Thread: Castaneda's "Hands" technique Properly explained.

Originally Posted by The Cusp

And like the telephone game, Castaneda's hand task has morphed into the popular hand rubbing technique, of which most people are ignorant of it's origins.



I don't know about stopping it from changing, I think it could very well induce change. But a quick glance would be harmless enough. Possibly Castaneda was supposed to learn how directing his attention induced change, but it's hard to say for sure what Don Juan's intentions were. He was a wily old goat.

Yeah. I think in Tales of Power. Don juans instructions were to start with the hands. and then make brief glances at other objects quickly until they didn't change. If they did change, make a quick glance back at the hands and start over.

I've tried this numerous times. The lucid will either be super long and hyper real, or the next dream or so will be very vivid.

This was my understanding as well, that it wasn't a RC, but a way to stabilize your dream with conscious intention. My dreams gave me similiar instructions.

Originally Posted by Man of Shred

Yeah. I think in Tales of Power. Don juans instructions were to start with the hands. and then make brief glances at other objects quickly until they didn't change. If they did change, make a quick glance back at the hands and start over.

I've tried this numerous times. The lucid will either be super long and hyper real, or the next dream or so will be very vivid.

It's in Journey to Ixtlan, i'm reading this part right now:
""I'm going to remind you of all the techniques you must practice, " he said. "First you
must focus your gaze on your hands as the starting point. Then shift your gaze to other
items and look at them in brief glances. Focus your gaze on as many things as you can.
Remember that if you only glance briefly the images do not shift. Then go back to your
hands.
"Every time you look at your hands you renew the power needed for dreaming, so in
the beginning don't look at too many things. Four items will suffice every time. Later on,
you may enlarge the scope until you can cover all you want, but as soon as the images
begin to shift and you feel you are losing control go back to your hands." - P.94
It's said earlier, but the book is too awesome to scroll back.

OK, the first time I ever heard about this technique was J to Ix. I don't know of any earlier reference to doing this to become lucid. Anybody know of an earlier mentioning than CC's (prior to 1970)?