Rating: 
Summary: interesting but misses the mark
Review: A book that I sometimes had to push myself to finish. Interesting subject matter, that does make you explore your own ideas about reality, but sadly seems to leave the reader dangling. I went from feeling that he is almost hitting on some great "truth" to thinking that this is just poor fiction. I am left with mixed reviews.
Rating: 
Summary: Only Lucid Dreamers Can Understand This Book
Review: A lucid dream is a dream in which during the course of the dream you realize that "it's just a dream." You don't, however, wake up. You stay asleep and in the REM state. You experience vivid and tangible sensations while fully aware that your "real" body is, in fact, fast asleep and quite still on your bed. You are, in a manner of speaking, in two places at once. It is a most profound experience. It is a scientifically documented human experience (see Stephen LaBerge's books). It is also an extremely rare and difficult experience to attain often and for extensive durations (30 to 45 minutes would be a long time). Most people who have experienced lucidity have only had a few minutes of it. Many only become "semi-lucid" in that they are not fully conscious of their waking mind's intentions, plans, personal information, etc., since they are quickly swept back into the dreaming consciousness after their initial realization by the overwhelmingly vivid sensory experience and their irresitable emotional reactions to it. For the rare individual who has seriously attempted to attain a high level of lucidity and who has had to look the spectre of madness in the face to do it, Castaneda's book is one of only a handful of books that talks about lucid dreaming with any real depth. There are dozens of books on dreaming and even on lucid dreaming specifically which talk about dreaming as something we can harness to serve our waking life's goals; such an approach is naive and in truth dangerous because it trivializes the subject. Castaneda's book is a sobering antidote to these watered-down self-help books. Whether The Art of Dreaming is an actual or fictionalized account I cannot say. However, I believe Castaneda had extensively delved into altered states of consciousness and is telling us that the lucid dream state is of utmost importance in the spirtual practices he has followed. Carlos is recounting Don Juan's teaching methodology. The methodology is not a logical exposition of the entire subject matter. It is a series of "tricks," such as the riddles used by a Zen Master, which the teacher uses to prod the student toward spiritual realizations. The student is instructed on all the workings of a grave and serious system and given classifications, rules, laws of how the system operates, things to look out for, etc. The teacher knows the system he describes is only a description of reality and not the reality itself. He is describing a mythical world but insisting to the student it is all very real, because it is the only way he can push the student to awareness, enlightenment, eternal life. This spiritual quest is what this book is really about. During this quest the line between fantasy and reality becomes blurred as it must. The Art of Dreaming is NOT mere entertainment (although I personally found it very entertaining). It is not factual. It is a profound spiritual work. But, as one other reviewer pointed out, you need to live it (to some extent) in order to begin to understand it. My advice is this: Have two dozen 30 minute in duration lucid dreams (if you can, yes that is a challenge) and then re-read the book; until then, withhold your judgement.
Rating:
Summary: Missing some levels?
Review: A must for the orthodox Toltec, but as many other Carlos books, the disucssion is not about fiction or not fiction. It's about manipulation of energy or not. The teachings simply stops where the realms above astral is reached. And in these worlds, we have to tread lightly - with heart. The teachings simply leaves out heart-chakra and up. To explore these realms one has to grow a natural humbleness, which demands more than erasing personal history and forcing the Tonal in to giving up self-importance. The teachings only operates with 3 levels of perception, whereas the step from the 1'st to the 2'nd cannot be forced in the long run. Seek other litterature to explore the omens of dreams, control comes naturally when the Tonal has been cleaned proberbly. DJ says that "petty tyrants" are people who are obsessed with control of the 1. attention. Orthodox Toltec's runs the risk of beeing people who are obsessed with control over the 2. attention. Why? Because they try to jump over important steps of understanding. And these steps create a fear, a fear of indulgence. Recapitulation is NOT enough, one has to work out how and why things happended as they did - how mental blocks which fostered the "internal dialouge" came to be in the first place.
Rating: 
Summary: Astonishing change in style
Review: But not only in style. Also moods, contents and situations are different and show a lower level than in the previous eight books. The other books were deep in concepts, that one is good to read for killing time
Rating:
Summary: Rethink your nightly slumber
Review: By the age of 70, the average person will have spent 6 years dreaming. And the scientific community still really has no idea why. I completed my thesis on the function of REM sleep, so I have read a lot on the subject, from J. Allan Hobson to Edgar Cayce to Freud and Jung. This book is thoughtful and very entertaining. Regardless of whether Don Juan's teachings are true or not, it made me very desperately want to experience lucid dreaming. The ideas presented are captivating and make you think. Plus, it's trippy!
