American Author , Carlos Castaneda was born the December 25th 1925 with Cajamarca with the Peru and died the April 27th 1998. It is student in Anthropologie at the university of Los Angeles in 1960 when it would have made the meeting of gift Juan Matus (pseudonym), an Indian being presented in the form of a Yaqui, of which he became the pupil. The whole of its work rises from the experiments and lesson drawn from this meeting, of which reality is still highly discussed today.

Biography

Childhood

The own life of Castaneda is known little about, this one having surrounded it of one will have Mystère. He claims to be born with Sao Paulo, with the Brésil in 1931, to have passed most of the beginning of his life in Argentine, before going to the the United States to follow studies of Anthropologie. In fact, the documents of the office of immigration say that it was born with Cajamarca, to the Peru. According to Castaneda, his/her mother would have died when it had 22 years and its father, César Arana Burungaray, would have been Joaillier, or politician. Journalists of American magazine TIME however found the parents of Castaneda in Peru. Those knew its birth date perfectly, as well as the history of their family, contrary to the assertions of Carlos Castaneda. His/her mother describes her son like a " large menteur" in its childhood. Carlos Casteneda follows courses to the Académie of the Art schools of Lima, then launches out in the Visual arts. He affirms to have left his country for the California in order to flee a Chinese which smoked of the Opium. He also claimed to have been member of the " Special Forces" American, which no forever corroborated document. According to the TIME, Castaneda would have had a natural girl before her departure of Peru.

Its studies with the UCLA and its career of anthropologist

Carlos Castaneda obtains a doctorate in Anthropologie at the university of Los Angeles in 1970.

Carlos Castaneda wrote twelve autobiographical books which tell its experiment of the Indian Sorcellerie under the control of the wizard Toltèque Yaqui gift Juan Matus. Its books report not only autobiographical elements, but are regarded by certain as a real vector of the chamanic Enseignement of the toltèque Tradition, such as it was redefined by the naguals gift Sebastian, gift Santisteban, gift Rosendo, gift Lujan, gift Elias Ulloa, gift Julian Osorio and gift Genaro Flores. With the listening of his Master, Carlos Castaneda notes the initiatory lesson of a culture which it supposes being that divided by the Yaquis unit (it will balance his matter in the foreword of the “Voyage in Ixtlan”).

Its works being an immense success, were the occasion of a popularization of a certain form of the chamanic thought. However, the language eminently symbolic system retranscribes by Castaneda according to the words of the famous chamane toltèque particularly metaphorical remainder, and Carlos Castaneda could loosen neither the structure of it, nor the system which founds the ontology of it.

From the medium of the Years 1980, Carlos Castaneda transmits “ the Magic Master keys ”, an aspect of the knowledge of the chamanes of old Mexico up to that point unknown, and challenged by the Indians themselves. This part of its work, as well as the works which it will publish consequently, are extremely discussed with the center even of the community of those which lend faith to the contents of its former work.

Uncertainties on its existence

Many people tried to meet Castaneda. Addresses unknown, photographs prohibited, there exists of him some photographs and drawings whose authenticity is always questioned. There exist some very rare interviews, but some agree to say that they were thoroughly orchestrated, and that their goal was less the projector on the character than the clarification of the doctrines. Others even try to reach it by its metaphysical plan.

Mystery on its death

Castaneda initially died the April 27th 1998, according to the press; who specifies later, around on April 27th, 1998. There exists a 3 days uncertainty around the date of its death, the body would have even disappeared to end up being found. The whole officially announced the June 19th 1998, one month and half later. This blur would be due to the existence of a son who would have asked for a blackout for testamentary reasons. The body is incinerated, and its ashes are dispersed above the Mexican desert in greatest discretion and to the general astonishment. The Los Angeles Times will say that he died as he lived in the calm one, the secrecy and the mystery.

Work

In his works, Carlos Castaneda makes the account of sound Initiation, by some Don Juan Matus, with the concepts of the Chaman S of the old Mexico. During more than ten years, it would have returned many visits to the Sorcier and its clan, constitutes men and women all entirely implied in the search of an abstract goal defined by the “indicators” of their line: absolute freedom or the possibility of preserving intact to them Conscience in beyond.

