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Collective of authors "Harvest"

Carlos Castaneda

Who are you, Carlos Castaneda?

Carlos Castaneda is rightfully considered one of the most mysterious personalities of the 20th century. There is very little reliable information about his life - mostly rumors and speculation.

What is known for sure is that he wrote and published twelve best-selling books, and also founded the Cleargreen company, which to this day owns the rights to Castaneda's creative legacy.

The thing is that Castaneda himself contributed a lot to creating such a halo of mystery around his person, he very rarely gave interviews and categorically refused to be photographed (nevertheless, by pure chance, several of his photographs nevertheless appeared in print). Castaneda also insisted that he had never been married, although Margaret Renyan, who published a book of memoirs about Castaneda, claims that this man was her husband. In other words, the reconstruction of the true biography of Carlos Castaneda is still a task that his biographers fail to solve.

Even the very fact of Castaneda's death (according to official reports, the writer died at home on April 27, 1998 from liver cancer) was perceived ambiguously in society. . Many of his followers believe that he did not die, but only, having transformed his body in an appropriate way, he passed into that other world, about which he wrote so much in his works. By the way, before that date, Castaneda was "buried" several times - either, according to rumors, he committed suicide, then, again, according to rumors, he died in a Mexican bus accident. But here the general rule applies: the more rumors there are about a person in society, the more success he enjoys with him, this society.

The word "castaneda" is translated as " chestnut grove"; and the writer really looked like a chestnut: stocky and strong, 165 cm tall and weighing about 70 kg, with dark hair and black eyes. In clothes, he preferred rigor and conservatism, tried not to stand out from the crowd. Castaneda claimed that he did not drink, smoke, use marijuana, or even touch coffee. He used drugs only when he was studying with don Juan, and then at the insistence of the latter. In general, a portrait of a modest and respectable inhabitant is drawn with large and rough strokes. But it is worth peering into this portrait, delving into its details, difficulties arise.

The writer himself claimed that Castaneda was not his real name, that he was born in the Brazilian city of São Paulo on Christmas Eve 1935 in "one famous" family, which he did not want to name. At the time of the birth of Carlos, his father, who later became a professor of philological sciences, was a little over seventeen years old, his mother was fifteen. Due to the immaturity of the parents, the child was sent to live with his grandparents in one of the Brazilian provinces on a livestock farm. When Carlos was six years old, the parents finally remembered the boy and took him to them. At the same time, obviously feeling guilty about their only child, they began to pamper Carlos in every possible way. “It's been a hell of a year. After all, I actually lived with two children. Castaneda's mother died a year later from pneumonia. Castaneda himself believed that the cause of death lay in weak will and low mobility, one of the most common cultural diseases of Western civilization.

About his mother, Castaneda wrote: “She was always in a gloomy and depressed mood, but unusually beautiful. I desperately wanted to help her, to offer her some other life, but would she listen to me, a six-year-old child?

After the death of his mother, Carlos stayed with his father, about whom he spoke little, and in his works he recalled with a mixed feeling of love, pity and even contempt. He contrasted the lack of will of his parent with the "impeccability" of his "spiritual mentor", don Juan. Castaneda mentioned that his father dreamed of becoming a writer. “In this I am like my father,” added Castaneda. “Before I met don Juan, I spent years sharpening my pencils and getting headaches whenever I wanted to write something. Don Juan explained to me how stupid it was. If you want to do something, do it flawlessly. That's the whole point."

Until the age of fifteen, according to Castaneda, he studied at a good school "Nicolas Avelaneda" in Buenos Aires, where he studied Spanish, while already fluent in Portuguese and Italian. Spanish came in handy later for his conversations with don Juan. In 1951, when Carlos became completely unbearable with his relatives, the family sent him to Los Angeles, where in 1953 he entered Hollywood College, then moved to Milan and studied painting at the Milan Academy of Fine Arts, but, not feeling drawn to art, he returned to Los Angeles and entered the Department of Social Psychology at the University of California, later transferred to the Department of Anthropology.

About this period of his life, Castaneda says: “Then I really understood that life was not a success. And he said to himself: if you do something, it’s completely new.” It was then, in 1959, that Carlos changed his name and took on the pseudonym Castaneda.

This is the version of Castaneda himself. But as a result of a thorough journalistic investigation conducted by Time magazine, the following was established. Indeed, from 1955 to 1959, Carlos Castaneda (that's right) was a student in the department of social psychology at the University of Los Angeles. Also, having studied the documents of the immigration service, the journalists discovered that in 1951, Carlos Caesar Aran Castaneda actually moved to San Francisco, in the USA.

In those years, Carlos Castaneda was 165 cm tall and weighed 58 kg. He emigrated from Latin America, or rather from Peru. Born on Christmas Day 1925 in the ancient Inca town of Cajamarca. His father was a jeweler and watchmaker, his mother, Susanna Castaneda Navoa, died when Carlos was already 24 years old, and not 6 years old, as he himself said. For three years, Castaneda studied at a local school. Then the whole family moved to Lima, the capital of Peru, where Carlos entered the National College and began to study painting and sculpture at the School of Fine Arts. The subsequent stage of Carlos Castaneda's life after moving to the USA and studying at the University of California has been carefully studied. But the life of the young scientist changed dramatically after his meeting with don Juan.

