Taisha Abelar, The Sorcerers Crossings p. 94:
She told me to firmly press the crystals between my index and middle fingers. Helping me from behind, she gently made me extend my arms in front of me at the height of my shoulders, and rotated them in a counterclockwise direction. She had me begin making large circles that became increasingly smaller until the movement stopped and the crystals became two dots pointed into the distance; their extended imaginary lines converged at a spot on the horizon.
"When you make the circles, be sure to keep your palms facing each other," she corrected me. "And always begin by making large, smooth circles. This way you gather energy that you can then focus onto whatever you want to affect, regardless of whether it is an object, a thought or a feeling.”
Taisha Abelar, The Sorcerers' Crossing p.86:
She ordered me to loosen my jaw muscles by chewing and swallowing saliva three times.
"What does this do?" I asked, swallowing with a gulp.
"The chewing and swallowing brings some of the energy lodged in the head down to the stomach, lessening the load on the brain," she said with a chuckle. "In your case, you should do this maneuver often.”
Taisha Abelar, The Sorcerers' Crossing p.86
.......she was going to show me another exercise for stopping thoughts and for feeling energy lines. Otherwise I would be doing what I had always done : be enthralled with the idea of myself. Clara told me to sit in a cross-legged position and lean sideways as I inhaled, first to the right, then to the left, and to feel how I was being pulled by a horizontal line extending out of the opening of my ears. She said that, surprisingly, the line didn't sway with the motion of one's body but remained perfectly horizontal, and that this was one of the mysteries she and her cohorts had uncovered.
"Leaning in this manner." she explained, " moves our awareness -which normally is always directed to the front-to the side.”
Taisha Abelar, The Sorcerers' Crossing p. 107-108:
She placed the inner edge of her hand, with her thumb folded over her palm, above her upper lip and rubbed back and forth with a vigorous sawlike motion. She explained that the spot where the nose and upper lip join, when briskly rubbed, stimulates energy to flow in mild, even bursts. But if greater bursts of energy were needed, they could be obtained by pricking the point at the center of the upper gum, underneath the upper lip and below the nose septum.
"If you get drowsy in the cave while recapitulating, rub this point briskly and it will temporarily revive you," she said.
...........
Next, Clara moved her index fingers sideways under her chin, again using a quick back-and-forth sawlike motion. She explained that stimulating the point under the chin produces a calm alertness. She added that we can also activate this point by resting the chin on a low table while sitting on the floor.
............
"Another way to awake the center under the chin," Clara continued, "is by lying on the stomach with the hands in fists, one on top of the other, under the chin."
She recommended that when doing the exercise with the fists, we should tense them to create pressure under the chin and then relax them to release the pressure. Tensing and relaxing the fists, she said, produces a pulsating movement that sends small bursts of energy to a vital center directly connected with the base of the tongue. She stressed that this exercise should be done cautiously, otherwise one might develop a sore throat.
Taisha Abelar, The Sorcerers Crossings p. 74-75 :
Clara ordered me to stay put. "Calm the mind," she said, staring at me, "and the body will become tranquil; otherwise you are going to burst."
Clara held her left hand in front of her body with the wrist resting just above the navel; her palm faced sideways, the fingers pressed together, pointed downward to the ground. She told me to adopt this hand position and gaze at the tip of my middle finger. I looked over the bridge of my nose, which forced me to look downward while slightly crossing my eves.
She explained that to gaze fixedly in that manner places our awareness outside of us onto the ground, thus diminishing our inner agitation. Then she said I was to inhale deeply, pointing at the ground, intending to get from it a sparkle of energy, like a drop of glue. on my middle finger.
Next, I was to rotate my hand up at the wrist until the base of my thumb touched my breastbone. I was to gaze at the tip of my middle finger fur a count of seven and then shift my awareness immediately to my forehead, to a spot in between the eyes and just above the bridge of the nose. This shift, she said, must be accompanied by the intent of transferring the sparkle of energy from the middle finger to that spot between the eyes.
If the transfer is accomplished, a light appears on the dark screen behind the closed eves. She said that we can send this luminous spot of energy to any part of our body to counteract pain, disease, apprehension or fear. She then moved her hand and gently pressed my solar plexus.
"If you need a quick surge of energy. as you do now, do the power breath I am about to show you and I guarantee that you will feel recharged." I watched Clara do a series of short inhalations and exhalations through her nose in rapid succession, vibrating her diaphragm. I imitate her and after twenty or so breaths, contracting and relaxing my diaphragm. I felt warmth spreading throughout my midsection.
........
