Expanded Perception Workshops
Mastery of All the Senses
A sorcerer must refine their senses in order to establish effective communication with physical, energetic, and spiritual reality. To do so, they must understand how their senses work, how to refine them, and how to expand them.
Each person is their own best instrument for perceiving, understanding, and interacting with their own reality through the senses. Acquiring expanded perception does not simply result from having taken a few courses and workshops. It is a decision. Similar to maintaining an active life and exercising. It is a matter of routine, practice, and above all, attention and will.
The perception of reality is a subjective experience. It is not the senses that perceive; it is the mind that interprets and perceives what it wants, what it is interested in, or what it knows how to perceive. So the keys to refining perception are not so much in the senses—which usually work well on their own—but in re-training the observer, that is, ourselves.
The true experience of being is inner, although that experience is usually obscured by an excess of external stimuli handled by our senses. This saturation generates a sensory, emotional, and mental distraction that disconnects us from our inner reality and from making use of our magical potential.
These notes on expanded perception aim to explain how to refine our senses, but it is up to each person to put them into practice and internalize the results.
The Senses
Today, scientists do not agree on how many senses we have, because they classify each sense according to the physiological processes by which it captures information. For example, sight is a sense capable of detecting electromagnetic waves within the visible light spectrum, but it could be divided into two distinct senses because it has receptors that react to the perception of color (light frequency) and others that react to brightness (light energy). Bodily receptors for heat, pain, balance, and position—which allow us to move and know how we are—are also included within the set of senses. Finally, there are senses developed in animals but not in humans, such as the perception of electric fields in many fish and birds, or magnetic fields that facilitate long-distance orientation, or even echolocation, which provides bats with their radar to “see” in the dark.
The relative size, morphology, and physiology of the organs responsible for the senses give us an idea of their importance and development in different animals. Relative size is established by the proportion of the sensory organ’s volume with respect to the head. For example, many mammals have large ears or noses that indicate how acute their hearing and smell are. However, while relative size is a clue, it is not a rule applicable to all animals. If nature is characterized by anything, it is its diversity and exceptionality.
The five senses of the human being are:
SIGHT
Sight captures electromagnetic waves within the spectrum of visible light and uses the eyes as sensory instruments.
The eye receives light stimuli from the environment. Light passes through the transparent media of the eyeball and the lens, forming an inverted image on the retina. In the retina, specialized cells transform the image into nerve impulses. These impulses travel through the optic nerve to the posterior region of the brain.
The brain interprets these signals through a complex mechanism involving millions of neurons, generating visual perception. In reality, we see only the exact point where we focus attention. The mind fills in the rest of the visual field subconsciously. This characteristic of visual perception enables many optical illusions and allows many illusionists to perform their effects.
The light rays that enter the eye must be focused precisely on the retina for the image to be sharp. The process by which light rays from both near and distant objects are accurately focused on the retina is called accommodation.
The sensory cells of the retina react differently to light and colors. Rods activate in darkness and only allow us to distinguish black, white, and shades of gray. Cones enable color vision. In the human eye there are three types of cones, sensitive to red, green, and blue light. Each absorbs radiation from a specific portion of the spectrum thanks to pigments called opsins. Opsins are molecules formed by a protein and a derivative of vitamin A.
The eye evolved around 600 million years ago from a simple light detector for circadian (daily) and seasonal rhythms, whose current vestige is the pineal gland. Those first eyes took about 100 million years to become the present-day vertebrate eye.
How do we improve sight?
Sight is refined through active contact with nature. There is no better school.
Sight needs to focus at different distances, concentrate on locating things—plants, animals, stars—pay attention to details, such as preparing a meal, doing tasks that require tools, or caring for our home.
Walking in the dark by moonlight and starlight (without a flashlight), and looking at the sun at sunset or sunrise cleanse and refine sight.
Looking at the sun is an exercise that must be practiced progressively, paying attention to when its benefit becomes harmful. If we practice it, sunglasses will become unnecessary in many cases, with the exception of snow or high mountains, where the intensity of UVA rays increases excessively.
Television and screens create the illusion of distance, but the truth is that excess gradually kills visual capacity.
HEARING
Hearing responds to vibrations in the medium that oscillate between 20 and 20,000 Hz.
Hearing works by converting sound waves in the air into electrical signals that the brain interprets as sound, through a three-stage process: capture in the outer ear, amplification in the middle ear, and conversion (transduction) in the inner ear by moving fluids and hair cells.
Hearing depends on a series of complex steps that convert sound waves traveling through the air into electrical signals. These signals reach the brain through the auditory nerve. The process follows this route:
- Outer Ear (Collection): The pinna captures sound waves and directs them through the ear canal toward the eardrum.
