Although Don Juan’s dreaming double and the Taoist’s diamond body are similar, each being bodies of consciousness that are independent of the physical body, the ways of creating them are different.

For Don Juan the dreaming double is created when we are able to be awake in our dreams. Once we can do this, our dream consciousness acquires an independency and a power of its own. It becomes us, although not us of the flesh. But it can operate in physical reality, and it will survive the death of the physical body.

The Taoist uses meditation to achieve this same end. In meditation, the Taoist circulates the light of awareness between the two poles, the one of Spirit that is centered in the third eye and the one of Earth that is centered in the solar plexus. In this way, awareness begins to circulate between Spirit and body, and from this circulation an inner child is born, a diamond body that will continue to exist after the death of the physical body.

For the Taoist, the life forces can flow either outward into the world or inward where they can be used to power the circulation of light. For most of us, our thoughts and feelings are usually directed outwards to the world, and our life energy, our seed, is used for pleasure or to create new life.

If, however, we focus our awareness upon the circulation of the light and let our life energy flow inwards so that it can power this circulation, “a release from external things takes place.” “The ego withdraws from its entanglement in the world, and, after death, remains alive because ‘interiorization’ has prevented the wasting of the life-forces in the outer world.” (p. 17)

Although I have accepted the joys and the limitations of life, I have spent much of my life withdrawn from the world. Instead I have turned inwards and have developed my own diamond body; and I expect that, when I do die, I will return to my unlimited being with all the memories of this life that are worth saving.