Carlos Castaneda describes his immersion in the world of gift Juan over one long period - period which finds its paroxysm at the time when Don Juan Matus and its clan decides to leave this world, leaving behind them a new generation of apprentices, in their turn entirely implied in the search of the absolute Liberté.

The result of this apparent effort of reconstitution and clarification is now known in two forms: its works, then practice of the Tenségrité.

Its works give a report on a Philosophie (to see below) whose object is the Quête of the Connaissance , determinism of order esoteric which would bring to the wizard of the unknown capacities to the common run of people, of which in the long term that of the Immortalité. At the end of its training, and in accordance with a very ancient tradition, dedication which confirms the success of the followers, Casteneda must jump in a ravine, according to the screen of the teaching of the nagual: If you did not succeed in assembling another world before arriving at the bottom, you died.

In the current of the Years 1980, Carlos Castaneda and three women all, allegedly apprentices of gift Juan Matus, decide to diffuse, for whoever was sincerely interested , one of the sides of the knowledge of the Shamans: the “ magic master keys ”. According to Carlos Castaneda, these magic master keys is the modernization of “ movements ” discovered and developed by the Shamans of old Mexico lasting of the thousands of years. These movements were gathered by Carlos Castaneda under the title Tenségrité, term resulting from the Architecture which combines the words tension and Intégrité . With its death, a big number of business firms asserted legitimacy to teach the tensegrity. Today the Cleargreen company, rested by Carlos Castaneda itself, is charged to teach Tenségrité.

Authenticity of the account

A vast polemic makes rage since decades on the authenticity of the account of Castaneda. Supposed to be a Autobiography, and presented like such, of many voices rose while shouting with the Imposture. Work would be only the Romance of a writer facetious whose only quality would be a unlimited Imagination. It would be very long to enumerate all its detractors, like all its defenders. So elements remain indeed unverifiable (Castaneda present sound " work of anthropologue" in a way which too strongly separates precautions and rigor of traditional anthropology), there exists of very strong presumption of fraud and mystifications, summarized by Christophe Bourseiller in his work " 'The truth of the mensonge'".

The actor, poet and Chilean realizer Alejandro Jodorowsky section the debate in a facetious and elegant way: either the accounts are true, and Castaneda is a large initiate, or he very invented, and then it is a literary genius.

Existence of gift Juan Matus

In the Years 1970, Castaneda, are regarded by certain as the Messiah of a news Religion, and are credited with an incipient work guaranteeing the use of the substances Psychédélique S, with the manner of Antonin Artaud, Aldous Huxley or Timothy Leary. Many people thus leave towards central Mexico, in the search of Don Juan, her intellectual guide and inspirer. The country is raked during years, the man remains untraceable.

A testimony of weight will come a time to weigh down this presumption of joke. A woman, being presented in the form of a former partner of Castaneda, will come to guarantee the Hypothèse imposture. Analyzed by certain specialists in the Biography of Castaneda, the particular testimony of this woman would finally have been regarded as feverish, contradictory, and of personal interest (source?).

Plagiarisms

As largely showed it Richard deMille, of many passages of the accounts of Carlos Castaneda proved to be plagiarisms of serious work of students or anthropologists of the UCLA. The problem is not only that the ideas were similar of a work of Castaneda to that of a former author: whole paragraphs contain almost identical sentences, in their cutting as in their syntax. For example notion of the " Four enemies of a man of connaissance" , described in the work of Castaneda, are almost certainly stolen of a book of Barbara Myerhoff, published a few years before.

Geographical inconsistencies

The desert sonoran reported in works of Carlos Castaneda only resembles very vaguely the true desert (Castaneda never mentions certain animals - insects of Peyotl, wild pigs - which are however everywhere) and the behavior of the animals is not right (the mice shout without being wounded to attract a puma…).

