As a result of participating in forums for the past 15+ years, and particularly in the course of presenting my own work on the subject of the double, one thing continues to amaze and amuse me, and it is essentially the reaction some people have to the mere concept of "the double".
In an online chat where the subject was touched upon, some of the comments put forth included:
"I don't believe in the double."
"The double doesn't exist except as a component of self."
"The double can ONLY be like what Carlos described of Genaro's double. It's an exact duplicate of the warrior."
As I read the transcript of this chat, where the conversation actually turned somewhat volatile, it occurred to me that a lot of the reactions I am seeing with regard to this subject are based almost wholly in the assemblage point of fear - a fear generated by 1) lack of comprehension; and 2) the insecurities of the ego as it resides in the tonal.
When an otherwise advanced warrior proclaims, "I don't believe in the double," to me it's usually a signal that some old program is running in the background which is distorting one's perception of oneself. One warrior whom I questioned about this recently told me, "The double is just a myth, isn't it? It's just a way of explaining a feeling - like Santa Claus being used to promote some essence of Christmas."
Hmmm.
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While most of what I am going to say here may be repetitious to some, it seems that if the understanding of the double is so limited and distorted, perhaps more work is required. To me, it is simply obvious. But perhaps I am taking for granted that my own path has been blessed with a powerful communion with the nagual for as far back as I can remember. Perhaps what is obvious to me is Greek to someone else, and vice versa.
Another warrior friend once asked me, "If you had to define the double in 5 minutes or less, what would you say?"
My response: "The double is the evolved self, projected initially by the mortal warrior as a manifestation of the intent to preserve awareness beyond the threshold of 'death'. It is created from the energy of the warrior, literally, but takes on a life of its own as a projection of the warrior's Will. We give the double 'life'. When the warrior puts forth the intent which says, "Teach me," or "Make me whole," the double is the teacher who then begins 'dreaming the warrior'*. In this manner, the warrior is able to perceive well beyond the assemblage point of the tonal, and actually begins to utilize information and Knowledge gleaned directly from the assemblage point of the double - which might also be termed the AP of the nagual. As the warrior progresses on her path, the two assemblage points begin moving closer together, so that when the warrior's tonal is vacated at death, the dual assemblage points conjoin to create 'the totality of oneself' - or what I have come to call 'a singularity of consciousness'."
Carlos Castaneda wrote: "The self dreams the double. Once it has learned to dream the double, the self arrives at this weird crossroad and a moment comes when one realizes that it is the double who dreams the self. Your double is dreaming you. No one knows how it happens. We only know that it does happen. That's the mystery of us as luminous beings. You can awaken in either one." (Don Juan, TALES OF POWER)
The double is not a theory. It is not a religion. And it is not a belief system. To the warrior who has experienced her double, it is simply what-is. To the warrior who has not experienced her double, it remains as an energetic potential in the realm of all possibility which must be forced to go through the motions of actually occurring.
So much of this Toltec path (or any serious path of Knowledge) lies within our ability to set aside what we believe and deal instead with what we have never even considered - those concepts and other worlds which exist beyond the worlds and in the realm of actual experience. But that's where the ego can become fragile and fearful and slam on the brakes with blanket statements such as, "I don't believe in the double." Obviously, the ego may not want to believe in the double, for the simple reason that the double tends to represent something "larger" than the sum of our human parts - and the ego is not particularly forgiving of anything which it may perceive as "greater" than itself.
To limit the double is to limit the self. To limit the self is to defeat the purpose of the double. To see and acknowledge only the tonal self is nothing more than a manifestation of the ego's insecurities. Please consider that - for it is ultimately the insecurities of the ego which have the greatest potential to derail the warrior entirely. If you are given to meditation, this is a topic which almost always yields new insights & perspectives. What do we have the potential to BE when we set aside ego and belief, and open the door to the manifestation of "all possibility"?So ultimately, the double represents the other half of the dual assemblage point of man. We perceive the tonal with our 5 ordinary senses. We perceive the nagual with the *other* senses (no way to know how many) which are inherent in the energetic construct of the double. When these assemblage points overlap (through dreaming, meditation or gnosis/silent knowing), the warrior gains glimpses of her connection to the infinite. When the 2 assemblage points conjoin at death (or at the moment of transmogrification, in the case of "death-defiers"), the warrior may be said to inhabit the totality of herself, achieving what some have referred to as "ultimate freedom."
Of course... my personal sense is that the ultimate freedom of our totality is most likely only one more step in an infinite journey. From the wholeness of our totality, we embrace the first step of the next evolution.
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Della Van Hise, copyright 2015
All Rights Reserved
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| The double only exists when we do the work to create it. |
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