This photo was taken of the building next door to Catch 27, where we ate one night in St. Augustine. When I first spotted this door to nowhere, I was struck by the incongruity of the thing, the strangeness of a door suspended in midair. It looked as if the building had been raised for some reason – maybe due to flooding or renovations.
I snapped a photo, but during dinner, kept glancing back at it and wondered, Suppose that door, when you open it from the inside and step out, leads elsewhere?
The building and the restaurant were in old town St. Augustine, where the cobbled streets are narrow and lined with old buildings, tourist shops, museums, restaurants, all the usual tourist traps. But here, the trappings seem different somehow, perhaps because the city is the oldest in the U.S. and across the street from Castillo de San Marcos, the oldest fort in the country.
San Marcos was built by the Spanish between 1672 and 1695. It was intended as a stronghold against invaders that approached the city through Matanzas Bay, is built of coquina rock, its walls six feet thick, its psychic history embedded in stone. Surrounding the plaza inside the walls are numerous rooms that were used as storage area for food and weapons, a chapel, lodging for soldiers. All the rooms are pretty depressing, small and cramped, with appropriate exhibits that illustrate some facet of its history.
In the chapel, I was intrigued by the pews ( a modern addition), a large holder for candles, an kind of altar of flames, candles lit for the dead, and poster boards that detailed the history. I wondered if that door to nowhere might be a portal to the city’s past.
Let’s say it is and there’s some way to move into it and pass through it to, well, elsewhere. But suppose, just suppose, the way through this portal involves tensegrity, a series of magical passes – positions and movements of body and breath – dreamed by men and women seers who had lived in ancient Mexico. They were taught to Carlos Castaneda and his band of female acolytes by don Juan Matus, his mentor, a Yaqui Indian from Yuma, Arizona, and Sonora, Mexico.
And suppose these movements are executed by a young woman who does them in the chapel, witnessed by several dozen tourists? As she does them, the texture of the wall shifts and eddies, like a a wave, and she passes through it? At this point I’m thinking there may be an idea somewhere in here for a novel
But the big question is: if this door is a portal, where does it lead?
And now, more than two months after that trip, the logline for this door to nowhere is:
The island home of a reluctant psychic is invaded by people with terrifying powers from centuries in the future. She discovers that she is the descendant of their brilliant, misguided leader, fleeing a world devastated by climate change, and that he and his team will seize the island unless she can defeat them – by joining him.
Weird sync time or just interconnected ideas all flowing from a photo:
Immediately thought(.before reading the posting) of Michael Pessinger and his studies about how to go out of body. This could also be from one of his assistants working with children. You are in a room, it is dark, with some gentle low light source, you see a door, you move to it, you open it and it is the infinite you pass thru. Which led to this Pessinger mention on daily grail Greg Bishop posting which led to an image from a book cover of “Life before life” by Jim tucker with a child looking thru a door into the infinite sky. All in the last 24 hours.
These movements you talk about, we as gymnasts were taught rhythm movements from a our Japanese coaches who got them from a Swedish phys Ed instructor back in the fifties. They all could have come from early Gurdjieff movements. The history of movements could be 100,000 plus years old (guessing here based upon Graham Hitchcock’s work of very ancient societies). This all predates any indigenous Western Hemisphere cultures of the last 10,000 years. Please look up aboriginal dances of Australia. We might, in our DNA have movements coded into us.
All conjecture of course. Will finD the links to our rhythm exercises. Btw, the dance of shiva was what I thought of when I first watched the OA, then Gurdjieff movements, then my gymnastic movements. More as I ponder this
Would love to see those links! I’ll look up aboriginal dances. Thanks for the info!
I went to look for shiva nata movements but most are gone from YouTube. Not the Hindi dance of shiva, but the shiva nata movements
I truly believe the OA is heavily influenced by shiva dance , Bali dance movements, and with gurdjieff numbered positions …
The gymnastics rhythm exercises next as I find the links. Btw, I cannot find any old Berkeley gym team warmup vids from the mid 70s. Just text.
Here are a few to start
https://youtu.be/R1EzezCs8bY
Ray Harryhausen
https://youtu.be/TsZzfQNzKMk
From a film
https://youtu.be/UKPwZqUUrQo
Russian yoga teacher
https://youtu.be/yDIEqvLj018
And more
Btw, read the comments and replies to this vid
https://youtu.be/RWEQOG-VUsI
Thanks!
Text of movements from “gymnast” magazine May and June 1975
Gymnast magazine:
The Berkeley men’s team were taught by Mas Watanabe.
First section magazine page 60( not issuu page)
https://issuu.com/usagymnastics/docs/1975_5may
Last section magazine page 56( not issuu page)
https://issuu.com/usagymnastics/docs/1975_6june
This is the conclusion of “I’ve Got Rhythm”
first six exercises were published in the May issue of GYMNAST.
History: These exercises form a portion of the training program in Tokyo and come to us through M. Watanabe. All but the coordination exercise are stylized versions of exercises used in Sweden by the gymnasts training in Bill Thorenson’s era – the early fifties. Bill won the Olympic Gold Medal in Floor, 1952. He was important lor his introduction at top competitive levels of truly rhythmic and graceful work, in combination with tumbling, then on a hard wood floor. We believe that the basic components remain valuable today. However, these exercises are specially prepared to the gymnast of today. with emphasis on postures and movements that are
biomechanically sound for gymnastics. H.J.B.
That is it…
Me back then
https://oregondigital.org/sets/uo-athletics/oregondigital:df70n329w
Damn, that’s impressive! It’s graceful! It’s tensegrity in gymnastics!
Great pic, Lawrence! And fascinating topic — that there is a history or lineages of body movements that have meanings and powers. Did you all ever see that TV show “The Magicians”? They use a sequence of hand movements (reminiscent of mudras) to produce magic —
https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2016-01/20/18/enhanced/webdr14/anigif_original-grid-image-3571-1453332331-1.gif
https://i.gifer.com/4zLF.gif
That photo reminds me of the house in the movie ‘Winchester’ which has doors in it like that, as well as stairways that lead nowhere.
I wrote this post about the Winchester mansion after I watched the movie on Netflix –
https://brizdazz.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-historic-renwick-mansion.html
Disney’s ‘Haunted Mansion’ was inspired by Winchester house and synchromystically enough, Disney’s ride was officially opened on the night the Manson murderers took place, August 9th, 1969, which I also wrote about here –
https://brizdazz.blogspot.com/2019/07/once-upon-time-in-haunted-disneyland.html
Wow! I love it when you cone out of left field like this, Daz. Off to check out your links. Thanks!
Now to check out the last one.
Weird photo. I can see why this might stimulate ideas.
It was so odd, glancing around and seeing that doorway to nowhere.