- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Harper Perennial (Jan 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0060928824
- ISBN-13: 978-0060928827
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15.2 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
349,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #80 in Books > Mind, Body & Spirit > Earth Based Religions > Native American
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Product Description
Product Description
Tensegrity" is Carlos Castaneda's term for the specialized movements -- magical passes -- that were discovered and developed by Mexican shamans in ancient times. Shrouded in secrecy, they are the pathway to shamanistic dreaming and "seeing". In this unprecedented book, Castaneda unveils the highly specific positions and movements of the body necessary to spiritual navigation, exercises he learned from his master, Don Juan Matus. Mastering them, readers will experience an unequaled sense of physical vitality, youth, and mental power, and be able to journey on their own to other realms of perception.
Offering the spirituality of his New Age favorites The Art of Dreaming and The Teachings of Don Juan in a self-help format, Magical Passes is a pragmatic and original approach to spiritual discovery. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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The first time don Juan talked to me at length about magical passes was when he made a derogatory comment about my weight. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
The first time don Juan talked to me at length about magical passes was when he made a derogatory comment about my weight. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Before he died, Castaneda wanted to pass on everything he had learnt in a lifetime of intense immersion in non-ordinary reality. The magical passes, as he suggests, are probably the most valuable part of his legacy, more so even than all the other extraordinary books describing his apprenticeship with Don Juan and his subsequent development as a nagual in his own right. The publication of the passes represented the final changeover from the Toltec order with its private initiations to a modern age in which the path is open to anyone who wants it badly enough. However, I find it hard to believe that anyone could learn the passes from a book - or even from one of the Tensegrity videos which are also available. In my experience I couldn't even do it from a live workshop with Castaneda's trainees. The movements are quite tricky to do properly, the sequences are complex to remember and absorb (cf. for example Gurdjieff's 'oriental dances' or at a simpler level the Tai Chi form) and the stamina and physical fitness required is considerable. Above all, the intent has to be there. For this reason I feel that this book, unique as it is, is really only a manual for the most dedicated of students, who have probably already learnt the passes from a live teacher, or for those who want to own a copy of anything Castaneda put his hand to.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Aside from the exercises , which are generally clearly ilustrated by photographs accompanied by explanations , there is also a good amount of philosophy contained between the covers , which largely revolve around a concept termed the 'assemblage point' which governs the way that we ( as humans ) perceive the world around us.
The general claim of the book ,then,is that by practicing these excercises we can alter our perceptions without resorting to the use of psychotropic plants etc...
How succesful a practitioner will be in accomplishing this certainly cannot be guaranteed ,but for those looking for an excercise book with a bizzare twist,featuring routines which will still improve physical fitness , if practised regularly , this is well worth reading.
The excercises are allegedly based upon genuine American Indian shamanic traditions , and seem to represent largely a kind of 'active yoga' with similarities to Tai Chi and , at times , African tribal dances .
The general claim of the book ,then,is that by practicing these excercises we can alter our perceptions without resorting to the use of psychotropic plants etc...
How succesful a practitioner will be in accomplishing this certainly cannot be guaranteed ,but for those looking for an excercise book with a bizzare twist,featuring routines which will still improve physical fitness , if practised regularly , this is well worth reading.
The excercises are allegedly based upon genuine American Indian shamanic traditions , and seem to represent largely a kind of 'active yoga' with similarities to Tai Chi and , at times , African tribal dances .
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
20 reviews
64 of 65 people found the following review helpful
Castaneda's Legacy
1 Aug 2000
Format:Paperback
This book, the separate two video set (also entitled "Magical Passes") and Carlos's "Wheel of Time" book constitute Castaneda's legacy of "abstract sorcery" for the general public. CC's extended apprenticeship with Don Juan is detailed in the 8 or 9 books beginning with "Don Juan" and ending with the "Art of Dreaming." In the Nagualist Newsletter, privately published by Daniel Lawton, fans of the series reported how they had gleaned "not doings" and "dreaming techniques" from the Don Juan books. Then two of CC's cohorts, Donner and Abelar, gave bookstore lectures on practical application of the materials, such as recapitulation, and then began teaching movements they called the Magical Passes or later, Tensegrity. Most people who tried the Passes in the various workshops that followed reported a feeling of energy, or well being, and of a reduction in the "internal dialog." The public materials on Tensegrity consist of the three videos released before this book, this book, and the two video set that is based on this book. This book contains some complex and some simple movements. Some sets are easier to learn on your own than others. Some feel better to different people than others. In between the various sets described in the book are snippets of explanation written in the "Don Juan" style, that is ascribed to Don Juan with most of the wit and humor, and insights, that make the Don Juan series so interesting. Some of these exercises are more vigorous than they sound, and beginners are cautioned to work through them gently at first until they find their limits. The best description of these passes (to compare them with something else) is that they are a cross between qi gong movements, martial arts movements and Gurdjieffian body movements. Whatever they are, they do produce results.
31 of 32 people found the following review helpful
THE LAST OF CASTANEDA'S LEGACY
4 April 2002
Format:Paperback
Carlos Castaneda's books cannot be properly understood without an understanding of the chakras. This is the only one of Castaneda's books where the topic of the chakras is addressed. Each of the chakras has a specific function in terms of perception. The lower chakras play a role in perception of the world as we know it. The higher chakras play a role in perceptions that are classified as being paranormal such as telepathy, clairvoyance and bilocation. In order to become a sorcerer, one needs to activate these higher chakras. This is where the magical passes come in. These are physical movements that when executed, draw energy in to the chakra system, thereby allowing for the awakening of the perceptual functions of all of the chakras. These are not the only movements that can accomplish the energizing of the chakras. Certain forms of Yoga, and martial arts (T'ai Chi, Chi Kung) are also effective. All of the esoteric paths including those of the Yogin, the Taoists, the Sufi's, the Fourth Way (GI Gurdjieff) and the Theosophists (Rudolf Steiner, HP Blavatsky) involve a physical discipline aimed at the activation of the chakras. All of these paths when followed, allow one to expand one's perceptual capabilities. I recommend reading the Magical Passes for the information contained in the text. This book talks about an energetic force that has "infected" the chakra system of Man, thus preventing Him from accessing the full range of His perceptual abilities. Therefore, in order to become a sorcerer, one must cure oneself of this "infection". For other books that make reference to this negative force: 1) The Active Side of Infinity (Carlos Castaneda), 2) The Path (Esmeralda Arana), 3) Far Journeys (Robert Monroe), 4) In Search of the Miraculous (PD Ouspensky). For information about the chakras and how to activate them: 1) Chakras (Patricia Mercier), 2) Shaman, Healer Sage (Alberto Villoldo).
36 of 38 people found the following review helpful
these exercises are legitimate
19 Aug 2001
Format:Paperback
When I read these reviews, I was looking for people that had actually tried the exercises and what the results were for them personally. Unfortunately, it does not appear that anyone writing the reviews actually did the exercises on a long-term basis. I tried two series, the dreaming series and the inner silence series. The first night after trying the dreaming series, my dreams were very powerful and tumultuous all night long. After doing the inner silence series for several days, I noticed the nature of my thoughts changing. Since both of these results were somewhat disturbing to me, I terminated the exercises, with the intention of trying them again at a later time. I would be interested in hearing from anyone that has continued to do the exercises and what the results have been.
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