Rating:
Summary: Rethink your nightly slumber
Review: By the age of 70, the average person will have spent 6 years dreaming. And the scientific community still really has no idea why. I completed my thesis on the function of REM sleep, so I have read a lot on the subject, from J. Allan Hobson to Edgar Cayce to Freud and Jung. This book is thoughtful and very entertaining. Regardless of whether Don Juan's teachings are true or not, it made me very desperately want to experience lucid dreaming. The ideas presented are captivating and make you think. Plus, it's trippy!
Rating: 
Summary: Carlos increased somehow the momentum of dreaming intent.
Review: Carlos' previous demonstrations of Dreaming exercises somehow 'avoided' focus on setting up dreaming 'intent'. Here though,we are saturated with the appropriate amount of exposure that one needs to generate what is arguably a spontaneous event:awareness of 'the other.' If you get that gut feeling of 'impeccability' from the late Carlos Castaneda's works,I genuinely believe that reading all his works from start to finish will embue you with the 'Power' that many indifferent Westerners silently desire. Don't just read his works..live them. Remember,no-one ever removes your power of choice from you except you. Now I'm Welsh,and the Shamans of Ancient Mexico have more than a bit in common with my Celtic heritage than I initially would have given credit for.. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Hmmmm.....
Review: Castaneda is always a valuable read. The man has, single-handedly, introduced more fundamental concepts into the contemporary mainstream of shamanic studies than anyone else I know. Assemblage point, luminous fibers, medicine plants, spiritual warrior, dreaming, stalking are now commonly accepted terms and, dare i say it, practices?! At the same time, the man himself -dead and alive - has eluded attempts at categorization; he is not as prissy as Eliade, simplifier and popularizer like Harner, neither does he seem to be in for the money, like perhaps the majority of book-writing modern would-be "shamans" and "sorcerers". Methinks this very fact should make one curious and interested. The Art of Dreaming does not disappoint in this regard. It seems to be quite consistent with C's previous work and IMO C is quite effective in depicting the complexity of the worlds that may be accessed during one's dreams. For ordinary humans like you and me this work reads like fiction, because in order to access even the most rudimentary of these worlds, one would (according to Castaneda) need "energy" acquired through time-consuming and effort-full practices. We don't have this kind of energy. Yet myself, at the very least, have a deep respect and admiration for this wily old man who gave us so much food for thought. He seems to care for one thing above all others - freedom. AOD is about using one's dreams to become a freer person. That means living one's life with dignity and gusto and AOD certainly is something worth reading at the side of a pool on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
Rating:
Summary: Hmmmm.....
Review: Castaneda is always a valuable read. The man has, single-handedly, introduced more fundamental concepts into the contemporary mainstream of shamanic studies than anyone else I know. Assemblage point, luminous fibers, medicine plants, spiritual warrior, dreaming, stalking are now commonly accepted terms and, dare i say it, practices?! At the same time, the man himself -dead and alive - has eluded attempts at categorization; he is not as prissy as Eliade, simplifier and popularizer like Harner, neither does he seem to be in for the money, like perhaps the majority of book-writing modern would-be "shamans" and "sorcerers". Methinks this very fact should make one curious and interested. The Art of Dreaming does not disappoint in this regard. It seems to be quite consistent with C's previous work and IMO C is quite effective in depicting the complexity of the worlds that may be accessed during one's dreams. For ordinary humans like you and me this work reads like fiction, because in order to access even the most rudimentary of these worlds, one would (according to Castaneda) need "energy" acquired through time-consuming and effort-full practices. We don't have this kind of energy. Yet myself, at the very least, have a deep respect and admiration for this wily old man who gave us so much food for thought. He seems to care for one thing above all others - freedom. AOD is about using one's dreams to become a freer person. That means living one's life with dignity and gusto and AOD certainly is something worth reading at the side of a pool on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
Rating:
Summary: Like the Bible, very powerful and mysterious.
Review: Castaneda's books, including the Art of Dreaming, remind me of the bible - very powerful and mysterious stuff that cannot be proven or verified in any conventional way. You can admire them and even attempt to live by them, but get ready for a lot of work, doubt, and mystery. I know one thing: they are
fun for me. One drawback is that I cannot imagine anyone taking them seriously unless you have read several of them over a period of time.
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