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They seem to find themselves at a disadvantage. By all logical reasons, this is a bona fide disadvantage. However, in the shamanistic world from which the magical passes originate, there are no advantages or disadvantages. There is only action. Modern practitioners of Tensegrity have the astounding benefit denied to all previous practitioners of other generations: the benefit of mass. The newcomers should trust, and it's recommended that they trust implicitly, the enormous power of human mass. The greater the number of participants, the easier it is for anyone to absorb anything presented to them, be it through the medium of the intellect, or the medium of kinesthesia. Participants remember everything that is said, and everything that is done in terms of movement with immensely more facility than they would if they were doing all of it by themselves. No, it is not necessary. As Carlos Castaneda writes in Magical Passes: "Practicing in groups is beneficial in many aspects and deleterious in others. It is beneficial because it allows the creation of a consensus of movement and the opportunity to learn by examination and comparison. It is deleterious because it fosters the reliance on others, and the emergence of syntactic commands and solicitations dealing with hierarchy." (p. 26) The idea of syntactic commands is further explained on the same page, along with some of the advantages of practicing in large groups. The choice of the best way to practice is left to the individual: "Tensegrity should be practiced in whatever form is easiest: either in groups or alone, or both." (p. 26) We have found that practicing alone allows us to perform magical passes that seem to suit us best individually at any given moment, while working together helps us to balance our practice by performing magical passes we might not otherwise practice on our own, or by helping us to adjust our speed to match the group. These adaptations and adjustments can bring a movement of the assemblage point. They can allow us to form a new link with intent: the intent to perceive and act in a new way, with affection and gratitude for our fellow beings. For practitioners who are just starting out, we have found that repeating each magical pass between five and ten times is a helpful guideline. Certain magical passes that are lengthy or which require deep breathing can be performed fewer times, while simpler ones may lend themselves to more repetition. We have been taught that one of the keys to the energy redeployment that the magical passes bring is knowing when to start and stop practicing them. So it is recommended that any magical passes that seem to be causing a problem be practiced sparingly, or that their practice be suspended until the problem goes away. Carlos Castaneda writes in the Wheel of Time: "If a warrior is to succeed in anything, the success must come gently, with a great deal of effort but with no stress or obsession." (p. 116) Our training and our current efforts include letting the body guide us in doing the magical passes; our goal is to learn to listen to the body, and to follow its impulse, moving when it wants to move, and stopping when it wants to stop. Also, some of us find it motivating to practice with a group, so we do that. All the magical passes help increase self-discipline. It might be helpful both for practitioners who have trouble starting their practice, and for those who find it difficult to know when to stop, to review what shamans mean by "discipline." Don Juan describes this to Carlos Castaneda in the Active Side of Infinity: " . . . by discipline, I don't mean harsh routines. I don't mean waking up every morning at five-thirty and throwing cold water on yourself until you're blue. Sorcerers understand discipline as the capacity to face with serenity odds that are not included in our expectations. For them, discipline is an art: the art of facing infinity without flinching, not because they are strong and tough, but because they are filled with awe." (p. 224) This means approaching the magical passes with this sense of awe-enjoying the practice rather than practicing as an investor, looking to see what the returns will be. "The execution of the magical passes, as shown in Tensegrity, doesn't necessarily require a particular space or prearranged time. However, the movements should be done away from sharp currents of air. Don Juan dreaded currents of air on a perspiring body." (Magical Passes, p. 25) When we asked the four students of don Juan similar questions, they said that the best thing to do was to investigate for ourselves, which would help us to "develop the seer within." Don Juan told his students that the magical passes themselves can lead practitioners to an "unprecedented culmination," in which questions about when and how to practice clear themselves up, and practitioners will be able to perform the magical passes "with precision and speed, as they walk, or eat, or rest, or do anything, because they will have the energy to do so." (Magical Passes p. 25) Taisha Abelar told us that under these circumstances, we could put a "bookmark" in our chronological list, and recapitulate the spontaneous memory. Then we could return to our list. The important thing, she said, is to keep going, and not to let questions of procedure stop us from recapitulating. The three female students of don Juan Matus are here to supervise the efforts of the Tensegrity instructors in making one of Carlos Castaneda's most cherished dreams a reality: the dream of a unified body of individual practitioners of the magical passes resuming their interrupted journey of awareness. For the moment, they are not going to appear personally at the workshops because they want this dream to take wings. For Carlos Castaneda and for them, it is a dream in which a group of practitioners is focused not on a person or a group of persons, but on the abstract purpose of freedom of perception. Don Juan Matus ushered his student, Carlos Castaneda, into the cognitive world of the shamans who lived in Mexico in ancient times. Carlos Castaneda wrote extensively about his apprenticeship with don Juan, in which don Juan instructed him in the warriors' way. For don Juan, the warrior was a being who lived a life filled to the brim with exploring the endless possibilities for human awareness that ordinarily remain untapped, a being who embarks, when the time comes, on a definitive journey of awareness, "crossing over to total freedom." Don Juan described this option to his apprentice: "…warriors can keep their awareness, which is ordinarily relinquished, at the moment of dying. At the moment of crossing, the body in its entirety is kindled with knowledge. Every cell at once becomes aware of itself and also aware of the totality of the body." Carlos Castaneda left the world, in this manner, in same way that his teacher, don Juan Matus did: with full awareness. In leaving the world as a solitary warrior, in total awareness, Carlos Castaneda leaves behind a wealth of knowledge that is accessible to anyone who wishes to venture into the infinite layers of awareness that are available to human beings. And according to don Juan, the journey begins here,
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