Castaneda himself described his acquaintance with the magician as follows:

“As a young anthropologist, I traveled to the southwest to collect information on the spot, in the field, about the use of medicinal plants by local Indians. I was going to write an article, get a degree, become a professional in my field. And the last thing I expected then was to meet a man like don Juan. My friend, also an anthropologist who acted as my guide on that trip, and I were standing at the bus stop and talking about something. Suddenly my colleague leaned towards me and pointed to the old Indian.

“Shh! - he said. “Look, but only so that he does not notice.” And he said that this Indian is an unsurpassed expert in the use of peyote and medicinal plants. It was all that needed to be heard.

I made the most important face of all that I was then capable of, crept up to that Indian, who, by the way, was called don Juan, and stunned him with the message that I was the greatest authority on peyote of my kind. I said he should have dinner and talk to me. In fact, I didn't know anything about peyote other than the name. Don Juan silently listened to my chatter, but only once accidentally glanced at me, and my tongue was immediately taken away. All my ambitions melted like wax in the hot air of that day. Don Juan informed me that his bus had arrived and said goodbye with a slight wave of his hand. And I just stood there like a stuffed fool.

But that was the start of everything else. I found out that don Juan was known among the people as a brujo, a cross between a healer and a sorcerer. One day I saw him again. We hit it off and soon became good friends. But a whole year passed before he trusted me. We already knew each other well when he suddenly revealed to me that he was the bearer of a certain knowledge, transmitted to him at one time by an unnamed benefactor. Don Juan said that he had chosen me as his student, but that I had to prepare for a long and difficult journey. I could not imagine how long and difficult ... and how amazingly wonderful.

He convinced me that the world is much bigger and more amazing than we are all used to thinking, that our ordinary ideas about reality are created in accordance with some kind of social convention, which in itself is the most cunning of tricks. We learn to see and understand this world through the prism of social norms. We ourselves put blinkers on our eyes, erecting conditional boundaries of the “real world”, and then we completely forget about everything that is left behind them. And a lot remains. Practically everything. Don Juan broke these boundaries for me, showing that each of us is capable of stepping into other worlds that are no less complex, stable and self-sufficient. Witchcraft involves the technique of reprogramming our capabilities so that we can perceive other worlds as real, unique, absolute and all-encompassing as our so-called material world...

Many people say that don Juan is a figment of my imagination.

But this is ridiculous. For the invention of such a figure, my intellect, brought up on the Western European tradition, is simply unsuitable. I didn't write anything. I'm just a storyteller. From the very beginning I tried to persuade don Juan to let me use the tape recorder, but he said that by relying on something mechanical, we weaken our potential. "It robs you of magical power," he said. “It is better to learn with your whole body, then you will remember with your whole body.” I didn't understand at the time what he meant.

Gradually, I accumulated many records of his instructions, and every now and then he laughed at my efforts.

He found it very amusing... As for my books, I dream about them. I collect myself and my notes, re-read them, translating them into English along the way. In the evening I sleep and see what I want to write. Then I get up and write down in the quiet hours of the night all that my daytime thoughts have become during sleep. By this time, they are completely put in order. From don Juan, Castaneda learned to avoid the generally accepted rhythm of life, everyday life. Even during his stay in Los Angeles, Castaneda ate and slept when he had to, leaving the city every now and then for the desert. Nevertheless, he devoted 18 hours a day to working on manuscripts.

From don Juan, Castaneda learned about the life of the Toltecs (that is, those who are initiated into the secret of contemplation and dreaming.

As the magicians themselves assure, the Toltec teachings have existed for more than 3000 years). And since a real Toltec has no right to spend his energy on trifles, Castaneda was forced to refuse to communicate with his friends, and from meetings with his beloved girlfriend. One day don Juan told Carlos that he should forget everyone he knew. Upon his return to Los Angeles, Castaneda rented an apartment a block from the house, where his friends were already impatiently waiting for him, and asked one of them to bring him some things, and take everything else - books, records and other belongings - for himself.

Friends thought that Carlos had gone mad and that sooner or later the madness would recede and he would return. That did not happen.

Even more abruptly, Castaneda broke off relations with his beloved. He invited her to a restaurant. At dinner, she got angry and began to scold him, not sparing insulting words. Castaneda got up and, saying that he needed to take something from the car, left and did not return. True, before leaving, he asked the girl if she had anything to pay for dinner and if she had money for a taxi to return home. He left her forever.

Castaneda said that among the Toltecs, sex is considered a waste of energy that should be directed to other goals. Therefore, love should be excluded from the life of a true warrior.

Thus, Castaneda disappeared from the field of view of all his acquaintances and friends. Where he was, only two knew since then - his agent and a friend who took away the letters that came in the name of Carlos. And even when Castaneda died on April 27, reports of this appeared in the newspapers only on June 18.

Somehow journalists asked Castaneda a question:

- What lies ahead for Carlos Castaneda?

"I'll be sure to let you know," he replied. - Next time.

Will this be another time?

“There will always be another time.

Castaneda's legacy

Castaneda's books appeared in Russia in the early 1970s.

The samizdat anonymous translations were retyped on a typewriter for about two decades, until finally, in the late 80s, official publications appeared (at first in the same translations). Of those readers who were content with the first two narratives 1
"The Teachings of Don Juan" ("The Teachings of Don Juan", 1968), "Separated Reality" ("A Separate Reality", 1971).

And he decided that everything was clear to him, there was no question. The third book - "Journey to Ixtlan" ("Journey to Ixtlan", 1972) - turned out to be a real drug for readers. For the one who was imbued with its secrets, an agonizing wait began. And when “it became possible” many Russian publishing houses not only released the books of Castaneda already known by that time 2
Tales of Power (1974), The Second Ring of Power (1977), The Eagles Gift (1981), Fire Within ("The Fire from Within", 1984).

