A topic that features heavily in some of the later writings of Carlos Castaneda ('The Fire From Within' and 'The Art of Dreaming' for example) is that of the assemblage point. As is customary whenever C.C. is mentioned, in order to anticipate and deflate the cynics and scoffers, the detractors and debunkers, it is necessary to define the basis on which to proceed. We shall assume that the writings of C.C. are indeed fictional or semi-fictional in nature; and furthermore that the matter of the assemblage point can, if preferred, be taken metaphorically rather than literally. Enough said......
Don Juan Matus, the seer/sorcerer/shaman teacher of Carlos Castaneda, outlines at length and in several places the nature of the assemblage point. The universe, he states, is composed of energy, which manifests as millions of fibres of luminosity. The human being, too, consists of energy and luminous fibres, and can be perceived as something resembling a luminous egg or cocoon. Great numbers of the universe's fibres of energy pass through this luminous egg, most of them outside our conscious awareness. A few, however, channel through a particular node, called the assemblage point. It is these specific fibres that are 'assembled' to make up the world as we normally perceive it. '.... perception takes place because there is in each of us an agent called the assemblage point that selects internal and external emanations (of energy) for alignment. The particular alignment that we perceive as the world is the product of the specific spot where our assemblage point is located on our cocoon.' ('The Fire From Within', chapter seven). But, continues Don Juan, the precise location of this assemblage point is the result merely of habit and repetition; infants have no fixed assemblage point at first. Furthermore, sorcerers can train themselves to move the position of the assemblage point, thereby altering which fibres of the universe go to create the experienced world. In this way, they 'assemble' different realities, each in their own way as real and as 'valid' as the 'normal' reality of human consciousness.
According to Castaneda, 'the world' is something we assemble on a moment-to-moment basis. Many people take this world to be the only world, but this is erroneous. Other realities, sometimes operating to different laws, are equally real, yet most people are unaware of their existence, solely because their assemblage point is fixed in one spot.
Deep meditation and energy work, conscious dreaming, work with entheogens, shamanic journeying, sensory deprivation, trance dance and the rest: cultures throughout human history and prehistory have developed a range of techniques aimed at deliberately shifting the assemblage point. It is ordinarily located on the surface of the luminous egg behind the right shoulder blade, according to Don Juan. In fact, a quick internet search reveals that Castaneda is far from alone in acknowledging the existence of the assemblage point, but different healers and researchers may locate it in slightly different places. It seems that, while a large shift in its position may catapult the subject into unrecognisable worlds, a small shift can affect mood, and physical and emotional health - hence its value for healing.
And with the notion of the assemblage point, humankind is divided neatly into two different groups. Those who acknowledge the teaching of the assemblage point - that reality and the world are the constructs of perception, which in turn can be altered. And those who reject the idea, clinging to the belief that 'the world is the world', that experience is fixed and immutable, and that is that. It's a difference in perspective of enormous import. It lies at the bottom of, well, almost everything.
The sorcerers of old, says Don Juan, moved the assemblage point to all manner of places, thereby entering a host of outrageous magical worlds. Their aims were at times less than noble, however: manipulations for personal gain, for example, or to get one over on another human being. But for Don Juan and the modern seers, shifting the assemblage point is the key to freedom. To change the terms of discourse: experience of shifts in the assemblage point is a precondition for a more fluid, less fixed, sense of ego identity. Who I am, what the world is, become more relative. They are matters of personal perception, alterable and always altering, rather than absolutes; a truth that needs to be experienced directly, not just reflected on and thought about, to be effective. As the sense of fixed self and world dissolves, so comes freedom, liberation; the ability to fly everywhere and nowhere. The teaching on the assemblage point shows itself as a key to infinity, to freedom.
