The great Thunderbird

[Thunderbird]

Originally Posted by CraigD

I’ve not read any Castaneda or Castaneda compilations more recent than 1981’s The Eagle’s Gift. I’ll catch up in the next few weeks, skipping ahead to “The Art of Dreaming”, which I just loaded onto my handheld. I get a lot of reading done “in the cracks”, waiting for busses, trains, people, and lying abed before I need to be doing anything on a schedule.




Although I’ve had no contact with Castaneda’s folk at Cleargreen (not surprising, as I’m on the east cost, and they’re on the West), the impression I get from reading about them in writings like Corey Donovan’s Sustained Action website’s is that I wouldn’t benefit from the contact.

Still, I’m very curious about what Castaneda and his folk did in the 1980s and ‘90s, after I’d lost interest in them. From just the beginnings I’ve made reading in the last 48 hours, I’m starting to sense a similarity between his story and that of folk OTO-based folk like Jack Parsons and L. Ron Hubbard (like Castaneda, a consummate trickster, now dead, and in addition a mind-bogglingly prolific and proficient writer).

Perhaps the oddest connection I’ve noticed so far is Castaneda’s adoption/cooption of the concept of tensegrity, better know from the writings of Buckminster Fuller and art of Ken Snelson. Although connected in little more than name, tensegrity appears to be a major focus at Cleargreen these days.

I also started reading these books in the late 70s while in the navy in San Diego. This was in my phase of transcendental meditation. Neither TM nor Castaneda held my attention for long, and frankly these books wile interesting seemed over rated by the LSD culture of the time. I picked them up again in the 80s after reading The “Tao of Physics” “The Power Of myth” These books were the ones that open me up, allowing me connect my passion for science with unresolved curiosity for the ancient wisdom of the “ Neolithic Sage.”

The balance I found was to be connected, involved in the community, but keep my mouth closed and eyes open and try to catch glimpses, of underlying subtleties of order around me that made some of these ideas practical. “Stalking Your self” like a hunter, “intent” this absolute sobriety Castaneda speaks of.

These states came and went in short phases, but changed for good the way I perceived. This is not say my perception is any better than anyone else’s it merely allowed me to pull my head out of my ass. As the books became less esoteric in the 80s and 90s and more practical, not consequently but more by serendipity, so did I.

I have the book “Magical Passes” and the video on the tensigrity exercise program, which are amazing from the practical way to boost your energy, to the fascinating way it describes the underling dynamics of our physiology. It also introduces us to Castaneda’s group of apprentice, which are very real.

[Turtle]

Of course, not all of what Castanada said/wrote is BS. For example, the gait of power is quite servicable in reality. (Never mind the injuries you'll incurr perfecting it. ) Moreover, the preparations of the psychoactive plants is factual, and ostensibly the original reason for going to Mexico.

Then there is the trickster, and tricksters don't 'punk' you like one thinks of that term in today's cultural context, rather they teach you without you knowing what you are learning. I found the later few Castanada books tiring, and got the sense they merely fulfilled an economic need for Carlos and the publisher. Kinda like the last couple of Jane Auel's books.

Interesting things you have said about Fuller and the term tensegrity and synergetics. I didn't know of the other fellow in regard to the tensegrity, but I have been reading Fuller's Synergetics off and on since it came out. I have a thread in the Water Cooler on it titled Buckminster Fuller, and there is a link there to an online version of Synergetics, as well as my mostly singular commentary.

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by Turtle

Then there is the trickster, and tricksters don't 'punk' you like one thinks of that term in today's cultural context, rather they teach you without you knowing what you are learning.

I love this style of teaching. It's very Socratic, in a way.

Tom Brown Jr. describes it (in his numerous books) as Coyote Teaching. In Native American (NA) culture, the Coyote is seen as the trickster and often times plays the role of "comedian" in NA storytelling. It's a very effective method of teaching critical thinking, imho.

[modest]

Originally Posted by CraigD

As pure fiction, the Don Juan books paled in comparison to the undisguised fiction of Tolkien, Moorcock, and a host of professional and amateurs from that period

But as a lie, better than Dianetics.

-modest