New material

24 posts

New Post: Conversations with Carol & Florinda

Advice on Recuperating from Surgery from Carol and Florinda Back when I was attending Cleargreen night sessions with Castaneda regularly (as well as Sunday Group meetings), I had hernia surgery that caused me to miss a few sessions. Following the surgery, I received telephone calls at home from both Carol Tiggs and Florinda Donner. During these conversations

New: Purpose & Policies Page; Castaneda FAQ

Just added to the site is a new Purpose & Policies page on the Menu level. The new page not only outlines the purpose of the website but also summarizes a policy of transparency, and links to the site’s Privacy Policy. Also added is an FAQ page with the most commonly asked questions about Carlos

Castaneda’s Kung Fu Teacher Howard Y. Lee

Carlos Castaneda was a student of Howard Y. Lee, who taught Kung Fu for many years in Los Angeles. Howard was also an acupuncturist, who eventually performed a version of acupuncture using no needles. Castaneda mentioned Howard many times during Sunday group and other private sessions. The two pieces on this site devoted to Castaneda’s

New: No Copyright or Trademark Protection for Tensegrity

Just added to the site here a page summarizing the lawsuit filed by former Cleargreen employees and Tensegrity instructors Aerin Alexander and Miles Reid against Cleargreen. The case resulted in a ruling that there is no copyright or trademark protection for Tensegrity or the movements referred to as Magical Passes. Cleargreen and Laugan Productions, Inc.

Updated & Expanded Florinda Donner Chronology

Image courtesy Greg Mamishian & Gaby Geuter The chronology of Carlos Castaneda colleague Florinda Donner-Grau has been revised and updated here. Florinda Donner-Grau was one of the three supposed Witches (i.e., fellow apprentices of Castaneda’s teacher don Juan) and one of the five women closest to him who disappeared after Castaneda’s death. This 25th anniversary

New Documents Index & Additions

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

Jacobo Grinberg’s relationship with Castaneda in his own words

Teresa and Jacobo Grinberg Just added here Professor Jacobo Grinberg’s account of the interactions he and his wife Teresa had with Carlos 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

Updated and Expanded Carol Tiggs Chronology

Carol Tiggs, aka Muni Aranha, in 2015 Discover the updated Carol Tiggs chronology, detailing her bizarre and mendacious journey over the years. 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

Revised and Updated Blue Scout Chronology

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. 

Castaneda’s Doctor Confirms His Normal Death

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

New Piece on Castaneda True Believers

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 here on Sustained Action in 1999. The article explores how true believers

Never Before Published: Taisha Abelar Chronology

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

Cleargreen Exposed

“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.”

Castaneda Biographer Ru Marshall

Just added a Menu page to the site regarding Castaneda biographer 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

Amy Wallace – New Intro and Answers to Questions

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

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