| One obvious problem is, when you find out that someone is fabricating a lot of stuff, then you don’t know when to believe what they say anymore. IMO, what could be referred to as “the core myths” of the sorcerers are actually intertwined with the methods we have been given to use to reach enhanced perception. They are intertwined to such an extent that separating the two things would be a truly formidable task, IMO. And that’s the main reason I am concerned with the matter. For example, when we recapitulate, we are supposedly hooking into “the intent of the sorcerers of ancient Mexico,” in order to “give back the events of our lives” to a thing these alleged ancient sorcerers called “the eagle,” so we can eventually become totally “inorganic” life forms. You see how the “mythology” permeates the method and the purpose of the method? This is true of virtually every method we have been given. I’m not saying this is the case but … just for argument’s sake, what if there were no such ancient sorcerers, no eagle as described, no inorganics, etc.? So … what if they took a “recall your life” technique from some old metaphysical camp, doctored it up in a way no one had ever seen before, and coupled it with fragments of native mythologies? If the mythology is “all a diversion,” and the stories are all “just stories” then all you are really left with here is: “recall and review your life.” And trust me, there are a lot of schools out there which will recommend that. One more example: all the Tensegrity. If these moves were not discovered by the old sorcerers in dreaming, and passed down, made more martial by Lujan, and etc. then all you are left with is “do these weird movements because they’re good for you.” And there are lots of schools of movement out there. You could just as well go to Howard Lee, learn kung fu, or whatever… This illustrates why I feel it is necessary to know where the lying stops and where the method starts. Were there “lineages,” “parties,” “naguals,” etc., associated with Castaneda? If not, then all we have are a few basic techniques he came up with from somewhere, coupled with massive amounts of questionable philosophy (because the philosophy is even more intertwined with the myths and stories). Like many of you, no doubt, my attention, in my own life, is largely turned toward being concerned with perception, and my own immediate experience. However, to continue with some of the concerns on this matter … You ever read much sci-fi or fantasy? Well, those stories often make interesting philosophical points as well. They also commonly speak of people developing supernatural abilities of one kind or another, traveling to other worlds, etc. But they aren’t real. See, to me, it matters how many of the stories are real. So to the greatest extent possible, I’d like to find out. You ever read other internet newsgroups on “metaphysical” topics? Well, I do sometimes–have even participated in a few–and hey, there are lots of people out there having all sorts of bizarre experiences of perception. Those people are using a lot of different methods to engender altered perception. The teachings of don Juan and the warrior’s way is an intricate inter-related system which, for me, gave a “rhyme and reason” to the quest for enhanced perception in a way which truly separated it from the collage of ancient and new-age stuff out there. But without the core myths, without the stories being real, all that is left is a few pages worth of practical techniques, most of which DO have predecessors in other systems–a few techniques, and … some “great works of literature.” Let me just mention one more thing it might be wise to consider, which comes from personal experience. I can tell you for a fact that my own dreaming experiences have changed through the years to kind of “mysteriously” correspond to whatever activities I currently found myself concerned with. In fact, the power we have to “create our own realities in dreaming” is quite extensive. A few examples. When I was briefly involved with Buddhists, I had dreaming experiences related to Buddhist tenets. When I was briefly involved with the Church of Scientology, I had weird dreaming experiences that related to tenets of that religion. When I taught myself to do dreaming using the early books of Castaneda, my early aware dreaming experiences took on characteristics rather reflective of conditions described in early Castaneda books. Later, they often became more associated with events like Tensegrity workshops, etc. So, without overtly stating the conclusion, there it is in a nutshell. Draw your own conclusions, if you dare… 🙂 Worst case scenario… Have you ever seen the movie The Sting? It has to do with setting up a really elaborate game, and then “running the ‘marks’ through it.” To work, it has to be believable, it has to look real–and to do this, it has to have aspects about it which are real. So, what if Castaneda gradually picked up things from the academic literature around UCLA–things on hallucinogenics, lucid dreaming, eastern philosophical constructs, phenomenology, martial arts, etc.–and built sort of a “New-Age Sting” out of it? Of course, we’d be ‘the marks’. 🙂 It is even quite possible that many or even most of the people at Cleargreen could be ‘marks’ as well. Like I said … worst case scenario… |
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