Commercial dimension

The works of Carlos Castaneda having been an immense business success, this one was seen showing to exploit a " filon" initially very thin. The schools relating to the lesson of Castaneda, in particular those on the Tenségrité, proliferate after its Mort. This commercial phase (certain applied tariffs are astronomical) accredits the thesis of imposture again. But the defenders have arguments; the training courses are only one foreign recovery, with primarily lucrative goal, nonin conformity with the spirit of work because copied on a americanized Yoga.

Temporal contradictions

Very many temporal inconsistencies appear during an internal analysis of the work of Castaneda. It is not possible that the books the Grass of the devil… and the Voyage in Ixtlan are true at the same time. In fact, one of these accounts at least contains a certain share of invention, exceeding the simple constraints of the romantic form.

The few following examples are drawn from the book of Richard of Thousand, Castaneda' S Journey .

• In the Grass of the devil (1965), Castaneda meets a witch in the shape of Don Juan himself. In this account, Castaneda remembers vaguely that in 1961 Don Juan had promised to say some more on “Catalina”, and of the means to assassinate it " a jour." In 1965, according to the Grass of the devil , anything else has not occurred for this day there. However, in 1962, according to the Voyage in Ixtlan , Castaneda saw “Catalina” 6 times, and even attacked it.

• Similarly in one of the accounts, Castaneda explains to have considering a beneficial place on the ground, with the accesses of the house of Don Juan, in 1962. The other account states that in 1968 only, Castaneda notices for the first time that Don Juan said the word " vu" with a particular inflection (he then asks him what he understands by there).

Such examples are very numerous. The detractors say that clearly, Castaneda at least invented the voyage in Ixtlan , if not, Don Juan. Those which persist in believing in the existence of Don Juan suppose that Castaneda simply made some errors in its notes of ground.

Philosophy

Work includes/understands a complex Philosophie which is encrusted in the account, and whose big part is completely new, according to the arguments of the defenders of the authenticity of the account. It has a character of revelation, within the meaning of disclosure, of an old hidden tradition.

Contrary, its detractors consider that it represents a protean approach of the world, which could be just as easily let catalog as a religion, as a philosophy, as a Métaphysique or as an art of living although it does not claim of any religion nor existing philosophy.

; Nihilist aspects The Univers is without God, Vide, icy and, paradoxically indescribable. It made up only of fields of energy, originating in single a Source, métaphoriquement is not métaphoriquement called " Eagle " , whose human Conscience is only one negligible emanation. The human Vie is only one enrichment of the conscience devoured by the eagle after death (see also Saturn in Greek Mythologie and the concepts of Théosophie " the life is lent ").

; Aspects of Redemption In the late work of Castaneda, the Homme can escape his Destin to see its conscience devoured under certain conditions, very precise and perfectly modélisables. This single condition is called " to live in Warlike " (see hereafter). It corresponds to a very rigorous lifestyle, which consists in accumulating a sufficient Réserve energy to offer to the eagle a placebo, to circumvent it and thus preserve its conscience over one duration being able to be unlimited. In this case, the warrior " does not die ".

; Gnostic aspects and of elitism There exists a higher Déterminisme, named " Knowledge " , inaccessible to the commun run of the Mortel S. This knowledge is hidden (esotericism). A wizard only can claim to reach it, but it, before, will have been predestined like tel. a higher conscience, called the Spirit, indicates it as such by one or more Présage S. Seul an experienced wizard, called Nagual, can read these predict and recognize a future apprentice.

; Aspects of “charity” and satisfying Only an apprentice designated by the Spirit can be formed to acquire Knowledge. Very other Formation is vain, Nagual would put in Danger no matter whom of other that the natural applicant, and would endanger itself, the energy S concerned being very high. Nagual is not involved (the Rémunération does not have any Sens), although this catch load is advantageous for him within the meaning of the perfectibility of its way of warrior. Nevertheless, and always paradoxically, no matter who can engage, only, in the way of warrior, if it is conscious of the extreme discomfort of this way.

; Aspects Védiques Although vacuum, the Universe is equipped with an impersonal neutral substance, called the Intention. The Intention has nothing to do with the will, but a wizard can polarize it with its clean intention . It calls the Intention by the eyes. The relationship between the Intention and the intention is similar to that of the cosmic heart and of the individual heart described in the process Ahamkara describes in the Veda. This substance is also called Nagual (homonymous of the precedent), and will return, like a mirror, the solidified image called tonal . Thus the wizard achieve ici-bas extraordinary acts, magic acts.

