Cassiopaeans: First of all, confusion abounds here due to incorrect interpretations. Dimensions are not densities!!!! Dimensions are strictly the result of the universal consciousness as manifested in the imagination sector of thought. Density means level of development as measured in terms of closeness to union with the One Cycle. Now, a shocker for you: You would not exist if someone didn't "dream you up." You literally are the "figments" of someone's imagination, and nothing more!!! Remember, "God" is really all existence in creation, in other words, all consciousness. This is because all existence in creation is consciousness, and vice versa. Remember, all there is is lessons!

What do the Cassiopaeans mean by "level of development?" The following dialogue may help to clarify the idea.

Q: At 7th density there is union with the One. At 6th density there is... what? An equal balance of dark and light, or being and non-being, is that correct?

A: Pure consciousness no need to physicalise.

Q: And, I think that there are the 3 ethereal densities, and the 3 material densities, and the middle, 4th density, the variable physical/ethereal density...

A: Close.

Q: And these densities are only distinguishable by virtue of the nearness to union with the One, is that correct?

A: Nearness?

Q: Well, you know I don't mean it in a that sense... Help me out here!

A: No, you are doing just fine.

Q: Now, I am seeing it sort of like the perpendicular reality image. There is a circle in the center, and each individual is like an outraying perpendicular realities which go out and out and out, and eventually come back to the center, because the gravity in the center brings them back. But, these are perpendicular. Something happens in a horizontal, concentric circle sort of way that distinguishes states of being, in relation to this center and these perpendicular realities. What is the demarcation of the realm levels, what is the relationship between the perpendicular reality and its moving outward that distinguishes it at certain relational points from the center itself? I understand that it is consciousness, but we are also dealing with non-being. Being and non-being. What is the relationship of these perpendicular realities to the seven realms of existence?

A: Not essentially correct. Perpendicular reality is knowledge/awareness/being matrix. Realms are merely experiential divisions based upon consciousness energy directors.

Q: What are consciousness energy directors?

A: Compare yourself to your backyard denizen. How do each of you view calculus?

Q: Well, I don't know exactly what calculus is, but I know it is important. I am sure that the dog would not only think it is not useful, he would not even be aware of it. How does that relate to consciousness energy directors?

A: All in nature seeks balance. One day, so to speak, "Percy" will indeed have an opinion of calculus.

Q: Okay, so consciousness energy directors are like a horizontal reality in relation to the perpendicular ones?

A: Slots, my dear, slots.

Q: Now you have mentioned these 'slots.' What are these slots, and how does one move from one slot to another?

A: Picture this: you have 7 sizes of marbles. You have 7 widths of slots. Where do the marbles "fit in."

Q: Do the marbles represent units of consciousness?

A: Close. Or, divisions of consciousness-level energy resonance profiles.

Q: Do these divisions of consciousness grow and change?

A: Yes.

Q: And they grow and change through acquiring knowledge, is that correct?

A: Basically.

Q: And acquiring knowledge is akin to acquiring energy? Or light? Light energy?

A: Not exactly. That would be like saying that "filling up" at the gas station is akin to acquiring speed.

Q: So, knowledge and light are like the gas for the car, but speed comes from utilization?

A: Yes.

Q: And utilization means...

A: Knowledge application which generates energy, which, in turn, generates light.

Q: Let me back up. We have marbles in slots...

A: What causes the marbles to go into the slots? What are the slots?

A: An analogy to depict realms for you.

Q: Do the marbles move from one slot to another?

A: When, and only when, they have acquired the proper fit.

Q: Oh. How do they acquire the proper fit?

A: How do you?

Q: I guess you grow?

A: Yes.

Now, going back to the idea of the three physical realms and the three ethereal realms which balance each other, with the intermediate realm of 4th density where physicality is "variable and selective," we have to consider the concept of realms of pure consciousness. Many scientists have discussed the idea of "aether" as the means by which material things are in contact with one another so that the evidence of "non-local" events could be explained in pseudo-material terms. The "Aether" is conceptualized as "a little bit more than a vacuum" or a "vacuum that can vibrate." Einstein rejected the idea of "aether" on the basis of Occam's Razor as an "unnecessary" hypothesis. Dirac, later on, revisited the concept and tried to revive it in terms of the "Dirac Sea," or "animated quantum vacuum." (A. Einstein; P.A.M. Dirac)

Cassiopaeans: "Aether" is Terran material science's attempt to address ether. The trouble is, there is simply no way to physicalize a plane of existence which is composed entirely of consciousness. It is the union of perfect balance between the two "states" or planes, that is the foundation and essence of all creation/reality. You cannot have one without the other! Terran scientists have been programmed to believe that nothing can exist unless it can be measured, estimated, calculated and represented in some way in the physical material plane. Not true!!!!!!! For example: We are in NO WAY physical.