- Middle Ear (Amplification): The waves vibrate the eardrum, which moves three tiny bones (malleus, incus, and stapes). These amplify the vibration and transmit it to the inner ear.
- Inner Ear (Conversion): Vibrations reach the cochlea, a spiral-shaped organ filled with fluid. Fluid movement undulates hair cells, transforming mechanical energy into electrical impulses.
- Auditory Nerve and Brain: Impulses travel through the auditory nerve to the brain, which interprets the signal as recognizable sounds.
Additionally, hearing fulfills other functions:
- Balance: The inner ear also contains the vestibular system (semicircular canals and otolith organs), which helps the brain maintain balance and spatial orientation.
- Protection: Earwax protects the ear canal by creating a hydrophobic environment to keep water out and by trapping any impurities that might venture into the ear canal.
- Pressure: The Eustachian tube regulates pressure in the middle ear according to external conditions for proper function.
How do we improve hearing?
Hearing is refined by listening with your eyes closed, because the influence of sight is overwhelming in the brain and often sweeps away the subtlety of this sense. For this reason, blind people have superior auditory capacity compared to others.
Listen to music while paying attention to distinguishing each instrument, each note, the quality of the sound, its distances, and its presence. Do this exercise with the environment as well, mainly in nature. You will be surprised by how much is sounding that you do not notice.
When we refine hearing we also learn to listen to silence and inner sound, in addition to improving auditory acuity.
TOUCH
Touch works through millions of sensory receptors under the skin (mechanoreceptors) that detect pressure, temperature, or pain.
The skin is its main organ and the largest organ of the body. When we touch something, receptors send electrical signals through neurons and the spinal cord to the brain, which interprets the information to recognize texture, shape, and temperature.
Touch does not only serve to perceive the environment, but also to protect the body (reaction to pain or heat) and has great psychological importance in bonding and emotional development. It also has an internal variant known as proprioception.
Human touch and proprioception are two fundamental sensory systems that work together to allow us to interact with the environment and to be aware of our own body. While touch gathers external information, proprioception acts as an internal “sixth sense” that tells us where our body parts are without needing to look at them.
The sense of touch (External Somatosensory System) works through a network of specialized receptors in the skin that convert physical stimuli (pressure, temperature) into electrical impulses that the brain interprets. The receptors (mechanoreceptors) are distributed throughout the skin and respond to different stimuli:
- Meissner corpuscles: Detect light touch, low-frequency vibrations, and texture.
- Pacinian corpuscles: Detect deep pressure and fast vibrations.
- Merkel discs: Detect sustained pressure and fine texture.
- Ruffini endings: Detect skin stretch and warmth.
- Thermoreceptors and nociceptors: Detect temperature variations (cold/heat) and pain.
When an object touches the skin, receptors activate, generating an action potential (electrical impulse) that travels through nerves to the central nervous system (spinal cord and brain). Information reaches the somatosensory cortex in the parietal lobe, where sensations are perceived and interpreted.
Proprioception (Internal Sensory System) is the ability to know the position and movement of different parts of the body in space. It is often described as “deep touch.” Proprioceptive receptors are located in muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints.
- Muscle spindles: Located in the muscle belly, detect muscle stretch and its speed.
- Golgi tendon organs: Located at the muscle-tendon junction, detect muscle tension.
- Joint receptors: Inform about joint position and movement.
Proprioception enables body awareness. It sends constant information to the brain about muscle tone and limb position. It also allows the brain to contract or relax muscles to maintain balance and posture without needing to think about it consciously. Finally, it facilitates complex movements, such as touching your nose with your eyes closed or walking without looking at your feet.
Both systems (touch and proprioception) work in synergy to form the “body schema,” a three-dimensional map of the body in the brain. The brain receives signals from proprioception (internal position) and touch (external contact), along with vision and the inner ear (vestibular system), to provide a unified perception of where the body is and how it relates to the environment. If the body moves in a risky way, proprioceptive receptors act rapidly (myotatic reflex) to contract muscles and prevent injuries such as tears. This enables coordinated actions such as writing, playing an instrument, or driving, allowing the brain to know where hands and feet are at all times.
How do we improve touch?
Touch is refined through affection and contact.
Caresses, massages, and sensuality are extremely important for developing this sense.
Water has a special effect on the sense of touch at every level. Showers and baths—both hot and cold—noticeably increase its sensitivity.
