When the Tonal, the Social Self, is told (in its ordinary position of the assemblage point), the ordinary New Age advice to take-up “lucid dreaming”, Bob Monroe “out-of-the-body”, “astral traveling”, “Castaneda dreaming exercises” or the like, then it, the Tonal, the Social Self, immediately begins to make efforts of a kind during the sleeping hours that are not to the point because only the Nagual, the Spirit Self, having learned to be in a state of self-starting Heightened Awareness, can rightly and fully develop the Art-of-Dreaming and the Materialization-of-the-Double.  The Tonal cannot do what only the Nagual can do.  Also, the Tonal wants to do it for the wrong reason, which is for social purposes rather than the Intent of the Spirit, which, again, is due to lack of Heightened Awareness.

The New Age Tonal is usually stuck in the illusion that “lucid dreaming” is the bee’s knees of socially self-important “occult development” in order to be a “healer” and “counselor”.  Therefore, the purpose of this article is not yet another hokey set of New Age “instructions” for learning to do “astral traveling”.  No!  Nor is it to excite the Social Self to learn to “project the double” and become a seemingly “powerful sorcerer or sorceress”.  No!  This, as I have said, is about shifting-the-assemblage point from socially ambitious occult practices to Intent of the Spirit!  But of course our usual garden variety Castaneda occultist who visits this Website is psychologically impatient about Fundamental Orientation and only wants to become spiritually impressive as soon as possible!  The wretched mediocrity of such a motive is already a huge barrier to the Descent of the Spirit.

Once there is real shifting into Heightened Awareness, the Nagual Spirit Self is awake to the inner barrier of the Tonal Social Self’s counter-productive occult social ambitions.  So, the next step is to train the Tonal Social Self to look to the Nagual Spirit Self for Intent of the Spirit as Inner Guidance and Right Direction.  Otherwise, for instance, there is danger of consciousness becoming trapped in some realm of the Inorganic Beings as an alternative to Name and Fame, or, as with Castaneda himself, there can be an endlessly stupid oscillation between both foolish or dangerous motives, both of which “eat or sell the Soul” in a Faustian manner.

It is the innocent but awakening Nagual who is the should-be student of the Occult Arts under a proficient Benefactor; not some clever or emotional Tonal, the “Volunteer”!  The Social Occult Seeker cannot “meet the Benefactor” or be accepted for the training.  Real connections or decisions are made only by the Nagual, which are assisted by the alert Benefactor, when the right signs or coincidences are arranged by Power.  The socializing would-be occult trainee would do nothing but argue with the Benefactor on the one hand or become emotionally dependent and avoid self-responsibility like members of cults.  It is for this double reason that most of those who are fascinated with Nagualism would be better off to put it away for the time-being and thoroughly study the less occultly exciting books of Idries Shah as a preparation.  This does not mean joining the Sufis exclusively or “converting to Islam” (God forbid), but simply learning how to learn indispensable principles of higher human evolution.  However, as for all those hundreds of jerk-off would-be “experts” or “teachers” who try to personally impress possible followers or students on various “spiritual” or “occult” Internet forums, it doesn’t mean a thing whether it is Nagualism, Sufism or any other superficial grouping.  The Great Mother Giant Sea Tortoise lays thousands of eggs in the sand.  When they hatch out, they rush in huge groups of hundreds toward the sea, but they become utterly decimated by predators, such as seagulls.  Each year, out of millions, only a small number reach Sea Turtle maturity.  That is Nature’s Way!  The same applies with the socially titillated “Nagualists” or “Sufists” on the Web.  They are all prey in the Predatory Universe.  This is Reality if you want it.  Your personal chance of Higher Development borders on nil because you keep doing the very things of spiritual or occult mediocrity that so many others do, which means that you remain trapped in the usual Tonal purposes without sufficient Heightened Awareness.

If you are not trapped in social considerings or the urge to teach, argue or emotionally belong, I congratulate you!  For such an individual, your spiritual adventure is about to move into more intense coincidences and possibilities.