Carlos Castanedas mystical world

Has any of you read Carlos Castnedas books?
The mysticism he describes seems so logical to me and his own disappearance seems to prove the true nature of his teachings.
In general he tells about his teachers struggle to cross the line to an other dimensional world where a kind of eternal life is possible. His teacher succeads finally and Castaneda himself should become the next leader of a new group stepping into the new world. And just about 5 or 10 years ago Carlos Castaneda actually disappeared from existance. The whole thing could be made up of course but still its very strange that the secret still not revealed.

Have u any further information about him?

How Nice naXaH,
Yes I have read C.C.'s books several times and no I am not an old pot head and have never done drugs. I just appreciate and have gained much knowledge from his works.
Arnold Mindell has interprited his work, an author I truely can recomend.
Am out of time now, but have you used the information he gives?
Whether or not it is fiction I find irrelevant, it works
WIS

When I first Read "A Yaqui way of Knowledge" I only lived 90mi. from the border of Mexico and the Sonoran desert. My friends and I couldn't wait to go search for Mescalito. We found him!! And a whole lot more!

I think Carlos Castanedas' books were mainly fantasy but he got much closer to the truth than even he could imagine.

Unlike walkinsilence, I am an old psychonaut and have traveled extensively in other realms but I echo WISs' thought, ficton or not "it works."

Carlos C. didnt dissappear. He died in the mid 90s.

a female friend talked about

him quite a bit , but at the time

I was not as interested as I am now.

and now that I have a few books [ of his ]

it is TIME that I need most. [ in order to read them ]

I think this is a peek into

SOME of our world but should

not be delved into without

proper guidance


also there is a dvd out....I think "mystical adventure"
where some special movements, kinda like THAI CHI
are shown and they explain what they are doing and
what it means

Yes......Carlos's teacher was a Yaqui Indian........The Yaqui teachings were learned and practiced in his series of books.......AMAZINGLY insightfull....thoughtfull books.

I am finding the Toltec teachings of extreme interest as well......
Read THE FOUR AGREEMENTS.....THE AGREEMENTS OF LOVE......THE TOLTEC PROPHECIES.........all written by Miguel Ruiz.
(not as esoteric as Castanada, and easier to incorporate into our daily lives)

Definately amung the literature I can say had a lasting impact on my life. The Upanishads, The Bohisattva, Carlos Castanada, and Garfield.

Carlos C., Exupery, Calvin & Hobbes. Masters
Toasted the movements are called tensegrity, I'm trying to locate the title of the book I practiced from. It is basically about gathering/produceing energy not from others but from an always obtainable sorce.
The exercises look rather silly, I would not recomend a public display, as with tai chi. But I must say the little I worked with it convinced me of its authenticy.

naXah Take your time, read the books and digest them for a loooong time.
I have read and re-read his books for almost 25 years and I'm not done yet.
And don't be to sirious about it, if you know what I meen.
WIS

An excellent book about the Truth of Castaneda:

The Don Juan Papers

1. Castaneda faked his research with respect to location and times.
His descriptions of sonoran flora and fauna don't jibe at key points with actual conditions in the terrain he describes. The dates he gives in his "journal" from "Journey to Ixtlan" contradict dates in "A Yaqui Way of Knowledge" as well as with his field notes. Fellow students have given evidence that Castenada was at UCLA instead of in Mexico on key dates.

2. Castaneda's work is not anthropology
He doesn't give accurate information concerning Yaqui magico-religious practices (or any other tribe, for that matter.)

3. Castenada was guilty of plagarism
He copied concepts, and even phrases and occasional paragraphs from Juan Ramon Silva (an actual Native American Shaman), Michael Harner (one of Castenada's own professors!), and various Rennaissance and Medieval Christian Philosophers.


I don't deny that there is "metaphyscial truth" in his works. What I'm saying is that the same truths can be found elsewhere, without being survived up as one ingredient in a whole stew of deception.

.

I study a lot of different roads of life from religious theologies (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Zoroastrinism, Hinduism, Buddhism, (Neo-)Paganism etc etc) as well as other life philosophies. When I began on my study concerning Shamans I came across Castenada's works and read about 8 or so books written by him.

Hist stories are fictional just like the Celestine Prophecy serie by Redfield. Except Castenada did some research into an indian tribe and their customs. It gives some nice insights into various topics, but there are no massive learning topics present in his books which can't be found more accurate elsewhere.

There is a shroud of "mystery" around Castenada. Some claim he was truly taught by Indians, others claim something else. But as long as there is no proof there is no conclusive things to say about him.

All and all nice reading books if you're into such semi-fictional work and like to spend your time on some mediocre leveled philosophy to keep your mind occupied, but when I'm studying something I'd like something a bit more factual and full of real experiences. So that is why I rarely read fiction. His books were part of the start of the New-Age movement however.

-------
www.prismagems.com...

The basic premise of sorcery for a sorcerer is that the world of everyday life is not real, or out there, as we believe it is. For a sorcerer, reality, or the world we all know, is only a description.
For the sake of validating this premise I will concentrate the best of my efforts into leading you into a genuine conviction that what you hold in mind as the world at hand is merely a description of the world; a description that has been pounded into you from the moment you were born.
Everyone who comes into contact with a child is a teacher who incessantly describes the world to him, until the moment when the child is capable of perceiving the world as it is described. We have no memory of that portentous moment, simply because none of us could possibly have had any point of reference to compare it to anything else. From that moment on, however, the child is a member . He knows the description of the world; and his membership becomes full-fledged, perhaps, when he is capable of making all the proper perceptual interpretations which, by conforming to that description, validate it.
The reality of our day-to-day life, then, consists of an endless flow of perceptual interpretations which we, the individuals who share a specific membership, have learned to make in common.

