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131 of 134 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Profoundly Effective System of Movements, March 3, 2005
This review is from: Carlos Castaneda's Magical Passes (DVD)
Freedom from suffering. Stopping the internal dialogue. Transcending your social conditioning. Awakening from the dream of the mind. Discovering inconceivable states of wellbeing. Say it however you want: Carlos Castaneda's Magical Passes will get you there, and quickly. Here's the theory in a nutshell. Spiritual seekers usually reach the same deadend. They know that the mind is synonymous with resistance and suffering. The usual practices involving breathing, meditating, watching the thinker, going into the body, physical cleansing, practicing presence, etc. will get you TO the door, but not THROUGH it. The masters and gurus then advise you to accept your unconsciousness as part of the "isness" of being and thereby transcend it. Does this work? Has it for you? What if the the mind, the source of suffering, was only the expression of a more primary condition: the dispersal and misallignment of energy within the energetic and physical body? (Also the cause of most illness, disease, and ageing.) Castaneda's "passes" address this issue with profound effectiveness by stirring up and redistrubting energy in the energetic body. Castaneda correctly states that belief, faith, or knowledge is not required to succeed. Simply do your best while practicing the movements and results will follow. The "passes" are powerful! There are two sets of movements: the short form and the long form , The Sabre Tooth Tiger of Intent. (Powerful techniques have powerful names!) Practice the short form (37 movements) for 5-10 days before starting the long form. If you jump too quickly to the long form, you may like it so much that you may be tempted not to go back and perfect the short form which is an integral part of the long form. The short form itself produces noticeable shifts in awareness. None of the movements is harder than jumping-jacks. The body is drawn in by the movements and enjoys the process. The mind may be doubtful, but the body likes it! The short form training takes about one half hour. The long form is condensed once perfected, and takes about fifteen minutes. There also seems to be a momentum dynamic at work here: practicing makes you more conscious and capapable, making your practices more effective making you more conscious... Apply yourself to correct execution for optimal results. Note that there are three other "Tensegrity" videos that were produced prior to Magical Passes. Start here. This the "perfected" version and will produce the smoothest transition. The "Magical Passes" book could also be useful further down the road. Other Castaneda books (I've read them all) are superflous to success with the passes, the best one being "Journey To Ixtlan". The process of awakening consciousness can be a bit unpredictable. I recommend the purchase of the book "The Power Of Now" by Eckhart Tolle. It's an excellent roadmap of human consciousness and will provide the guidance you will need as liberated awareness awakens in you. Read it first. Note that it is possible when being involved with several spiritual practices to misattribute the results. This mistake cost me three years of continued suffering. It was the Passes, not Tolle, that got me through. Carlos Castaneda's Magical Passes truly are a magical passageway to inconceivable states of awareness and wellbeing. Thank you Don Carlos, wherever you are. Note: This is an instructional excercise video. There is very little conceptual content to be found on this DVD. No knowledge, no information, nothing for the mind to grasp: just do the movements. I thought the movements were ridiculous the first time I did them. Most reasonable people would think the same. In this case, reasonable thought doesn't define the potential for results.
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Immediate Effect, September 13, 2006
This review is from: Carlos Castaneda's Magical Passes (DVD)
I am a long-term practitioner of Chi Kung and practiced Peter Kelder's Tibetan Rites for 12 years, thus i feel my sensitivity to changes in energy has increased as has my store of personal Chi. I was amazed, when having tried using the Magical Passes, what incredible and immediate results i got from them. What really impressed me was that i tried merely four out of the first five movements, only for a few minutes each and very casually, just to see how they felt. For the rest of that day, and until somewhere around maybe 4 a.m., i was humming like a top at full velocity!....charged! I have not been able to practice since, but am looking forward to doing so on a regular basis, and can't imagine what to expect! I saw another review (possibly of the VHS version, or maybe the Tensegrity movements?) by a Yoga practitioner who suggested tempering them with her particular Yoga style......well, that may be a good idea, and she sounds like she knows what she is talking about from experience. I think that it could also be tempered by a (HEALTHY!) Chi Kung (Qigong) Practice or Tai Chi as well, but cannot yet speak wholly from experience. It is possible that the effects that i got were because of previous energetic work and may come later to someone beginning this work at a lower energy level. The reviewer who gave it one star obviously didn't take it on as a daily practice, to actually see what the effects really are like, and is looking to discredit this product for some personal reason. AND....Please check negative reviews on a few of the Marketplace sellers for this item.....i had a particularly negative time of it, to say the LEAST!!! Happy "Stalking"
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing movements, July 5, 2007
This review is from: Carlos Castaneda's Magical Passes (DVD)
For readers of Carlos Castaneda and the philosophy of don Juan, this DVD offers a practical and entheogen-free way to unlock alternative realms of perception. While esoteric to some, the philosophy of don Juan is a great way to relieve the tension and stress that defines the modern lifestyle. Similar to traditional Chinese movements that deal with the energy body, such as Tai Chi, Tensegrity is a movement form that will awaken one's senses and heighten one's awareness, oftentimes leaving one feeling mildly euphoric and calm. The goal of these movements is to aid the practitioner in silencing the inner monologue, move energy from the periphery to the center of the energy body, and create an overall sense of well-being. The DVD itself contains some informative material, however brief, that explains the origins of the movements and the purpose of them to the ancient Shamans of mexico. For those that haven't read Carlos Castaneda, the movements and philosophy may come across as somewhat odd, and as I previously mentioned, esoteric. But, for those that have already been exposed to the philosophy and find themselves aligning with it's teachings, this video is a valuable resource and a fantastic set of movements that will provide the practitioner with results after the very first practice. From a physical standpoint, I would say these movements are great for people of all ages, as they are no-impact, and simply require concentration, controlled breathing, and the tensing and relaxation of specific muscle groups. If one hasn't been exposed to the books, I recommend reading the first three before practicing the movements, in order to give oneself the proper perspective and framework of mind with which to learn Tensigrity. These books are, The Teachings of don Juan, a Yaqui Way of Knowledge A Separate Reality, Further Conversations with don Juan Journey to Ixtlan, the Lessons of don Juan *Note - while the first two books deal with the use of psychoactive entheogens as the primary pathway to knowledge, off-putting to some, Castaneda retracts these directives in the 3rd book and instead promotes the value of the 'tensegrity' movements. This is because the entheogens are simply a means-to-an-end of heightened-awareness, which is to say they can 'force' a person to experience alternative forms of perception that their rational mind would typically resist, but through abuse could ultimately alter one's personal and physical life beyond repair. Therefor, while they could be used to prove to oneself that alternate realities exist, they should be treated with reverence and respect as an aid in learning. Ultimately, through the movements of Tensegrity, the same awareness and knowledge attained through the plants, should be available to the advanced practitioner.
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