But also very quickly translated all the freshest 3
The Power of Silence (1988), The Art of Dreaming (1993), The Active Side of Infinity (1998), The Wheel of Time ("The Wheel of Time", 1998), "Magical Passes" ("Magical Passos", 1998).

Quite a bit behind America. It is difficult to say how many readers and followers Castaneda has in Russia today. But it is known that his books are not stale on the shelves, and on the bookshelves too, and, as in the old days, they are passed from hand to hand, read to holes.

What is the ultimate goal of the "path of knowledge" that Castaneda follows - follows the Indian magicians? At first glance, it is the same as that of most occult and religious teachings: the achievement of one form or another of personal immortality. And from a philistine point of view, all this looks like an intricate way to end one's life. The pinnacle that don Juan and his fellow magicians strive for is the simultaneous departure from this world by the whole honest company to another world unknown to us. However, this is not the notorious "salvation of the soul", leaving the mortal body and striving, according to her faith, to the desired paradise. Indian magicians leave “without remains”, turning together with the body into some kind of energy substance and retaining awareness, but not because of the death that happened (voluntarily or involuntarily), but quite consciously choosing the time and place. To get the opportunity for such a transformation, and most importantly, to try in this life to know that otherworldly world where you will go after completing earthly affairs is the meaning of the magician’s many years of work, full of unknown, but quite tangible mortal dangers. True, from the point of view of the magicians themselves, personal immortality is complete nonsense.

The transformation of an apprentice into a magician is a process of erasing personality.

But, in addition, the magician is able to be transported in the blink of an eye to any point on the globe and - even more - to be in different places at the same time, he can turn into some kind of animal and perceive the world as it is.

And they are surprisingly patient, balanced, cheerful, in a word - impeccable. And all these incredible opportunities are achieved when a seemingly harmless, at first glance, condition is fulfilled - a complete change in attitude towards the world and towards oneself in this world.

We know the world is not what it really is.

Mankind has known this since time immemorial, and science noticed something, but could not prove it.

We are ready to admit that the dog has a better sense of smell than we do, and the cat has better hearing. We have resigned ourselves to the fact that psychics see the “aura”, and clairvoyants see the future and the lost wallet. All this is like a continuation of our virtues. Well, I can’t jump like a kangaroo, but just jump something ... However, it is very difficult to imagine that a cat, a dog and a kangaroo live in a completely different - each in their own - world, and each of us builds our own world, only similar to other human worlds.

Young children see and feel much more than adults. Parents teach the child to interpret what he sees in a certain way, give things names, thereby limiting his perception to a rather rigid framework. Now, what does not fit into these frameworks automatically belongs to the category of “do not believe your eyes” and to consciousness and is not allowed close. This is how a “description of the world” is formed, forcing us to be what we are.

How often different people pronounce the same words, putting their own meaning into them, and, of course, cannot agree, suspecting each other of all sins. And everything is very simple: everyone has his own description of the world, his own idea of ​​how it should be, what place he occupies in this world.

Stop for a second and think: what are you doing even when you are not doing anything? Most of all, you are talking to yourself. Thoughts jump from one topic to another, scrolling through a failed rebuke to an unfair boss, an excuse to his wife, morality to a naughty son and a memory of yesterday's match ...

It would seem that what could be more natural and familiar than this internal dialogue, where you are always right, unfairly offended and confident in your talent, which only idiots do not see ...

However, all known methods of meditation, no matter what school they belong to, are aimed precisely at turning off the internal dialogue, getting rid of random thoughts. What for? And in order to hear the voice of silence, carrying knowledge. Knowledge that cannot be expressed in words, knowledge that can only be followed... But we do not hear it, because we are constantly talking, talking to ourselves, justifying ourselves, denouncing, chewing on old and future failures...

We are waiting for interest or at least attention to our person.

Our inferiority complexes are akin to megalomania. Let everyone condemn better, let them hate, if only they would notice.

Self-esteem is the basis of our social life. Get it a noticeable hole - and life will go downhill!

And the strange creatures who call themselves magicians mockingly call it all " self-importance" and claim that most of a person's energy is spent on maintaining it. It simply does not remain for anything else, and therefore this feeling should be disposed of.

Alas, for a person of a European warehouse, this is incredibly difficult. For many followers of Castaneda, it not only does not decrease, but on the contrary, it intensifies in a strange way, already on near-magic soil!

Carlos Castaneda had no intention of ruining his life in any way. It may not have turned out too well, but it was still like people's. And he also assumed to solve his problems in a human way. Considering that he met the magician, don Juan, not as a young man, frankly speaking, but at the age of 35, one can imagine how deeply social norms were rooted in his mind, how tough his “description of the world” was. It took the magician many years to make Carlos look at the world with different eyes. First, with the help of "plants of power": Carlos studied their use on his own experience and of his own free will (however, under the control and with the appropriate comments of the teacher!) For two years, after which he left don Juan with the firm conviction that he would not return to him for anything ! But the unusual reality that he faced while taking hallucinogens did not let him go. With difficulty keeping the sliding "roof", he was forced to find don Juan and continue an incomprehensible education.

