juan insisted that it was not an incense burner but a "pillow," just like we have for "dreaming." They have it in the middle of the belly, or at the solar plexus, for "dreaming," and their eyes are "dreamlike" and being used for "seeing."

He told us that in the museum in Tula, to the right of the stairs is the Death Defier’s head. He reminded us that he had met the Death Defier twice -- first in its form as a man and secondly as a woman, and that Carol had spent time with the Death Defier as well. He also reiterated that the Death Defier had been stuck in the Inorganics world, and that he had changed himself into a woman to escape [since women were allowed to go and come as they please], but that he had to constantly be on the alert so they did not catch him again. He "couldn’t let his guard down, so he couldn’t sleep," so this figure has a ring in its nostrils. He told us that this was a way to stay awake, by rubbing inside that bridge between the nostrils, or using a toothpick. He demonstrated for us. That is what that object in its nose was there for, since the Death Defier could not relax. He further claimed, "That’s Carol."

When don Juan showed him the head the first time "forty years ago," he told him that it was Carol. He said, "Look at the ears -- the top of the fold is" pinched, just like Carol’s are. "The ears give it away." He also had Castaneda hold his finger up to the nose, where it felt like the figure was breathing. He looked around to see where the draft might be coming from. He claimed that it "really shook me up." Another friend of theirs [perhaps Julius, or Tony Karam] commented that he "didn’t feel it breathing, I felt something, but I didn’t feel it breathing." When they asked him what it was that he felt, He said that he felt "some electricity." "Oh, so you didn’t feel breathing, you felt electricity!"

There is a chacmool guarding this figure at the museum. Castaneda told us that if we look at the face, "it’s Reni." He claimed that don Juan told him that "there will be a chacmool guarding Carol," that she would come at a later point. And he claimed that Reni was the one sitting next to Carol at the Phoenix Bookstore when Carol found him again after being in the Second Attention for ten years. So Carol and Reni have "been together for eternity."

In the Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City on the Paseo de la Reforma, there are statues of Taisha and Florinda. He said that they do not always have them on display -- sometimes they are on loan or elsewhere -- but hopefully we will be "in luck." He told us they are in the Yucatan Room, which is "to the left of the Valley of Mexico and the Oaxaca Rooms." Taisha’s statue is dark, and has collars around the neck, and the eyes look down. Florinda’s looks "just like Florinda" -- "it’s fierce, with big teeth, like it’s about to strike you." There is also a "blond" chacmool there, "like Kylie." Also in that same room is something the curators call a "Luchador," a boxer or fighter, but it is not really that -- it is someone doing Tensegrity. They are holding one foot next to the other in a way peculiar to a particular kind of "sitting Tensegrity."

In the Palenque exhibit, in the basement of that area, is the Lord of Palenque -- the reconstructed tomb containing a former king who has several jade necklaces across his chest, at the same places as sorcerers supposedly see strands on the energy body, in someone who has really "tightened up their fibers." He told us that, "good normal" is to have the necklaces hanging where this figure does. "Great shape is to have them straight along the shoulders. Then you’re really tight and you don’t need anything." He reminded us that most people have them hanging around their stomachs "or, worse, around their genitals." He told us, "If they are down on the floor, say ‘Bye bye? it’s time to check out." He said that some people have one strand at the shoulder but the rest are hanging by the genitals, which he suggested might have been true of some of us.

So, in case he did not get to go with us, that was our "occasional map." He had been planning to "draw it out," but he had given it to us already -- "it’s there."

Summary of passes taught:
Session XXXVII.
1. Fist pointing up, lifting barbell ("curls")
2. Double (i.e., both hands) fist punch downward
3. Double flat palm down thrust
4. Wrist up twist forward
5. Holding arms at shoulder level, elbows bent, wrist twist outward
6. Forward pole thrust
7. "Shit poling" -- starting on left side with left hand above right, thrust pole down toward right side, then shift hands so right is on top and pole down toward left
8. Single fist punch downward
9. "Sawing" - begins with three-steps -- (1) left fist comes down on left side; (2) right hand, flat palm down, comes down just above left: (3) right hand shifts forward slightly above and in front of left fist -- then make sawing motion backward and forward. Reverse hands.
10. Hold arm, elbow bent at right angle in front of the body, and swing elbow to back, keeping arm in 90-degree angle position. 10x, then change sides.
11. Holding the third and fourth finger against the palm, place the forefinger on top of the middle finger. Then place the middle finger across the forefinger.
12. Poke forward with the forefinger over middle finger: pull back, open fingers, rotate downward, place forefinger over middle finger, rotate moving forward and jab
13. Poke toward the left with the right forefinger over middle finger: pull back, open fingers, rotate downward, place middle finger over forefinger, rotate moving toward the left and jab. Change hands.

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