The "two states" referred to above, or "planes," are referring to matter and consciousness. The Cassiopaeans say that the material universe and consciousness are so completely connected, intertwined, bonded, and merged that without the one the other would not exist either.

There are seven levels of " density " and this idea is represented also in many ancient teachings. It is the origin of the "Seven Days of Creation." All of these levels are connected - perfectly bonded and balanced. The three "higher" densities," 7th, 6th, and 5th are ethereal realms and the three "lower" densities, which exist for balance to the three higher levels, are material. The intermediate density, 4th density, is where the balance is can be "seen" or "realized" most fully. It is a level of both "dense" consciousness, and yet is still material. Also, time as we understand it, does not exist at the higher densities.

Cassiopaeans:" If there's no end and no beginning, then what do you have? The here and now which is also the future and the past. Everything that was, is and will be, all at once. This is why only a very few of your third density persons have been able to understand space travel, because even though traveling into space in your third density is every bit as third density as lying on your bed at night in your comfortable home, the time reference is taken away. Something that you hold very close to your bosom as if it were your mother. And, it is the biggest illusion that you have. We have repeatedly told you over and over that there is no time, and yet, of course, you have been so brainwashed into this concept that you cannot get rid of it no matter what you do, now can you? Imagine going out into space. You'd be lost when confronted with reality that everything is completely all at one? Would you not? Picture yourself floating around in space!

"And now, when you merge densities, or traverse densities, what you have is the merging of physical reality and ethereal reality, which involves thought form versus physicality. When you can merge those perfectly, what you realize then, is that the reason there is no beginning and no end is merely because there is no need for you to contemplate a beginning or an end after you have completed your development. When you are at union with the One at Seventh density, that is when you have accomplished this and then there is no longer any need for difference between physical and ethereal forms.

Q: (L) Okay, if you are in fourth density, for example, does everything move at the speed of light and is that why there is no time there and no gravity?

A: No. That is an incorrect concept. There is no speed of light in fourth density because there is no need for any "speed." Speed, itself, is a third density concept. You remember, all there is is lessons. That's it! There's nothing else. It is all for your perception. For our perception. For all consciousness. That's all there is.

"You see, we speak to all of you when we say this. It's now time for you, as individuals, to try to move away, as much as possible, not to force yourselves, of course, but to try and move away at your own pace as much as possible, from the constraints of third density. You have all learned lessons to the level where you are more than ready to begin to prepare for fourth density. Third density involves a level of physicality and restriction and restraint and all of the things that go along with those, that you no longer need. So, therefore, even though we understand that at times it may feel comfortable to cling to this, there is time for you, and there is that word again, it is time for you to consider moving ahead and get ready for fourth density and not to be concerned with such things as time or how to free yourself from the illusion of time. That really is not important. That's like the third grade student delving into mathematics and stopping everything to go back and contemplate the ABC's and why it isn't CBA or BAC. There really is no point. It is what it is. They are what they are. Time is a nonexistent, artificial creation of illusion for the point of learning at the level where you are at or were, and once you have left that level, you no longer need it.

"Imagine a conversation between two people: Billy and Gene. Billy says to Gene, "There is no such thing as time." Gene says, "Oh, really? But I want to know what it is." Billy says, "But I just told you there is no such thing. Time does not exist. It is not real in any form, in any frame of reference, in any form of reality, any level of density. It simply does not exist." And, Gene says: "Oh, that's interesting. Now, again, what is this time?"

"While you are still in this third density it is still necessary for you to conform, to a certain extent, to the ways of others who are more comfortable within the realm of third density. But, as we have stated previously, perhaps it is "time" for you to begin preparing for fourth density and not concern yourself any more than is absolutely necessary with all the where's and why's and what for's of third density reality. This truly is behind you, now, and we know that because we can see from all levels six through one and back again in full cycle.

"Picture it this way: we will access some of your memory banks and give you another reference which, interestingly enough, fits very closely with the perpendicular reality wheel that we described earlier. You know what a slide projector looks like? To give you some feeling of what this expanded nature of reality really is, picture yourself watching a big slide presentation with a big slide wheel on the projector. At any given point along the way you are watching one particular slide. But, all the rest of the slides are present on the wheel, are they not? And, of course, this fits in with the perpendicular reality, which fits in with the circles within circles and cycles within cycles, which also fits in the Grand Cycle, which also fits in with what we have told you before: All there is is lessons. That's all there is... and we ask that you enjoy them as you are watching the slide presentation... And, if you look back at the center of the projector, you see the origin and essence of all creation itself, which, is level seven where you are in union with the One."

