Rating: 
Summary: Carlos used too many halucinogens IMHO
Review: Both "The Teachings of don Juan" and this book relate a story of Carlos meeting don Juan in a bus station. but the two versions are radicaly different.In "The Active Side of Infinity" don Juan accepted Carlos as a student because of what he saw in Carlos' energy field. In "The Teachings of Don Juan" don Juan did not accept Carlos as a student until after Carlos used peyoye (Mescalito) for the first time. Please avoid halucinogens if you wish to practise Shamanism. There are many safer ways to open the doorways (drumming, fasts, meditation, and thirsts, etc).
Rating: 
Summary: Memorable events
Review: Carlos amazes again. I have read all his books and this one is my favourite along with The Power of Silence. This is his most personal writing. He lets us see the hidden beauty and deeper meanings that lie within what may appear as mundane event. I loved it. Many people ask me if I believe Carlos writes fact or fiction. His books are great either way. This book can also be read by people who haven't read Castaneda before. When you have read it you find yourself inevitably wondering what it would be like to live that way.
Rating:
Summary: Creative artistic work of a masterful surrealist author
Review: For many years now I have been following Carlos Castaneda in his literary journey into the supernatural world of sorcery. Taking a comprehensive look at all of his books, Castaneda's narrative "feels" like a cleverly-crafted tales of ambiguous meanings that captivate the imagination; the creative artistic work of a masterful surrealist author. What Castaneda does for his readers is the same as what a Van Gogh or a Dali does for their admirers but on a different level. Castaneda is the protagonist of his subjectivism, making of himself a mysterious and legendary character. He ventures forth from the world of commonsense into the regions of the supernatural. There, with the aid of don Juan, he encounters tremendous forces. After a fierce battle he comes out triumphant, returning from his subjective adventure with the knowledge which he bestows to his readers. With every new book, Castaneda introduces a new concept that supersede others. For example, if the use of psychotropic hallucinogens was so important in don Juan's method of teaching, why did he stop writing about them in later books? On the other hand, if "Dreaming" was also such an important practice, why he did not talk about it from the very beginning? Why he did not mention the assemblage point in any of his first five books? Why did he wait until the end to introduce us to the practice of the "Magical Passes"? The reason is because over the years Castaneda appears to have borrowed from other sources, reformulating old concepts into new ones and accommodating his narratives to the spiritual undercurrents of the times. In the '60s it was spirituality through hallucinogenic substances, in the '70s and '80s there was a renewed interest in the esoteric (Seeing) and altered states of consciousness (Dreaming), and now in the '90s the spiritual awareness is being redefined in terms of bioenergy and its manipulations (Tensegrity). All these ideas have been built upon the preceding ones in a very intelligent manner. Don't get me wrong, I am a Castaneda "aficionado" and always will be . The essential meaning of his journey is that he united spiritual adventure with the modern-day search for meaning. Castaneda's merit lies in that he was able to link the ordinary waking consciousness with knowledge of the vast mystery and wonder that is our existence.
Rating: 
Summary: worthwhile yarn
Review: Like all his work, this is very entertaining. When I was a teenager, I took this stuff seriously. Now, I just enjoy the fiction. Like all the best fiction, there's a lot of truth in the metaphors. He was a superb writer. Obviously, he made up most of it. I found myself wondering which parts were real, particularly in this volume of memoirs at the end of his life. Oh well, we will never know...