Carlos says that his training went in two ways : in a normal state, when he could write down, “digest” and remember any information, and in a special state of consciousness (absolutely unrelated to drugs!), In which he was presented with the most important information. Which? He couldn't remember afterwards. He met with other magicians - don Juan's associates and their students, something absolutely incredible happened to him - and he returned to his Los Angeles, having lost somewhere a few days, slightly surprised, though, but not even trying to restore the course of events! Only after a good two decades (!) in his memory, the “missing” pages of life began to be restored. By that time, don Juan and his group had already left this world, but it took Carlos a long time to remember how this happened.

Lying on the couch, it is so easy to follow don Juan with Castaneda, travel through the mountains among the cacti, move freely from Los Angeles to the Sonoran Desert, and from there easily to Oaxaca (that is, from northern Mexico to southern) ... Not necessarily by magical means (although this, of course, too), but normally, by car. But once you look at the map, many things cease to seem so simple.

From book to book, Castaneda asks don Juan the same questions ... True, he receives different answers to them.

Probably, you should not trust Castaneda so blindly: he himself says that these books were written not by a writer, but by a magician. Let us remember: in his official biography, Castaneda not only reduced himself to a dozen years, but also “buried” his mother twenty years earlier than in reality, introducing himself as an orphan. (Among magicians, this is called the erasure of personal history.) Castaneda made a splash by making public the ideas of the Indians about the structure of the world and man, practically unknown to Western science.

And they, these ideas, turned out to be by no means primitive.

While white people studied the "history of the development of civilization" from the "wild" Indian tribes, they passed on secret knowledge from generation to generation. If, however, don Juan's teachings are cleansed of the natural centuries-old layers in the form of purely Indian legends and myths, if one does not succumb to the charm of a peculiar terminology, one can find, for example, its obvious kinship with Taoism and Zen Buddhism, which have long been familiar to Europeans (if, of course, one cleans and them too), which only through ignorance can be considered primitive.

Those who read his books will understand that there is no reason to doubt their magic. Yes, and in practice, after checking some of the wishes of don Juan, one can recognize their effectiveness and usefulness. But it’s not worth bringing everything to the point of absurdity: we are not in Mexico, and it’s almost impossible to take into account all the subtleties (without a true magician-mentor).

In addition, don Juan himself said that they do not take volunteers as magicians ...

Carlos Castaneda and his books are just a rung on a long, long ladder of knowledge for us, wild civilized people.

"Enlightenment" Castaneda

There is an opinion that in terms of Castaneda "loss of human form" means enlightenment.

Three months flew by almost unnoticed. But one day, when I was in Los Angeles, I woke up at dawn with an unbearable heaviness in my head. It wasn't a headache. Rather, it was like intense pressure in the ears. I also felt heaviness in my temples and in my throat. I felt heat, but only in my head. I made a feeble attempt to get up and sit down. The thought crossed my mind that I must be having a stroke. At first I wanted to call for help, but somehow I calmed down and tried to overcome my fear. After a while, the pressure in the head began to subside, but increased in the throat. I gasped, wheezed, coughed. After some time, the pressure gradually moved to the chest, then to the stomach, to the groin area, until, finally, through the feet it left the body.

What happened to me, whatever it was, lasted about two hours. During those agonizing hours, it seemed as if something inside my body was actually moving down, out of me. It seemed to me that something was being rolled up like a carpet. Another comparison that came to my mind is a spherical mass moving around inside the body. The first image was still more accurate, since most of all it looked like something curled up inside itself, well, just like a carpet being rolled up. It became heavier and heavier, and hence a growing pain, which became completely unbearable to the knees and feet, especially in the right foot, which remained very hot for another half an hour after all pain and pressure had disappeared.

La Gorda, upon hearing my story, said that this time I must have lost my human form, dropping all of my shields, or at least most of them. She was right. Without knowing or even understanding what had happened, I found myself in a completely unfamiliar state. I felt detached, not feeling influences from outside. It didn't matter now what La Gorda had done to me. This did not mean that I forgave her for her betrayal; it just felt like there was no betrayal. There was no animosity left in me - neither open nor hidden hostility either to La Gorda or to anyone else. What I felt was not apathy or a desire to be alone. Rather, it was an unfamiliar sense of detachment, the ability to sink into the present moment without having any thoughts of anything else. People's actions no longer affected me, because I didn't expect anything at all anymore. A strange calm became the guiding force of my life. I felt that somehow I still perceived one of the concepts of the life of a warrior - detachment. La Gorda said that I did more than perceived her - I actually embodied her.

From the books of Carlos Castaneda "The Second Ring of Power"

This work is devoted to a systematic description and analysis of the magical knowledge of don Juan, set forth in nine books by the famous American occultist Carlos Castaneda. The reader will be introduced to the philosophical and psychological underpinnings of this original teaching, as well as a practical technique that can achieve amazing results. The book is intended for everyone interested in the problems of spiritual development and the current state of world occult thought.

Crossing the border Psychological Image…Donald Williams

The stories of Don Juan Carlos Castaneda have been haunting the world for over 20 years. But what do the images and events presented in these stories mean? And what, in fact, in ourselves corresponds to the Path of Knowledge that enchants us, along which the discipleship of Carlos follows? In this book, for the first time, an extensive psychological depiction of Castaneda's writings is given. Using dreams, fairy tales, mythical and cultural parallels, the author brings Carlos' spiritual journey back to earth, showing that for any of us, the search for emotional balance and self-realization leads ...