Densities can be thought of as "vertical" and dimensions as "horizontal" and infinite. It is in this understanding of the structure of the universe that we can begin to comprehend the confusing and metamorphic nature of alien realities and the abduction process.

It is from 4th density that most abductions take place. But before we can even talk about it, the "cognition" of densities must be clear. Discussing them in abstract terms is all fine and good, but without a real grasp of what such a reality must be like will leave us with no comprehension of what can be taking place in trans-density interactions.

Cognition is the process by which we recognize the world around us. Certain things fall within our "realm of cognition" and we are aware of them. Other things don't and, when they "puncture" or "emerge" into our perception of our reality, they are considered anomalous and we have no real comprehension of them. Most people respond to "anomalies" with fear or denial or half-baked theories that have no real raw data as a base.

The world of our cognition seems to rest on the the interpretation of data we receive from our five sense. We consider solid things to be "solid," yet it is clear to those who study physics that everything that exists is subject to many and varied interpretations.

Since the contact with the Cassiopaeans began, I have been urged by them to study as many systems of knowledge as I can reasonably cram into a busy life. I have found numerous correspondences to the Cassiopaean comments on the various levels of reality in other works, most notably that of the Sufi Shaykh, Ibn Al-'Arabi and the teachings of various Shamanic paths including that explicated by Don Juan and recorded by Carlos Castaneda. I have also found hints in other sources, including myths and even the Bible.

A recent work by anthropologist Jeremy Narby entitled "The Cosmic Serpent" (New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/ Putnam; 1998) examines and discusses certain aspects of Shamanic perception that echo remarks made by the Cassiopaeans probably at about the same time that this book was being written in Europe. This points up the fact that nobody has the "whole cheese" and that it is our job to search and learn and "put the pieces of Osiris" back together in terms of our understanding.

Dr. Narby remarks about the work of one of the foremost authorities in the history of religions, Mircea Eliade, who wrote "Shamanism: Archaic techniques of Ecstasy," saying: "Eliade, who was not a trained anthropologist... identified astonishing similarities in the practices and concepts of shamans the world over. Wherever these 'technicians of ecstasy' operate, they specialize in a trance during which their 'soul is believed to leave the body and ascend to the sky or descend to the underworld.' They all speak a secret language' which they learn directly from the spirits, by imitation. They talk of a ladder - or a vine, a rope, a spiral staircase, a twisted rope ladder - that connects heaven and earth and which they use to gain access to the world of spirits. They consider these spirits to have come from the sky and to have created life on earth." (See Narby (1998) p. 17; also Eliade (1964), p. 5 {specializes in trance}, pp. 96-97 {secret language}, pp 126ff and 487ff {vines, ropes, ladders) and p. 9 {spirits from the sky}.)

Narby comments: "Eliade understood before many anthropologists that it is useful to take people and their practices seriously and to pay attention to the detail of what they say and do." (p.17)

Most of Dr. Narby's work concerns the shamanistic vision as perceived via hallucinogenic substances, and this relates to a brief series of remarks by the Cassiopaeans in an interesting way:

Q: (L) Jan and I are very curious about artistic expression at 4th density. We experience art and music in a very positive and moving way, most of us, in this realm, and sometimes music can be very sublime and very transforming. It can move one in a lot of very unusual ways. What is it like in 4th density?

A: In 4th, you can "see" sounds and "hear" colors, for example.

Q: (L) This sounds a lot like the hallucinogenic visions of many shamanic paths. Is this what we are talking about here?

A: Bingo!

Q: (L) So, in other words...

A: The answer to your next question is yes, shamans experience a bleedthrough of 4th density.

Q: (F) In other words an LSD trip is like a glimpse into 4th density. (L) Do you recommend this method for accessing this type of reality.

A: Open. [This answer reflects a reluctance on the part of the C's to recommend anything in order to preserve Free Will.]

Q: (T) The problem is that most humans would want to do that all the time and not work on doing it in a natural way.

A: Yes.

Q: (J) Is that like the concept of adding additional dimensions to the 3 we normally experience?

A: Yes. 4th level density implies and additional dimension of experience, doesn't it?

Q: (T) The first dimension is a single point, the second is the movement of the point into a line, the third is the movement of the line into a plane and the addition of time gives solidity. What is the fourth?

A: Discover!

Q: (J) I've seen, we have all seen, the light spectrum. What we are able to perceive with our eyes is only a limited section. Is reality like that? What we are able to perceive is only a small section of the spectrum of vibrations?

A: Close.

Q: (T) When we move into 4th density will we be able to perceive more of this electromagnetic band?

A: Much.

