Letters to the Editor
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Tensegrity
There have been challenges to said debunkers in Marshall's piece to make up just one small magical pass... if it is so easy. No takers ever. There are hundreds of those passes, each of startling import and variety - that can only be the result of thousands of years of evolution within the tradition, as is claimed.
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I never knew what to think of Carlos Castenanda. Thank you.
I am 59 yrs old.
I have some of his books. I could never make out his stories which I could never read to the finish.
I figured it must be my low-brow simple brain although I wanted to be 'in' with what was current, promoted and popular.
Thank you for clearing up this big question mark in my mind.
So, unfortunately like other smart but attention seeking people, he was a user and a con - same old tricks with lies, sex, control, manipulation - the sum total of which adds up to evil in my book.
What preposterous claims that he would not die like other other people and how nutty that one cannot be ill. One should never be too careful of those who carry the banner of enlightenment who say, 'Follow me'.
What a world ! as if it were not confusing enough already...those who set out to deliberately add confusion will reap their karmic rewards.
THANK YOU.
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The Warrior's Way
Carlos Castaneda was a talented journalist whose indulgent lifestyle led to a very muddled reportage on the Warrior's Way. He really didn't begin to get a grasp on what he'd stumbled upon until his sixth book, The Eagle's Gift. And that same lifestyle kept him from being able to capitalize on any of the advantages offered by the Warrior's Way. The Warrior's Way is contained in the words of Don Juan, not in any supposed legacy of one indulgent journalist and his group of followers. Castaneda's life makes good copy for scandal mongers and would-be debunkers, while the beauty and power of the Warrior's Way remains untouched and unexplored by a spiritually bankrupt Western culture that prides itself on being the thoughtless slave of science and self-reflection.
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Hecate, you make sense to me.
" The ones who tend to children and messed up family members every day. The ones who seem to know exactly the right thing to say. The ones who work tirelessly for social change because they believe in humanity.
Seeing white glowy orbs isn't difficult or special. Living in a way that's fully alive and fully responsive to others is incredibly difficult and sometimes very painful--for no other reason than because there is not a lot of support in this world at this time for the hard and quiet work of just being, and just trying to make being a little easier and a little brighter for others."
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Zen and Motorcycles...
"Take another new age philosophy book that is perhaps less controversial: Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance. Perhaps you've actually read that one? Are there any worthy concepts inthat book? Does it matter whether the story is literally true or not? Would it matter to teh quality of the book and its concpets if it was learned sometime after his death that Pirsig was a philandering jerk of some sort?
-- Samson141"
You assume that a Gen Xer like me would reduce myself to spending precious, valuable time out of my day reading about existential nonsense. But alas, that would not be the case.
But, if Pirsig was a philandering jerk that manipulated the minds of others, to the point where some of his followers might have committed suicide, then yes, I might just take exception to anything they had to say...hell, everything they say!
If you can't practice what you preach, then how can you possibly expect others to take you seriously?
Want proof of the corrosive effects that charlatans like Castaneda can create, with all of this Me-Me-Me philosophical bullshit? Read this one, from this very forum:
"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.
-- luhren"
And people fault MY generation for being self-centered?
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David L.
I'm a member of Generation X. I read and was intrigued by Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Many Gen Xers did. We also read Be Here Now, embraced Richard Bach's Illusions, and felt a strong connection to established classics like Hesse's Demian and Steppenwolf.
At this point, I don't really agree with a lot that they have to say, but I took much of it to heart back then, and I was hardly alone in this. It was a fairly common experience for those of us in high school and college around that time: the mid-80's through the early 90's. There was also a big hippie revival going on that a lot of Xers embraced (Lennon and Hendrix and acid were quite the sensation).
Your cliched image of Boomers and Xers doesn't fit what actually was going on with either. Don't let two movies, Clerks and Slacker, define your perimeters. They were two parts of a larger picture.
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Its a forced path.
"Want proof of the corrosive effects that charlatans like Castaneda can create, with all of this Me-Me-Me philosophical bullshit? Read this one, from this very forum:
"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.""
It doesn't mean anything, it's just another copyist. How many Jesus's or Picasso's have their been since Jesus or Picasso? They are not an argument against Jesus or Picasso.
You will sooner rid the influence of Plato on literature than that of Carlos Castaneda.
There is no proof that he was a charlattan or had lovers in those late years. Amy Wallace is the only one who has made that accusation, and her motives are highly dubious. What really happened to her would happen to anyone who falls foul of the sorcerer's world: they only get back the ordinary reality they are really seeking. Sorcerer's stalk the end - give it an appearance of themselves that the world is satisfied with - good or bad - and then vanished unnoticed. The sorcerer does his work and then the world appends itself accordingly: death certyificates, liver cancer, harems etcetera. What else could the world believe of Carlos Castaneda and his work? That his impeccability ran us all in circles? That the Blue Scout really was of another sort of human expression amid the universe?
If you wish to peek into the sorcerers' world you have to do the work, sorcery 101, and no one has time for that. Its a forced path.