I’ve heard quite a lot about these being good. But before I rushed out and ready any, I did a little research on them online. Needless to say, it runs the whole gamut… debunked as a fraud, absolutely without-a-shadow-of-a-doubt true, doesn’t make any difference if it was real or not, the principles still apply through the essence of the story, etc., etc., etc. I’m sure there’s other takes on it out there that I just haven’t uncovered yet.
So, are these worth the effort or are the just a bunch of esoteric claptrap aimed at those of us (like me) who might be swayed by a Gabran-esque philosophy. Although I find him really interesting and subscribe to his newsletter. Anyway, any thoughts? Or should I devote my energies to hanging out here even more than I do? Just some various opinions would be great. I don’t want to have to go book diving (if I honestly won’t like them) at the local Goodwill unless necessary.
MHO is the latter. In fact, esoteric claptrap is even better than any observation that I would have made. I quite enjoy those kind of “new age” type books, although I confess that I am too much a skeptic to usually buy into them, but Castaneda was just plain bad. Again, IMHO.
I thought it was kind of freaky when I read them… but I was probably about 11-13 years old during that time frame (I didn’t read them all at once, sort of over a period of time). Later we made fun of them in college “Alcohol can be your ally”.
I read 'em all back in the day and while the first one was entertaining, I can’t remember much about them now (except that he ran out of steam by The Journey to Ixtlan).
I understand the following is a quote from Carlos Castandeda used by Queensryche in their latest album (plug).
“without rushing, without faltering, unraveling the secrets of knowledge.
We must challenge and defeat our four natural enemies;
Fear.
Clarity of mind.
Power and the desire to rest”
I have tried without success to find it in the works published on the web, although admittedly I only scanned through them.
In general I found it quite heavy going and overly mystical, but I guess it might be to someones taste.
There are plenty of links to be found by googling so try before you buy.
An old copy of the Whole Earth Review called The Fringes of Reason had a superb debunking of Castaneda called “A Yanqui Way of Knowledge.” It cracked me up. Apparently, the names of the characters in his novels are traditional names from nations hundreds of miles away; the plants he describes growing in the region don’t grow anywhere nearby; and tons of other mistakes riddle the work. Yaqui Indians tend to despise him, because of all the morons who believe Casteneda over the Yaqui themselves.
One reviewer (Wendy Rose, in a different book) asked whether you’d trust some Shinto guy who put on a funny hat and declared himself the Catholic Pope and started arguing Canon law with your local diocese. If not, why on earth would you trust Casteneda?
I think Gibran is the shit: he’s wonderful. But he doesn’t make any sort of bullshit claims to other people’s religion; he doesn’t lie.
As novels, I think his works are interesting (if repetitive and a bit derivative). As nonfiction, they are misclassified.
I read several of them during the '70s, but: I was in college; I was a religion major; I was living in Southern California; there might have been chemicals involved.
And yet I could tell they were complete bullshit.
If you want a good book I read during the early '70s (when I was in college, a religion major, in Southern California, doing way too many drugs), read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Thank you all for your input. I had tended to lean toward belief of all the debunking and trusted Dopers’ opinions on the matter. Although I can’t say I’d be completely put off by skimming one if I found it at a yard sale, I think overall that I’ll probably pass. Too much other good stuff out there, like as twickster said, the very wonder Zen. Which I read and agree with LHoD about it being too self-aggrandizing, it was so representative of the era that I couldn’t look away and ended up pretty much liking it despite its short comings. So I suppose if I’m curious anymore, I’ll stick to checking it out online, unless of course, it meets one of my (cheapo) conditions above.
Oh, and double thanks to koeeoaddi for supplying the link of the final word on the matter. Who could possibly argue with Mr. Cecil himself?
::: shudders and backs away from such a ludicrous idea :::
I’m not sure whether to leave this in Cafe Society or to move it to Comments on Cecil’s Columns, since Cecil addressed it already.
For the time being, since it’s not really commenting on Cecil’s Column so much as asking an already answered question, and providing alternatives, I’m going to leave it here. (I’m really just posting this so some other zealous moderator doesn’t move it.)
I was actually an avid reader of Castaneda.
Me and a few friends experimented quite a bit and found that it works !!!
Of course then we found out that he was a complete fraud.
I still believe however that (if you believe in it hard enough) you can get some results from it.
I don’t know if this proves that Castaneda isn’t lying or that you can trick yourself into changing your own (subjective) reality.
Or it just proves that if you take enough acid the spoon doesn’t bend anymore.
Anyway, any thoughts? Or should I devote my energies to hanging out here even more than I do? Just some various opinions would be great. I don’t want to have to go book diving (if I honestly won’t like them) at the local Goodwill unless necessary.