It is important to preserve the skin’s thin layer of natural oil. Excess hygiene and soaps are as counterproductive as a lack of it. There is a major business built on stripping the skin of its natural protection and then restoring it with potions. Do not misunderstand this. There are fantastic creams that do a lot of good for the skin, and maintaining hygiene is important. The mistake lies in excess. The balance between hydrophobic layers (oils) and hydrophilic layers (water) generates the bio-electric potential of each organism. Altering this potential modifies our energetic tuning with the environment.
Proprioception is cultivated through observing our inner sensations. Many physical disciplines, and especially yoga, help notably to train our ability to perceive our inner state.
SMELL AND TASTE
Taste and smell are chemical senses that work together to create the experience of flavor and aroma.
Taste, located on the tongue, detects five basic tastes (sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami) through taste buds. Smell detects thousands of aromas in the air and through the retronasal route while chewing.
The sense of taste activates when molecules from food dissolve in saliva and stimulate sensory cells in taste buds on the tongue, palate, and throat. These receptors convert chemical stimuli into a nerve impulse sent to the brain. Five basic tastes are distinguished: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami (savory).
The sense of smell activates when odor molecules in the air reach the nasal cavity (orthonasal smell) or from the mouth through the throat (retronasal smell). Chemical substances adhere to receptors in the olfactory epithelium, converting odor into electrical impulses that travel to the olfactory bulb and then to the brain. Smell allows us to distinguish more than 10,000 different aromas.
The “flavor” we perceive is, for the most part, the aroma released by food, enhanced by taste receptors. When the nose is congested, aromas do not reach olfactory receptors, so food is perceived as bland or tasteless.
Both senses send information to the brain simultaneously, which combines it to identify flavor, texture, and temperature of foods.
The nose and mouth are highly interconnected internally in human beings, but not as much in other mammals, which implies that they act symbiotically in people. The nose provides the sensory richness of flavor to taste.
How do we improve smell and taste?
Smell and taste are basic instincts that enjoy pleasure. Lingering in aromas and flavors is the best way to attend to them.
It is important to chew food sufficiently and not merely swallow it. Taste is a sense that begins with chewing. Saliva, by mixing and interacting with what is chewed, enables the first chemical analysis of food. However, true flavor is transferred through the inner part of the nose, which has far more chemical receptors than the tongue. The nose analyzes vapors released from the chewed bolus, which provide the richness of nuances and the range of flavors found in diverse gastronomy. Without saliva and chewing, there is no taste and no effluvia to analyze.
Taste has four chemical receptors that broadly break down flavors into sweet, salty, bitter, and sour, along with all their recombinations. To these is added a fifth receptor called umami, which detects glutamate (glutamic acid), an essential amino acid that acts as an excitatory neurotransmitter in our brain. The salt of this amino acid, monosodium glutamate (MSG), is a tremendous flavor enhancer and also a good food preservative. MSG transforms bland foods into tasty delicacies. It is not harmful per se, but it has an addictive edge because we are immersed in a system in which people eat for the taste of what they put in their mouth rather than for the quality of nutrients. People who get hooked on MSG gorge on junk that tastes amazing but does the body no good. Learning to enjoy flavors without enhancers is key to benefiting from other functions of this sense that will be addressed later.
We must be very careful with the tempting avalanche of flavors with which the food system we live in seduces us. We have to learn to eat for the nutritional value of foods, and not simply for the combination of flavors. The quality of nutrition does not have to be at odds with the quality of the gastronomic experience.
Smell—so important in most mammals as evidenced by the relative size of their noses—was eclipsed by the development of sight in the human being. However, we should not underestimate the importance of educating the nose in the variety and subtlety of aromas and smells, as demonstrated by professions such as wine tasting (sommelier) or perfume design (nez).
The Inner Senses.
The four inner senses correspond to the outer ones, but are focused inward. Work on these inner senses will provide the sorcerer with the key tools to guide their path and develop their full magical potential.
The spiritual world, true reality, is within us. What surrounds us is a kind of virtual game environment through which the experience of being human passes—an experience embarked upon by a spiritual being. The documentary about the Soul Contract goes deeper into these concepts. We need to refine our inner senses to interact with our inner world, with our true reality.
INNER VISION
The pineal gland is the vehicle of our inner vision. It acts like an image projector that usually activates when the supply of light is cut off after closing the eyes, and the transparency of the brain’s humors diminishes, indicating that it is night and immersing us in the world of dreams.
The pineal gland produces melatonin, a hormone that induces sleep, and dimethyltryptamine, also called DMT, a neurotransmitter synthesized from serotonin. DMT is responsible for producing the visual effects of dreaming.