1968--The Teachings of don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge
1971--A Separate Reality: Further Conversations with don Juan
1972--Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of don Juan
1974--Tales Of Power
1977--The Second Ring of Power
1981--The Eagle's Gift
1984--The Fire From Within
1987--The Power of Silence: Further lessons of don Juan
1993--The Art of Dreaming
1998 - Magical Passes
1999--The Active Side of Infinity.

And here is what a mate of mine had to tell about it

Castanada's works are very controversial. Most people who either knew him or are credible shamans say that he made the whole thing up about Don Juan. Most evidence points this way. I've been doing Qigong for 20 years and when I read his book Magical Passes because the whole thing looked as if he read a few qigong books, misunderstanding them and wrote a mishmash of his misunderstanding. I think he faked it. But he does have good insights in other areas. He had a doctorate in Anthropology and knew much about native culture including shamanism. He was a smart cookie, knew people, and even managed to juggle these genuine insights with knowing how to market his books. He remained mysterious, disappearing for weeks and months at a time. His earliest books advocated the use of psychotropic drugs at a time that this was considered cool. When drug use became less cool he switched his emphasis to the use of more natural methods of achieving altered states of consciousness.

[edit on 18-5-2006 by Enyalius]

U guys sound very sceptic. It seems like there is no hope for me to become a sorcerer
According his death, what do u know about it? Cuz officially he is stated as dead but he was reported to "have left the world the way his teacher did". But ofcourse this could not be official so they just made "dead" out of it. But if u guys know how exactly he died i really would like to know. Like whether it was a car excident or some desease.

According some flaws in his reports i can say that dates and names could be altered on purpose. His teacher was not an ordinary Yaqui shaman but one of the "real" ones who are very rare now so it can be that other shamans proved were not real sorcerers.

One argument often brought to criticize Castaneda is that he doesnt provide any scientifical prove for what he tells. But i wonder if it is possible. How can u film a sorcerer moving his asamblage point. Or how to make a photo of a human cacoon?

Did any of u really consequently try to stop the "inner dialog" or pusue some other ways to achieve some kind of unnatural experiences?

Naxah,

I was not a skeptic until I read the Original "Don Juan Papers."

Once I saw the plagarized texts, I reread the first 5 books just to check.

Castaneda does recount a few valid practices of manipulating special states of consciousness. But I now believe he lifted those from other systems.

I recommend you read some ACTUAL interviews with shamans, etc. They are much more "real," and therefore worthwhile.

Trying to sieve out the truth from all the hoakum can kill you.

.

You don't have to be a scientific skeptic to be skeptic. Even from the point of other shamans I know and writings I have seen. Take Michael Harner for excample who is well known for his study and living as a shaman and trying to modernise the old teachings into something practical and applicable to modern times. And He was given te consent and cooperation of several indian/native tribes and shamans that his work is accurate.

[edit on 19-5-2006 by Enyalius]

You Might enjoy reading Martin Goodmans " I was Carlos Castaneda." Or perhaps not but at least Carlos eventually 'evoled' into a concious being.

Originally posted by naXaH
Has any of you read Carlos Castnedas books?


Have u any further information about him?

I've read some of his stuff and found it interesting, but....

Here's a good link to a neutral reviewer who probably represents the majority view on him:

www.straightdope.com...

Jbright has it right.

If you read through the article linked in "straight dope." you'll notice a reference to a Richard B. DeMille, who has constructed timelines of the books and compared them with what people who knew him.

R.B. DeMille is the author of the two volumes of the "Don Juan Papers," to which I provided a link in my own previous post.

.

I just finished reading his book The art of dreaming. Loved it. I think he had all but abandoned the idea of keeping it non-fiction about halfway through writing it, lol. Don't think he tried to hide this, the feeling I got while reading was that he wanted it above all to be an interesting story.

I walked in his footsteps for several years when I was in my early twenties and backpacking across the country on a quest for personal discovery.

I eventually reached a point where the "symbolic" and "conceptual world" described in his books just became a whirlwind of strange events and experiences that ceased to have any personal or constructive meaning for me, and I branched off onto another path.

Also - the Toltec books are WONDERFUL and much more relevant for practice in the day to day world. Too much reliance on psychoactives for insight can lead to some profoundly terrifying and pointless encounters after a certain point.

Good luck on your personal discovery.

well thx for that info

silly me , HAS the bloody DVD....

but did I bother to TRY them for myself ? Nooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!





lol


thx again 4 the reco

Hi Toasted and naZaH,
(Toasted, you must be British, "bloody" is not a Yankie term)
I am easely intimidated as by the recent comments here so I haven't posted further, but it could be interesting to enter a conversation about the positive aspects in C.C's teachings.
I find the emphasis on awareness the most intriguing factor in his writeings.
And liveing your ordinary life in full consiousness, pulling yourself out of the routine in the midts of it. Not being a Zombie.
Like maintaining a Zen state of mind, total presence.
Not all the fantastic encounters, but being present, as Don Juan points out time after time, all the "fire works" are just bait.
Well, just knock me down, See Ya Happy Tornado Season
WIS