Carlos Castaneda met Juan Matus, known as don Juan, a 70-year old Yaqui Indian who not only knew about medicinal herbs like peyote and datura but was also a sorcerer descended from a tradition of shamanism and magic that originated in Central Mexico more than 8000 years ago.
Don Juan had a group of sixteen cohorts who pursued this modern form and called themselves the “new seers”. Their sorcery tradition evolved over thousands of years into something more modern.
The sixteen sorcerers who trained Castaneda to become a new seer used a teaching method they inherited from antiquity. They utilized a form of awareness they called the second attention.
Learning while in the second attention is similar to being under hypnosis or certain types of anaesthesia. The old teachers could induce this state in Castaneda, like a hypnotist hypnotizing a patient. While Castaneda was in that state, which they also called heightened awareness, he would feel incredibly lucid and totally suggestible.
While Castaneda was in heightened awareness his teachers could teach him all the age-old secrets of sorcery and he would immediately understand what he was taught.
Basically, reaching the second attention is a new way of perception, seeing things that your “normal” eyes cannot see.
The first attention, our normal modus operandi, is the way we operate, perceive and navigate in daily life.
As sorcerers were practical, let’s give you a few examples.
1st picture: the cross
If you look at this pic in the first attention, you can see the top of a hill, a cross and a cloud. This is a nice scenery.
If you look at the pic in the second attention, you can see the same details, and you’ll also notice that the cloud has a form like an animal. The cross gives a mysterious atmosphere, and the tree on the right looks like a character.
2nd picture: the trunk
In the first attention, this pic represents a trunk with foam. In the second attention, you can see the foam as an animal, head watching the right side.
3rd picture: the torrent (image below)
This pic was taken in second attention, as I had seen a shape in the water. The pic has revealed it. You can see the nose, the eyes, the mouth. Let’s call him... the guardian of the torrent!
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