Q: (L) A few years ago I was meditating on my bed and I did what I call "zoning." It is an indescribable state. I kind of bobbed back to the surface for a moment because I experienced a buzzing in my head that sounded like an electrical transformer. Words came into my head that were like: "The presence is approaching," and I thought immediately of Shekina, or the "forerunner" of the "presence of God." I was a little agitated because I was not positioned in the way I would have liked to be to receive any experience or visitation. The last thing I remember is making adjustments in my position and then nothing more until I just sort of came to with an intense thirst. I don't know how much time passed, but it must have been a considerable period to be so thirsty. The bed was adjacent to a wall between the bedroom and the bathroom with just a walk space. I had to be careful not to bump my head on the wall when I was getting up. I got out of the bed and was quite startled to discover that my head and shoulders passed right through the wall into the bathroom!. As soon as I noticed that, I started to pay attention to what else I was experiencing. I noticed that all physical objects appeared as transparent slides of shimmering and deeply intense color and light. The walls of the house were merely shimmering curtains of light. I could see the children in their beds in other rooms in the house, their bodies were light. I could see through the house to the outside and it was not darkness as we perceive it. I was aware that it was night, but trees, plants and other objects were apparent by their appearance as color and light. I had a brief thought of something distant and it was as though my vision was telescopic and zoomed onto it instantaneously. I was also aware that my vision was 360, that is, I could see in all directions at once. All of this happened very quickly, or so it seemed, and I realized that I was not in the body. That thought startled me and the instant I was startled, that is, felt an inkling of fear, I snapped back in like a rubber band. I discovered myself exactly as I had been prior to hearing the buzzing, not having actually made those adjustments in my position that I remembered.

A: You experienced a bleedthrough of 4th density.

Q: (T) When you started to explain about the trance state, you said: "What I call zoned out, I can't explain it." That's the same thing the Cassiopaeans say when we ask them to explain what 4th density is like! (J) Yes, we have no physical frame of reference. (L) Yes, I can't say I wasn't unaware, because I was intensely aware of everything. And yet, I can't say I was focused on any one thing, because I'm not. (F) The last session we had we received some clues as to why it is they can't explain all these things. They said something when we were talking about plants and rocks at 1st density. Try to think of something in animal language to express what it is like to perceive the universe as a human. The thing that occurs to me is that, even though we share the same space with dogs, cats, etc., their perception of the universe is so radically different that for all intents and purposes, they might as well be on another planet. It isn't just what they physically can see and how they see it, but how they perceive and understand it and how they think. It is so radically different from a human being... and some people get all attached and all emotional and think that animals are almost human and the dog isn't even thinking "Oh, I'm a dog, I think I'll just take a nap." So, if you think about the steps up density-wise, if they are merely equal, imagine the jump from 3rd to 4th! In 4th, they may understand us entirely, but their view is radically different.

A: Precisely!

Dr. Narby comments, after his experiences with the Shamans of South America: "True reality is more complex than our eyes lead us to believe. He then describes an experience which helped him to conceptualize the reality of the shamanistic world.

"Five months into my investigation, my wife and I visited friends who introduced us during the evening to a book containing colorful 'three-dimensional images' made up of seemingly disordered dots. To see a coherent and '3-D' image emerge from the blur, one had to defocalize one's gaze.... After several attempts, and seemingly by magic, a remarkably deep stereogram sprang out of the page that I was holding in front of me. It showed a dolphin leaping in the waves. As soon as I focused normally on the page, the dolphin disappeared, along with the waves in front of it and behind it, and all I could see were muddled dots again. (Narby, 1989; pp. 45-46)

Narby next brings up some interesting things about cognition. "We do not know how our visual system works. As you read these words, you do not REALLY see the ink, the paper, your hands, and the surroundings, but an internal and three-dimensional image that reproduces them almost exactly and that is constructed by your brain. The photons reflected by this page strike the retinas of your eyes, which transform them into electrochemical information; the optic nerves relay this information to the visual cortex at the back of the head, where a cascade-like network of nerve cells separates the input into categories (form, color, movement, depth, etc.). How the brain goes about reuniting these sets of categorized information into a coherent image is still a mystery. This also means that the neurological basis of consciousness is unknown." (Narby, (1989); p. 46. See also: Crick (1994, pp. 24, 159) on the visual system, and more broadly Penrose (1994) and Horgan (1994) on the current limits of knowledge about consciousness.)

This highlights the fact that, if we don't even really know how we see things that we term "three-dimensional reality," how can we begin to conceptualize how we will perceive something as strange as the ideas of 4th density? It seems to be so that when a person hallucinates there is no "external source" of visual stimulation. This is seemingly proved by the fact that cameras cannot record hallucinations. The "enigma of hallucinations" can be reduced to a primary issue: are the hallucinations originating INSIDE the human brain as the "3rd density" scientific studies suggest, or from OUTSIDE as the shamans declare?

