I have been reading books written by Carlos Castaneda over the past year or so on and off. The ones about his apprenticeship with a Yaqui indian named don Juan. Very fascinating books. I believe they are some of the most important books anyone could ever read.
Has anyone else out there heard of such books or read them? If so, what is your opinion on them?
For anyone who hasn’t read them, please go right now to your local library and look for Carlos Castaneda. It changed my life entirely and I am sure they will change yours. I cannot stress enough how important these books are, no matter what you support or your backround. Even if you don’t agree with the books they are very very good reads.
Those books are very well written. I think that Castenada is a skillful storyteller. Yet I distrust them as a literal account of events. I doubt all of those miracles and magic happened just the way he described them. The writing is just too tricky to take at face value.
Yes, I read them years ago when I was a kid. At first I was like this is amazing! Then, I said to myself, hey if he has found this spirit world where guys can shoot magic cables out of their belly buttons then how come no one else is talking about it.
On one hand, he and the Indians were doing drugs, but on the other he said that he saw a man walk across a waterfall by shooting his navel cables across the falls and catching them on a tree. In this case it seems that he had to have been lying. I guess?
I think you just misunderstood it, Alderian. Like xanderman said, “You cannot look at it for its face value. You must see behind the words.” Don Juan forbids Carlos to follow his words to the letter, but to understand them and create a personal meaning for them. Just like when learning anything that is just beyond your intellect. Everyone is different. To mention something like this in one single way and expect everyone to understand the face value is foolish. That is why wise teachers try to explain their concepts in multiple perspectives. What you think are “cables” are actually not anything of the sort. Not sure how you came up with that.
Also, don Juan enforced sobriety. He used “powerplants” to open his apprentices mind to alternate realities. He, himself, didn’t touch them. They were only used for a short period of time as the first stages of teaching his apprentice. I quote:
“Why did you make me take those power plants so many times?” I asked. (Carlos)
He laughed and mumbled very softly. " 'Cause you’re dumb." (don Juan)
He tapped me on the head as he walked by me. “Your’re rather slow,” he said. “And there was no other way to jolt you.”
“So none of that was necessary?” I asked.
“It was, in your case. There are other types of people, however, that do not seem to need them.”
xanderman, it is funny that you mention that. Recently, I was wondering that same thing. If the events were is some kind of order, that is. I kept getting the feeling they weren’t. Don Juan did emphasize disorder.
The books are written in such a way as to open one’s mind to the possibilities that exist within the universe and our capacity as human beings to master chi (energy) and to grow. We are not simply flesh and blood. They speak in a language that the spirit is able to identify with, they are not meant to be taken literally. However, I believe that the places on the astral plane that Castaneda describes do actually exist, but they are part of the energy realm and therefore we need not concern ourselves with them. Castaneda is a teacher of spirit to help us along our journey - but we must not get caught up, we must keep on moving now that our minds are open.
I agree the Casteneda books have unique and powerful things to say. Whether people have belly cables didn’t seem like the important question to me. There were times when I’d ask myself “could I really believe this?”, but those issues were a sideshow. The idea that the work can be seen, believed, and understood in completely different , contradictory, and yet functional ways doesn’t require me to decide that some claim from this alternate worldview can be understood or favorably evaluated within my own.
Well, I think that it is fairly important to say that I ate a cactus and then saw into a different realm where people were actually luminous eggs with energy cables that they were able to shoot out of their navels and do tricks with. I read these books about twenty years ago and can still remember the descriptions. I don’t know how they could be missed.
Frankly, I do not appreciate chicanery when I am reading what is supposed to be a realistic account of someone’s journeys. The author said that he saw these old men doing fantastic feats in the real world. So far no one else has seen these things reproduced and so I must conclude that he is making them up. Whatever message that the books have was marred for me by the fantastic quality of the guy’s lies.
I don’t ever remember reading about “cables”. I do remember being able to focus your will on objects through your solar plexus which is located around your navel area, but never any actual physical cables. Maybe this is just your personal understanding of it.
On another note, people gather in seminars all over the US and the world to discuss about these matters. Many people see and experience what Carlos explains in his books. I am one of them. They just haven’t walked up to you and openly talked about it out of no where to you in your daily life. I mean philosophy isn’t so popular either. Maybe the reason why not so many people know about this type of thinking is because they are afraid of it? The truth hurts.
You are too rational, Alderian. People who think too much just give themselves headaches. You said yourself that you experienced what the books described yet your reason tells you it was all lies. But it happened! Isn’t that proof enough?
Also, if you read up on some quantum physics they are starting to sound very similar to what these books discuss. For example the String Theory.
I don’t know how you missed it. There was a story in book two (I believe) about an old man walking across the waterfall. This is when the Indians decided to display what could be done with the navel cables. Also, book one was filled with the luminous egg thing.
Afterwards I did some research on what Peyote was and that answered a lot.
Also, you can bet that I do not believe what just anyone tells me.
I’ve only read the first 3, though I have the rest of the series in a box somewhere…
But I think it helps to read these stories and other like it just as I read books based in ancient Greece; as fiction that is ment to expand the imagination that can later be used in a more practical manner. Throughly keeping ‘luminous eggs’ and other plot-fluff where it belongs, in the context of the story.
I think there’s a strong case to be made against Casteneda’s claims that this alternate worldview actually works, enabling people to perform what we consider impossible feats. It’s OK to engage in that discussion and it’s reasonable to reject those claims and resent Casteneda’s use of them.
But it’s possible to read the books and find illumination in a wide range of the teachings there without engaging in this sort of evaluation of a particular set of claims that contradict our reality. More important that whether a man can leap across a waterfall is whether he can leap out of his personal history. More important than whether one can gain information about people by seeing them as luminous eggs is not as exciting as the suggestion that one might think of every living moment as one’s last battle on earth.
So the critiques are valid. I don’t want to silence them. But there are teachings that I don’t think are suceptible to those critiques, and for me they don’t necessarily stand or fall together.
Well, what type of teachers are you talking about? The ones from college or before? They did not lie to you. They study this reality and gave you very good teachings on it. Don Juan proposes that there is much more out there. Your teachers didn’t lie they just weren’t as aware. It is no use trying go on about this with you so I will stop it here but with a little farewell quote …
“Do you know that at this very moment you are surrounded by eternity? And do you know that you can use that eternity, if you so desire?”
“There! Eternity is there! Or there! Or here!” - Hahaha
I would like to elaborate onto tjb’s post. Again, you cannot take this kind of stuff for its face value. Look behind the words. Like you would with fine poetry. These books can be compared to the bible in many ways. To take the bible literally is completely foolish and that is why we have full fledged jesus humping christians running around trying to run everyone’s life. It is fine to not accept what the books are about but please don’t mock it in disrespect.