「看手」是做夢第一關的主要任務,也是 set up「做夢」的開始;可以說在夢中自主地做一件事,而讓普通夢轉變成清明夢的關鍵。
經常我們在夢中一旦清明,隨即夢就醒了,看手也可以重新增加能量,以供夢者後繼。這是一個很重要的基礎練習,堂堂卡博士也失敗了很多年:
只有日常生活得到控制後才能成功看手
「做夢」是指培養出一種對夢的奇特控制力,使得夢中的經驗達到與清醒時的經驗都同樣實際的程度。巫士主張是,在「做夢」的衝擊下,平常用來分別夢與現實的標準將不再適用。
唐望對於「做夢」的實踐包括在夢中找到自己的手的練習。換句話說,一個人必須刻意在夢中尋找,並能找到自己的手,也就是夢見自己把手舉到面前。
歷經了數年的失敗,我終於完成這項任務。回想起來,很明顯的,只有當我對自己的日常生活擁有某種程度的控制之後才會成功。
唐望想要知道細節。我告訴他,要在夢中下令去看自己的手,時常是無法克服的困難。他曾警告過我,在初期準備階段,他稱之為「設定做夢」(set up dreaming)的階段包含致命的把戲,就是自我的某部分會極力阻礙這項任務。
每當我準備要在夢中注視手時,就會有驚人的事發生,夢中的一切都會遠比「正常」情況生動強烈,因此極引人入勝。我原先要注視手的打算,會在新情況下忘得一乾二淨。
有一天晚上,非常出乎意料地,我在夢中找到了自己的手。我夢見我在國外城市不知名的街道上走著,突然間我舉起了手放到眼前。彷彿我內心某種東西放棄了對抗,容許我去看自己手背。
唐望的指導是,一旦我的手的影像開始融解或改變成其他東西時,我就要轉移視線,去注視夢中環境的其他元素。在這個夢中,我轉移視線注視街道底的一棟建築,當那棟建築的景象開始消散時,我便把注意力轉移到夢境其他的事物上。(《力量的傳奇》pp. 26-27)
'Dreaming' entailed cultivating a peculiar control over one's dreams to the extent that the experiences undergone in them and those lived in one's waking hours acquired the same pragmatic valence. The sorcerers' allegation was that under the impact of 'dreaming', the ordinary criteria to differentiate a dream from reality become inoperative.
Don Juan's praxis of 'dreaming' was an exercise that consisted of finding one's hands in a dream. In other words, one had to deliberately dream that one was looking for and could find one's hands in a dream by simply dreaming that one lifted one's hands to the level of the eyes.
After years of unsuccessful attempts, I had finally accomplished the task. Looking at it in retrospect, it had become evident to me that I had succeeded only after I had gained a degree of control over the world of my everyday life.
Don Juan wanted to know the salient points. I began telling him that the difficulty of setting up the command to look at my hands seemed to be, quite often, insurmountable. He had warned me that the early stage of the preparatory facet, which he called 'setting up dreaming', consisted of a deadly game that some part of myself was going to do everything it could to prevent the fulfillment of my task.
Every time I was about to look at my hands in a dream something extraordinary would happen. Everything in the dream would extend far beyond the 'normal' in matters of vividness, and therefore be terribly absorbing. My original intention of observing my hands was always forgotten in light of the new situation.
One night, quite unexpectedly, I found my hands in my dreams. I dreamt that I was walking on an unknown street in a foreign city, and suddenly I lifted up my hands and placed them in front of my face. It was as if something within myself had given up, and had permitted me to watch the backs of my hands.
Don Juan's instructions had been that as soon as the sight of my hands would begin to dissolve or change into something else, I had to shift my view from my hands to any other element in the surroundings of my dream. In that particular dream I shifted my view to a building at the end of the street. When the sight of the building began to dissipate I focused my attention on the other elements of the surroundings in my dream.