Letters to the Editor
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Damnthatxanadu, et al.
I am talking about superstition, not imagination. That is clear isn't it? Imagination is fantastic. Superstition is wrongly applied imagination. And it only serves to put you in a small box. Superstitions are repressive. All of those lovely things you list were the product of imagination and rationality NOT superstition.
Where would the human race be if there had been more ivanveen's? Well we'd be zipping around in zero emmissions hovercraft in an ecological paradise that's where we'd be. Our current president is a deeply superstitious man, that is what drives him, and look where it has taken us? Nothing good comes out of superstition.
Damnthatxanadu, I suggest you brush up on your western history. You might start with The dark ages, then move to the Rennaisance, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution.
Btw. I live in a box the size of the universe. It is the "spitritual" seekers and the superstitious who live in tiny boxes, confined by their own neediness and lack of imagination; and you are the ones who drag us down, one way or the other.
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yes, we wanted to see wierd magic
An interesting letter from someone who'd been in a cult, and had seen impressive acts of magic, wondering how we hung in there with carlos when nothing overtly "magic" occurred. .
Carlos emphasized the extreme subtlety of magic, and daily told us there were things he could perceive that we couldn't (pretty wild stuff. . .) because he had more energy. All the stuff he taught us was meant to destroy our self-importance, which would give us the energy boost to perceive as he did. Many people in the group had wacky dreaming experiences (which they weren't to speak of) -- however the "giant footless pigeon from another world" was never visible to any of us, and we sure wanted to see it. He'd promise to bring it to us, then would say we "weren't ready", and it "would be too much for us".
One poor guy really got his knickers in a twist because Carlos told him a wall was in his backyard, and it wasn't there, and Carlos berated him for not seeing it, the guy was almost in tears. I think he felt it was his own failing. Carlos was near death at this point and by all accounts was suffering dementia.
To whoever wrote that post: I'd love to know what you did see! I saw psychic surgeries in Brazil an inch from my eyes, so I know there was no chicken liver, etc. But Carlos never did that sort of thing. He was the most amazing public speaker I've ever seen, that was mojo!
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Marshall
The work of Carlos Castaneda is non-fiction all the way, except where it was necessary to change names, dates, etcetera - a sorcerer's prerogative whether we like it or not. I respect that other's have a different point of view.
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Castaneda was a hack
Which is the best evidence that Don Juan, in some form or another, actually existed. As another commenter noted, it's possible Carlos met the man he calls Don Juan, invented enough bogus material about him to comply with his requests for anonymity, and then proceeded to muck up perfectly good wisdom with his own creepy New Age nostrums.
The Jefferson Bible is the product of Thomas Jefferson's belief that the NT contains pearls of wisdom "as easily distinguishable as diamonds in a dunghill." This is the case with Castaneda's first 3 books. After that Castaneda went out of his way to force what he'd been taught to match his own desires for fame and a way out of dying. In fact, all you have to do is read what Don Juan says about death, and compare it to the contortions Carlos goes through in the later books to convince himself that Don Juan secretly meant you can avoid it, to know Carlos misses entirely the primary lesson of his friend "Don Juan." By the time tensegrity came around Carlos was completely immersed in a world of complete bullshit.
But that's pretty much what Don Juan told him would happen to him.
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Tales of power
had some of the original teachings in it as well.
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Amy Wallace
Thanks again for your posts. They shed a lot of light on this phonmenon. I am a little disturbed by your phsychic surgery comment though. This phenomonon has been debunked over and over, by observers who were inches from the act of the "surgery" but later analyzed the material removed whcich contained some other animal DNA. There is a fantastic prestidigitator in my town, who I have concentrated on with all my might and I swear he is pulling giant bottles of beer right out from the wood of the table! Of course he wasn't, but some of these people are very good. You really can't believe your eyes all the time (that also applies to very charismatic people as well!!!)
Now, I am going to be extremely presumptuous and do a Cary Tennis, and say that you might not be over the phase that allowed you to be drawn into the Casteneda cult in the first place. My prescription is for you to take an intro physics course. Physics is as close to magic as the sciences come. It is great stuff. Science will also teach you a permanent state of skepticism, which will serve you well. The fundamental tennant of science is skepticism, and a scienctist should never say he or she knows anything. Instead they should say "according to the evidence, this appears to be the case." There should always be room for revision or out and out change in your theory. Unfortuantely this means that you need to have a certain level of comfort with ambiguity, but you can learn that.
Okay now I'm sounding like a science evangelist, sorry Amy, but maybe you get my drift maybe you don't. I only mean well by it and hope you are not offended (which maybe you are or should be).
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What part of sorcery don't you understand?
I have read all of CC's books a half a dozen times at different periods in my life, and see more and more in them. The story: CC, an anthropology student meets a Yaqui Indian sorcerer who perceives that CC has some potential and decides to take him seriously. CC doesn't know what he's looking for at the time, perhaps an introduction to the psychedelic drug, jimson weed, and the ways in which the sorcerer don Juan and other Yaquis use it in their rituals.
From the start, don Juan takes on the task of teaching CC the ancient knowledge of his line of sorcerers who date back to a time before this continent was "discovered" by Europeans. He's obligated to continue his lineage of sorcerers by finding and training likely sorcerers. After many years of searching, he finds CC and recognizes his potential immediately. Why the spirit world would send him such a stupid gringo, who knows nothing of other ways of perceiving, and is tied to his plastic life in LA, he is at a loss to figure out. But don Juan takes him on and puts him through hell in order to wake him to a sorcerer's world where different rules apply.
The books are beautifully written, and don Juan's lessons reveal profound truths about power, about magic. "Journey To Ixtlan" depicts the price CC has to pay to become a man of knowledge. He must walk out on his former life, his beliefs, his friends, everything. He has to choose his world, Plasticland, or he can be alone in a world of greater knowledge.
Marshall characterizes CC as a literary trickster, a hoax; there never was a don Juan, and he's gathered, a far from objective, crew of individuals to say bad things about him, the ex-wife, fellow writers (an envious bunch) and disappointed followers.
Did he make it up? I don't think so. I find him to be straightforward throughout. He's not a good disciple; don Juan comes to a different assessment of him and his inappropriateness as a leader of another group of sorcerers.
Throughout his apprenticeship, don Juan's departure, and his estrangement from the small band of sorcerers he had trained with, he writes his books and becomes so famous he has to go into hiding. It gets sketchy after that, women start popping up in his life, and then "Tensegrity," workshops open to the public teaching Aztec exercises. I can't speak to CC's intentions at the time, I don't know them. Don Juan's teachings are for sorcerers, not a common prescription for the public, and he was very clear in his thoughts on sex as debilitating, a weakness to be avoided.
To ask if CC made it all up, is not to have understood his books. Don Juan would dismiss the question as fatuous.
As the only seeress in Manhattan, I am beholden to CC for all he has taught me through his books. A Catholic girl who dreamed of eagles, sorcerers and bears, the books were a hand reaching out to help me, I was not alone with my differing interpretation of the world.