Encounters With The Nagual: Part 2 - Chapter 17. Power Plants.

Encounters With The Nagual © 2004 by Armando Torres:

Part 2 - Chapter 17 - Power Plants.

A man was sitting on a bench, almost hidden behind a newspaper stand. I noticed him, but in such a subconscious way that I had walked some twenty meters past him before it struck me. I turned, and the man looked at me smiling. It was Carlos.

He hugged me effusively and remarked that an encounter of that nature had to be taken as an omen.

He exclaimed, "Now, I am all yours. Ask."

I saw my opportunity.

In various conversations Carlos had categorically stated that hallucinogenic plants are not advisable for a seeker of knowledge.

However, in his first books he had written exactly the opposite. He even gave extensive descriptions of their preparation and their use. And he presented himself as an example of the results of the power of those plants.

This was a matter that interested me intensely. I had never experienced in my own body the incredible forms of perception that he described, and I felt a great curiosity.

So, taking advantage of his good mood, I asked him to clear up the contradiction.

When he heard my question, his enthusiasm cooled down. The topic seemed to affect him deeply.

After a few seconds of reflection he told me that a sign from the spirit had determined the change in his perspective.

He said, "In 1971, after publishing my second book, I received an uncomfortable visit. United States government agents came to one of my presentations and they informed me that I was becoming an idol of juvenile drug addicts, and that they would expel me from the country unless I modified my attitude.

"At first I did not see any reason to concern myself with these threats. But later I investigated a little, and the situation made an impression on me.

"Many students were indeed taking don Juan's teachings as an academic permission to get high. My name was mentioned everywhere as an authority on drugs. But I did not want to be the patron saint of anything.

"I took my dilemma to Don Juan, who laughed at the whole thing and told me that a principle of stalkers is not to confront anybody, and certainly not people more powerful than themselves.

"Don Juan told me, 'You have blundered in among the hooves of horses, and you have to get yourself out of there. I suggest you take care of your learning. The rest, what does it matter?'

"That advice made me decide to have a more cautious attitude in my next publications.

"Personally, I neither approve nor disapprove of anything. And although I am not one to judge, in this matter my learning was a result of such techniques.

"However, in public I cannot encourage the use of the plants because my books are read by all kinds of people and everyone interprets them in their own way.

"Without qualified supervision, power plants can produce regrettable results because they move the assemblage point abruptly and erratically.

"In the long term, they take their toll on a person's health and sanity, and sometimes they will take a practitioner's life.

"On one occasion my friends warned me that the father of a student was looking for me with a gun to kill me, because he blamed me for his son's death after experimenting with drugs.

"It is a very delicate matter-- all this about power plants. If you want to understand it, you have to abandon the folkloric vision that almost everybody has of sorcerers.

"True Toltec warriors are not fanatical about dope, or about anything else. Their behavior is strictly dictated by impeccability.

"I have already explained to you that Don Juan only used plants with me in the beginning of my apprenticeship, and only because I was exceptionally fixed in my routines.

"The more obstinate I got, the more plants he gave me. In that way don Juan was able to loosen my assemblage point, the minimum necessary, in order for me to grasp the premises of his teachings.

"However, in spite of don Juan's careful conduct, my drug abuse continues to have a high cost for me, and is one of the main reasons why today my health is so deteriorated.

"Power plants have a limit and a sorcerer finds it very soon. They are an initial stimulus, but they can not become a viable base to work from.

"They do not have the capacity to take us to complete worlds, which is what a seer looks for."

I asked Carlos, "Do you mean that the movement, that the power plants induce in the assemblage point, is not sufficiently great?"

"It is the opposite. They produce a deep and unpredictable shake. A real sorcerer can manage that, but not an apprentice.

"If the beginner uses them to break his perceptual limits, she or he will be tempted to classify everything they witness as hallucinations.

"After all, everything started from a plant. In that way, the practitioner will never reach the degree of commitment needed to intend the fixation their assemblage point in a new position.

"Plants take you quickly and easily to another world, but they do not allow you to stalk it. That is their limitation.

"The best way of deploying our perception is through a dreaming intent. As a method, dreaming is just as simple as power plant use, but less risky. Dreaming is more comprehensive, and above all much more natural.

"The goal of an apprentice ought to be to take the reins of their assemblage point. Once he or she is able to displace their assemblage point, they have to be able to repeat those movements-- without external help, and with only the force of discipline, and their impeccability.

"Then we can say the warrior has found an ally."