Topic: da double

[Jennifer-]

Anything that can be written about this subject is bound to be wrong.  I am using the brain and the language of my culture, both of which come under the suzerainty of the physical world, and the bent of my culture to functionalism.  But more, I want to reduce the magic of it to categorisation - hallmark of the prosaic mind and anathema to the astral world, the world of emotion and feeling. So take this as a means to place a handle on the double - not an unworthy exercise.

As a being drops down a level, it splits into two - this is a very old insight.  Lets begin with the three worlds - the physical, astral and causal; or on Toltec, the 1st, 2nd, and 3 attention; or as others have described, the 3 dimensional, the 2, and the 1 dimensional; or the body, the soul and the spirit.  These are in essence illusions, but due to the nature of existence they are distinct worlds, separated by what some have called a ripple of energy.  This classification is critically important, as too often spiritually inclined people see only the astral world as worthy of  a goal.  This is a huge debate that has raged in India for 3 thousand years, and in Christianity the 3rd world has been outlawed since the first council.  Remember, the astral world is vast beyond comprehension, thus it is simplistic to classify it in 1st attention tools.  But nonetheless, it is a world of pictures, in distinction to the 3rd world which is imageless.

At the topmost point that we can grasp, we have the Dreamer, the being that dreams, or beams us.  This, from our perspective, ageless and immortal being, lives in the causal world, the 3rd world.  Some call this the Higher Self, but the problem with that word is that it has become over used, and now means all kinds of things, so has become close to useless.  I introduce it only to say it could mean anything.

When the Dreamer beams itself down into temporal manifestation, two beings are created, an astral body and a physical body.  The physical body is really the only one we can call a ‘body’.  But we all dream, and when in dream we inhabit a body, yet that is illusory.  Try to see the astral as a physical body turned inside out, like a glove.  What is ‘I’ in physical, becomes the ‘world’ in astral, and visa versa.  In dream, we inhabit our physical body’s inner world, as our outer world.

Now comes the tricky part. I don’t like the word ‘double’, as it is far too clinical/mathematical for a being that would disdain such a simplistic term.  The word soul, which I sometimes use, is another disintegrated word that has a different meaning for everyone. The old Taoists called it the spirit body, which I prefer myself.  Sometimes I call it the energy body, but that depends on the context. The double is not the same as the astral body that everyone has, though it is the same in some ways.  It inhabits the astral worlds, but curiously it seems to have a closer connection to the Dreamer than our physical, and it also seems to have deep roots far beyond our small life span, in short it has an ancientness redolent of the Dreamer itself.  Personally I don’t believe it is immortal, but I am not in a position to claim that with any certainty - I will of course find out eventually.  Still it is my Dreamer that I hold in prime focus, as it is the true channel of that other mysterious energy we call spirit, or Spirit.

Who made who, little me or the double? - I don’t know.  But I have watched as my own double grew in power and awareness, and for me I observed that happen as I delved deeper into my own self.  This is important, because contrary to the belief of many, it is not my own lucid dreaming that I observed as the creative impetus, though it was a very important step.

I became disillusioned with aimless lucid dreaming, which although was high adventure, never really went anywhere past the significant first point of astral awakening.  I wanted to go deeper.  I did not know how to do that in dreams except to meditate in dreaming, which produced explosive results, but still I saw that I was not changing, it was just me in a different movie.  The same happened to me after years of physically travelling through strange lands, one day I realised I could be anywhere, but it was still me - I wanted deep transformation, not just switching TV channels.  Comes a point when switching environments no longer produces the cataclysmic inner resonations that occur at first when our inner being is fused to the outer world - ie, when at last our inner being turns freely inside the outer shell, but still needs to grow further. How?

It was only when I discovered how to do this deep transformation, and implemented it in my life, that my double really began to draw closer to me, and began to reflect this depth in its own charismatic and fabulous manifestations.  I use the term ‘draw closer’ with purpose, because that is how it appears, in myself and others I observe.  It is almost impossible to transfer knowledge to another whose double is absent, irresponsible, childish, capricious, erratic or plain unhelpful (and mine has been all of those and more - like violent and abusive - along the journey, so I recognise it immediately in others).

But the strange thing is that now I get the picture that my double was always the wise and powerful being he is, and I was only projecting my own shadow side onto him, and seeing him as that, which he never was.  So in that sense, my work-on-self has been a way to not create the double, but remove the illusions from my own eye so that I could see him more clearly.  Still, it is not as simple as that, and I do believe the double is intimately connected with my own journey into depth of being - such a difficult thing to understand let alone progress into.  There is something deep in me that is both the little physical me and the double - just coming of age into its full inheritance in two worlds, two bodies, neither more significant than the other.

The double’s appearance is different from spirit guides.  There is a unique vibration around one when the double is present, or familiar.  A quality of magical possibilities and inspiration.  Guides give sensible advise and prosaic comments, where as the double causes poetic and powerful acts.  The double has little time for small talk, even that of new-age spiritual fascinations.  It sees in a moment, and loves to let its field of action free in the physical through us. 

When a group comes together in the way of this work, you can bet the doubles of each person have long ago come together, and are acting together in the symbolic level of the astral.  But if the doubles are not matured in their connection, and their own evolution, then the group on this side can disintegrate.  That is a pity, as so much can be achieved, but really, the ‘group Dreamer’ has its own time, and will draw in its parts in its own way.  Nonetheless I am one to be saddened at the opportunities lost to each member in this life, to such an extent that I try to find any way to turn the group, like the individual, from a puppet being into a basket being into a full being of light.

These terms are old, and reflect the images of seeing the Dreamer’s etheric energetic pathways down through the double to the lowest material level being - a few contacts looks like puppet strings, a very advanced person looks like a basket, and masters are a sealed ball of light.

m

Ah time passes and how we grow and learn! Thought Id bump this treasure up for rereading.