All around the world shamans of different pathways tell the same stories and see many of the same visions. And these visions nearly always include serpents which inform the percipient that they are the creators of the human race.

Dr. Narby concludes his study by hypothesizing that the serpentine images are representations of DNA. "To sum up, DNA is a snake-shaped master of transformation that lives in water and is both extremely long and small, single and double. Just like the cosmic serpent." (Narby, 1989, p 93).

He then remarks: "Mircea Eliade has shown that these different images form a common theme that he called the 'axis mundi,' or axis of the world, and that he found in shamanic traditions the world over. According to Eliade, the axis mundi gives access to the Otherworld and to shamanic knowledge; there is a 'paradoxical passage,' normally reserved for the dead, that shamans manage to use while living, and this passage is often guarded by a serpent of a dragon. For Eliade, shamanism is the set of techniques that allows one to negotiate this passage, reach the axis, acquire the knowledge associated with it, and bring it back. [...] According to my hypothesis, shamans take their consciousness down to the molecular level and gain access to biomolecular information." (Narby, 1989, p. 93)

However, it may not be quite so simple. A distinction needs to be made between the "Serpent" and the serpentine representation of DNA.

Joseph Campbell discusses the ubiquitous snake symbols saying "Throughout the material in the Primitive, Oriental and Occidental volumes of this work, myths and rites of the serpent frequently appear and in a remarkably consistent symbolic sense. Wherever nature is revered as self-moving, and so inherently divine, the serpent is revered as symbolic of its divine life." ((Campbell, 1968, p. 154)

But, as Dr. Narby notes: "Campbell dwells on two crucial turning points for the cosmic serpent in world mythology. The first occurs 'in the context of the patriarchy of the Iron Age Hebrews of the first millennium B.C., [where] the mythology adopted from the earlier Neolithic and Bronze Age civilizations... became inverted, to render an argument just the opposite to that of its origin.' In the Judeo-Christian creation story told in the first book of the Bible, one finds elements which are common to so many of the world's creation myths: the serpent, the tree, and the twin beings; but for the first time, the serpent, 'who had been revered in the Levant for at least seven thousand years before the composition of the Book of Genesis,' plays the part of the villain. Yahweh, who replaces it in the role of the creator, ends up defeating 'the serpent of the cosmic sea, Leviathan. [...] Campbell writes regarding the twin beings in the Garden of Eden: 'They had been one at first, as Adam; then split in two as Adam and Eve. However, 'the legend of the rib is clearly a patriarchal inversion' as the male begets the female, which is the opposite of previous myths and of biological reality. Meanwhile, the damnation of the serpent is particularly ambiguous; Yahweh accuses it of having shown Eve the tree that allows one to tell the difference between good and evil... According to Campbell, these patriarchal inversions 'address a pictorial message to the heart that exactly reverses the verbal message addressed to the brain; and this nervous discord inhabits both Christianity and Islam as well as Judaism, since they too share in the legacy of the Old Testament'" (Narby, 1998, pp. 65, 66; Campbell, 1964, pp. 17, 9, 22, 29, 30)

The second turning point for the serpent image occurs in Greek mythology where Zeus, originally represented by a serpent, becomes a killer of the serpent and defeats Typhon, the child of the goddess Gaia.

Something apparently occurred at these times that may become clear as we proceed with this analysis.

But, let's turn our attention now to another interesting description of "another reality," and see if we find any relations between it and the purported "alien realm."

In "The Active Side of Infinity," Carlos Castaneda describes an experience in the wilderness of Mexico under the tutelage of his mentor, Don Juan Matus.

"He [Don Juan] had described the energy body to me countless times, saying that it was a conglomerate of energy fields, the mirror image of the conglomerate of energy fields that makes up the physical body when it is seen as energy that flows in the universe. He had said that it was smaller, more compact, and of heavier appearance than the luminous sphere of the physical body.

"Don Juan had explained that the body and the energy body were two conglomerates of energy fields compressed together by some strange agglutinizing force. He had emphasized to no end that the force that binds that group of energy fields together was, according to the sorcerers of ancient Mexico, the most mysterious force in the universe. His personal estimation was that it was the pure essence of the entire cosmos, the sum total of everything there is."

Now, before we continue with Carlos and Don Juan, I want to insert a few remarks from the Cassiopaeans on this very subject.

Cassiopaeans: And this, my dear, is another example of gravity as the binder of all creation... "The Great Equalizer!"

Q: (L) You have said that gravity is the binder of all reality.

A: Yes.

Q: And now you talk about perception bonding.

A: Yes. Now, try to picture how gravity is the binder of all reality!!!

Q: (L) If gravity is the binder, is gravity consciousness?

