Tales of Power

Rating:
Summary: enjoyable reading forever
Review: a visionary work filled with inspiration on almost every page. This is like Harry Potter for adults - simple, easily digested nuggets of magic to inspire your soul. Castaneda had the eternal heart of a child and was probably laughing all the way through to the other side.

Rating:
Summary: Read this review
Review: Back in 1985 I read this book and was fascinated. Was it real or not?

I finally came to the conclusion that I didn't really care, the writing was extraordinary, magical in itself. Then last week (February 20, 2004) I woke up in the night during a dream. I soon found I was still dreaming. I woke up again, and figured I was again still dreaming. This has happened before and I go to great lengths to wake up, because it is terrifying. (You feel as if you will never 'really' wake up.)

This time I let the terror go, and went to use the bathroom, realizing I was dreaming. The bathroom door wasn't there, so I intended it to be there and it materialized. I was experiencing something I later discovered is called lucid dreaming. Why I hadn't come across this concept before is inexplicable, but I'd always considered Castaneda to be in some sort of waking state induced by Don Juan when he did his 'dreaming'. In retrospect, that oversight seems to be a defense mechanism my mind set up to protect me from the obvious fact that Carlos was asleep and doing lucid dreaming.

Now all of Castaneda's work, seen from the viewpoint of lucid dreaming, makes sense in a completely new way. Whether his entire episodes in Mexico are lucid dreams or whether he actually met a 'Don Juan' there who taught him how to enter lucid dreaming, there is no doubt in my mind that THIS is what he is talking about. His feelings of dread, his lapses of consciousness and being shaken awake by Don Juan, the feeling of being in two places at once, all fit with what I've experienced first hand in my false awakenings and my one (so far)lucid dream.

Was Castaneda a sincere communicator of his 'field' experiences or a cynical charlatan or both? I don't know. What I do know is that the reality of lucid dreaming, as I've experienced it, is congruent with his writings.

So I'm reading them all again ....

Contact me by email with your thoughts or experiences. [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Read this review
Review: Back in 1985 I read this book and was fascinated. Was it real or not?

I finally came to the conclusion that I didn't really care, the writing was extraordinary, magical in itself. Then last week (February 20, 2004) I woke up in the night during a dream. I soon found I was still dreaming. I woke up again, and figured I was again still dreaming. This has happened before and I go to great lengths to wake up, because it is terrifying. (You feel as if you will never 'really' wake up.)

This time I let the terror go, and went to use the bathroom, realizing I was dreaming. The bathroom door wasn't there, so I intended it to be there and it materialized. I was experiencing something I later discovered is called lucid dreaming. Why I hadn't come across this concept before is inexplicable, but I'd always considered Castaneda to be in some sort of waking state induced by Don Juan when he did his 'dreaming'. In retrospect, that oversight seems to be a defense mechanism my mind set up to protect me from the obvious fact that Carlos was asleep and doing lucid dreaming.

Now all of Castaneda's work, seen from the viewpoint of lucid dreaming, makes sense in a completely new way. Whether his entire episodes in Mexico are lucid dreams or whether he actually met a 'Don Juan' there who taught him how to enter lucid dreaming, there is no doubt in my mind that THIS is what he is talking about. His feelings of dread, his lapses of consciousness and being shaken awake by Don Juan, the feeling of being in two places at once, all fit with what I've experienced first hand in my false awakenings and my one (so far)lucid dream.

Was Castaneda a sincere communicator of his 'field' experiences or a cynical charlatan or both? I don't know. What I do know is that the reality of lucid dreaming, as I've experienced it, is congruent with his writings.

So I'm reading them all again ....

Contact me by email with your thoughts or experiences. [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, Haunting, Obscure, Phenomenological and..Fake!
Review: I have researched Castaneda quite a bit over the last 10 years. All of his books had a powerful efect on my imaginative life in my early twenties. However, I am convinced that Castaneda made it all up. I think Richard De mille's research proves it. I read "Castaneda's Journey" and found it to make tremendous sense. He studied phenomenology (This is where he gets his concept of intent), and studied Ethnomethodology with Garfinkle. After this book I did further research that convinced me that he concocted it all. Nonetheless, his books can help people, and are beautiful in the hope and magic they infuse into the mundanity and boredom that many feel characterize life today. In one sense, Castaneda's books are one of the most imaginative services ever done to Phenomenology. Pop- Pseudo- Shamanistic Phenomenology, if you will. I never wanted to discover this evidence, as it could make anyone that much more cynical, but I still find Castaneda himself to be all the more fascinating for succeeding to the extent that he did, if in fact he made it up. That would make him one of the most Authentic and vivid examples of a trickster teacher in our times. This book is over the top in hallucinatory power. Here Don Jaun ups the ante. Reading about Don Genaro walking up the tree sideways, alone made this book worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Tale of a Cult
Review: I was introduced to the works of Castaneda by an older brother of mine, circa 1975. At that time, I interpreted his works from a purely mystical point of view. To those of you who have been-there-done-that, I am sure you could almost picture how weird I must have been during those days. Today, I continue to enjoy the stories, but simply as stories. I especially find the "trickery" in the stories to be both hilarious and amazing. After all, don't the jokes often land squarely on our own heads?