; Phenomenologic aspects The base of the sorcery is the movement of the point of assembly. The energy constitution of the universe can break up into an quasi-infinite number of filaments, having each one conscience of themselves. The point of assembly makes it possible to be connected on some of them, thus creating our perception of the world. The position of the point of assembly of a common man is appreciably the same one for all humanity. A wizard can move this point to reach other usually inaccessible filaments. Its perception of the world changes, while remaining perfectly real (practical named stop-the-world ). This art is called " art to track " or the art of the controlled madness. To the extreme, it can more not even assemble the filaments of this world to assemble those of another.

; Dualistic , not-dualistic aspects and of Unit The work of Castaneda is characterized by a polarity Nagual-Tonal (see definition above). A normal man knows only the Tonal one, being educated with this perception, which is stabilized at the adulthood to become its current vision of the Universe. A Sorcier knows the existence of Nagual, completely indescribable and complementary structure (would manage one to describe it, it would become Tonal, to also see the Taoïsme). Even indescribable, Nagual is a field in experiments tangible. A wizard will not privilege one with the detriment of the other, but will endeavor to unify both, to reach the totality of oneself . To note that conventional dualism Bien-Mal, just like morality, do not have any direction at Castaneda. On this aspect work is connected well with the Eastern accounts epic, like the Mahabharata, for which the concept of good and evil is unknown.

; Demonologic aspects and of Possession The tangle of the energy structures of the Universe causes very penetrating transfers. The conscience of the man is permanently violated by foreign incursions of energy, felt like more or less powerful humoraux changes, called inorganic beings , most virulent being " the shade " , obscure entity able to substitute its conscience for ours, to exacerbate the worst enemy of the wizard , his own car-contemplation, and to nourish its disastrous effects. Certain wizards manage to control these foreign energies, and make them of it allied . Even if alliance with the inorganic beings is disadvised, the composition with them is impossible to circumvent, because it is them which bring the energy which we need. They act on a normal man whereas he believes to act of his own will. The wizard , conscious of the furtive presence of foreign energy, collects it, but preserves its own will. This process, dedication of a " man of knowledge " , " is called; ultimate art to track ".

; Aspects of Immanence and Determinism Although the objective of the wizard is absolute freedom, it does not remain about it less than work aiming to acquire it will be carried out in a whole of very precise rules, forming a homogeneous and coherent whole called Voie of the warrior (see hereafter). Moreover, this way presupposes the determination of an objective, imperatively taking into account the Nature of the warrior, i.e. the whole of its predispositions. Castaneda names this determinism " the way of the heart ". Its detractors see there a strong similarity with all the ancient Eastern literature, in particular the Mahabharata, where the Dharma, the Nature of an individual, constitutes the principle founder.

; Aspects divinatoires Having acquired the capacity to move its point of assembly, a wizard can have the capacity to perceive its environment in its energy form. This perception is not done with the eyes, but with the body, which must be, like requirement, without being sufficient, in excellent health. This act is called to see . By this process, Don Juan arrives throughout the formation, to know the emotional state of Castaneda, but also the traces of her past. Voir is used by the wizard , by simple focusing, to know people or determined groups of people, stages of history, to recognize beneficial or malefic places, to feel the danger or the favorable aspect of a situation. At the end of its training, Castaneda will see the old wizards, completely disappeared race, and will end up joining them in spite of the repeated warnings of Don Juan.

