Letters to the Editor

• An Allegory for Reality

  [Read the article: The dark legacy of Carlos Castaneda]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  Recently, while I was laid up with knee surgery, I reread Castenada's first book, "The Teachings of Don Juan" and happened to read the "Forward" to the book. Unfortunately, after looking around for awhile, I can't find my copy of it now, so if anyone wants to look this up to confirm or deny, that would be a help. Anyway, I believe it's written by the then head of the anthropology department at UCLA and says something about the book being written in the tradition of "ethnographic allegory" in anthropology. The basic concept is a presentation of ideas by stories, myths, or parables. I always thought it odd no one says too much about this. No one reads “forwards” perhaps? Although, I believe that Castenada was asked about this as allegory and never denied it. Now one could question if the idea was Don Juan was teaching him in allegory or is the Castenada's story an allegory, or both? A book that I found that actually discusses some of Castenada's work, including ethnographic allegory in anthropology, is "Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography". Ethnography is all about seeing through another culture's experience and meanings and not fitted into western culture's notions.

  During the early 1990s, I studied traditional shamanism of different cultures and had the good luck to work a little bit with a traditional indian healer (a Cuendero) from Panama (I believe). I was fascinated with it because of some extremely lucid dreaming that I used to do. At one point, working with her and some other in some energy work involving sound and energy vortices, I closed my eyes and saw rainbow colors emanating from my chakras. Actually, I saw them "blow" out because of the sounds and my body actually raised up off of the pad I was lying on when they "blew". It's funny, because up until that time, I didn't really believe in chakras and the cuendero wasn't interested in them. That night, after I got into bed and turned off the lights, I noticed pale pastel streamers of light emanating out from my body in all directions. They were maybe a foot long and an inch or two apart. You couldn't see them in the light, but you could see them in the dark. And I was sober as a nun. It was eerie. I stayed up until they faded away. And I never saw them again. I told the healer about it and she was nonchalant about it.

  Now, weirdly enough, I would take anyone relating that story to me with a grain of salt and maybe at an unconscious level I bought into some hype (at the time I was shocked at my experience), whatever, because I can tell you the experiences were as real to me as writing this. If they were an illusion, they were a hell of an illusion. So, personally, I think Castenada's first couple of books are factual in that he was relating his experience as a western culture man being forced to deal with this switch to seeing reality through another culture's "eyes". I think that just because of the clueless way that he stumbles through them. The books after that get more "glossy" and I think take on a life of their own (or the publisher's) although I think they are absolutely fascinating. I tend to think of them as dream realities, which makes much more sense. But I never really thought too much about them being real and I never really cared. They were a good game.

  I'm sure Castenada got really stupid crazy later on along in his life with his followers, but even followers must take responsibility for following. They were adults and they made a choice. Leaders notoriously seduce followers but the followers MAKE the leader (remember that next election). And as far as this article goes, my philosophy has always been that you can never really know what went on if you weren't there, so the truth is probably somewhere in the middle of what's being related. I think if anything the message Castanada intended to leave, fiction or nonfiction, is that reality's not exactly what you think it is. And for myself, I think he succeeded. Reading his books opened up my eyes to seeing the world in new ways and looking at how I think about things from many different views. If the price for that is that someone thinks I'm crazy, foolish, “snookered”, etc. Done. Price paid.

  P.S. I was a hippy, too. Rocked my world! Wouldn't trade that experience for anything.

  Permalink Thursday, April 12, 2007 04:37 PM