Reality Sandwich
Eolus Kephas
I: The Pen is Mightier (A Sorcerer-Academic in Exile)
Over the years, Carlos Castaneda (who
died of liver cancer in 1999) sold millions of books and stirred up a mountain of
speculation and controversy. He was called "the godfather of the New Age" by Time magazine, an ironic designation (his
works are hardly populist) but an indication of his influence on "alternative"
Western thought. Over the years, Castaneda has been denounced
as a trickster, hoaxer, opportunist, and just plain liar (for example, by
Richard de Mille in Castaneda's Journey
and The Don Juan Papers, and Jay
Courtney Fikes in Carlos Castaneda:
Academic Opportunism and the Psychedelic Sixties). Without going into
detail, there are a considerable number of inconsistencies, if not glaring
contradictions, to be found in his books, and these have led skeptics to conclude
that the accounts were cut from whole cloth. I may as well say, right off the
bat, that I consider this idea untenable. There is simply too much in the books
of obvious merit -- too much insight, depth, and sheer novelty -- for me to believe that
the answer is as straightforward or convenient as that he made it all up. Ironically,
since Castaneda claimed to be recounting his initiation into a "separate
reality" in which the laws of physics were closer to quantum mechanics than
those of Newton (i.e., more microcosmic than macro-, more subjective dream
reality than objective consensus reality), the shaky, amorphous quality of his
accounts could even be said to confirm
their authenticity, rather than to undermine it.
Those who put forward the hoax-invention angle rarely acknowledge the kind of literary genius required to pull of such a hoax -- on a par at the very least with Edgar Allan Poe -- perhaps because, if they did, they would wind up expressing admiration and awe rather than skepticism and consternation. On the other hand, the examples that are given of seemingly recycled knowledge in Castaneda's books (luminous eggs, energy filaments, similarities to Krishnamurti and Gurdjieff, and so forth) could just as well be cited as validation. Such sweeping criticisms invariably ignore the much more unique material in the books, that pertaining to the "old seers," for example, to the first and second "attentions" and "the assemblage point," and some extremely precise psychological descriptions that pertain to the art of stalking. Many of these latter observations I have found verifiable in day-to-day existence, while at the same time they seem to have no precedent in esoteric or psychological literature. To me, this strongly suggests that Castaneda obtained this information somewhere other than from his own imagination.
Those who put forward the hoax-invention angle rarely acknowledge the kind of literary genius required to pull of such a hoax -- on a par at the very least with Edgar Allan Poe -- perhaps because, if they did, they would wind up expressing admiration and awe rather than skepticism and consternation. On the other hand, the examples that are given of seemingly recycled knowledge in Castaneda's books (luminous eggs, energy filaments, similarities to Krishnamurti and Gurdjieff, and so forth) could just as well be cited as validation. Such sweeping criticisms invariably ignore the much more unique material in the books, that pertaining to the "old seers," for example, to the first and second "attentions" and "the assemblage point," and some extremely precise psychological descriptions that pertain to the art of stalking. Many of these latter observations I have found verifiable in day-to-day existence, while at the same time they seem to have no precedent in esoteric or psychological literature. To me, this strongly suggests that Castaneda obtained this information somewhere other than from his own imagination.
The well-known spiritual teacher,
Osho, had this to say about Castaneda:
If
there were someone like Don Juan he would be enlightened, he would be like a
Buddha or a Lao Tzu -- but there is nobody like Don Juan. Carlos Castaneda's books
are ninety-nine per cent fiction -- beautiful, artful, but fiction. As there are
scientific fictions, there are spiritual fictions also. . . . When I say
fiction I don't mean don't read him, I mean read him more carefully, because
one per cent of truth is there. You will have to read it very carefully, but
don't swallow it completely because it is ninety-nine per cent fiction. . . .
On that one per cent of truth he has been able to create a big edifice. On that
one per cent of truth he has been able to project much imagination. On that one
iota of truth he has made the whole house, a beautiful palace -- a fairy tale. But
that one per cent of truth is there, otherwise it would have been impossible.
This man has come across some being who knows something, and then through
drugs, LSD and others, he has projected
that small truth into imaginary worlds. Then his whole fiction is created.
[My italics.][2]
While I don't agree with Osho's
conclusion, or at least with his ratio of truth to fiction, the idea that
Castaneda must be read with extreme discernment, and the suggestion that he fell
prey to fantasy, seem to me to be accurate. Castaneda had a gift for bringing
almost inconceivable concepts and experiences into the realm of everyday
reality. His work forms a bridge between two apparently (or previously)
inseparable worlds, and invites the reader to cross over into "a separate
reality." The tendency of the reader -- to the extent that they lack direct
experience of the world of sorcery -- is to imagine that that other reality must
adhere to the same rules as this one. Although Castaneda wrote of "first and
second attentions," he describes most of the events as if they are occurring in
the "first attention," that's to say, the reality which we all know. Had he not
done so, his books would have been much closer to what, possibly, they actually
are: dream narratives.
I don't think Castaneda invented anything in his books: I think he dreamed many of the events he recounts, maybe even most of them, and then did what he could to reformulate them, or reconceive them, as if they had happened in this reality. In the process of that reformulation, it may be that something else happened. Since there was a larger than average amount of interpretation in transcribing his experiences in the second attention (his dreams), Castaneda's own personal bias colored his accounts. Little by little, and unbeknownst to Carlos himself, they became the means to his own ends. The obvious end for Castaneda was that he became a titled academic (he got a master's degree for Journey to Ixtlan), a best-selling author and leading figure in the counterculture, a guru, and finally a cult leader. In his own mind, he got to be a warrior and a sorcerer. Since everything in a warrior-sorcerers' life comes down to hunting energy and turning it into personal power, Carlos was on a "power trip" in the most dramatic and profound sense of the phrase. While Castaneda accessed some extremely powerful and profound truths about existence, he then used those truths for his own empowerment, thereby turning them into something less than truth -- something closer to an extremely glamorous kind of information. If so, then the accuracy and authenticity of his writings is a far subtler and more mysterious question than investigators such as De Mille could ever hope to answer, and even than a supposed "Master" such as Osho was able to comprehend (or willing to speak about).
I don't think Castaneda invented anything in his books: I think he dreamed many of the events he recounts, maybe even most of them, and then did what he could to reformulate them, or reconceive them, as if they had happened in this reality. In the process of that reformulation, it may be that something else happened. Since there was a larger than average amount of interpretation in transcribing his experiences in the second attention (his dreams), Castaneda's own personal bias colored his accounts. Little by little, and unbeknownst to Carlos himself, they became the means to his own ends. The obvious end for Castaneda was that he became a titled academic (he got a master's degree for Journey to Ixtlan), a best-selling author and leading figure in the counterculture, a guru, and finally a cult leader. In his own mind, he got to be a warrior and a sorcerer. Since everything in a warrior-sorcerers' life comes down to hunting energy and turning it into personal power, Carlos was on a "power trip" in the most dramatic and profound sense of the phrase. While Castaneda accessed some extremely powerful and profound truths about existence, he then used those truths for his own empowerment, thereby turning them into something less than truth -- something closer to an extremely glamorous kind of information. If so, then the accuracy and authenticity of his writings is a far subtler and more mysterious question than investigators such as De Mille could ever hope to answer, and even than a supposed "Master" such as Osho was able to comprehend (or willing to speak about).
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