Snagged this from somewhere:
Recapitulation
Recapitulation is a technique used to regain energy lost in the world. It is a technique associated with stalking [cc6, Florindas chapter], but it is very important to dreamers as well [cc9]. The basic premises (axioms about the world) on which the theory behind recapitulation is based is as follows:
1. By acting and interacting in the world a person binds up alot of energy. There is an exchange of energy between people, and this locks up alot of energy. The greatest source of such energy expenditure is in sexual encounters.
2. This locked up energy can be restored by a special technique called recapitulating.
This is, however, not the only explanation/reason to why one should recapitulate. Another reason given in 'The Eagles Gift' [cc6] is that recapitulation is a key to freedom given to every living creature. The Eagle is, according to what Castaneda tells us, the force in universe from which everything emanates. Awareness is given to to us from the Eagle, and when we die our awareness returns to the source and are 'consumed'. By recapitulating our lives, the Eagle may accept this as a substitute for our awareness. The Eagle only wants our life experiences. This is called "the Eagles gift". Victor Sanchez draws the conclusion that the 'seeing ones life passing before ones eyes', reported by people believing they are about to die, is the natural form of recapitulation [The Teachings of don Carlos]. Castaneda says that when we die, we enter, for a short moment, into the third awareness to be cleaned, before the Eagle consumes us.
Recapitulation also serves the purpose of making one aware of the routines and patterns of ones life.
The Technique
The technique is described in a number of places, and there actually seems to be different descriptions in different places. There have even been some diversity between the team around Castaneda about the direction of the 'fanning' movement of the head.
The clearest description in my opinion is the one in 'Art of Dreaming', chapter eight 'The Third Gate of Dreaming' [cc9, p148]:
" Don Juan had given me very detailed and explicit instructions about the recapitulation. It consisted of reliving the totality of one's life experiences by remembering every possible minute detail of them. He saw the recapitulation as the essential factor in a dreamer's redefinition and redeployment of energy. "The recapitulation sets free energy imprisoned within us, and without this liberated energy dreaming is not possible." That was his statement.
Years before, don Juan had coached me to make a list of all the people I had met in my life, starting at the present. He helped me to arrange my list in an orderly fashion, breaking it down into areas of activity, such as jobs I had had, schools I had attended. Then he guided me to go, without deviation, from the first person on my list to the last one, reliving every one of my interactions with them. He explained that recapitulating an event starts with one's mind arranging everything pertinent to what is being recapitulated. Arranging means reconstructing the event, piece by piece, starting by recollecting the physical details of the surroundings, then going to the person with whom one shared the interaction, and then going to oneself, to the examination of one's feelings.
Don Juan taught me that the recapitulation is coupled with a natural, rhythmical breathing. Long exhalations are performed as the head moves gently and slowly from right to left; and long inhalations are taken as the head moves back from left to right. He called this act of moving the head from side to side "fanning the event." The mind examines the event from beginning to end while the body fans, on and on, everything the mind focuses on. Don Juan said that the sorcerers of antiquity, the inventors of the recapitulation, viewed breathing as a magical, life-giving act and used it, accordingly, as a magical vehicle; the exhalation, to eject the foreign energy left in them during the interaction being recapitulated and the inhalation to pull back the energy that they themselves left behind during the interaction."
-The Art of Dreaming