Carlos Castaneda. Closed seminar of the great ... Yakov Birsavi

The author of this book is a stockbroker, one of the most competent men on Wall Street. In his youth, he was lucky to attend the seminars of Dr. Castaneda. The knowledge gained there changed his life forever and, according to the author, predetermined his success in business. For a long time, recordings from seminars were not available to readers. However, this book has just been published! Ten Lessons Carlos Castaneda Taught to American Students. Ten exercises that advance a person to the Force, to understanding the world, the ability to control reality. Description of ten...

Carlos Castaneda. Shattered Knowledge Vasily Dzheldashov

Carlos Castaneda is a legendary man and the most mystical writer of the 20th century. The teachings of Don Juan, amazing and multifaceted, like life itself, have so strongly influenced millions of people around the world that it is impossible to imagine modern civilization without the cultural phenomenon of Carlos Castaneda. You have a difficult book in front of you. It is the fruit of a fundamental study of the matrix of images of the Teaching of Castaneda and their influence on each of us. The Path of Knowledge and the assemblage point, reality and the Creator, the meaning of life and rebirth, other worlds and many other facets of the Broken…

Carlos Castaneda. Lost Lectures. Hunting… Yakov Birsavi

The reader is invited to the second book written by the American financier Jacob Ben Birsavi, one of the few followers of Carlos Castaneda who managed to extract practical benefits from magical knowledge. Despite the fact that Birsavi was born into the family of a successful banker, he connects his personal success on Wall Street precisely with the teachings of the Mexican magicians, whose conductor was Carlos Castaneda. In his second book, Jacob Ben Birsawi continues to acquaint the reader with the personality of Castaneda and describes one of the training options ...

Carlos Castaneda. The path of the magician and warrior of the spirit Nikolai Nepomniachtchi

Why is the popularizer of the spiritual practices of the Indians of Latin America so close to the Russian reader? Moreover, from the standpoint of an Americanist ethnographer, Castaneda is far from the rules of modern science; he, undoubtedly, in some way modernizes the knowledge he received, brings them closer to the worldview of a Western person. And yet there is something elusive and hidden in his books; maybe this is a sign of true initiation into the science of Indian magicians? Perhaps this science is so ancient that in the fabulously distant past its origins merge with secret knowledge...

After Castaneda: Further Exploration Alexey Ksendzyuk

The book offered to the reader is dedicated to the unique magical knowledge of the American Indians - the heirs of the ancient Toltec tradition - which became available thanks to the books of the world-famous anthropologist and occultist Carlos Castaneda. Using the worldview approaches, attitudes and methods of Don Juan Matus, Castaneda's guide to the world of Toltec magic, the author analyzes the totality of fundamental ideas that can form the basis of a worldview and scientific paradigm that is radically different from that accepted today in our…

Turtles to the bottom. Prerequisites for a personal… John Grinder

The reader of this excellent book will have the opportunity to reflect on the "prerequisites of personal genius" in unusual ways. It will guide you through inspiring stories with unexpected endings, shift the focus of first and second attention, provide a balance between conscious and unconscious processes, and offer you exercises in the spirit of Carlos Castaneda with his “stopping the world” and turning off the internal dialogue. In addition, you will get acquainted with the materials of the seminar on the issues of genius, which was actually held ...

Shabono Florinda Donner

A rare, beautiful book by Florinda Donner, a female stalker of the magician group of the Nagual Carlos Castaneda, takes the reader on a journey into the world of the Yanomama Indians of South America. Combining truth and fiction, she conveys breathtaking images of the ghostly light of the jungle, unusual moods and feelings, and, most importantly, she conveys a sense of magic and the power of Native American ritual. A charming, subtle, magical and truthful book...

The Dream of the Witch Florinda Donner

Florinda Donner, a female warrior from the party of the Nagual Carlos Castaneda, goes to Venezuela, to the local magicians, where she becomes the apprentice of the "witch" and healer Mercedes Peralta for several months. Meeting amazing people, incredible events, turning the wheel of chance with the help of the witch's shadow - an analogue of "manipulation of intention" in don Juan's world - all this awaits you on the pages of this unusually honest, elegant, intelligent and full of love book. Those who are not at all interested in Carlos Castaneda and all kinds of magic will receive a wonderful artistic ...

The Unknown Man: The Toltec Path of Strengthening… Alexey Ksendzyuk

This is a book about two fundamental disciplines of Toltec knowledge, the principles of which are described by Carlos Castaneda - about impeccability and stalking. Impeccability and stalking are a combination of psychoenergetic techniques that can be used in everyday life. They do not require trance or meditative absorption; on the contrary, they require the practitioner to actively participate in social interactions, since that is where the person receives and accumulates energy through special control over awareness. Here in the daytime...

Gate of Dreams (Unrevealed Secrets… Wanderer

For numerous fans of the magic of K. Castaneda, this book will be a true revelation, a timely insight, a long-awaited discovery. Before the reader - a real sensation! Finally, lovers of Toltec magic - the mysterious ancient teachings of the Mexican Indians, will receive a convincing, reliable, evidence-based description of everyone! dream gates, including from 5 to 7, the meaning of which was not revealed to his followers by Carlos Castaneda himself. Until now, this knowledge has remained unopened mysteries of the Toltecs, or, as the author of this ...

The practice of silence

"Perhaps, it may seem strange to someone - to write about silence at a time when the world around us insistently requires communication: business, friendship, creative, domestic, after all. Most people are interested in how to communicate more effectively, and not how more effectively to be silent, and in vain, because the practice of silence is exactly what, paradoxically, can give our life a completely different sound.

