Teachings of Don Juan Options

http://www.prismagems.com/castaneda/djintro.html

    The basic premise of sorcery for a sorcerer is that the world of everyday life is not real, or out there, as we believe it is. For a sorcerer, reality, or the world we all know, is only a description.
      For the sake of validating this premise I will concentrate the best of my efforts into leading you into a genuine conviction that what you hold in mind as the world at hand is merely a description of the world; a description that has been pounded into you from the moment you were born.
      Everyone who comes into contact with a child is a teacher who incessantly describes the world to him, until the moment when the child is capable of perceiving the world as it is described. We have no memory of that portentous moment, simply because none of us could possibly have had any point of reference to compare it to anything else. From that moment on, however, the child is a member . He knows the description of the world; and his membership becomes full-fledged, perhaps, when he is capable of making all the proper perceptual interpretations which, by conforming to that description, validate it.
      The reality of our day-to-day life, then, consists of an endless flow of perceptual interpretations which we, the individuals who share a specific membership, have learned to make in common.

I'm planning to get the complete set of the "Teachings of Don Juan".
1968--The Teachings of don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge
1971--A Separate Reality: Further Conversations with don Juan
1972--Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of don Juan
1974--Tales Of Power
1977--The Second Ring of Power
1981--The Eagle's Gift
1984--The Fire From Within
1987--The Power of Silence: Further lessons of don Juan
1993--The Art of Dreaming
1999--The Active Side of Infinity.

Does anyone here have read these and thus has experience with them? If so what is your opinion about them?

Greetings!
Add to your list, "Magical Passes", C. Casteneda, 1998
I've only read the above book and the books in your list down to "The Eagles Gift". I have found myself wrestling with these books from the time of their publication. I liked them. Alot... But (there's always a 'but') sometimes they left me abit confused. I attribute this to two things, one, personal laziness, and two, the authors writing style. You've inspired me to drag out the books and reread them. Perhaps after reading them again I'll be able to converse intelligently ( (IMG:style_emoticons/default/horse.gif) ) about them and their contents. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

From what I understood these books give a nice indepth view on a shaman and philosophy. In many books which I've read there were made references towards Don Juan's teachings, which made me curious to try (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

The books listed are the only ones I could find information about, but I'll have a look for the one you've mentioned as well.

Greetings!
Add to your list, "Magical Passes", C. Casteneda, 1998
I've only read the above book and the books in your list down to "The Eagles Gift". I have found myself wrestling with these books from the time of their publication. I liked them. Alot... But (there's always a 'but') sometimes they left me abit confused. I attribute this to two things, one, personal laziness, and two, the authors writing style. You've inspired me to drag out the books and reread them. Perhaps after reading them again I'll be able to converse intelligently ( (IMG:style_emoticons/default/horse.gif) ) about them and their contents. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wacko.gif)

Ahhh, the books that started the New Age. Bym, you might want to try out reading some Ken Eagle Feather, or maybe Victor Sanchez. Both condense and interperet Castaneda rather flitty writing style (though I never had a problem). I would say that Eagle Feather is probably the more thorough of the two. Also don't forget to read Florinda Donner Grau and Taisha Abelar's books. I must admit that I never did like Magical Passes very much, some of its content lacks the neccessary description to complete some passes. Many of the passes are rather artificial as well. You're probably better off studying with a very good Chen Style or Aikido teacher.

This post has been edited by Bb3: Jan 13 2006, 12:41 AM

Carlitos is amazing. There are a whole group of his detractors that say he made the whole thing up. Well, maybe he and Frank Herbert were drinking from the same well. Casteneda has a lot to teach average people who don't have a sorcerer to guide them, but most of this usefull stuff is in the first three books. They scared the hell out of me in my teens. I mean scared the HELL out of me.
Him alone in the middle of nowhere with the Ally jumpin up and down on his neck? Holly bejeesiz! But a lot about stopping the internal dialogue, taking stuff seriously and generally living a tight life and being comitted and not "indulgent" is worth its weight in gold, fake or not. I think he's a major contributor to metaphysical literature and traditions. See? Not snotty again...
P

I am not ashamed to say that I loved the writings of Carlos Casteneda. They are immensely readable and although the teachings of Don Juan was, in some instances, a bit obscure and peculiar to our cultures, all that he said has, in my case, become so logical and sensible. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tomato.gif)

Just as a matter of interest, while you are hurling tomatoes at me (I may as well get this said at the same time) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tomato.gif) I also admit to thoroughly enjoying the wonderful books written by Tuesday Lobsang Rampa. In all words there is some truth. It is a matter of seeing the truth and remembering. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/tomato.gif)

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/angel.gif)

Castanada's works are very controversial. Most people who either knew him or are credible shamans say that he made the whole thing up about Don Juan. Most evidence points this way. I've been doing Qigong for 20 years and when I read his book Magical Passes because the whole thing looked as if he read a few qigong books, misunderstanding them and wrote a mishmash of his misunderstanding. I think he faked it. But he does have good insights in other areas. He had a doctorate in Anthropology and knew much about native culture including shamanism. He was a smart cookie, knew people, and even managed to juggle these genuine insights with knowing how to market his books. He remained mysterious, disappearing for weeks and months at a time. His earliest books advocated the use of psychotropic drugs at a time that this was considered cool. When drug use became less cool he switched his emphasis to the use of more natural methods of achieving altered states of consciousness.