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brucelee2
01-26-2001, 06:05 AM
I've been looking over Magical Passes and am wondering if any of you have any experience with Castaneda's stuff. If so, how do you find it compares with the Internals? Do you find the benefits similar or different? Also, I heard that at some point there was some press saying that Castaneda had made everything up- anyone have any detail on that? Thoughts on Castaneda's stuff?

I guess at the minimum both the Internals and Castaneda's stuff place huge emphasis on Intent, so they have that in common. Anyone here practice energetic work with intent, as in using it for manifestation?

crumble
01-26-2001, 09:50 PM
I offer this advice with the best intentions: don't bother with castaneda.

His writings are interesting I admit. But if you read enough, you start to think that something smells a little funky.

If you read even more, you begin to realize that there was indeed some wisdom in what he wrote, but is was surrounded by a bunch of psychological razor blades -- and you do yourself damage fishing after these bits of wisdom.

There are a lot of good books on consciousness. CC's books are seductive, but they won't get you far if you want to try practicing his ideas.

-crumble

Mark M
01-27-2001, 01:26 AM
Believe it or not, one of my students, a few years back went to California where disciples of Carlos teach methods that look suspiciously like chi gung. I read his series of book years ago and the way he describes where the energy comes from, sounds alot like Chinese theory.

MaFuYee
01-28-2001, 06:54 PM
i love castaneda! - his stuff is great! - with the possible exception of 'magical passes'.

yes, the stuff is fictional; but i still think it is definitely worth reading, as a way to open yourself up to new and different ways of thinking. (it was definitely an inspired set of works. - even if the inspiration was drugs, and other books.)

as far as 'psychological razorblades'... sounds to me like that statement was a result of residual christian indoctrination. (oooh, don't touch it, you might get burned!) - find out yourself.

once you read all of c's works, i highly recomend the works of G.I. Gurdjieff / P.D. Ouspensky - "in search of the miraculous" is a really excellent book.

Kung Lek
01-28-2001, 08:23 PM
Hi-

Yes I found that the illustrations and descriptions in the book "The Eagles Gift" by C.C were very much like Chi Kung.

Could be borrowed, could be a coincidence and the methodologies are basically thesame.

another spin on it.
His books are a good read and a bit of thought is aroused from the reading of them.

peace

Kung Lek

brucelee2
01-29-2001, 04:45 AM
thanks for your responses. I have an acquaintance who is very much into Castaneda, the magical passes, recapitulation, etc... He swears by it. I have been doing some research on my own. There are people who believe the Magical Passes come from chi qong- also, Carlos did study internal Kung Fu with a guy named, I think, Howard Lee. He dedicated one of his books to him. What I've also been told is that although the Magical Passes may look similar to chi kung, the thing that separates them is the intent behind them. the Passes are done with the intent of beckoning energy and bringing back our energy from the extremes of our luminous egg, where most of us have it, so that we can use it. They're about increasing awareness and other things, as opposed to the purpose of chi kung. Bottom line- I'm gonna check it out. What if its real? I always try to keep an open mind. G-d knows the internals don't necessarily lead to enlightenment- how many jerks do we know that practice the internals, or even teach them?