Silence as a spiritual practice has existed since time immemorial - in the religions of India, in Buddhism, Christianity. In its extreme, ascetic form, of course, it has always been the lot of monks - these are vows of silence, and leaving for a long time somewhere in the mountains or in the forest to fast and pray alone. Of course, ideally, this is not just an external refusal of speech, but the silence of the mind - in India, those who were able to accomplish this are called "munis", that is, "those who have reached the state of inner silence", perfect yogis. It is believed that conversations, especially unnecessary ones, take up a lot of energy that could be used for higher purposes - for example, for self-development.

However, this does not mean at all that silence benefits only monks and hermits. No wonder since ancient times it was considered the best remedy for mental discord, an excellent way to restore mental health and harmony. After all, the more words, the more unstable and chaotic the mind (and vice versa), and behind this whirlpool of thoughts we don’t really hear either the world around us, or other people, or ourselves. Only now, by force of will, we cannot stop this mental flow, but to start from the other end - to stop talking for a while - is very possible, even though at first it is not easy. Silence saves energy, helps to control emotions, leads to inner peace and clarity of mind. In addition, silence literally heals. It helps with neuropsychiatric diseases, hypertension, headaches, vegetovascular dystonia, magically calms the brain and nerves. It is not for nothing that people do not want to talk when they are sick.

So, we can say that the practice of silence is a means to achieve a state of true inner silence. Control of speech means control of the mind. Practices that eliminate inner chatter have always been especially loved by yogis. The benefits of silence are talked about in yoga seminars and retreats; in almost all Indian ashrams, if not complete silence, then at least refraining from unnecessary words is one of the conditions for staying on the territory. However, we are not in India. But everyone has a chance to plunge into silence. For example, you can go to a Vipassana retreat (they are held in many countries, including Russia). There you can keep silent to the fullest, because you will need to remain silent for 10 days in a row.

However, for too many of us, this, alas, is an unaffordable luxury, and one has to be silent, so to speak, without leaving the machine. It's not easy, but it's possible.

To be silent enough in a big city, you need:

Staying at home alone is not an easy task in itself. What to do with household members who do not always share our interests? And if they do, practice shows that even if two people (meaning beginners) both decide to keep quiet, old habits, as a rule, will still prevail. What can we say about children, especially small ones, - it is clear that it is unrealistic to make them silent all day, or at least not contact you with questions. In this regard, a fertile time is summer, when you can send everyone to the country. However, at any time of the year you can contrive and ask them to go on a visit for the whole day, to relatives, to nature, to a movie cafe ... And then - cheers! The main condition is met.

On this day, it is better not to leave the house anywhere at all: you will definitely find yourself in a situation where you will be forced to answer some question - what time is it or how to get somewhere. Worst of all - your own entrance, in which you will certainly run into a neighbor with whom you need to say hello, or with old women on a bench, from whom you will not leave alive if you do not chat.

After getting rid of the need to communicate live, the next step is to eliminate the possibility of telephone communication - put an answering machine or completely turn off all phones.

Do not let any words from the outside into your life, that is, TV and radio.

Having protected yourself from the possibility of any human communication, do not forget about animals, which pose no less of a threat - how, for example, not to communicate with an incredibly cozy ginger cat (you can’t even say “kit-kit”)? And the faithful dog that follows you around everywhere? Most likely, you won’t send them to visit, so you’ll have to be patient ...

Exclude virtual communication and correspondence. In principle, today there are a lot of people, especially freelancers, who are sitting at home, communicating exclusively by “soap”, “ICQ”, via SMS, etc. And although, perhaps, they have not uttered a word for the whole day, they do not keep silence at all - they communicate, after all, albeit in written, not spoken words.

And finally, when there is no one to talk to physically - do not talk to your loved one! A huge number of people speak their thoughts out loud, and this is not at all a sign of insanity, but simply a habit. And you can get rid of it.

However, the most difficult thing is not to talk “to yourself”, not to conduct that notorious “internal dialogue”, that is, to get rid (or at least try to get rid of) of the constant chatter in your head. It happens, at first it seems that it is very easy - just think, be silent for a couple of days! Finally, to drive out all the annoying household members and enjoy the silence is a dream! I don’t feel like talking on the phone or watching TV ... And then ... Thoughts begin to overcome with terrible force - deprived of the opportunity to translate into words, they literally put pressure on the brain, and for the most part some kind of nonsense comes into my head. Most likely, she was always there, before we simply did not notice her. Here you understand how much there, inside, any "trash". The main thing is not to give up (in this case, not to untie your tongue), continue the practice, and then it will become easier.

And what happens next? Nothing special. A certain detachment just comes, as if transparency - events, phenomena and people seem to pass through us without affecting us. There is an ability to keep your mouth closed and your ears open, to really listen and hear other people, to listen to the world and to yourself. It is not for nothing that it is believed that once upon a time people did without words at all and communicated with the help of telepathy, and the language appeared only when people's minds were already quite polluted and there was a need for coarser, verbal communication.

If you remain silent long enough, then there comes a moment when you no longer feel like talking - but why? And it is already physically difficult - just as difficult as it was at the very beginning to silence yourself. And then the melody of life becomes heard, so dear and at the same time unfamiliar: although it always accompanied you, it was not possible to hear it before, it was only a background against which events took place. Now you understand that our life is similar to the surface of the earth - what we know well and measure in square meters, hundreds or even hectares, has thousands of kilometers of mystery in depth.