Rating:
Summary: Abstraction is in the Details
Review: No, I don't understand this book. At least not from the perspective of the books that have gone before it. Yet, I enjoy it very much. It is not about the myth and the magic that are an inextricable part of the Don Juan legend. It is about apparently ordinary/extraordinary (hilarious, obnoxious, tragic, dangerous or poignant) episodes in the life of the Nagual, Carlos Castaneda. Although it is very detailed, in the apparently biographical sense, it is very abstract, in the way in reached into my gut and my dreams and twisted them. Don Juan writes the Naked Lunch? I don't know. It is perhaps Carlos's best book, but would I recommend it to a friend so he or she would get "It?" I don't know. Journey to Ixtlan is poetic; other volumes contain reams of buried practical knowledge. But perhaps in the end I would, after all, recommend this "ordinary" book since it contains the very essence of the mystery of Carlos Castaneda. It may be his least commercial book, since it departs from the mythos (witness the Kirkus review); and the ending is loathsome (for the horrible secret it reveals). Still, love it and recommend it. - from an irregular practitioner of the magical passes (Tensegrity) and regular reader of that mysterious coyote's books for the last 25 years
Rating:
Summary: Fifth Gospel
Review: Several years have passed between my first and second reading of "The Active Side of Infinity." Recapitulation has brought me face to face with my "Usher," The Experience of August 1973, when the Ally/Companion/Parasite/Foreign Installation became self-conscious and realized that it was he to whom the Man/Prisoner/Host prayed as his god. Cognizant that it was he who kept the Man from his rightful role in the natural order of things as King of the Beasts, out of love, he cut the Silver Cord that bound them together and the Freed Man, Steve Savage, was loosed among the Symbiotes. His mortality gave him absolute power. "'Noli Me Tangere' or I will destroy your abode and cast you out upon the 'Dark Sea' to wander upon the face of the earth forever as an Impotent Intangible." "The foxes have holes; the birds have nests; but the Son of Man/Ally/Foreign Installation has no place to rest his head." Thank you Carlos Castaneda(Aranha)for this your most important work. The Bell of Truth rings in every man. To those for whom this bell tolls, listen and read "The Active Side of Infinity." Practice discipline and cast off your yokes. Join me as a Warrior on the Path.
Rating: 
Summary: Preparing for the definitive-journey...
Review: Sometime in 1998, on a not-so unusual evening, my computer, once booting it up, seemed to explode in a dance of light and sound - my email had been inundated with the news that the famous author of 'The Teachings of Don Juan', Carlos Castaneda, had leaped into the abyss, never to return. The general response to his final passing, the commencement of his 'definitive-journey', was an ecstatic celebration: his work, it had been said, was finally complete. My feelings were mixed. Castaneda had been a close 'literary friend', a quasi-spiritual companion who, through his many books, made me aware that all things are indeed possible. The 'warrior-traveller' had moved on, and it was rumoured that his last book, ~The Active Side of Infinity~ was on the way. It has been four years, and for a variety of reasons, I never got around to reading it, but finally did last week. To be sure, this last installment ranks, in my mind, as one of his best. This is the last in a long line of texts concerning Castaneda's appreticeship as a sorcerer, working under the tutelage of Don Juan Matus - a 'nagual' of mystery, power and hilarious wit. Don Juan has to be one of the most interestiing characters of the twentieth century. And to finally meet him again in ~Infinity~ was certainly a pleasure. ~Infinity~ has to be the most accessible of all Castaneda's books. We can almost categorize it as being his last will and testament before his final exit into infinity - an effort to pay off his spiritual debts as a warrior-traveller, recapitulating (Don Juan's term) memorable events and relationships in his life that changed his path or had, either consciously or not, affected or had a profound significance in his life as a sorcerer. The book is a collection of Castaneda's memories, intense and not so, that through re-living would prepare him for the 'definitive-journey' into the abyss. Death is the central theme in ~Infinity~, communicating the importance of preparing oneself for the unavoidable end we all must embark upon... I was reminded of Carl Jung, the famous Swiss psychiatrist who, in the last years of his life, always had 'The Tibetan Book of the Dead' on his night stand, referring to it before falling to sleep. This was Jung's way of preparing himself for the definitive journey. Castaneda, though, through re-living the past, sought-out some of the more significant people in his life, and made a practical attempt to set things right. This made a lot of sense to me on many levels. To suggest to new readers of Castaneda to begin with ~Infinity~ would be, in my mind, a disservice. My advice would be to start from the beginning with 'The Teachings of Don Juan' and move on from there...one's appreciation of the entire philosophy will be much deeper as a result. That said, however, ~Infinity~ could well be a good starting point, because as I mentioned before, it's the most accessible of the canon.
