Thought maybe it was time to kick up some dust in this folder.
In my own journeys, I've discovered that there are a lot of differing opinions and ideas about "the double". Much of my own work on the path has centered around the double, and in particular my connection to Orlando. What follows below is an excerpt from what started out as a private consultation I was doing with a seeker/warrior. Since I feel his questions have relevance to a lot of folks out there, seemed appropriate to jump right in the middle and start here.
Hope some of you will join in the discussion.
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Anonymous wrote:
Many points you make, I agree with, many points, I do,nt. I can only re-iterate the double is the self, developed through dreaming, that is... the dreaming awareness.
Yes, and the double is also a great deal MORE than just the dreaming awareness. Remember the DJM quote:
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)
If someone is still at the level of dreaming their double, it may be impossible to see that as the path progresses, the double begins dreaming you. Even when it is first *seen*, there is still the long path toward understanding what it really means... and that can and usually does take years.
Anonymous wrote:
An inorganic being is an independant awareness with its own agenda, and if what you refer to as "Orlando" is an IOB, "he" is either not an IOB in the CC sense of the term, or, he is an IOB and is spinning you a fine tale!
Sure, Orlando is an inorganic being - in that he is the energetic unit of awareness which is my self, beyond this corporeal existence. IOW - he is the vessel of energy capable of housing the totality of myself. In the broad sense, we are all moving toward becoming inorganic beings. What is important is to realize that some of the "inorganic beings" are really ourselves. Most warriors (even some who are fairly advanced) will resist that knowledge because 1) it is easier to believe inorganic beings are either out to get us or here to help us; and 2) When we DO realize that the power of the double depends wholly on our own intent and our actions, it is like taking on a huge responsibility for our own evolution, the preservation of our awareness, and our survival beyond the eagle.
Anonymous wrote:
I feel I should point out that IOBs are intelligent and subtle, beyond any description.
And if you have done your job as a warrior, your double has those same attributes. If someone hasn't done the work, then the double will be seen only as a vague "possibility" rather than a quantifiable actuality.
Anonymous wrote:
When you sup with the devil....use a long spoon...heh,heh.
I stopped believing in devils when I started believing in myself and my own ability to not only "dream" the double, but to PROJECT the double as a unit of awareness which has the ability to take on a life of its own.
Anonymous wrote:
I am, of course, aware, that, my dreaming awareness is the real me, and, I`ve guessed, that in some incomprehensible way, my dreaming awareness is dreaming me, now. I thought everyone felt the same..ie, it was natural to think that....am I wrong?
I don't think you're necessarily "wrong", but I think you may be seeing only half of the picture. When you say that "my dreaming awareness is dreaming me", my question would be what you really mean by that. If you mean that your life/existence here is an illusion, I cannot agree with that line of thinking One thing I've learned is that we are the source - the human, mortal self is the source of the double, not the other way around. The only reason this matters is that it really brings home to us the realization that we don't have the luxury of assuming some "higher power" or even a "higher self" is going to take care of everything FOR us. That's just xtianity re-written and served in a different wrapper.
The self dreams the double so that the double can then dream the self. It's the word "dream" that bears examination here. To dream the double is an act of intent-ional and will-ful creation - putting forth to the universe who we ARE, what our heart desires, and the shape and color of our spirit. That is the energy that creates the double - but it is not an energy that stops when the warrior might begin to perceive that the double is now dreaming him/her. On the contrary, that is when double and self begin "dreaming toward one another" - an ongoing process of mutual creation which, in essence, provides the link of survival between life and death. Essentially, the double becomes the vessel of our awareness - without the confines & restrictions of our physical bodies. As such, the double can lives literally hundreds or even thousands of "lifetimes" in the blink of an eye - what we traditionally (and mistakenly) call "past lives" are movements of the double outside of time.
The reason for this is simple - it is through that vast experience that the double amasses his/her knowledge, and may THEN begin dreaming you/me. By virtue of gathering so much knowledge, the double is then able to communicate to us through gnosis (silent knowing) the very things we will need to know in order to slip past the eagle to be free. As to what freedom will look like? For starters, it will look like your double - the energetic vessel into which we will transfer our consciousness when our corporeal bodies fall back into the earth.
If you visualize what DJM & CC were saying, it even makes sense at a quantifiable level. IOW, we really CAN "reason out the double", though attempting to put it in words we can all agree upon... well, that's another story altogether.
But the thing is... the double is our energetic cohesion; and the reason it comes to us and teaches us is because it is fighting for its own survival, too. It is you. And it is the sorcerer's trick - the energetic vessel of awareness which cannot be destroyed by the eagle because it is ALREADY beyond the eagle.
Anonymous wrote:
As CC says otherwise, and as it was my dreaming awareness that IOBs "woke up", I fail to see how they can be one and the same.
In all likelihood, it wasn't IOBs who "woke up" your dreaming awareness. In all likelihood, it was your own double, acting on your own intent. It may only APPEAR to be an extant IOB in the early stages, because as humans we are not prepared to *see* that we are multi-faceted beings existing in multi-faceted levels of awareness, simultaneously.
We can "grok" the idea of inorganic beings. But can we "grok" that the inorganic being who takes us under his/her wing probably has a damn good reason for doing so - and it isn't altruism or boredom. It is survival, freedom, and infinity - which can only be brought into Absolute manifestation through the singularity of consciousness which results when the warrior inhabits the totality of himself.
What IS the totality of himself? Self and double conjoined - the mortal source (the spark, the intent, the will) and the immortal "other" (the dreamer, the creator, the indestructible vessel).