"Being on the same frequency with reality is possible only on the basis of an intuitive feeling of its laws. No matter how much you analyze and reason with an emphasis on intelligence, all your conclusions will be limited and will not lead to a global awareness of everything that happens, and as a result, they will not give a breakthrough .While being on the same wavelength with the universal current launches the effective implementation of relevant insights and ideas, albeit without a detailed understanding of how it all happens, but with a guaranteed high result.

Carlos Castaneda | self-knowledge
"I erased my personal history. Little by little, I created a fog around myself and around my life. And now no one knows for sure who I am and what I do ... Start with simple things. Don't tell anyone what you really do. Then you must leave everyone who knows you well. In this way you create a fog around you ... Once they recognize you, you become something for granted and from that moment on you can no longer break the shackles of their thoughts. Personally, I love complete freedom - be unknown."

"When you start living for yourself, doing what you like, everything else in the world is pulled up to match. Everything is very simple: if the soul and mind are in harmony, the rest will be adjusted automatically."
Vadim Zeland

Shaman energy return technique

“Here is a retelling of a conversation with a shaman whom I witnessed. He talked about the technique of returning lost energy. I will write on his behalf, it is more convenient for me, but this is by no means a quotation.

You are drawn to people because you do not have enough energy. In fact, you don't need their energy. You look for your energy in them. But you're addressing the wrong place. You need your own energy, which can be found in the warehouse of the past.

We leave a lot of energy in the past and future, and become weaker in the present.

When we look forward to some event, strongly desire something, we send our energy into the future. When an event occurs, we experience joy - this is due to the fact that at this moment we meet with our energy sent into the future. But then the joy passes, the energy is spent, and again it is not with us, but remains in the past. So this is the worst option: you yourself deprive yourself of this amount of energy even before the event has occurred. If you really want something, then it is better to invest energy in the intention and actions to achieve the goal than in desire and dreams.

And, of course, we leave a lot of energy in the fluidity of life because of our experiences.

How to get your energy from the past.
You lie down, relax and look for a zone of discomfort in yourself. It can be discomfort in the body, in emotions, some kind of heaviness, pain, inconvenience. Then you ask what event or chain of events corresponds to this discomfort, and you are transported in memory to the place where it happened - in the present tense. Those. you find yourself in the present tense at the place where the desired event took place in the past. If that house is destroyed, your energy will be on the trees, rocks, etc. that are in that place. Then you go to this place. You are not interested in people, things that are there, you do not try to remember, but look for your energy with your eyes. It will be something abandoned, forgotten, but yours. It can be in the form of clouds, cobwebs, dry tufts of grass or leaves. You collect all this, put it in a ball, put it on your solar plexus and inhale it into yourself. Or another option: you take a bowl of a certain shape, put all these things into it, and the shape of the bowl helps to make the energy qualityless. Then you drink it from the cup. Everyone must find the shape of the bowl for himself in a dream.

When you see a clot of your energy, you can see what specific event, what emotions it contains. After you use this energy (inhale, drink), this event will lose emotional richness for you, become indifferent, and it can be thrown into the warehouse of history. But you do not feel the rise immediately, but after a few days, when the energy is assimilated in you. Then you will feel a real surge of strength.

With this technique, we do not destroy the connections between events, i.e. the chain of events remains in place, but it is already devoid of energy. In theory, CC techniques done in combination (recapitulation, deletion of personal history, etc.) also destroy the connections between events, making you completely free. The energy return technique does not do this and does not even guarantee a full return of energy, and maybe only 80 percent. But, in fact, even if we get back at least 30% of the wasted energy, we would feel a significant surge of strength, euphoria.

With the help of this technique, you can fight the 4 enemy of a person of knowledge - old age. At this time, we have nowhere else to take energy from, except to return our own from the past.

Once I discovered that the people I meet there are also entangled in the web. When I filmed it, my emotions towards this person were significantly weakened. In the event that I did not communicate with a person for long, after removing the web, I generally became internally indifferent to him.

Carlos Castaneda | self-knowledge
"I already told you that being inaccessible doesn't mean hiding or being secret," he said calmly. – it doesn't mean that you can't deal with people either. The hunter uses his world with care and tenderness, whether it be the world of things, plants, animals, people, or power. The hunter is intimate with his world, and yet he is inaccessible to that very world.
“That's contradictory,” I said. – he cannot be inaccessible if he is there, in his own world, hour after hour, day after day.
"You don't understand," don Juan said patiently. - he is unavailable because he does not squeeze his world out of his form. He touches it lightly, stays there for as long as he needs and then quickly leaves without leaving a trace.
("Journey to Ixtlan")

“Superman has never meant anything other than the following: life in man himself must be freed, for man himself is a certain way of imprisoning it.” (G. Deleuze. Translated by S.S. Khoruzhy)

Truth is individual for a single perception. In the early stages of spiritual development, a person finds himself in religion.

As he matures, he begins to understand that religion is not absolute truth, and that it is foolish to look at God through the glasses of religion. Further, a person begins to try various teachings, and, collecting various knowledge bit by bit, he receives his own, individual experience.

Egregors help us in the initial stages, but then they become a hindrance to us. And then a person plunges deep into himself, thereby disconnecting himself from egregorial influences.

Self-knowledge is the path of a loner (knows himself), therefore all famous saints were loners. Even being among the crowd, they were aware of their involvement with the outside world, while remaining motionless (without judgment, detached), but were outside this crowd.

