The Gates of Dreaming

There are seven gates and dreamers have to open all seven of them, one at a time. You are at the foot of the first gate that needs to be opened if you wish to dream. It would have been useful to talk about the gates of dreaming before you hit your head against the first. Now you know that there is an obstacle which you need to surmount.

Dreaming requires all available energy. If there are serious worries in your life, there is no possibility of dreaming. There are entrances and exits in the energy flow of the universe. In the specific case of dreaming, there are seven entrances, experienced as obstacles, which sorcerers call the seven gates of dreaming.

Intending the Dream Body

The first gate is a threshold we must cross by becoming aware of a particular sensation before deep sleep. A sensation which is like a pleasant heaviness that doesn’t let us open our eyes. We reach that gate the instant we become aware that we’re falling asleep, suspended in darkness and heaviness.

There are no steps to follow. One just intends to become aware of falling asleep. Intending the first gate of dreaming is one of the ways discovered by the ancient sorcerers to arrive at the second attention and the energy body, to the dreaming body

Intent or intending is something very difficult to talk about. I or anyone else would sound idiotic trying to explain it. Bear that in mind when you hear what I have to say next: sorcerers intend anything they set themselves to intend, simply by intending it.

Pay close attention. One day it will be your turn to explain. The affirmation seems meaningless because you are not putting it into proper context. As with any rational person, you think that understanding is a question of reason alone, of your mind.

For sorcerers, because the statement I made pertains to intent and intending, understanding it pertains to the realm of energy. Sorcerers believe that if one would intend that statement for the energy body, the energy body would understand it in terms entirely different from those of the mind. The trick is to reach the energy body. For that you need energy.

The energy body would understand that statement in terms of a bodily feeling, which is hard to describe. You’ll have to experience it to know what I mean.

At this point, you can’t yet comprehend the import of all this, not only because you don’t have sufficient energy but because you’re not intending anything. If you were, your energy body would comprehend immediately that the only way to intend is by focusing your intent on whatever you want to intend.

Put it this way: the goal of dreaming is to intend the energy body. In this particular instance, since we’re talking about the first gate of dreaming, the goal of dreaming is to intend that your energy body becomes aware that you are falling asleep. Don’t try to force yourself to be aware of falling asleep. Let your energy body do it. To intend is to wish without wishing, to do without doing.

You must remember that intent begins with a command. The old seers would say that if warriors are going to have an internal dialogue, they should have the proper dialogue. For the old seers, this meant the dialogue about sorcery and the sharpness of their self-reflections. For the new seers, it had nothing to do with dialogue, but with the detached manipulation of intention through sober commands.

The manipulation of intent begins with a command given to oneself; the command is then repeated until it becomes the Indescribable Force ‘s command, and then the assemblage point shifts, accordingly, the moment warriors reach inner silence.

The fact that such a maneuver is possible is something of the most singular importance to seers, both new and old, for reasons diametrically opposite.

Knowing this allowed the old seers to shift their assemblage points to inconceivable dream positions in the immeasurable unknown; for the new seers, it means refusing to be a prey, it means escaping the Eagle by moving their assemblage points to a particular dreaming position called total freedom.

Accept the challenge of intending. Put your silent determination, without a single thought, into convincing yourself that you have reached your energy body and that you are a dreamer. Doing this will automatically put you in the position to be aware that you are falling asleep.

When you hear that you have to convince yourself, you automatically become more rational. How can you convince yourself you are a dreamer when you know you are not? Intending is both: the act of convincing yourself you are indeed a dreamer, although you have never dreamt before, and the act of being convinced.

Intending is much simpler and, at the same time, infinitely more complex than telling yourself you are a dreamer and trying your best to believe it. It requires imagination, discipline, and purpose.

In this case, to intend means that you get an unquestionable bodily knowledge that you are a dreamer. You feel you are a dreamer with all the cells of your body.