[kaycee]

quote author=nichi link=topic=110.msg3378#msg3378 date=1157131964]
               
lost in my search.

Me begging me
     to raise the screen
          by lifting up the veil,
               for I was my only means to me.


Wouldn't ya know after lurking about for over two hours (my time ran out once already!) this would be the discussion that invites me. 

I've read this morning about gloves being turned inside out, (that one does hit home - do I no longer fit the hand for which I was created?), about words (those who know me know my love/hate relationship there), and about belief systems.

I've been delighted to meet up with some old friends, and look forward to making new ones.  Hi Todd, I feel your hand slip into mine once more.  Vicki, your arms hold me close again, and Jen - we continue our flight together!

Two things - maybe three... 
"lost in my search ... for I was my only means to me"  I feel that to use someone else's ideas, definitions, or practices to find myself, is the surest way to become lost.  I AM the only way to me.

"we manifest by our beliefs"  and if I believe that I must search for me - I will always BE searching.

I've struggled for years to find the words to define the undefinable, for ways to describe the indescribable, to mindfully understand the non-understandable.  And I've learned that when I get to the point where there are no words that fit, I've found where I fit.

I imagine how difficult it must be for my "double", in that place of no thoughts or images, to communicate with me through those things.  How with each thought or image I create, I place a barrier between us and take one step backward in my search for coming together.

I understand the guides, mentors, soul-speak, higher-self, etc. because they "speak my language".  I know the One through lack of language, which because my glove is inside out, is always present.... on the other hand.
Luv, K

[nichi]

Welcome to this gathering, Kaycee!
(((((((((((((((you))))))))))))))))
 

[Jennifer-]

Yes, welcome!! Its a pleasure to see you once again and to have you here in Soma.

 

Blessings, Jennifer

[erik]

Yesterday, I tried to look at my double from that perspective and I saw a rather strange-looking shape there. I was pale-blueish, slant-eyed (but these were not human eyes), and its eyes were of piercing blue colour. Its limbless silhouette reminded of human body only remotely.

[Taimyr]

I've been thinking - is there a double at all? I kind of sounds like something separate from us.
It seems more like our awareness evolves and is able to deal with stuff it wasn't before. Not quite sure waht the doeble then is. At least i wouldn't personalyze it in any way. For me it would be more like pure consciuosness.

[tangerine dream]

Yesterday, I tried to look at my double from that perspective and I saw a rather strange-looking shape there. I was pale-blueish, slant-eyed (but these were not human eyes), and its eyes were of piercing blue colour. Its limbless silhouette reminded of human body only remotely.

Aha!
I have seen beings like you describe Juhani, in dreaming and while awake off in the distance from where I was standing.  Have also seen them in photographs.  Intersting you saw yourself this way.

[erik]

Intersting you saw yourself this way.

Not quite 'me'.

[Quantum Shaman]

I've been thinking - is there a double at all? I kind of sounds like something separate from us.
It seems more like our awareness evolves and is able to deal with stuff it wasn't before. Not quite sure waht the doeble then is. At least i wouldn't personalyze it in any way. For me it would be more like pure consciuosness.

If I had to define the double in a few words, I would say that my own experience has led me to see it as a projection of the self.  So it might be experienced as "separate", even though at the level of spirit/energy it is not at all separate.  Sometimes I've used the term "energy body" as synonomous w/ the double, but that's not really accurate - at least I don't think so anymore.  The energy body is more like the "ghost inside the machine", whereas the double is a projection BEYOND the machine.  As was discussed in Castaneda's works, the double can take on a life of its own, as Genaro's double clearly did.  My personal opinion is that this "life of its own" is actually a series of lifetimes occurring "outside of time" - perhaps what some might call "past lives" or "alternate realities".

Reason being... we mortal humans are more or less "confined" to a singular experience (i.e., I am only "della" throughout this corporeal existence), but through the double, we may gather the experiences of a thousand "alternate lives".  So, when we talk about "inhabiting the totality of oneself", it seems to me that all of that other experience would be brought together in a single assemblage point - and we would, at that moment, "awaken inside the double."

Just some thoughts... 

Nice to meet you!

[Taimyr]

Hi! 

It must have been his own intention to create his double in such way. And he then was aware of both. Maybe the double is like a second consciusness.

As was discussed in Castaneda's works, the double can take on a life of its own, as Genaro's double clearly did.  My personal opinion is that this "life of its own" is actually a series of lifetimes occurring "outside of time" - perhaps what some might call "past lives" or "alternate realities".

[Quantum Shaman]

Hi! 
Maybe the double is like a second consciusness.

That's actually a pretty apt description!  To me, it's a "second consciousness" with a much larger RAM and hard drive than my humanform self.  Opening one's eyes inside that "second consciousness" would be like having access to the totality of oneself without all the filters that keep our assemblage points more or less fixed in first attention.

And, yes, I suspect Genaro did create his double in that manner for a reason.  The double is a strange and mysterious thing... no two people seem to experience it in exactly the same way... which is, of course, part of the beauty of it. 

[Taimyr]

One for the ordinary world and one for other side.

It sound weird to say "my double". Like it is someone else who you can talk to and so on. It doesn't make much sense. You just switch between the two. Maybe...

[Jennifer-]

When you stand gazing upward to the summit and your heart longs to move.. its your other that whispers.. yes.

[Jahn]

Nah - one day i'll find out, and I promise to tell you - what the Double Is.

[Michael]

It sound weird to say "my double".

I've never liked the term, despite that interesting book by Dostoevsky of the same name.

I have sought without success for another word, and I hope to find one.