... she asked me to sit down because she wanted to show me one other body maneuver crucial for erasing our false dualism. She asked me to sit with my back straight and my eyes slightly lowered, so that I would be gazing at the tip of my nose.
"This breath should be done without the constraints of clothing," she began. "But rather than having you strip naked in the patio in broad daylight, we'll make an exception. First, you inhale deeply, bringing in the air as if you were breathing through your vagina. Pull in your stomach and draw the air up along your spine, past the kidneys, to a point between the shoulder blades. Hold the air there for a moment, then raise it even further up to the back of the head, then over the top of your head to the point between your eyebrows."
She said that after holding it there for a moment, I was to exhale through the nose, as I mentally guided the air down the front of my body, first to the point just below the navel, and then to my vagina, where the cycle had begun. I began to practice the breathing exercise. Clara brought her hand to the base of my spine, then traced a line up my back, over my head, and gently pressed the spot between my eyebrows.
"Try to bring the breath here," she said. "The reason you keep your eyes halfway open is so that you can concentrate on the bridge of your nose as you circulate the air up your back and over your head to this point; and also so you can use your gaze to guide the air down the front of your body, returning it to your sexual organs"
Clara said that circulating the breath in such a fashion creates an impenetrable shield that prevents outside disruptive influences from piercing the body's field of energy; it also keeps vital inner energy from dispersing outwardly. She stressed that the inhalation and exhalation should be inaudible, and that the breathing exercise could be done while one is standing, sitting or lying down, although in the beginning it is easier to do it while sitting on a cushion or on a chair.
Taisha Abelar, The Sorcerers Crossings p. 83-84:
"Everything has a form," she began. "but besides the outer shape, there is an inner awareness that rules things. This silent awareness is the spirit. It is an all-encompassing force that manifests itself differently in different things. This energy communicates with us."
She told me to relax and to take deep breaths because she was going to show me how to exercise my inner hearing. "For it is with the inner ear," she said. "That one is able to discern the spirit's biddings".
"When you breathe, allow the energy to flow out of your ears," she continued.
"How do I do that?" I asked.
"When you exhale, fix your attention on the openings of your ears and use your intent and your concentration to direct the flow." She monitored my attempts for a while, correcting me as I went along.
"Exhale through your nose with your mouth closed and the tip of your tongue touching your palate," she said. "Exhale noiselessly."
After a few attempts, I could feel my ears pop and my sinuses clear. Then she instructed me to rub the palms of my hands together until they were hot and to place them over my ears with my fingertips almost touching, at the back of my head. I did as she instructed. Clara suggested I massage my ears using a gentle circular pressure; then, with my ears still covered and my index fingers crossed over the middle fingers, I was to repeatedly tap behind each ear by snapping my index fingers in unison. As I flicked my fingers, I heard a sound like a muffled bell reverberating inside my head. I repeated the tapping eighteen times as she had instructed. When I removed my hands I noticed I could distinctly hear the faintest sounds in the surrounding vegetation, while before, everything had been undifferentiated and muffled.
"Now, with your ears clear, perhaps you'll be able to hear the voice of the spirit," Clara said. "But don't expect a shout from the treetops. What we call the voice of the spirit is more of a feeling. Or it can be an idea that suddenly pops into your head. Sometimes it can be like a longing to go somewhere vaguely familiar, or a longing to do something also vaguely familiar.”
Taisha Abelar, The Sorcerers Crossings p. 39-40 :
"I'm going to teach you unimaginable things."
"What unimaginable things?"
"You'll know soon," she said, looking at me with wide eyes.
I craved more information, but before I could engage her in conversation, she was already halfway up the next slope. I dragged my feet and followed her for another quarter of a mile or so until we finally sat down by a stream. There, the foliage of the trees was so dense I could no longer see the sky. I took off the boots. I had a blister on my heel. Clara picked up a hard-pointed stick and poked my feet in between the big and the second toe. Something like a mild current of electricity shot up my calves and ran along my inner thighs. Then she made me knee on all fours and, taking each foot at a time, turned my soles up and poked me at the point just below the protuberance of my big toe. I yelled with pain.
"That wasn't so bad," she said in the tone of someone accustomed to treating sick people. "Classical Chinese doctors used to apply that technique to jolt and revive the weak or to create a state of unique attention. But today such classical knowledge is dying out."
"Why is that, Clara?"
"Because the emphasis on materiaIism has led man to move away from esoteric pursuits."
"Is that what you meant when you told me in the desert that the line to the past was severed?"
"Yes. A great upheaval always brings about deep changes in the energy formation of things. Changes that are not always for the better.”
