Thread 41395078

Hey so what is the deal with carlos castaneda? had a teacher in high school who recommended his books to me but I never followed up. Now through sheer coincidence I saw that he preached something about sorcery and that peaked my interest. Ordered his first book but it wont arrive til next week so any anons knowing more please share your wisdom

>>41395078 (OP)
His books were a little boring to me. He basically talks about interactions with a shaman on how there’s more to life than what we see. He apparently made up the character but the info is pretty good at times.

>>41395565
thanks
>He apparently made up the character but the info is pretty good at times.
so is it more like a self help book or does he explore more esoteric/occult terrain?

>>41395565
>Disregard me: I garble because I suck cocks.
Castaneda describes our mind as an alien parasite. Whether he means that literally or figuratively is up to you to decide.

>>41395584
I see. if the human mind is a parasite then how would he get rid of it?

>>41395688
It always seems to come down to the same mumbo jumbo of practice and awareness whether it's about becoming like Jezus or the Buddha, achieving Gnosis, waking up from The Matrix or anything else /x/. Nobody knows.

>>41395688
Move to a cave, burn your clothes, and do loads of ketamine

>>41395740
sounds like a plan
>>41395728
damn thought he would go more into details considering he wrote numerous books

>>41395078 (OP)
Basically meso American spiritualism taught through first hand interviews with a teacher Don Juan and the excessive use of peyote and mezcal.

>>41395583
It's narrative based. Not really self help.

>>41395078 (OP)
>Hey so what is the deal with carlos castaneda?
he's a big fat phoney

>>41395078 (OP)
so i found this forum https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/nagual/ and you might want to check out the subreddit of castaneda they seem to have some magical practices. but dont take my word for it this was just a quick google search

just read the first book the rest are very repetitive do shrooms it might help you understand a bit more or weed in hevy large bong doses it does almost the same thing of shuting off the mind

>>41395584
Nothing you said contradicts my post. I think his books have some good stuff but it’s mostly boring. Notice how your review could be put into two sentences. It doesn’t need to have multiple books with a fictional shaman named Don Juan you stupid fuck

Its started as a cheeky anthropology paper playing into the biases of the institution. Ultimately it's something more concerned about expressing the experiential feeling of a practice over any historicity/authenticity.

>>41395584
>our mine as an alien parasite.
are there any people or groups of people that can be used as an example of what NOT having this mind parasite would look like?
>blacks in the inner ghetto behave in irrationally, with no sense of Time (hence the "BPT" black people's time). This is because they have not been infected with the mind virus.
if not having the "virus" makes life even worse, then what's wrong with having the mind virus?

>>41396846
>mine = mind*
woopsie daisy!

>>41395688
Find a meaningless and repetitive job, workout at the gym, use tinder to hunt for poussy, watch netflix, take the jab. Be a mindless drone, be a npc, the human mind is your enemy. With this you will be able to remove this "parasite" called the human soul, and belong to the human masses once again. Dont forget to vote in your favorite politician.

>>41396846
>are there any people or groups of people that can be used as an example of what NOT having this mind parasite would look like?
Before enlightenment: chop wood carry water. After enlightenment: chop wood carry water.

>if not having the "virus" makes life even worse, then what's wrong with having the mind virus?
When you watch an anime or play a videogame you don't suffer from the drama. Even though you can clearly see that life is a theatrical play you still suffer because your seeing is of the mind which is something else than your true consciousness that remains unchanged.

>>41395078 (OP)
I didn't find his books informative in practical magic, if that's what you're looking for, although maybe I missed the one where he goes into more detail. I do recommend his books to people though because they serve as a beautiful thought exercise. You follow him first-person through his journey of initiation, and he is a talented writer so paints a vivid picture of everything occurring. He has detractors like #777 describes in this thread (checked) but on the other side, spiritual practitioners have noted that a great deal of the book checks out. The shamanic reality he describes in multiple books worth of detail is something only a true master could come up with. So some say. I tend to agree, either he unknowingly channeled raw truths from Mexican witch traditions, or really did meet a master who took him as an apprentice.

>>41399086
thanks for your thorough explanation anon

>>41396324
>to check out the subreddit
darkroom practices just sound like the gateway tapes focus 10

>>41395078 (OP)
If you are interested in the sort of sorcery from an occult perspective described by Carlos, this website is a goldmine for information about it from a practitioner of it.
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/nagual/

>>41395078 (OP)
This the guy whose female orbiters ran off after he died and many years later people found one of their corpses in the desert? Sounds cultish, bro. He made up some stuff about Yaqui Indians and stole some ideas from other spiritual traditions. Those alone make me go "yeah nah...", but it's the weird end of his "witches" that just put me off. I'm not saying that some of the stuff he wrote about (plagiarized) was complete bunk though. I'm just saying be careful what rivers you drink from.

>>41400180
r/castaneda and Dan Lawton would absolutely disagree with you.
These people hold Robert Monroe for a fraud.

>>41400819
why tho? not disputing anything but I found monroes focus 10 tape quite good for relaxation

>>41400872
Well, but does it "work"? Is there real "magic" behind it?
Dan Lawton (ex-student of Carlos) argues that the effects one would experience with the hemisync tapes would be, at best, only in the "green zone" of the assemblage point, i.e., just a few feet down the spine. To do real sorcery, one must push one's assemblage point down to 23 feet, to the "purple zone", to combine with his "double" (your other Self that experiences your dreams).
He says that transcendental meditation, chakras, etc., are all a huge scam.

I mean no offense btw, these aren't my words but his, I myself am a complete beginner and I'm only doing the gateway tapes atm

Do you understand why the abilities gained from the jhanas are sometimes warned against due their ability to pull you off the path? This guy happened to pull some truths out of his web of fiction, to completely wing it and come up with a handful of insights. Ruined in the first place by the usual need to connect his mysteries to a larger older tradition, and in the second place by regressing on his development. The end of his life was a kind of inversion of his charismatic/narrative abilities, with the hierarchical sexcult. Instead of leading masses to the light, he became obsessed with keeping a small number in control.

Really interesting bio on this guy, and surprisingly influential especially if you know any Cali hippies. Real cautionary tale. Don't listen to most of the herb nonsense. There's a lot of bullshit and whatever revelations inspired it aren't Yaqui. But... That doesn't mean there aren't gold specks scattered around, especially in the early stuff. It's easie

>>41400889
thanks for your reply. I never considered the tapes in an on itself as magic just as tools for maybe later have an OBE. also i have basically no idea about castanedas vocabulary so assemblage point dont ring a bell for me but the graph looks interesting
>>41400897
>That doesn't mean there aren't gold specks scattered around, especially in the early stuff. It's easie so is it still worth looking for them or are other paths just outright better, because as the anon above points out castaneda saw meditation etc as scams

>>41400889
so uh, what can someone archieve when one reaches this "purple zone"?

>>41401707
You achieve "Silent Knowledge", idk, it's all written and explained in detail on r/castaneda, they have an encyclopedia there.
Also, they make educational videos, here's an example:
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1AchLvoP_Y

>>41395078 (OP)
Fiction.
No more real than Harry Potter. Nothing paranormal going on.

>>41402859
I don’t know what that is and I don’t have a god.
Castenada’s work is fiction. No matter how long you study it or how deep you think you go it’s no different to any other fictional work.

>>41396959
kek

>>41395078 (OP)
>that peaked my interest.

>>41400889
>Dan Lawton
does this guy have a recommended reading and practice list?