A: Not exactly. Did you know that there is no "right" or "left" in 4th density through 7th density? If you can picture this exactly, then you may be able to understand the responses to all the questions you are asking. If not, best "give it a rest." Because it will only be productive learning when you ponder and reflect/review "later."

Q: (L) Is gravity something from the center of dimensional windows to an opposite "construct" in the ethereal realm, rather than the attraction between objects in this material realm?

A: Gravity is the "binder" common to all imaginable existence. That is all you really need to know.

Q: (L) Okay, binder. Does gravity bind in the same way that weak hydrogen bonds bind the DNA strands?

A: No.

Q: OK, then, does gravity bind the way the phosphate bond binds the carbon atom?

A: These are material. The missing link for all you folks is that gravity is as much antimatter as matter!!

Q: (A) Then, concerning this gravity, and the antimatter, is it a correct picture that there are two such domains; positive and negative, and the gravity has something to do with the exchange between the positive and negative?

A: Gravity is the "fuel," or "life blood" of absolutely everything that exists!!! Matter/antimatter. One features atomic particle based matter, the other features pure energy in conscious form. Gravity is the balancing binder of it all. First you must get a correct picture of gravity. Gravity is the binder between matter and antimatter.

Q: (A) You are using the word 'gravity.' Scientists are also using the word 'gravity.' Apparently there are two different meanings?

A: How so?

Q: (A) Because, according to science, gravity is a force, like other forces, is a field, like other fields, and being a field...

A: But it is the foundational field from which all other fields emanate.

Now, getting back to Carlos and Don Juan. We left them discussing the force that binds energy fields together and how it may play a part in binding the energy body to the material body. Carlos continues:

"Don Juan had said that by means of discipline it is possible for anyone to bring the energy body closer to the physical body. Normally, the distance between the two is enormous. Once the energy body is within a certain range, which varies for each of us individually, anyone, through discipline, can forge it into the exact replica of their physical body - that is to say, a three-dimensional solid being. ...By the same token, through the same processes of discipline, anyone can forge their three-dimensional, solid physical body to be a perfect replica of their energy body - that is to say, an ethereal charge of energy invisible to the human eye, as all energy is. [...]

"Sitting at the back of his house in central Mexico that day, don Juan said that the energy body was of key importance in whatever was taking place in my life. He saw that it was an energetic fact that my energy body, instead of moving away from me, as it normally happens, was approaching me with great speed.

"'What does it mean that it's approaching me, don Juan?' I asked.

"'It means that something is going to knock the daylights out of you,' he said, smiling. 'A tremendous degree of control is going to come into your life, but not your control, the energy body's control.'

"'Do you mean, don Juan, that some outside force will control me?' I asked.

"'There are scores of outside forces controlling you at this moment,' don Juan replied. 'The control that I am referring to is something outside the domain of language. It is your control and at the same time it is not. It cannot be classified, but it can certainly be experienced. And above all, it can certainly be manipulated. Remember this: It can be manipulated, to your total advantage, of course, which again, is not your advantage, but the energy body's advantage. However, the energy body is you, so we could go on forever like dogs biting their own tails, trying to describe this. Language is inadequate. All these experiences are beyond syntax.'

Darkness had descended very quickly, and the foliage of the trees that had been glowing green a little while before was now very dark and heavy. Don Juan said that if I paid close attention to the darkness of the foliage without focusing my eyes, but sort of looked at it from the corner of my eye, I would see a fleeting shadow crossing my field of vision.

"I did see some strange fleeting black shadow projected on the foliage of the trees. It was either one shadow going back and forth or various fleeting shadows moving from left to right or right to left or straight up in the air. They looked like fat black fish to me, enormous fish. It was as if gigantic swordfish were flying in the air. [...] 'What is it, don Juan?' I asked. 'I see fleeting black shadows all over the place.'

"'Ah, that's the universe at large, ' he said, 'incommensurable, nonlinear, outside the realm of syntax. The sorcerers of ancient Mexico were the first ones to see those fleeting shadows, so they followed them around. They saw them as you're seeing them, and they saw them as energy that flows in the universe. And they did discover something transcendental. [...] They discovered that we have a companion for life... We have a predator that came from the depths of the cosmos and took over the rule of our lives. Human beings are its prisoners. The predator is our lord and master. It has rendered us docile, helpless. If we want to protest, it suppresses our protest. If we want to act independently, it demands that we don't do so. [...] You have arrived, by your effort alone, to what the shamans of ancient Mexico called the topic of topics. I have been beating around the bush all this time, insinuating to you that something is holding us prisoner. Indeed we are held prisoner! This was an energetic fact for the sorcerers of ancient Mexico.

"'Why has this predator taken over in the fashion that you're describing, don Juan?' I asked. 'There must be a logical explanation.'