Pragmatism and way of the warrior

; The ultimate purpose in a mythology saturnienne The luminous fibers constitutive of the Universe emanate from a single source: the Eagle. Just like in the theosophic doctrines of Blavatsky, at Castaneda the life is only one loan. The conscience is lent by the eagle, which reabsorbs it after the terrestrial life enriched it. We are in a mythology saturnienne, where the Master of time ends up devouring his children. The identification with this mythology is all the more obvious as one finds there the enmaillotée stone offered to God to deceive it. Here the stone is the recapitulation: by a chronological technique of introspection, introspection aiming at demolishing the energy noeudes that it generated during its life, the follower will reconstitute an image of its life, that he will offer to the eagle at the time of face to face. Correctly realized, this recapitulation will be accepted by the eagle, which will then let pass the wizard. This operation " is called; the gift of Aigle" , the wizard becoming holder of the supreme gift: the continuity of the conscience at unlimited period, i.e. physical immortality. It should be noted that this ultimate purpose differs from a great number of Eastern or Western doctrines, such as for example the metempsychosis pythagorician of transmigration of the hearts. Here, the realization is not done in any beyond, moreover often hypothetical, it is done on the terrestrial level. In their search of infinite, the wizards carry with them the terrestrial plan, i.e. they travel with their physical body, without leaving the least skin to their departure.

; Determination of the objective There exists a very ungrateful phase of the training where the pupil is not any more one common man, but not yet a wizard. He exceeded the conventional values of the world, which do not have any more a direction for him, but did not reach the premises of knowledge yet. This phase is for him particularly dangeureuse and diverting.

A warrior selects the elements which constitute its world, because each element constitutes a shield (...) people are busy to do what people do, here are their shields (...) Maintenant, for the first time, you are not any more with the shelter in your old lifestyle (Carlos Castaneda, has Separate Reality ).

The process of the wizard is thus to stop perforated (in which death began as of its opening), by a reorganization based on the-way-which-have-of-heart , in order to avoid this opening to nothing: “A simple glance on the eternity which is outside the cocoon is enough to disturb the comfort which our inventory gets to us. The melancholy which results from it can generate death”. The main objective, as a reorganization of the shield, is only essential protection when the wizard considers the tonal one, and wishes to transcend it.

There exists however, beyond this reorganization, an ultimate and irrational, inconceivable objective by representation, but whose acquisition is however essential for the accession with knowledge. This objective, called abstract core , started from a mythical inheritance. To try out this inheritance is the only way of arriving at the ultimate goal of the wizard , the handling of " the intention " , field for which the oral transmission was completely unsuited. It is said whereas the warrior has a objective abstract .

; Determinants of the way of the warrior The " system Castaneda " consist of a Draconian management of its own energy. " the shade " we lends, without our knowledge, its conscience to make us make acts intended to exacerbate our car-contemplation, which will generate our energy starts whose the entity will be nourished. The life of a normal individual consists in emptying of its energy all its life in fallacious combat (which could be wrongfully interpreted like " warlike acts ") by the means of its car-contemplation which will be the channel of this escape énergétique.
Its detractors note on this subject the obvious similarity with logion 101 of the Gospel of Thomas Saint: The Kingdom of the Father is similar with a woman who carries a vase full with flour and which from goes away by a long way. The handle of the vase broke: the flour was spread behind it on the way without it knowing it and without it being able to cure it. When it arrived at its house, it posed the vase and it found that it was empty.

The warlike act initially consists in damming up this energy escape, by regarding car-contemplation as the worst enemy. According to its detractors, other religions make already the same type of recommendations: the fathers of the church indexed seven deadly sins, the Eastern religions stipulate that if an act must be perfect, one should not stick to the fruits of the act.

The ambient world causing dispersion, the warrior must approach this world while following very precise determinants.

; The process of validation of the particular consensus The process set up by Don Juan consists in isolating from perceptions of the ordinary life to establish correlations with the modified state of consciousnesses. The perception of ordinary reality migrates towards a specific and personal perception. This vision is named for the circumstance " stop-the-world ". This movement towards the particular consensus which, in the long term, allows the abandonment of usual perception to usually reach luminous fibers out of the coverage by the point of assembly.

; Reports/ratios with drug The first book of Castaneda ( the Grass of the devil and small smoke ) made state of a way of knowledge requiring the consumption of a certain number of Drogue S. the idea is to acquire the control of a given stage of the way by creating special relationships with the ally the best capable one to teach on the aforementioned stage. The ally, contained in drug (for example Datura inoxia or Psilocybe mexicana), becomes temporarily particular professor.