DMT is also found naturally in some plants such as ayahuasca and generates powerful hallucinations that can verge on danger. The body naturally blocks any external entry of DMT, so hallucinogenic drugs must bypass this barrier through various combinations with other substances. Drugs are NOT the way. They are not necessary. The pineal gland fulfills its function perfectly when the mechanisms of inner vision are activated.
The philosopher René Descartes, in the 17th century, thought the pineal gland was the area where the human soul resided. It is attributed mystical qualities and paranormal powers. The truth is that this gland acts as a turning point that emits what is inside outward and what is outside inward.
The pineal gland functions like an energetic transformer, converting energy that emanates from the subconscious into another energy that can be captured by the conscious mind. These energetic exchange processes are quite complex and, at the same time, extremely fast.
Imagination (image in action) is the mechanism by which we recreate images in our conscious mind that have not been captured by the eyes. Imagination is the product of the conscious mind. Its equivalent in the subconscious would be evocation, which could also be called reverie. The images generated appear with different levels of sharpness, but have an archetypal consistency; that is, they are not “real” like dreams, which are indistinguishable from reality.
Visualization results from the concatenation of these images. If images are generated consciously, that is, through imagination, some type of guide is needed to keep it active. When images result from evocation, they indicate communication with the unconscious. These images appear somewhat alien to our will and are the path to communicating with the reality of the creator.
It is important to learn to differentiate imagination from evocation in order to enter the universal language of creation and activate all our magical potential. This potential is developed in the Path of the Sorcerer.
ORGANIC INTELLIGENCE – RE-TASTE
Organic intelligence arises from the sensory knowledge of our organism and manifests through proprioception combined with other information provided by the senses of taste and the tongue.
The skin wraps us on the outside but enters through the mouth and turns inward, lining the entire digestive system, and then exits again through the anus. This physiology is important for understanding the functioning of organic intelligence, which manages both inner and outer skin, and whose biochemical conclusions are expressed on the tongue.
It has already been established that the cell membrane of each of the billions of cells that compose the organism is much more than mere wrapping. The cell membrane resembles a sophisticated computer keyboard that interacts with and interprets both its external and internal environment. The skin that wraps us on the outside and the skin that wraps us on the inside is no less.
The sense of taste has other functions that explain why the topic of flavor is so delegated to the nose. The tongue is a biochemical laboratory that gathers all information from the digestive process and reports the results to consciousness, if we pay attention. The mouth dries in front of a meal that demands water to help cleanse its toxicity. Acidity or bad taste indicates poor digestion and is also noticed on the tongue. The color and coating of the tongue reflect the state of health, and are even used as diagnostic elements in Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and other natural therapies.
The bacterial population of the intestines forms a second brain that regulates the immune system of the entire organism, and also creates the precursors of many neurotransmitters that consciousness uses so cheerfully. The number of bacteria in our intestines equals or exceeds the number of neurons, and also establishes a complex biochemical network that is indispensable for our physical, mental, and emotional survival. Some scientists even postulate that the human being is a byproduct: a walking habitat created for the survival of this complex bacterial community, and that the mind was promoted by them for a better interpretation and adaptation of that walking habitat to its environment. The organ of expression of this important bacterial community is the tongue, taste, and our mouth, which is populated with bacteria no matter how much we brush our teeth. These bacteria communicate with those in our intestines and express their message to us chemically.
For example, during a kiss the tongue performs a genetic compatibility analysis of mixed saliva, and transmits a sensation of affinity and excitation, or indifference, depending on the result.
Inner re-taste is a crucial inner sense that the sorcerer must learn to master properly because, beyond tasting foods—which smell truly manages—it transmits information about the state of well-being of our bacterial colony. A well-refined re-taste is a source of information about our state of health. Inner re-taste can transcend the obvious sensation of flavor and offer information about the nutritional state of food, not during the meal itself, but afterward, when its activity is not muted by the intense interference of smell and flavors.
Illnesses and the chemistry of many medications can be recognized through their re-taste.
Drinking water neither cold nor hot, eating healthy, varied, and not in excess allows a new register of inner re-taste sensations to be elaborated. It is important for the sorcerer to develop a register of these sensations in order to discern what sits well with them and in what quantity, and not be swept away by a diet based merely on flavors. In this way they can enjoy a delicious meal while maintaining good health and, above all, let their bacterial colony know there is communication.
To refine the sense of re-taste as a compass of health, we must focus on the sensations of our tongue, mouth, and throat some time after eating. How is our dryness, breath, sense of cleanliness, our own taste...? Let us learn what it manifests and act accordingly. A good meal is not the taste of the gastronomic act, but the inner re-taste that appears afterward. Attending to this inner re-taste refines it and teaches us the way to eat better and be healthier. Once refined, we will be able to discern what and how much to eat for our optimal well-being and health.