"'There is an explanation,' don Juan replied, 'which is the simplest explanation in the world. They took over because we are food for them, and they squeeze us mercilessly because we are their sustenance. Just as we rear chickens in chicken coops, the predators rear us in human coops. Therefore, their food is always available to them.'

"I felt that my head was shaking violently from side to side. I could not express my profound sense of unease and discontentment, but my body moved to bring it to the surface. I shook from head to toe without any volition on my part.

"'No, no, no, no,' I heard myself saying. 'This is absurd, don Juan. What your saying is something monstrous. It simply can't be true, for sorcerers or for average men, or for anyone.'

"'Why not?' don Juan asked calmly. 'Why not? Because it infuriates you?'

"'Yes, it infuriates me,' I retorted. 'Those claims are monstrous!' [...]

"'I want to appeal to your analytical mind, ' don Juan said. 'Think for a moment, and tell me how you would explain the contradiction between the intelligence of man the engineer and the stupidity of his systems of beliefs, or the stupidity of his contradictory behavior. Sorcerers believe that the predators have given us our systems of beliefs, our ideas of good and evil, our social mores. They are the ones who set up our hopes and expectations and dreams of success or failure. They have given us covetousness, greed and cowardice. It is the predators who make us complacent, routinary, and egomaniacal.'

"'But how can they do this, don Juan?' I asked, somehow angered further by what he was saying. 'Do they whisper all that in our ears while we are asleep?'

"'No, they don't do it that way. That's idiotic!' don Juan said, smiling. 'They are infinitely more efficient and organized than that. In order to keep us obedient and meek and weak, the predators engaged themselves in a stupendous maneuver - stupendous, of course, from the point of view of a fighting strategist. A horrendous maneuver from the point of view of those who suffer it. They gave us their mind! Do you hear me? The predators give us their mind, which becomes our mind. The predators' mind is baroque, contradictory, morose, filled with the fear of being discovered any minute now.

Don Juan continues: "'I know that even though you have never suffered hunger... you have food anxiety, which is none other than the anxiety of the predator who fears that any moment now its maneuver is going to be uncovered and food is going to be denied. Through the mind, which, after all, is their mind, the predators inject into the lives of human beings whatever is convenient for them. And they ensure, in this manner, a degree of security to act as a buffer against their fear.'" (Castaneda, 1998, pp. 213-220)

Now, let's go back a moment to something that Dr. Narby found in the literature of shamanism. He quotes the subjective description of the ayahuasca experience written by an anthropologist named Michael Harner. In the early 1960s, Harner was studying the culture of the Conibo Indians. He was told by the Indians that if he really wanted to understand their religious system, he had to drink ayahuasca. He agreed with fear and trepidation, and the following account of his experience was the result:

"After several minutes he found himself falling into a world of true hallucinations. After arriving in a celestial cavern where 'a supernatural carnival of demons' was in full swing, he saw to strange boats floating through the air that combined to form 'a huge dragon-headed prow, not unlike that of a Viking ship.' On the deck, he could make out 'large numbers of people with the heads of blue jays and the bodies of humans, not unlike the bird-headed gods of ancient Egyptian tomb paintings.

[...]"Then he saw that his visions emanated from 'giant reptilian creatures' resting at the lowest depths of his brain. These creatures began projecting scenes in front of his eyes, while informing him that this information was reserved for the dying and the dead: 'First they showed me the planet Earth as it was eons ago, before there was any life on it. I saw an ocean, barren land, and a bright blue sky. Then black specks dropped from the sky by the hundreds, and landed in front of me on the barren landscape. I could see the 'specks' were actually large, shiny, black creatures with stubby pterodactyl-like wings and huge whale-like bodies... they explained to me in a kind of thought language that they were fleeing from something out in space. They had come to the planet Earth to escape their enemy. The creatures then showed me how they had created life on the planet in order to hide within the multitudinous forms and thus disguise their presence. Before me, the magnificence of plant and animal creation and speciation - hundreds of millions of years of activity - took place on a scale and with a vividness impossible to describe. I learned that the dragon-like creatures were thus inside all forms of life, including man. In retrospect one could say they were almost like DNA, although at that time, 1961, I knew nothing of DNA." (Harner, quoted by Narby, 1998, pp. 54-55ff)

Going back to Castaneda for a moment, and keeping in mind these strange creatures described by Michael Harner, we find don Juan and Carlos out in the desert one day:

"...I really wanted to start for home right away [...] but before we reached his house, don Juan sat down on a high ledge overlooking the valley. He didn't say anything for awhile. He was not out of breath. I couldn't conceive of why he had stopped to sit down.

