Posts by DarkWarrior
A new collection of documents related to Castaneda and the Witches has been added to the site. These are now accessible from the site’s top Menu listing. This collection replaces the set from the 1999 version of the site with new and improved scans of key vital records like Castaneda’s death certificate, Castaneda’s last will
Teresa and Jacobo Grinberg Just added here Professor Jacobo Grinberg’s account of the interactions he and his wife Teresa had with Castaneda and his group in 1991, when the two were invited to become part of Castaneda’s group in Los Angeles. Professor Grinberg declined the offer, and kept secret his interactions with Castaneda per Castaneda’s
Just added to the site is a new piece by former Sunday Group participant and Castaneda scholar David Worrell that succinctly summarizes the timelines covererd by Castaneda’s key books. David also identifies a few of the major inconsistencies between Castaneda’s own books, as well as between those books and that of his colleague, Florinda Donner
Just added to the Explorations pages here a new piece by writer and poet Sandy McIntosh about the ways in which he has used “dreaming” and lucid dreaming to turn and shape them into poetry. Sandy was an attendee at Cleargreen workshops when Castaneda was alive, and also a participant in one of Stephen LaBerge’s
Carol Tiggs, aka Muni Aranha, in 2015 The chronology of Carol Tiggs (aka Kathleen Pohlman, Elizabeth Austin, Muni Aranha) that was originally published here in June 1999 has been updated and expanded (by 40%) to take into account what we have learned about her and her true personal history over the past 25 years. That
Carol Tiggs, back row far left, with her August 2015 certification class as a Sound Yoga instructor David Worrell noted and summarized in 2020 for Sustained Reaction these three very different versions of the story of Carol Tiggs supposed first meeting with don Juan. In reverse chronological order, the first is from from Carol’s first
What if everything about you was a lie? If your origin and whole life story was the fantastic, grandiose concoction of a famous and powerful man who came into your life in your late teens and then dictated how and where you would live, supporting you all the while, for the next 20 years? Who would you be and how could you carry on after that man died? Nury or Nuri Alexander (it’s Nury on her original name change application, but Nuri shows up on other legal documents), a.k.a. Claude, a.k.a. the Blue Scout (born Patricia Lee Partin) found she could not continue under those circumstances. When her inventor/creator ceased being around to maintain her on the absurdly high pedestal he had erected for her, she inevitably fell to earth and died.
Sandy McIntosh, an original SA contributor (and former Tensegrity workshop attendee), befriended Angelica, the woman who would become Castaneda’s doctor in the two years before his death, at Tensegrity workshops. He was on hand when Florinda and Taisha first singled her out to serve as Castaneda’s doctor (and become, briefly, a member of the inner
Florinda (then Regina Thal) and Taisha (then Annamarie Carter) from Nov. 1974 Samurai Magazine Taisha Abelar’s Chronology was published here for the first time to coincide with what would have been her 79th birthday, August 25, 2024. Thanks to Paul M., several items have now been added to that chronology, including references to her and
A new piece by original Sustained Action contributor (and professional writer/poet) Sandy McIntosh, reflects on having re-read all of the works of Castaneda and his cohorts (Florinda Donner and Taisha Abelar) in recent years. The piece is entitled They Are What We Know.
We just added a piece by original Sustained Action contributor Sandy McIntosh (a one-time workshop goer who is a professional writer and poet), describing an encounter he had with a Castaneda “true believer” who felt threatened by the material we started making available on SustainedAction in 1999. The new piece, which has been added to
An upgraded and more complete collection of images of Castaneda, the Witches, the Blue Scout, other prominent Cleargreen members
Taisha pictured in November 1974 Samurai Magazine For the reasons detailed below, this chronology was withheld when the SustainedAction website first went up in 1999, containing chronologies of two of the Witches, Carol Tiggs and Florinda Donner-Grau, as well as the so-called Blue Scout. Those chronologies established that the stories Castaneda told about these women–portraying
“The loathsome, despicable deception Cleargreen has engaged in and doubled down on ever since Castaneda died his mundane death involves promulgating a blizzard of obfuscating falsehoods about the disappearance and likely suicides of five of its highest profile former shareholders. This includes two of the three Witches–Florinda and Taisha–they have continued to claim are still alive, and for awhile asserted were somehow guiding and advising their efforts. Their silence regarding the facts they know about where the women went and their transparently bullshit stories about what happened, all just to avoid damaging the ‘brand,’ have certainly been deeply hurtful to the families of those women, and to those of us who also loved and cared about them, depriving them of any sense of closure. These ongoing deceptions have also helped turn the whole Castaneda enterprise into one of the most scandalous and reprehensible cult coverups of all time.”
Details of the disappearance of five of the women closest to Castaneda, and the eventual discovery and positive identification of the remains of one of them, Nury Alexander (aka the Blue Scout, née Patricia Partin), near Death Valley’s Panamint Dunes added to the site here. Also added to that page is info about and a
Just added a Menu page to the site regarding Ru Marshall, author of the insightful 2007 Salon article about Castaneda, whose long awaited, thoroughly researched biography of Castaneda is due to be published by Red Hen Press in Spring 2006. The new page includes links to Ru’s own website as well as other articles and
Just added to the site excerpts from Amy Wallace’s book Sorcerer’s Apprentice: My Life with Carlos Castaneda. Also added a new introduction by Richard Jennings giving the background on his relationship with Amy starting at the Omega Tensegrity Workshop in May 1995 and through their “deprogramming” of each other from the cult following Castaneda’s death
In sum, despite its length and the author’s claim to be an experienced “investigative reporter,” this piece contains virtually no new information regarding the missing women, other than some further details from the park ranger who found the Blue Scout’s abandoned car and the call Gray received from the current owners of Castaneda’s Westwood compound, who indicate they purchased the property in 2009. Everything else seems to be a summary of material that’s already been long available in the public record, especially here on Sustained Action, along with Gray’s fanciful speculations on that material. Then there are those significant errors, summarized here.
The original Sustained Action website went up in 1999. That version of the website contained material that would be of interest to fellow Castaneda followers (workshop notes, summaries of private sessions with Castaneda) in an effort to lure them into reading the other material (e.g., chronologies of Castaneda and the Witches, reports on likely source