Rating:
Summary: Interesting tale, but lacking in practice...
Review: Like the rest of Castaneda's works, it lacks any measure of depth in the area of practical considerations. If you want a fine story of the experience of initiation, read his works- if you want to be initiated yourself, look elsewhere. I'd suggest starting with some Peter Carroll.

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating read.
Review: Mr. Perches asked a question about the order of Castaneda's books. I, too, have read them all several times. I think Mr. Perches' uncertainty stems from the difficulty Castaneda himself experienced with the chronology of his training. Because Castaneda's interaction with the sorceror's of Don Juan's party often occurred while Castaneda was in a state of heightened awareness, he had no recollection of the events when he returned to normal awareness. Later he was confronted with memories of events or people which he couldn't explain in terms of his everyday reality. Also, Castaneda's understanding of what he was doing obviously progresses throughout his works; some of the events and training he describes in his later works took place early in his apprenticeship, but he returns to them to reassess what has happened to him. If you look at his first book after reading his last one, you realize that at the time "The Teachings of Don Juan" was published, Castaneda apparently had little idea of the scope of what was happening to him.

Rating:
Summary: Even if everything is pure fiction, it's still a masterpiece
Review: The Castaneda series has become one of the most controversial
in literary history, abetted by the fact that the author himself
swore to the truth of every fantastical event he described in their pages until his dying day. That Castaneda died an old,
frail man when the books promised an extraordinarily long and healthy life seemed to give lie to his words, but in fact this
does not take away from the philosophical beauty of works like
"Tales Of Power", which is my favorite of the six I have read
so far (there are ten in all).

The first book, "The Teachings Of Don Juan", is easily the
slightest--although it introduces the saga and provides the reader with some of the terminology, it is clear that Castaneda
had yet to grasp what was happening to him, and much of it is (as he later admits) a strange cross between far-fetched prose and overly-analytical text. "A Separate Reality" is a vast improvement, even as the stories get wilder and wilder; some readers have howled with laughter over tales of invisible 'allies' which guard the sorcerer, or of an astral
"yoke" which can give a man superhuman powers, but the imagery
is extraordinary and the philosophical lessons behind such
truly bizarre events are unique and important.

The third book, "Journey To Ixtlan", is the easiest to swallow for most people, since it concentrates on the self-help and ethical aspects of the teaching and keeps the wild stories to a bare minimum (as such, it is highly recommended). However, "Tales Of Power" picks up where "A Separate Reality" left off and ups the ante on both the crazy events (at one point Castaneda is teleported in time and space) and the overall
philosphical arc of the series, for it is in this volume that the all-important ideas of the 'tonal' and 'nagual' are introduced, discussed and exhibited. Although the concepts may sound like a souped-up version of Sartre-styled existentialism (anyone remember "Nausea"?) and Zen, there is nothing wrong with
this and, in fact, by presenting the ideas in these new terms
he makes them sound fresh and arguably easier to understand. His characterizations of Don Juan and Don Genaro are as meticulous as ever, and both men emerge in the book as spiritual
masters of a most peculiar order. Even if neither ever existed,
or if Casteneda made every word up out of thin air (and he didn't--researchers have verified his trips to Mexico on these
dates), it doesn't matter--the wisdom you will receive from these books is priceless.

Rating:
Summary: Very clear and systematic
Review: The philosophy of Don Juan is very systematic and "logical" in its own way. Tales of Power clarifies the Sorcerer's Explanation very nicely while providing a fascinating view of the world. This book is definitely worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: Overrated
Review: This book is too complicated and not for everyone. It dables too much with drug references that are quite disturbing. Stay away from this and pick up Dr. Phil's autobiography. Thanks. :)