Yes, each workshop is designed to be accessible to newcomers as well as experienced practitioners, and arranged so that each can leave with practical and effective tools for designing or adding to his or her own daily awareness practice.

About learning in the context of a seminar, Carlos Castaneda spoke about the concept of critical mass, saying: “The greater the number of participants, the easier it is for anyone to absorb anything presented to them, be it through the medium of the intellect, or the medium of kinesthesia. Participants remember everything that is said, and everything that is done in terms of movement with immensely more facility than they would if they were doing all of it by themselves.”

No, it is not necessary. Just practice! As Carlos Castaneda writes in Magical Passes: "Practicing in groups is beneficial in many aspects and deleterious in others. It is beneficial because it allows the creation of a consensus of movement and the opportunity to learn by examination and comparison. It is deleterious because it fosters the reliance on others, and the emergence of syntactic commands and solicitations dealing with hierarchy...Tensegrity movements should be practiced in whatever form is easiest: either in groups or alone, or both."

We have found that practicing alone allows us to set our intent for the day, and to perform magical passes that seem to suit us best individually at any given moment, while working together helps us to balance our practice by performing magical passes we might not otherwise practice on our own, or by helping us to adjust our speed to match the group. These adaptations and adjustments can bring a movement of the assemblage point, and a more joyous link with intent: the intent to perceive and act with affection and gratitude for our fellow beings.

For practitioners who are just starting out, we have found that repeating each magical pass between five and ten times is a helpful guideline. Certain magical passes that are lengthy or which require deep breathing can be performed fewer times, while simpler ones may lend themselves to more repetition. Ultimately your own inner seer is the best judge.

Then it is recommended that you practice these sequences less frequently. As don Juan said to Carlos Castaneda "If a warrior is to succeed in anything, the success must come gently, with a great deal of effort but with no stress or obsession." Wheel of Time.

Our teachers suggested we learn to listen to the body, and the overall being, and to follow its impulse, moving when it wants to move, and stopping when it wants to stop. Also, some of us find it motivating to practice with a group, so we do that. Others enjoy performing the magical passes series as a dance, so we do that.

All the magical passes series help increase self-discipline. It might be helpful both for practitioners who have trouble starting their practice, and for those who find it difficult to know when to stop, to review what shamans mean by "discipline." Don Juan described discipline as the capacity to feel awe, no matter what is happening around us.

This means approaching the magical passes with this sense of awe - enjoying the practice rather than practicing as an investor, looking to see what the returns will be

Yes, as long as one uses one's common sense and takes care, for example, that one can see where one is walking, and avoids being in extreme temperatures or strong drafts of air—we were taught to avoid these strong drafts on a perspiring body!

Yes—letting your inner seer be your guide! Don Juan told his students that the magical passes themselves can lead practitioners to an "unprecedented culmination," in which questions about when and how to practice clear themselves up, and practitioners will be able to perform the magical passes "with precision and speed, as they walk, or eat, or rest, or do anything, because they will have the energy to do so."

Taisha Abelar told us that under these circumstances, we could put a "bookmark" in our chronological list, and recapitulate the spontaneous memory. Then we could return to our list. The important thing, she said, is to keep going, and not to let questions of procedure stop us from recapitulating.

For the moment, they are not going to appear personally at the workshops because they want this dream to take wings. For Carlos Castaneda and for them, it is a dream in which a group of practitioners is focused not on a person or a group of persons, but on the abstract purpose of freedom of perception.

In 1998, Carlos Castaneda left the world in same way that his teacher, don Juan Matus did: with full awareness. In leaving the world as a solitary warrior, in total awareness, Carlos Castaneda leaves behind a wealth of knowledge that is accessible to anyone who wishes to venture into the infinite layers of awareness that are available to human beings.

And according to don Juan, the journey begins here, in the world we inhabit, a world ... as mysterious and rich as anything can be. All we need to pluck the wonders of this world of everyday life is enough detachment. But more than detachment, we need enough affection and abandon. "A warrior must love this world," don Juan said, "in order for this world that seems so commonplace to open up and show its wonders." Wheel of Time