"'The task of the day, for you, ' he said abruptly, in a foreboding tone, 'is one of the most mysterious things of sorcery, something that goes beyond language, beyond explanations. ...So brace yourself by propping your back against this rock wall, as far as possible, from the edge. I will be by you, in case you faint or fall down. ...I want you to cross your legs and enter into inner silence, but don't fall asleep.'

"It was rather difficult for me to enter into inner silence without falling asleep. I fought a nearly invincible desire to fall asleep. I succeeded, and found myself looking at the bottom of the valley from an impenetrable darkness around me. And then, I saw something that chilled me to the marrow of my bones. I saw a gigantic shadow, perhaps fifteen feet across, leaping in the air and then landing with a silent thud. I felt the thud in my bones, but I didn't hear it.

"'They are really heavy, ' don Juan said in my ear. He was holding me by the left arm, as hard as he could.

"I saw something that looked like a mud shadow wiggle on the ground, and then take another gigantic leap, perhaps fifty feet long, and land again, with the same ominous silent thud. I fought not to lose my concentration. I was frightened beyond anything I could rationally use as a description. I kept my eyes fixed on the jumping shadow on the bottom of the valley. Then I heard a most peculiar buzzing, a mixture of the sound of flapping wings and the buzzing of a radio whose dial has not quite picked up the frequency of a radio station, and the thud that followed was something unforgettable. It shook don Juan and me to the core 0 a gigantic black mud shadow had just landed by our feet.

"'Don't be frightened,' don Juan said imperiously. 'Keep your inner silence and it will move away.

"I was shivering from head to toe. I had the clear knowledge that if I didn't keep my inner silence alive, the mud shadow would cover me up like a blanket and suffocate me. Without losing the darkness around me, I screamed at the top of my voice. Never had I been so angry, so utterly frustrated. The mud shadow too another leap, clearly to the bottom of the valley. I kept on screaming, shaking my legs. I wanted to shake off whatever might come to eat me." (Castaneda, 1998, pp. 231-233)

This is pretty scary stuff, to say the least. But, can it be true? Before we think that this is just a phenomenon or hallucination of shamans or anthropologist, let's have a look at another event in a slightly different context.

This is just a short segment of an account obtained under hypnotic regression. The hypnotist is Barbara Bartholic and the subject is "David," the son of Dr. Karla Turner.

"Something was obviously missing in David's recollection of events, so Barbara asked him more about what he had seen by the fir tree.

"'I'm looking at a shadow,' he replied. 'Maybe it's the cat, he likes that tree. Rustling, pomegranate tree. At the bottom? but how? This, there's something moving, but I can't see it. It's a dark spot, a black spot, moving around the tree. And it's gone.'

"Barbara asked him to expand his description, so David continued.

"'I saw, it looks irregular. Is it a shadow? It's black. It's on the ground. It's moving around and away, quickly, rustling. Like walking on leaves. And it's very faint with a whisper... a snake sound, real faint. [...] My brain's not working, ' he said. 'I'm just tramping behind her to the car. Ah, ah. But I want to go look at that. I heard a noise.

"'What did the noise sound like?' [Barbara's question.]

"'A rope, pulled real fast,' he replied. 'Whoooo, kind of like a top. But soft, so it was muted. And that' when I see the thing. The black. It's just blackness, on the ground. Very quick. Something hit me before.'

"'Where?' Barbara inquired.

"'Shocked me,' he answered. 'In the back. In my hip, at the bottom of my spine... I'm bouncing, mechanically, towards the satellite dish, I think. .... It's big.... It hurt, all over, the shock. Tingles real loud. All over my bones it's tingling, shaking. [...] I'm walking around the tree, and I hear a noise. Like a top, a spinning top. It starts high-pitched and goes lower, and goes away pretty fast. So I look towards it. I can't see very well. ...It's like a blot on the ground, ... a black towel? Or a garbage bag? Kind of odd-shaped. It's flat, flat-flat. It, it is on the ground, it's no different than the ground, but it's just black and moving fast. And it's making a little noise. ...I'm looking at the thing. ...A blackness. A 'not.' Like a 'not-there.' Like a moving oil puddle on the ground. ...And it's moving, but changing, too. Not much, just the edges, not very stable. And it's gone quick. ...I feel strange. ...I'm just not me. ...I feel blank ...like a remote unit..." (Turner, 1992, pp. 132-139ff)

It's rather strange that this victim of an "abduction" has described something similar to what don Juan talks about as the "predator." It is also worthy of note that David experiences some strange sound effects similar to those described by Castaneda while interacting with this "black shadowy" thing that looks like a puddle of oil on the ground. Castaneda, in fact, entitled the chapter that discussed these things: "Mud Shadows."

But how can we begin to attempt to understand these "energy constructs" that appear in both shamanic visions as well as purported "alien abductions." What do these things have in common?
 
 

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