Taisha Abelar, The Sorcerers Crossings, p. 40
She ordered me to place my feet into the stream and feel the smooth rocks along the bottom. The water was ice cold and made me shiver involuntarily.
"Move your feet at the ankles in a clockwise circle," she suggested. "Let the running water draw away your fatigue."
After a few minutes of circling my ankles, I felt refreshed but my feet were nearly frozen.
"Now try to feel all your tension flow down to your feet, then throw it out with a sideward snap of your ankles," Clara said. "This way you'll also get rid of the coldness."
I continued flicking the water with my feet until they were numb.
"I don't think this is working, Clara," I said. pulling my feet out.
"That's because you're not directing the tension away from you," she said. "Flowing water takes away tiredness, coldness, illness and every other unwanted thing, but in order for this to happen, you must intend it, Otherwise, you can flick your feet until the stream runs dry with no results."
She added that if one did the exercise in bed, one would have to use the imagination to visualize a running stream.”
Taisha Abelar, The Sorcerers' Crossing p.63:
Clara put down her chopsticks and began curling her fingers as if she were making shadow pictures on the tablecloth. At any moment I expected her to do a rabbit or a turtle.
"What are you doing?" I asked, breaking the silence.
"This is a form of communication," she explained, "not with people though, but with that force we call intent."
She extended her little and index fingers, then made a circle by touching her thumb to the tips of the two remaining fingers. She told me that this was a signal to trap the attention of that force and to allow it to enter the body through the energy lines that end or originate in the fingertips.
"Energy comes through the index and little finger if they are extended like antennae," she explained, showing me the gesture again. "Then the energy is trapped and held in the circle made by the other three fingers."
She said that with this specific hand position, we can draw sufficient energy into the body to heal or strengthen it, or to change our moods and habits.”
Taisha Abelar, The Sorcerers' Crossing pp. 105-107:
.....she brought her left palm to her forehead and stroked it in a circular fashion. Then she moved her hand over the top of her head and down the back of her neck, after which she flicked her wrists and fingers in the air. She repeated this stroking and flicking sequence several more times.
"This circular stroking prevents wrinkles from forming on the forehead," ................
.......she vigorously rubbed each thumb on the palm of the opposite hand and placed them on the bridge of her nose. She moved them outward with light, even strokes over her eyebrows to the temples.
"This pass will keep furrows from developing between your eye- brows," she explained. After quickly rubbing together her index fingers, like two sticks starting a fire, she brought them vertically to each side of her nose and gently moved them sideways over her cheeks several times.
"That's to clear the sinus cavities," she said, deliberately constricting her nasal passages.
"Instead of picking your nose, do this movement."
"The next one is to keep the cheeks from sagging," she said.
She briskly rubbed her palms together, and with long, firm strokes, she slid them up each cheek to her temples. She repeated this move- ment six or seven times, always using slow, even, upward strokes.”
Taisha Abelar, The Sorcerers' Crossing, page 43:
"What I'am going to show you first are simple movements that you must do daily," she continued, "regard them always as an indispensable part of your life.
Taisha Abelar, The Sorcerers' Crossing, page 44:
"This breath mirrors the dual forces of creation and destruction, of light and darkness, of being and not-being."
She told me to move outside of the cave, then directed me, by gentle manipulation, to sit with my spine curved forward and to bring my knees to my chest as high as I could. While keeping my feet on the ground, I was to wrap my arms around my calves and firmly clasp my hands in front of my knees or, If I wished, I could clasp each elbow. She gently eased my head down until my chin touched my chest. I had to strain the muscles of my arms to keep my knees from pushing out sideways. My chest was constricted and so was my abdomen. My neck made a cracking sound as I tucked my chin in.
"This is a powerful breath," she said. "It may knock you out or put you to sleep."
Clara instructed me to take short, shallow breaths. I told her that her request was redundant since that was the only way I could breathe in that position. She said that even if I only partially released the arm pressure I was creating with my hands, my breath would return to normal. But this wasn't what she was after. She wanted me to continue the shalIow breaths for at least ten minutes. I stayed in that position for perhaps half an hour, all the while taking shallow breaths as she had instructed. After the initial cramping in my stomach and legs subsided, the breaths seemed to soften my insides and dissolve them. Then after an excruciatingly long time, Clara gave me a push that made me roll backward so I was lying on the ground, but she didn't permit me to release the pressure of my arms. I felt a moment of relief when my back touched the ground, but it was only when she instructed me to unclasp my hands and stretch out my legs that felt complete release in my abdomen and chest. The only way of describing what I felt is to say that something inside me had been unlocked by that breath and had been dissolved or released. As Clara had predicted, I became so drowsy that I crawled back inside the cave and fell asleep.