Rating:
Summary: A farewell to Carlos
Review: Sorcerers from Don Juan's lineage believed that in order for consiousness to survive after death one must recapitulate certain events in one's life. This is the reliving of this experiences to stir caches of energy that exist within the self. This allows our life force to be free from the binds of the eagle, who then feeds itself from those experiences and not our consiousness.
This book is a colection of some of those events in Carlos life wich he recapitulated in the same fashion his benefactor did before he departed into the other world.
It is also a sort of rites of passage for any Carlos reader. We get to see the more personal side of him. An almost old fashioned and mild manner person who in the presence of Don Juan seemed to colapse only to discover his true nature and purpose. We also get to see a more detailed account of some of the unforgetable moments from his past books: His first encounter with Don Juan and his last.
This a great book and a very entertaining one as well. It's a very profound statement and a farewell to a beloved writer and an almost shaman. If he only would've "seen".
Rating:
Summary: The Active Side of Infinity
Review: The Active Side of Infinity is the last book Carlos Castaneda wrote before his death in 1998. He described it as "a collection of the memorable events in my life," which he gathered at the recommendation of don Juan Matus, the Yaqui Indian shaman who was his teacher. An anthropologist and shaman, Castaneda wrote ten other books, including The Teachings of Don Juan.
Collecting the memorable events in one's life is a way of stirring "caches of energy that exist within the self," and making that energy available.
The process requires "the genuine and all-consuming act of putting together the sum total of one's emotions and realizations, without sparing anything." It's not a process that one undertakes lightly. Castaneda says that, for a shaman, the act of collecting memorable events is preparation for a "definitive journey" into the "active side of infinity."
Non-shamans call the definitive journey "death," and the active side of infinity "the afterlife." Shamans believe that human energy exists in a very real place after death, and they prepare themselves for continued existence in that place.
The collection of memorable events is not a personal memoir, or a rehashing of life's experiences, but instead is stories and events that touch something universal in all humans. They often change the life path of those to whom they occurred.
Castaneda describes how he first met don Juan, and his difficulties in finding him after they lost contact just after their meeting. He also includes several stories from his life as a child and a young man--events he had totally forgotten, but that had irrevocably changed his life.
Whether or not one agrees with Castaneda and don Juan about the afterlife, those who read The Active Side of Infinity will find themselves thinking about their lives, and journeys they must take after death, in a different way.
Rating:
Summary: The Active Side of Infinity
Review: The Active Side of Infinity is the last book Carlos Castaneda wrote before his death in 1998. He described it as "a collection of the memorable events in my life," which he gathered at the recommendation of don Juan Matus, the Yaqui Indian shaman who was his teacher. An anthropologist and shaman, Castaneda wrote ten other books, including The Teachings of Don Juan.
Collecting the memorable events in one's life is a way of stirring "caches of energy that exist within the self," and making that energy available.
The process requires "the genuine and all-consuming act of putting together the sum total of one's emotions and realizations, without sparing anything." It's not a process that one undertakes lightly. Castaneda says that, for a shaman, the act of collecting memorable events is preparation for a "definitive journey" into the "active side of infinity."
Non-shamans call the definitive journey "death," and the active side of infinity "the afterlife." Shamans believe that human energy exists in a very real place after death, and they prepare themselves for continued existence in that place.
The collection of memorable events is not a personal memoir, or a rehashing of life's experiences, but instead is stories and events that touch something universal in all humans. They often change the life path of those to whom they occurred.
Castaneda describes how he first met don Juan, and his difficulties in finding him after they lost contact just after their meeting. He also includes several stories from his life as a child and a young man--events he had totally forgotten, but that had irrevocably changed his life.
Whether or not one agrees with Castaneda and don Juan about the afterlife, those who read The Active Side of Infinity will find themselves thinking about their lives, and journeys they must take after death, in a different way.
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