Castenada: mystic, or boy ward?
Christopher M and I are in total agreement about Castenada. Just once, I'd like to find a person who writes some mystical flubbub who comes to their understanding through "a mystic journey under the tutelage of a nubian princess with a torn braziere", but no, it's always got to be some dirty guy on the road. I find it suspect that enlightenment always seems to follow the Batman and Robin formula on the best seller list. Elijah Mohammed also claimed a mystic teacher on the road(who subsequently became relegated to a backseat in mohammed's preachings once elijah had his own church), John Kim preached Wang Po, who supposedly taught him all of judo by pushing him down a mountain(again, Po's existence became less important in Kim's idealogy than Kim himself, just like Elijah Mohommed), I think it's also somewhat telling that Castenada's vehicle for crossing over was a root. I suspect his target audience is not concerned with braless nubian princesses bearing wisdom. :D
As for Silat, I know precious little of it, but I have read a tiny bit of what was supposedly a fairly typical training regimen, and massage is never a bad way to start training, followed by stretching, etc.