--- In [email protected], t3rinity <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I also liked Castaneda, I started with his 3rd book, Journey to > Ixtlan...
The only two that really hold up over time for me are that one and the fourth, Tales Of Power. > ...but the book which fascinated me most was Eagles gift, I > read it three times, and it may have been the only book I > read three times. The night I met him was just before that book came out, so his language was heavily colored by the metaphors he used in that book. I wrote a story about it, and could probably find it if you're interested. He told some really funny stories that night. > I agree with you that the books have a definite power or spiritual > vibration to them, even though I know now like you that they are > made up, but something in the vibrates as truth. I didn't get the > same feeling with his spiritual co-workers Florinda Donner Grau. That difference only intensifies the more you find out about them. :-) > But I also would have never touched the books if I would have known > they were made up. The illusion that its real is very much part of > it. Even with other popular spiritual books there is a certain myth > around it, or around the person involved. Carlos' myth was very intentionally self-created, and I agree with you that it contributed greatly to both the popularity and the sales of the books. The only point on which we might agree to disagree :-) is that I feel the same way about most of the scriptures and holy books of the past as well. > At a time, they provided me with a metaphor of what was going on > in my life. For example, I had an overpowering vision of the Divine > Feminine, which changed my whole outlook, about one year prior to > meeting Mother Meera. At the same time I was reading about the 4 > directons and the archetypal female warriors in Castanedas 2nd ring > of power. When I met Mother Meera, and I felt comng closer to her, > my metaphor for her became the Nagual woman. One of the descriptions of poets and writers and even songwriters like Dylan that I like is that they "surf psychic trends." That is, something in them perceives and writes about things that are growing more important in the collective psyche of humanity. I used to find the same thing with Dylan albums. I'd get one, and he'd managed to describe everything that had been going on for me for the previous year. And, given the nature of the writing/recording process, that meant that he'd had to be picking up on these things starting about a year before I started feeling and perceiving them. Maybe the same thing is true about "spiritual writers." > In the eagles gift, there is a description of the 'human mould' > as a humanly created idea of God. At the time I read it, I had > just joined Purusha. I vividly remember that this passage > challenged my feelings of devotion to a personalised God, as > I took it very serious. With these thoughts in mind, as I > entered the flying hall, suddenly my awareness rose to a space > above the head, I suppose the Sahasrada Chakra, which I > perceived as an abstract other dimension, and at this point, > it was unconnected to the heard, a place of otherworldliness > and loneliness. I am sure, it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't > challenged my heart.I think it was the intensity that the book > created in me which made this happen. At this point he opening > wasn't persistend, but it soon became. And that brings up another interesting topic (at least it's interesting to me). If you hadn't been "primed" to interpret your experiences that way, would you have? If TMers hadn't been "primed" to think in terms of MMY's seven states of consciousness, would they still interpret their experiences in terms of them? Me, I think not. > Here some links I looked up in this context the last days, without > comment, just for sharing: > video of the chocmools demonstrating Tensegrity and indicating > castanedas end (dissolving into energy as they thought): > http://youtube.com/watch?v=BBsJzt24J-c > > Interesting article by Amy Wallace > http://sustainedaction.org/wallace_book/Chapter_4_Sorcerers_Apprentice.htm Last I was in touch with some of the old Castaneda crew, they were waiting for Amy's book. She shacked up with him for a number of years, and as a result has a rather unique perspective on Carlos and both who he was and who he wasn't. > I am not a writer, so writing this here, or, I also wrote an about > 10 pages experience report in Mother Meeras 'the Mother', I have a > general idea of what I want to say. I fisrt gather a sort of image > of what I want to write about, like a list of points but just > mentally and then I simply write. The 10 pages in 'The Mother' I > wrote in a week, just in spare time, and I didn't ever revise it, > except for proofreading. But then I think I have no skill really. I would not say that. I think that you express your thoughts and your experiences *very* clearly indeed. As to "process," my feeling is that if whatever works for someone works, that's cool, and if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
