I wanted to share with the people on this board that the books by Carlos Castanada are nothing short of awe inspiring. I have only read journey to Ixlan but the benifits are amazing. A way to enlightenment it seems. The ideas presented where validated by a shaman that i was fortunate enough to spend 2 days with on a chance meeting in Georgia.

Well I'm the opposite of you in the respect that I've only read The Teachings of Don Juan and A Separate Reality, yet to read Journey to Ixlan. I thoroughly enjoyed both books and found them to be very insighful and whilst there are many people out there who claim they are nothing but fiction my response is "Who cares?"
The insights and the messages and the thoughts provoked by reading these books make the authenticity obsolete in my opinion.
Work of fiction? Factual documentary?
'Tis of no importance and shouldn't deter away from the fact that these books should be on everyones reading list.

A huge chunk of my own foundation paradigm as well. Castaneda had some really good ideas, whether he actually lived them or not. It's unfortunate that the Trugreen corp. became such a money cult.

If you like those books, you might also pick up a copy of The Celestine Prophecy - inspired by Castaneda's work and while not written with the same intellectual edge, it is written in the same tradition of telling a story about a message. Very practical as well, whereas the Castaneda books take a little critical thinking, not that it's not a good thing.

I've found that many of the books on 'toltec wisdom' like the books by Don Miguel Ruiz, have a good philosophy on life that seems, to me, to be very similar if not identical to the ideal frame of mind for a dedicated magician.

peace

when i was in middle school a friend of mine showed me the celestine prophecy. That book taught me to see energy and was the first step to where i am now. But it's been awile,

By far the most interesting explanations of life Ive ever read. It pretty much explains everything when you think about it. Have you been able to apply any of the techniques into your life?

This post has been edited by Xochipilli: Jan 12 2007, 09:03 PM

Oh certainly. Don Juan's techniques for recapitulation are truly excellent for overcoming desire and attachment, which is what I believe is meant by 'reclaiming one's energy' from the past. His techniques for dreaming are also excellent exercises as well that have really benefited my own journey towards mastering my dreams.

I have work with the 'assemblage' point minimally, as working with it without the aid of a nagual/shaman is virtually impossible. But, I find that during moments of gnosis my assemblage point seems to become less defined. When I try moving it one way or another, however, it firms up again.

Controlled folly is another fascinating idea about living life that has served me constantly since I finally figured out what it means. It is a philosophy that alleviates that sense of "I'm not expressing who I really am" that can occur often, especially during periods of life in which you are working towards purely worldly matters that don't seem to have as much to do with what you really want to accomplish.

Stalking helps to understand one's habits, thought patterns, and belief structures better than almost any technique I have encountered, and I use a version of it when teaching students to become aware of energy in the world around them.

I feel each book should be read twice. Once to grasp it intellectually, and then once again to follow along experientially. Reading it the second time through, for me, really opened up a dimension of the work that I couldn't grasp until I had the whole thing already in my mind, to see everything in context.

peace

I like everything you said except ,maybe the little blurb about the assemblage point. There just not enough gurus, masters, and shamans to go around. Everything you need to know has already been learned. So just find it its already there. No guru or brujo needed. Dreaming is not exactly dangerous and well messing with your assemblege point can be but you have to just handle it with kid gloves. Waiting on someone thats a real brujo i might as well quit now....lol

Castaneda is a genius. Anyone that says its fiction. I believe just does not have the ability to dig through the parables and the drug induced states to make any sense of it. The "art of dreaming" should be mandatory for any dreamer. And the second ring of power, and journey to ixtalan, and the teachings of Don Juan. Shamanism at its best.