Inner silence allows us to be in the world, but not of this world. Therefore, when we reread a book years later, we find in it a completely different meaning than before.

This is an indicator of spiritual and personal growth. If there is no transformation in consciousness, then the person does not develop.

What I am writing now is my current perception, but I will not think so at all in a few years, and this is quite natural. After some time, I will write in a different way, in a different way, in accordance with my future understanding.

Moreover, even in my current books I will find a completely new meaning for myself. Awareness of belonging with Infinity comes when the upper chakras begin to fill with energy.

My awareness skyrocketed when I started practicing passive meditation. I also began to write from that time, not understanding where this deep awareness comes from in me.

Now I also write, only after a couple of days of intense meditation, that is, I arrange for myself an information hunger, I am in silence.

And then, hungry, I receive information, and it comes not from the mind, but from your inner self.

During meditation, our energy channels are cleared, the mind is cleared of any informational rubbish, and thoughts are already flowing without the interference of the internal dialogue.

When the energy clears the energy channels in the body, problem areas in the body begin to hurt. This is a very good indicator. Now I am sitting, writing, my back, neck, and the left side of my body hurt.

This pleases me, because I am convinced of the effectiveness of the meditation done. You don't need any medicines or doctors.

It has long been known that all our illnesses are due to an incorrect way of life and from alien programs imposed from outside. And meditation just relieves us of them, clears the mind and gives peace of mind.

My father, he is 78 years old, also meditates and clearly feels pain in his problematic organs. All this is clearly shown in the good film "Spiritual Reality".

It was from him that my changes in life for the better began. My point is that it is useless to understand intellectually what I write in my books for those who do not practice passive meditation.

Because it is not so much to be understood as to be realized. Let's take, for example, a childish wise saying that everyone knows: "Whoever calls names, he calls himself that."

Absolute wisdom, indicating that the WHOLE WORLD IS ME. We all know this, but we are not aware of this Knowledge. One awareness of this fact is enough to change your life radically.

My texts (and almost all the texts of esotericists) are understandable only to those who really seriously practice in awareness, and logical reflections are useless here.

I would even say the opposite, that the smarter a person, the more distant he is from awareness. The mind is the main obstacle to self-knowledge. A person with a great education looks at the world from the position: "For me, everything is clear here."

For this reason, he is simply closed from receiving information, because the wise always listens, and the stupid one always speaks.

Carlos Castaneda, a man with a university education, has always been considered the most stupid among illiterate magicians.

One of Castaneda's teachers, Don Genaro, could neither write nor read. At the same time, he was a strong, enlightened magician. Unconscious people, such as Carlos, they called not real. And it really is.

We were real and enlightened when we were born, but overgrown with programs over time, and we no longer live, but simply exist.

Don Juan often had to drug Castaneda to knock him out of his programmed state, to move his assemblage point. In ten years of study, Carlos nevertheless learned a lot and became the Nagual (chief), only due to his innate special configuration of the energy body. He often did not understand much and asked endless questions, so don Juan always tried to shut his mouth so that he would not waste energy in vain, but, on the contrary, would accumulate it.

Very often he answered his next question: "You know." When I read Castaneda's books for the first time, I looked at the world of sorcerers from the position of Carlos and also mentally asked the same questions and did not understand at all what don Juan was trying to convey to him. But years later, rereading the books a few more times, I began to perceive the information from don Juan's point of view.

I began to understand what he was talking about, because over time my chakras were filled with energy, and in connection with this, a new understanding and awareness came. Don Juan explained the inaccessibility of the understanding of sorcerers by the presence of a very low level of energy.

Previously, I could not understand at all what the connection could be between understanding and the accumulation of energy, but, as mentioned above, everything fell into place when I myself began to accumulate energy through meditation.

By this I want to say that at each level (meaning the chakra level) there is its own understanding. Our chakras are located from the bottom up, so we can draw an analogy.

A person with a filled lower chakra, standing in a forest on the ground, sees his space. Another person, with a developed second chakra, is already higher than the first, that is, he sits on a tree branch and sees differently, although they are nearby.

The one above sees more, but cannot explain what he sees to the one below, because the one below has never been in a tree and has no idea what kind of view opens from there.

But we still have 5 chakras, those same upper branches where other people sit, who, in turn, also see their own pictures of the world and have their own true understanding.

The one who sits on the very top of the head is an enlightened person to whom all space has opened. He saw the horizon, the sky, the sun, a rainbow, and he is trying to explain all this to his lower comrades.

The penultimate one understands it a little and is very eager to reach the crown, constantly meditating and practicing awareness, but the lower ones can no longer understand it.

And the one that stands on the ground generally thinks of the top ones as crazy, especially about the one sitting on the top of the tree. If a person has not developed the middle and upper chakras, then it is useless for him to say anything about spirituality and, in general, about personal growth.

A person whose development is limited by the lower chakras, as a rule, thinks only about sensual pleasures, listens to hard rock (metal), rap, chanson and behaves like cattle. They usually don't read books at all.

A person who has matured to the development of middle chakras usually loves pop music, reads books, that is, our chakras begin with the note DO and end with SI.

Accordingly, lower chakra people like music with low frequencies. A person who has grown to the upper chakras listens to classical or enigmatic music.

In fact, each of them is right in his subjective perception of the world, but only in his own. Therefore, the argument about who is right or wrong is not relevant here at all.

Be filled with energy and learn more and more new realities. And this path of knowledge will be endless for you.