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inside all forms of life, including man. In retrospect one could say they were almost like DNA, although at that time, 1961, I knew nothing of DNA.’ Going back to Castaneda for a moment, and keeping in mind these strange creatures described by Michael Harner, we find don Juan and Carlos out in the desert one day: ..I really wanted to start for home right away [...] but before we reached his house, don Juan sat down on a high ledge overlooking the valley. He didn’t say anything for awhile. He was not out of breath. I couldn’t conceive of why he had stopped to sit down. “The task of the day, for you”, he said abruptly, in a foreboding tone, “is one of the most mysterious things of sorcery, something that goes beyond language, beyond explanations. ...So brace yourself by propping your back against this rock wall, as far as possible, from the edge. I will be by you, in case you faint or fall down. ...I want you to cross your legs and enter into inner silence, but don’t fall asleep”. It was rather difficult for me to enter into inner silence without falling asleep. I fought a nearly invincible desire to fall asleep. I succeeded, and found myself looking at the bottom of the valley from an impenetrable darkness around me. And then, I saw something that chilled me to the marrow of my bones. I saw a gigantic shadow, perhaps fifteen feet across, leaping in the air and then landing with a silent thud. I felt the thud in my bones, but I didn’t went hear it. “They are really heavy”, don Juan said in my ear. He was holding me by the left arm, as hard as he could. I saw something that looked like a mud shadow wiggle on the ground, and then take another gigantic leap, perhaps fifty feet long, and land again, with the same ominous silent thud. I fought not to lose my concentration. I was frightened beyond anything I could rationally use as a description. I kept my eyes fixed on the jumping shadow on the bottom of the valley. Then I heard a most peculiar buzzing, a mixture of the sound of flapping wings and the buzzing of a radio whose dial has not quite picked up the frequency of a radio station, and the thud that followed was something unforgettable. It shook don Juan and me to the core - a gigantic black mud shadow had just landed by our eos feet. “Don’t be frightened”, don Juan said imperiously. “Keep your inner silence and it will move away”. I was shivering from head to toe. I had the clear knowledge that if I didn’t keep my inner silence alive, the mud shadow would cover me up like a blanket and suffocate me. Without losing the darkness around me, I screamed 209 High Strangeness — Part Three ** Harner, quoted by Narby, 1998, pp. 54-55ff.