May be of interest . . .
Love the discussions about dreams, lucid dreams, nature of mind . . .
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Carlos Castaneda was revealed to me in 2000… I couldn’t stop reading him. Don Juan’s teachings are incredibly advanced, inspiring and full of wisdom.
One of his recommendations is to gaze at clouds until you finally realize that they are living beings. Once I did a medicine journey (the only one with herbs - Peyote) where a cloud entered me and someone saw the blue light coming inside me. Incredible experience.
He also has a very good exercise that I learned yesterday with a student who is 70 years old 
thought of you Barry…
the exercise is called “Stopping the world” and consists in seeing and focusing in the space in between the leafs of a tree. I did on that day and indeed, the world stopped in a moment where it was a huge blessing to manifest!
Soon I will look at this video.
Thanks for sharing 
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Love this thank you.
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My teachers Arnold and Amy Mindell are interviewed at around 31:20. “Arny” as we call him, was a Jungian analyst who got very interested in Castandeda’s work and wrote a book called “The Shaman’s Body” based on Castaneda and his own experiences with a number of shamans around the world. He is the developer of a Neo-Jungian Psychology known as “Process Work” that views everything - from body symptoms to relationship and family problems to world problems as dream-like with dream-like meanings. I learned a lot from Arny and Castaneda’s books but I have also become aware of some recent investigations which attempts to prove that Castaneda made most, if not all of it up. The books are brilliant and full of spiritual truths, but hard to know how much of it is based on his actual experience vs. his imagination. He also maintained an almost cult-like control over his innermost circle and died in a very mysterious way. His body was never found. His close inner circle of women, who were much like his wives, also mysteriously disappeared. Years later some bones were found in Death Valley, CA that were traced to one of the women. Lots of strange mystery around this Castaneda guy! And Carlos Castaneda is not even his real name. He took that name on when he immigrated from Peru in his early 20’s and he took on a new name and identity.
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Yes! Very interesting. I read his first book in Spanish in the late seventies and it was a very impactful experience. I lost interest after his 3rd book. I am going to read it again.
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Yeah I read a bunch of the books in my 30’s and 40’s. I think I read all of them except the last couple books. They were definitely an influence on my thinking. Hard to know how much of it is fact and how much is fiction. I suspect there is at least a little factual experience mixed in with a lot of fiction. At the very least it’s an interesting philosophical read. One interesting thing about the above documentary is that it documents that he had indigenous students from Mexico who came to visit. That would seem to verify that he was actually in Mexico interacting with indigenous folks.
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I began to listen to the audiobook since my last post. I am relating a lot to the “search”, the eagerness of having the “experience”.
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I listened to this podcast last year. It is a thorough investigation of Castaneda’s life and claims. It’s conclusions are extremely skeptical. It includes interviews with many of Castaneda’s students and associates. You can also hear it on Apple podcasts and Spotify. That being said, I also think there are some spiritual truths in his writings, even if it is diluted with a lot of wild fiction,. This is just the first episode of a whole podcast series.
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Thank you. I will listen, just the visuals of his descriptions are an exercise of visualization.
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I am so inspired by his work. He reminds me of a more mystical version of Robert Moss. I have not read any of Carlos’s books, but now I am very excited to. He has been on my bucket list for a while, but overwhelmed by the amount of reading from books of other authors.
Charlie M. mentions that The Toltec Indians were very skilled dreamers, I think many if not all the American Indian tribes valued dreams, and knew about many of the sacred arts tied to dreaming.
I think the eagle and snake on Mexicos flag were inspired by a premonition dream, or a vison, or both.
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1993 Carlos Castaneda - The Art of Dreaming
I am really loving his work.
@Mayra Here is one of his books free.
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look at his astrological natal chart @NightHawk999 …
a lot of energy in Scorpio and Jupiter on the 12th
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Can you give a quick interpretation of the chart? I don’t know much about astrology. Do you see a lot of trickster energy in his chart? In other words, is he someone who is believable, or someone who may be lying a lot?
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Look no further than his Mars placement, to tell he is the real deal, like an owl, this guy can see through the darkness.
His sun and jupiter placement means he is headed to the top of the mountain in whatever occupation he choses (wants to be the best, and willing to sacrifice the blood sweat and tears it takes to get to the top. Regardless of how tough the path is, his jupiter will give him a lot of luck with the obsticles encountered a long the way.
His venus makes helping humanity a large priority, and aiding large groups and populations.
His sun and moon are very harmonious together, the needs and wants of one will typically compliment the other and vice versa, as well as the strengths.
Travel and philosophy and spirituality are all essential to his Mercury. These topics will be on his mind, likely talked about or written about (or both) often. This is a man who drink deep from the springs of wisdom every where he goes, and odds are his hoofs will cover great distances and many many cities and cultures.
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OK thanks. Listening to the “Trickster” podcast left me with a lot of doubts about him. My feeling about him is that he is mixed bag. He has a lot of good things to teach about dreaming in waking reality and he may have learned some things from Native Mexican teachers . . . and he also was a big trickster and kind of a negative cult leader with his inner circle.
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I agree.
indeed.
Yes.
I agree with this also 
yes, clearly visible.
in the video remember what one woman said? “for people to understand his reality, they needed to do the practice.” this is it.
I guess that when you reach a big public, there’s always this “adore or hate him” aspect, as well as him being too requested by people… I have this experience of when people try to get my attention when I’m not available, having very strong boundaries! I have a very good relationship with my conscious anger and accept it and show it to my most intimate people when needed.
For me, this astrological chart shows he was indeed capable of all that was mentioned in the video. His true nod on the 6th house also confirms he has come to give structure to what he learned in a very intimate space (with Don Juan).
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Listen to the “Trickster” podcast and see if that changes your perception of him. It definitely changed how I view him. I don’t think I see him as negatively as that podcast, but I think he was a real mixed bag.
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The venus placement will explain the latter.
Well if you were to label his birth chart I think mixed bag would be a perfect title. Maybe you were an astrologer in another life? His planets are evenly distributed randomly, with no more than 1 per zodiac sign. (EXCEPT SCORPIO, WITCH HAS 2 BIG POWER PLAYERS) And His Sun & Jupiter.
Jack of all trades might be a nicer title, (WITH A SPECIALTY IN THE OCCULT AND SEEING WHAT IS HIDDEN)
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Would rather read a book or 2 first. And base my initial judgement off that. Then will listen.
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