ENERGETIC INTELLIGENCE – BREATHING
Breathing is the foundation of the energetic intelligence of our being. The nose intervenes here as an access point, as does the mouth, and of course proprioception, which acts as a monitor of all our inner sensations.
The nose and mouth are exceptionally interconnected internally in human beings. Although it may seem minor, breathing through the nose or through the mouth has different effects in our organism.
The nose filters, humidifies, and warms the air; it also produces nitric oxide (NO) in the paranasal sinuses, which improves the efficiency of gas exchange and helps reduce the organism’s acidity. Mouth breathing is faster, facilitates hyperventilation, physical recovery, and activates the sympathetic system and the state of alert.
The different combinations of rhythms and durations of inhalation, exhalation, and breath retention, along with the type of breathing performed—clavicular (upper), thoracic (middle), or diaphragmatic (lower); whether oxygen enters through the mouth or nose; and other techniques—create an astonishing variety of effects at organic, bioenergetic, and even spiritual levels. Many disciplines work with various breathing techniques, but yoga is the great mother of the lamb. So the practice of yoga presents itself as the best path to learn and perfect breathing.
Breathing energizes the organism through oxygen intake, so necessary for metabolic activation and the functioning of biochemical processes. But it is also the vehicle of entry and connection with prana. The term prana comes from yoga and means vital energy. It is the concept that inspired “the Force” that powers Jedi knights in the Star Wars films.
Working with breathing not only creates different organic and well-being effects; it can raise our sensitivity to prana to the point of feeling it physically, like currents of energy of different intensities and characteristics.
Regardless of the physical sensitivity a sorcerer may develop toward prana, the effects of breathing are undeniable and must be studied, practiced, and incorporated into one’s vital essence. Ultimately, mastery of prana can lead to the activation of the powerful kundalini energy. One must be very prepared and have magical potential well forged in order to awaken and handle kundalini energy.
Willy M. Olsen has had many first-hand experiences in this regard, which he describes in his account titled Terrible Energies, narrating intense energetic experiences he suffered since childhood and which led him to discover much of the knowledge presented here.
THE SOUND OF CREATION
Willy M. Olsen calls it the sound of creation. Disciplines such as yoga call it “Nada”.
It is an inner sound, a primordial vibration, that sounds like a hum—low and high at the same time. It could be described as the buzz of bees or the crackling of an electrical current. This sound is heard within. It is always present, but we filter it so it does not bother us, which makes it difficult to hear. If we pay attention in silence, we can begin to identify it. Once detected, it can become thunderous, yet it will continue sounding within, independently of any external sound.
In nature, in places of special beauty, in sacred enclaves, and in all points with strong telluric energy or other types, we can recognize how this sound is much more intense and even modulates and sounds different.
It is not background noise of our organism; it is how our energetic vibration resonates. When energetic experiences occur, when prana is channeled or intensified, the sound changes. A sorcerer may not physically feel energies, but they can identify their sounds if they refine their inner hearing.
INTUITION – THE NINTH SENSE
In-tuition is inner attention.
Intuition is the ability to understand, perceive, or know something immediately, without a conscious step-by-step reasoning.
Intuition results from the subconscious response that instantly combines all the information perceived by the outer and inner senses. It is the mechanism of integral perception and reaction that our subconscious uses in any unknown situation.
Intuition becomes powerful when the conscious mind has aligned with the subconscious. This alignment results from re-programming and communication between the conscious and subconscious mind, which is worked on during the forging of magical potential. But more than powerful, intuition becomes precise. It becomes an inner compass.
The inner compass is the most important tool a sorcerer must develop. It guides us in all aspects of life: responsibilities to assume and those not to, health, company, decisions—everything. And sufficiently refined, it grants us a great capacity for discernment that prevents us from falling into the traps of the spiritual war in which we are immersed and makes us advance on the path of true wisdom. Not the knowledge we are told, but the one that is born from us, from our critical thinking, our reflections, and our intuition.
The shamans of some indigenous tribes called walking in beauty this journey guided by discernment and by the inner compass.
When life is walked in beauty, it becomes such a beautiful adventure!
So it is worth the effort.
Willy M. Olsen will try to make some videos explaining techniques that help master these senses, in addition to the publications, documentaries and initiations that are already available. Working on expanded perception together with the forging of magical potential will allow the sorcerer to manifest their full power. The novel Pandora’s Verses presents, through its characters, an entire journey of examples and techniques for mastering the mind, emotions, physical perception, and dreams.
