Letters to the Editor
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The birth of religion
I'm reminded of what my Humanities professor told me in college when I asked him if he thought don Juan was real. He said "what difference does it make?" I didn't like that answer at the time, but I have come to appreciate it. And as I read this article I'm struck by how the events it describes represent the primordial origin of religion. The great king or holy man surrounds himself with followers, subjects, family, and he lives his life like an object lesson. He practices what he preaches, performs miracles, journey's into the underworld, wins the great prize. Then he dies. But he doesn't die. His legacy is so great, the love of his people lives on, and his authority outlives his body. He rises again. Maybe his inner circle of priests embalm his body and prop him back up on his throne, and he continues to rule. We continue to worship him. We remember his words. Perhaps we await his second coming. We pray to him, our most wise & honored ancestor. I think Carlos Casteneda understood this. And I actually think Jesus understood it too. It's an anthropology object lesson. One wonders what mundane and sordid details a good fact-checker might have uncovered about the life of Jesus? I suppose inquiring minds want to know, but does that prove the meek will not inherit the Earth?
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Not really a matter of anthropology anymore
>> I think Carlos Casteneda understood this. And I actually think Jesus understood it too. <<
And don Juan? He was the one who got Carlos to write the books. But how could America ever suffer a poor backworld Indian to be their greatest sage? Better that he doesn't exist, and it is the high-brow stalwarts of American society that makes sure he doesn't. But the spirit he exemplified - his path of heart - is conquering the continent piece by piece.
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From the Author
After a brief vacation from matters Castaneda, I've read through all the responses to my article. An adequate reply to all of the fascinating points raised by readers would require a response as long as the original piece. Since I've had my say, I'll refrain. I do want to say that it wasn't in any way my intention to attack hippies, baby boomers, or alternative modes of cognition.
That said, I'd be quite interested in hearing from anyone who knew Castaneda personally. Or from anyone, such as Mike Jackson, who knew -- or knows -- members of his inner circle.
Or from Carol Tiggs.
Robert Marshall
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The Gospel of Judas
I suppose what I mean by an anthropological object lesson is that many of our most treasured religious ideas may have begun with a very clever person who understood how to cloak wisdom in magic. And that this does not, as one might suppose, represent a betrayal. It is how spiritual symbols are born. Sometimes, out of a sense of great responsibility (or audacity), wise men have stood behind the curtain & pretended to speak for God. Jesus taught in parables. Can there be any doubt that ancient peoples did not believe in the mythic world of Homer? Religious texts are full of miracles, but the literal is always a veneer for a deeper symbolic world of ideas. I'm fascinated by the recent discovery of the Gnostic Gospel of Judas. It describes a version of Christ who needed an assistant to help him pull off his grand finale. He needed a Judas to appear to betray him, so that he could fulfill prophesy and be sacrificed like a lamb. It was all planned. Now, Carlos Castaneda was no Jesus. And to extend the analogy, Carlos botched his finale. But for all his faults, Castaneda may have been, like many of us, just another human being trying to make of his time on earth something that would have power and meaning.
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Not an intellectual matter
How can an alternative mode of cognition be attacked if one doesn't know what it is, where it is, or even how it can exist at all? He didn't write all those books to tickle people's fancy about mythical ideas so as to build a religion. There is no religion. There never was. There was no intention to do so either, obviously.
Carol Tiggs wouldn't go near anyone so obviously with no real belief in the work, even if she is still around - highly unlikely.
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Hoax???
This in one of the most ridiculous articles I've ever read. Castaneda may have distorted the Toltec tradition for his own personal gain, but he did not make it up. As proof I suggest the author read the books by Theun Mares. There is ample proof in Mr. Mares books regarding the validity of the Toltec tradition.
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He Was a True Gentleman
I have been following the path with heart of the lineage of don Juan Matus for 25 years, and all that has been said in Carlos Castaneda books and taught by him personally has now, nearly ten years after his departure, become more real than ever to me.
I'm not part of Cleargreen and I’m not a believer, instead I have been corroborating many of the things beyond belief introduced by Carlos Castaneda’s work.
Moreover I knew him and spent quite some time with him and I never ever experienced any of the negative things or interpretations described in Amy Wallace’s book, or in this article, or by the trash-scavenger couple, or by Richard Jennings, (all of whom I knew well)-in fact on the contrary, Carlos Castaneda was a true gentleman and his, was a world of elegance and beauty.
Those people named above attacking Carlos Castaneda and his work remind me of 'The Fable of the Fox and the Grapes':
One hot summer's day a Fox was strolling through an
orchard till he came to a bunch of grapes just ripening on
a vine which had been trained over a lofty branch.
"Just the thing to quench my thirst," said he. Drawing
back a few paces, he took a run and a jump, and just
missed the bunch.
Turning round again with a One, Two, Three, he jumped up,
but with no greater success. Again and again he tried
after the tempting morsel, but at last had to give it up,
and walked away with his nose in the air, saying: "I am
sure they are sour."
Æsop. (Sixth century B.C.)
It’s a shame that in my case too it is better to remain anonymous since some people have nearly succeeded in bringing back the age of witch hunts.
Shame on you!
Or maybe should I say "thank you petty tirants! You made me stronger..."