The defenders of consumption, moderate or not, of substances Psychédélique S, saw a guarantee of their pratique.
there Teaching is based on the movement of the point of assembly, it gives also a report on the personal predisposition for this purpose. Some wizard , and in particular the majority of the witch , have the capacities natural to carry out this movement.

Castaneda was always seen by its Master, Don Juan, as being stopped . The drug-taking was the ultimate recourse to make move its point of assembly. The psychedelic substances were managed to him only at the beginning of formation, and in exceptional circumstances, in order to make him perceive potentialities which it could not imagine, and even less to accept. Don Juan explains that they are dangerous for the body, and that an excellent health of the body is essential, in particular for " to see ".

After this Psychotropic phase , the access to the conscience of the left side (name given to the state of consciousness increased, reached previously by drug) is done by a blow in the back, given by Don Juan (the aforementioned blow it forever physically touched, it acts in fact of a jolt to the energy body ). At a more advanced stage of the formation, Castaneda finishes by rocking of the left side without any external intervention.

Glossary

• Warlike : Individual who commits himself respecting a very precise determinism with an aim of becoming Sorcier . The essence of this combat is done against oneself.
• Intention : Keystone and ultimate objective of the wizard . Capacity of a wizard to handle " the intention " he open all the doors of the universe. This term is almost indefinable, it could be perhaps compared with the " faith " , or, in Alchemy, with sulfur, seed activates creation. So that the magic can seize us, it is necessary to drive out the doubt of our spirit ( the Force of silence by Carlos Castanedena)
• Nagual (1) : Wizard arrived in a advanced state of the Knowledge . Only Nagual can direct warlike or warlike . Its authority is essential not by a particular regulation but by pragmatic capacities which are essential in fact.
• Nagual (2) : Neutral substance of the Universe which is opposed to Tonal, indescribable by definition, since its description immediately relegates it in the row of the Tonal one. Probably comparable with CAT
• Shade : very powerful inorganic entity which is introduced into the conscience to substitute his for it, while making us make acts which we believe ours. Its objective is to nourish our energy. The shade appears very tardily in the work of Castaneda. (See the final Voyage by Carlos Castanedena)
• Not of assembly : According to Castaneda, the energy structure of the man (that a wizard can see ) is made up of a luminous egg whose form and colors determine the energy state of the individual. At a precise place of this egg exists a point which collects certain fibers of the universe; it is the point of assembly. It determines the way in which the individual perceives the universe. When the point of assembly moves, the perception of the universe of the individual changes. There does not exist any concept of morality in this concept: if the position of the point of assembly is about the same one for whole humanity, qualifiable position of normal or normative , it being able to be very different for a wizard , without a difference prévale on another. - Art to track and art to dream are the two modes of displacement of the point of assembly. The practice of one or the other depends on tempérement specific on an individual. The males have average capacities in two arts, and the females alone excel with or the other. A traquor is a wizard who has before all faculty to fix the point of assembly at a determined place, and which deliberately moves it by the systematic modification of its behavior. A dreamer is a wizard which with faculty to move spontaneously and radically its point of assembly by its practice to dream , and which fixes it while paying an constant attention but detached at the new environment that it assembled.
• Dreamer, rêveuse : to see Not assembly .
• Wizard, Witch, sorcery : Castaneda explains why it deliberately employed this term in the place of " Shaman, Chamane " to avoid the anthropological connotation and to support the idea of not-ordinary reality. The wizard is defined by his capacity in " to move the point of assembly ". He is at a advanced stage of the acquisition of the " Knowledge ". Other terms would be appropriate, according to Castaneda, just as easily: " Magic " , " Search of total freedom " , " Control of the intention " , " Nagualisme ".
• Tonal : Describable part of the Universe, opposed to the Nagual . According to Castaneda, even God , pure human representation, is an element of the Tonal one.
• Traqueur, traqueuse : to see Not assembly .
• Way of the warrior : See paragraph " determinants of the way of the warrior " in #Pragmatism and way of the warrior.
• See : Capacity to perceive the environment, and even universe, in its energy form. The act to see is done by the body.

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