Tensegrity is the modern version of magical passes: movements and positions of body and breath discovered by men and women shamans who lived in Mexico in ancient times, and taught to Carlos Castaneda, Florinda Donner-Grau, Taisha Abelar and Carol Tiggs by their teacher, don Juan Matus, a Yaqui Indian from Sonora, Mexico and Yuma Arizona, and the heir to the lineage of those ancient shamans. The word Tensegrity was coined by architect and dreamer R. Buckminster Fuller, and is a combination of tension and integrity, which Carlos Castaneda saw as a perfect description of the driving forces of the magical passes, and of the way of being that don Juan Matus taught him: giving equal attention to all parts of our being, all aspects of our actions with others, all parts of the scene we are in, and how they interrelate.

Historic workshops by Cleargreen in the UK

June 2008:

"What do you want?" the nagual Carlos Castaneda asked a group of students gathered in a movement studio in Santa Monica.
"You've been recapitulating, reviewing your lives, for some time. You now have energy…energy to dream…So I'm asking you the same question don Juan asked me, the same question I asked each of you when I first met you: 'What is your heart's desire?'"
The students paused for a moment.

"I want to dream!" excitedly exclaimed one student

"Dream what?" asked the nagual.

"I want to be part of a collaborative team that builds a community," she said. "Where people can live well and they can… Well, I don't really know,” she suddenly hesitated, interrupting herself.. “It's a really big dream...I'd like it to be able to generate its own power, and have fruit trees and vegetable gardens, and lots of community space, a place where everyone can participate in decisions.”

"And?" questioned the nagual.

"And?" questioned the apprentice back. "Do I dare dream that?"

"Yes!" said the nagual laughing. "We get caught in our fear – fear that we are not enough; fear that others will say 'No'! And we keep our dreams small...We are far more accustomed to nightmaring than to dreaming!...Let’s brush this habit aside and practice a magical pass - The Singing Earth Serpent - a form designed to help us practice the art of specific dreaming…here and now, on this earth!"
The students spread themselves out in the room and began to move, following the movements of the nagual.
"What do you feel?" the nagual whispered after a lulling moment.

"That my insides are vibrating in tune with my outsides!" said one student
"I feel tingling in my cells," said another.
"...That we are all connected," said a third

"You are feeling your essence," the nagual said, "which is intent itself, vibrating, alive, delicious! Intent is affectionate, the organizing web of the universe. From here you can track the trail of intent in your life, your moments of YES! and share them and follow others like them with purpose.

"I want to feel this way, all the time," one student said.

"A part of you, a part of everyone here, HAS been feeling this way your entire life!" the nagual said. "You just didn't know how to access it consistently – that flame of infinity inside, reaching out to touch and intermingle with the dreams of others – those that are like yours and those that are different – interacting with all that infinite diversity. Yes!"

“And what can he [a warrior] do to overcome fear?”
“The answer is very simple. He must not run away. He must defy his fear, and in spite of it he must take the next step in learning, and the next, and the next. He must be fully afraid, and yet he must not stop. That is the rule! And a moment will come when his first enemy retreats. The man begins to feel sure of himself. His intent becomes stronger. Learning is no longer a terrifying task.
— Don Juan Matus (The Teachings of don Juan)

Men and women seers who lived in Mexico in ancient times discovered and developed a system of movements and breaths that enabled those who practiced them to attain extraodinary states of well-being and awareness. This system became known as the magical passes, or by its more modern term -- Tensegrity.
Carlos Castaneda, an anthropologist by training, along with three female cohorts, became the beneficiaries of this knowledge. In a series of books, Carlos Castaneda described his encounter with don Juan Matus, a Yaqui Indian and leader of a party of seers, and the subsequent training and initiation into this unique body of knowledge which has been carefully preserved and handed down from generation to generation through a long line of seers.
In this workshop, the emphasis will be on dreaming, the awakening of perception outside of what we already know. Participants will practice magical passes and stalking exercises to identify what fears in everyday life hold our perception in place, stimulating us then to perceive beyond. This workshop will be taught by the direct apprentices of Carlos Castaneda .