I did some more Internet research on Carlos Castaneda over the weekend, and I found a fairly recent article about him that was very thoroughly researched and thoughtfully written, called "The Dark Legacy of Carlos Castaneda." It makes fascinating reading, and it's an eye-opener. Here's the link: http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2007/04/12/castaneda/index.html Based on what I now know, I think I'm going to remove the blurb about Castaneda from the back page of my website. I still think the guy was brilliant - a supremely gifted writer and storyteller, and probably fairly scholarly. And apparently he had some real insights about the nature of reality. However I'm now seriously thinking that I might be more psychic than he ever was. I can no longer in good conscience recommend his books to people looking for a spiritual path. Most of the ideas in his books can be found in Zen Buddhism, anyway, which is a genuine path that has stood the test of 2.5 millennia. And for spiritual advice from a truly gifted psychic, I'll continue recommending Sonia Choquette. But I'm interested in seeing what others think about all this.
Well, I guess anybody can write anything and it is up to the individual to choose whether to believe it or not. This argument about Carlos has been going on since he started writing these books. I guess it is just a choice. You can believe Carlos or take the opposite stand. I, personally, had some things happen to me that makes me believe in Carlos. It's a personal choice. I don't intend to sway anybody this way or that. It is just a belief I hold. I must say though, I do not condone experimenting with peyote or any other drug to raise consciousness. I think you should get there on your own juices. Carlos himself said that Don Juan told him that the reason he insisted Carlos use the drugs was because Carlos was none to bright, LOL. Am I right or wrong about that. Anyway, that is how I feel about the whole thing.....
I really don't care too much about swaying anybody. But I like to have factual info as much as possible, and this article has information that seems valuable to me. Did you read the article, Windy? It's not just somebody's opinions. There's a lot of info in the article about things Carlos and the witches did and said, based on interviews with people who knew them or observed them. For example, it notes that during the time that Carlos wrote about Carol Tiggs vanishing into the nagual, she had actually split from his inner circle, had gone to live in Pacific Palisades, enrolled in acupuncture school, and got married. He apparently lured her back to the group years later by making her into the Nagual Woman in his books. Now does all this mean he actually had no genuine experience of the kinds he described? Well, I still don't really know that, and maybe nobody does. He frequently told his first wife that he was going out to the desert, and would vanish for days at a time. There is some guy who has an extensive website about Carlos, and he claims to have known Carlos and other people mentioned in Carlos' books, and he says he saw Carlos and his friend Bill together at the Nogales Greyhound Bus station around the time Carlos claims he was there and met Don Juan. Then again, I don't know anything about this guy who made the website. There is a LOT I don't know. And I still haven't made up my mind about removing the blurb on Carlos from my website. I agree that you should get there on your own juices - but it was after I had my eyes opened from a peyote experience that I made that decision. I was none too bright, either - I had to be knocked over the head, and it was one of the most important experiences of my life. You can throw out all the other drugs, as far as I'm concerned, but peyote is the Divine Cactus. I just tried it the one time, but that was enough to change my view of reality for the rest of my life. You left with an intriguing tidbit un-elaborated, Windy. Would you be willing to talk about the experiences you had that make you believe Carlos?
Sure zen, it's fascinating reading ... and makes me glad i never really got into it. From reading that it seems like these 'people of power' became, like normal vulnerable people again, experiencing the flipside of their lie. Ego can become absolutely rampant and indeed some people do literally live a complete lie and fool many many people, sometimes leaving mutch devastation in their selfish wake. ... but who really knows the truth of it; with sooo many opinions, i often find the best thing to do with ambiguity like this is to simply disregard the lot of it, and hence give it no power in my sometimes vulnerable psyche. I've had 'witches' in my life ... my second girlfriend, 'M' was openly a 'witch' ... yeah sure she was different from most young women and would use teas and herbs and stuff but the 'witch' thing is often just a self proclaimed persona for a lot of young women who are drawn to something a little less ordinary. My relationship with 'K' came right on the heels of my relationship with 'M' and one day the subject arose ... a 'witch' on TV wearing a pointy hat; and 'K' says, "She's not a witch", so quite innocently i respond "How would you know? Are you a witch?" and suddenly she gets uptight about it saying "I'd rather not answer that question." - I think that was the begining of the end of our relationship for her... Such secrets eh!! And recently 'Ella' ... although young and innocent, her beauty and charm was possibly dangerous for me, but by now i'd learned to read the little telltale sighns, which in her case i don't think she was aware of ... lets just say she dsplayed some potential, and it was upon noticing these little sighns and symbols which made me not persue anything deeper with her, and so we had no 'relationship' but in a sense i consider her an 'ex' simply because we knew eachother for a long time and were attracted to eachother.... we did share something. Yet a story or a myth comes to light with these three in particular in light of my dreams of the triple goddess in the last 8 years or so, because these three girls are all 'one of three' sisters and it seems to be a part of my own 'myth' that i am (or have been ) drawn to this type of woman. Why am i drawn to them? Because they reflect a part of me ... the witch within me, the triple goddess within me; they reflect my anima, my feminine self and in a sense, yes, my spirit who guides and teaches me and steers my fate. But what happens when you recognise this reflection as just that ... a reflection of 'yourself'? Does fate seem to come from outside and seem scary and bewildering sometimes? ...or does recognising it actually give you the realisation that you (your spirit ... who you really are) have been guiding your own fate unawares all along, and in knowing this can now become master of your own fate, concious and aware. So this is what seems to be happening with me, and in short, i see a similar thing going on with you and i've been wanting to tell you for a short while now to perhaps give some credence to the idea that these women in your life ... your 'guides' as you call them, are reflecting something within yourself. Perhaps looking in this mirror, you should be thinking "That's me that is!"?
