Howard Y. Lee – Castaneda’s Martial Arts Teacher
Howard Lee on ‘Energy’
I spent some time with Howard Lee, we even became friends. It was really good to be around him because of his energy. He made me feel really good. This is the background I learned about Howard Lee becoming Castaneda’s martial arts teacher.
He didn’t have Carlos’ view of things. He saw energy, but at he time he said it wasn’t exactly visual. He said there were energy bands out there just like Carlos described, that not all were beneficial to humans. He had tuned in on one specific one that was beneficial, and to him it was just a matter of teaching others to tune into the same one.
At the time I was still interested in martial arts, and told Howard it was sad he had stopped teaching because there were so few real teachers of martial arts out there. Howard said he’d come to the conclusion there was no point to teaching it.
Accupuncture without Needles
Howard said he’d learned to do his energy thing by doing martial arts and acupuncture. At one point he noticed he didn’t need the needles anymore, he could stimulate the energy by pointing his fingers.His philosophy back then was that he’d live to be 150 years old, then people would listen to his advice about energy. I was trying to publicize Howard through Magical Blend magazine, but Howard wasn’t really into it. He said he had to finish a book he was writing first, then that would happen. Howard had a well developed sense of fate, I believe it was part of the energy he tapped into.
His attitude about ego was different than Carlos’. Howard wasn’t afraid of having his picture on his literature, or boosting his name for business reasons. From my point of view, I felt that his energetic view was closer to a yogic view. He was so saturated by the energy he’d tuned into that nothing else much mattered. Consequently he was soft spoken at the same time he was authoritative.
Howard said that after death the attention slowly dissipated, lasting about 500 years before fizzling out. This was in agreement with the Nagual’s statements.
Castaneda Meets Howard Lee
Carlos first went to see Howard about 25 years ago because one of the women in his group, not now with him, noticed the place. She wasn’t given to finishing things, but Carlos went with her to sign her up, and ended up being a student himself, for 10 or 15 years. The witches sometimes practiced too. Howard didn’t know it was Carlos for the longest time, until Carlos one day asked if he could dedicate The Fire from Within to him. Howard said he didn’t believe him until he saw the book. During that time, Castaneda’s martial arts teacher greatly influenced him.
According to someone I won’t name, Carlos told Old Florinda about Howard, she was still around back then, saying he talked just like don Juan. Old Florinda took it as an omen, telling Carlos he had to do anything Howard wanted. Howard can sometimes be seen wearing something Carlos gave him as a gift, which belonged to the old Nagual. I’ve seen it, so I can verify the story.
Castaneda Tries to Get Howard to Join His Group
Carlos stated his disappointment at trying to get Howard into his group, but to no avail. They rented the space they did, near Howard’s workshop, hoping to get him to resume his martial arts classes, and perhaps lure him into the group, but it didn’t work.
Howard Repairs Members of Castaneda’s Group
Howard made it clear that he didn’t think dreaming was a good thing. Most of his business consisted of people who practiced Carlos’ techniques, and he stated that he was always having to repair energetic damage. Personally I think that he just got lots of complaining odd balls, the leftovers that wanted to hang around Carlos but didn’t get a chance, so they hung around Howard, complaining. By complaining about their “big energetic maladies” or “dreaming horrors” they were really just bragging about how advanced they were. That gave him a false impression of what was going on.
Howard used to treat members of Carlos’ group, and Carlos said Howard had saved his life a couple of times. Howard told me he once saw one of the women from Carlos’ group running down the street screaming and naked, with Carlos and someone else chasing after her trying to fetch her back. [Sounds like a version of Castaneda’s stores about Cecelia/Beverly Evans.]
Howard’s Teacher Marshall Ho’o
Howard practiced martial arts with the famous Marshall Ho’o, who was famous more for getting himself into all the Hollywood stuff, and also for being a contributing editor to a big karate magazine owned by Larry Flynt. Carlos said they used to make home martial arts movies, and he always ended up being the Mexican bartender.
Howard and Castaneda Mutually Critical
I sent a friend to Howard, a friend who was in to Yoga. He started returning regularly to Howard. I used to practice yoga with this friend, who thought I’d gone mad switching to Carlos. As a result I was always hearing condemnations of Carlos from Howard, and undoubtedly Howard was always being passed condemnations of him from Carlos. There was definitely a lively spirit of competition between Howard and Carlos, I don’t know how much it really concerned Howard, I was given a false impression by my friend’s interaction.
©️ 2000 by Daniel Lawton, all rights reserved