Well Liquid, as I was reading about your three witches I was thinking that I have exactly three witches too...wtf that means I really couldn't say. Of course none of them was an avowed, bona fide witch. In fact, one was a pentecostal Christian. But your thought about these three women reflecting something within myself - obviously this must be true, and LL, I'm going to probably give this a lot more thought. And of COURSE, it's really me directing my own journey, through these experiences and relationships, trying to show me my own "missing" pieces. And I must say, I certainly would like to find and manifest those pieces within myself. Occasionally I'll do or say something kind of ummm witchy...and I'll think, "My God, I'm becoming Emily." As the line goes in Fight Club, "Tyler's words coming out of my mouth...and I used to be such a nice guy!"
Well, to me is is apparent that he has had experiences outside consensual reality. That is what makes the parts of his books that are fictional much more real, and makes the real parts so fascinating and resonant. oh, & hi guys! I read accounts from a different source than this (an anthropological critique of his dissertation) which was actually quite fair. They also came to the conclusion that Don Juan was at best an amalgamation of different shaman he interviewed and/or studied with but that there are some key anthropological issues with the stories. However, the salon piece, while it may be accurate, is still a character assassination piece and I don't like it for that reason. Bold all the slanted words in the story and it hurts. That's what your subconscious is getting full blast as you read. Bleah. But very interesting, none the less. I'm pretty sure that they have the story correct from a particular point of view but interpretation is best left en plein-air not a function of the cheap tricks of psychology.
Well hey, Moonchilde! Yeah, good point about the point of view. I've read the article ummm three times now, I think, most recently tonight. As I was reading it tonight, I did a slide into one of my favorite alternative points of view, engendered by my witch Emily, who btw treated me remarkably similarly to the way "don Juan" treated Carlos - and the way Carlos treated his own disciples. Reading the article from this point of view, I found myself amused at Carlos' delicious demonstrations of absurdity - the kind of absurdity that would shake some folks from their too-rational groundings. I appreciate your thoughts.
Zen, for me, if i break it down to it's simplest form it's simply sun/moon (three phases of the moon ...and the moon reflecting the light of the sun) stuff, but heck i'm tired so i'll get back tomorrow
I don't know Zen. I really do respect your opinion, but when it comes to Carlos, it seems like it's a matter of "he said, she said." The next thing you know, somebody will come out with "proof" that he is who he says he is. This seems to be the never ending case of Carlos Castenada. ... I have never done peyote. Everything else but, LOL... But I must say, it is very tempting even to this day. It's just that I am a skeptic at heart and any spiritual experience I had on "drugs"...well, I would just chalk it up to drugs. Anything experienced on my own I know is TRUTH. As for talking about my experiences that make me believe that Carlos was on the level...well, maybe in a PM someday....Cheers Zengizmo...
As for the way Don Juan treated Carlos, and the way, in turn, Carlos treated his disciples, well, to me that is a way of helping a person get rid of that thing that follows me around like the plague...EGO...lol...
Exactly, Windy - ego. "Self-importance," as Carlos called it. And here again - this is truth, and Carlos stated it so clearly. I haven't made up my mind about Carlos. I thought maybe I had, but you and Moonchilde have shone light on my own reservations. Windy, I respect and value your thoughts. And I'm still searching and looking for understanding... Oh, and btw, in the long, intervening years since my peyote experience, I HAVE experienced similar effects without peyote's influence. This tells me that the peyote experience was genuine. I'm a skeptic too, Windy. [*sigh*]
I'm sure the few times i did 'E' leading upto my kundalini/death (life) experience, although i'd unconciously been doing some intense work on myself, was instrumental and neccesary in waking me up ...slapping me around the face and throwing a bucket of cold water over me, so to speak, .. dissolving the last stubborn threads of ego and shaking me out of illusion and unconciousness. In hindight, it was all part of a process of going with the flow, that last part of completely letting go was kinda like the final part of a painful and almost typical (historically) initiation. I was on the verge of destroying myself and the 'E' was needed, otherwise i may have. Sometimes i wonder if my body actually died for a short while but in any case i found out it was an illusion i was letting go of, ... the old me had died, .. that's what it was, because i'd been though a process of disidentifying with that old me ... slowing identifying with spirit ,... and this took faith because i didn't 'know', and slowly took courage to let go of an old life and an old me, someone who was actually really nice but just unconcious of his conciousness ...? kinda like you say zen ... being more psychic than you know... more open than you know. Anyway ... on one level i feel that the human use of drugs to alter conciousness, is in some kind of symbolic way, simply an outward expression of a process of altering conciousness within, ... extreme and rapid expansion in conciousness. It needn't be that way once one's conciousness is changed, but i just think there is a piece of small print somewhere which allows for the use of psychadelics (and anything really) in whatever circumstance.
Destroying yourself...it sounds like you did destroy yourself - figuratively. My spirit guide Emily once told me out loud to my face, "You're looking for freedom, but you don't know what it is." "I've never experienced it," I replied. "Exactly," she said. I'm going to quote from the movie Fight Club again. Tyler: Self-improvement is masturbation. Now, self-destruction... Read about "E" - never done it. I suppose if I needed it, the universe would supply it.
