Carlos Castaneda - Revision history

wikademia>Wikademia at 05:59, 5 June 2009

2009-06-05T05:59:18Z

wikademia>Wikademia: 84 revisions

2009-06-05T05:58:30Z

84 revisions

← Older revision	Revision as of 05:58, 5 June 2009
(No difference)

wikademia>Candyangel43 at 04:34, 5 June 2009

2009-06-05T04:34:35Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 04:34, 5 June 2009
Line 7:		Line 7:
	[[Image:Carlosdesign.jpg\|left‎\|200px\|thumb\|<small> Artist Illustration of Carlos Castaneda</small>]]		[[Image:Carlosdesign.jpg\|left‎\|200px\|thumb\|<small> Artist Illustration of Carlos Castaneda</small>]]
	=='''Taking Castaneda Seriously'''==		=='''Taking Castaneda Seriously'''==
	Castaneda, according to scholar Benjamin Epstein in his 1996 ''Psychology Today'' journal interview, was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Christmas Day in 1931. However immigration records show an earlier date of December 25, 1925 in Cajamarca, Peru.<ref> Epstein, Benjamin. "My Lunch with Carlos Castaneda :( Author of Teachings of Don Juan and other books)." ''Psychology Today.'' 29.2 (1996): 30-4. Print. </ref> Castaneda earned his B.A. in 1962 and Ph.D. in 1970 from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Anthropologist Carlos Castaneda was a controversial author of a series of books that recounted his training in traditional Native American Shamanism. The Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, founded in 1984 by Joseph Long, states: "Castaneda, acquiring fame from his publications with the academically respectable publishers Simon and Shuster, arguably, with the exception of Margaret Mead, was the only junior scholar whose name was know to the general public" <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref> This reflected a disagreement fueled by envy and quite possibly contempt that is still present today; that of the teachings of Shaman don Juan Matus, which "exposed a world view of an aspect of human consciousness independent of time and space and susceptible to control." <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref> The Mystical teachings of Matus expounded on the "interconnection between all life forms, and to be properly understood, the human connection and spirituality, it must mature." <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref><br><br> Please listen to and view a rare radio interview taken in 1968, as Carlos Castaneda explains his experiences with a "non-ordinary reality" giving validity to divination and the teachings of Don Juan. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ihfeOpyTDc&feature Discussion]<br><br>		Carlos Cesar Arana Castaneda, according to scholar Benjamin Epstein in his 1996 ''Psychology Today'' journal interview, was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Christmas Day in 1931. However immigration records show an earlier date of December 25, 1925 in Cajamarca, Peru.<ref> Epstein, Benjamin. "My Lunch with Carlos Castaneda :( Author of Teachings of Don Juan and other books)." ''Psychology Today.'' 29.2 (1996): 30-4. Print. </ref> Castaneda earned his B.A. in 1962 and Ph.D. in 1970 from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Anthropologist Carlos Castaneda was a controversial author of a series of books that recounted his training in traditional Native American Shamanism. The Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, founded in 1984 by Joseph Long, states: "Castaneda, acquiring fame from his publications with the academically respectable publishers Simon and Shuster, arguably, with the exception of Margaret Mead, was the only junior scholar whose name was know to the general public" <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref> This reflected a disagreement fueled by envy and quite possibly contempt that is still present today; that of the teachings of Shaman don Juan Matus, which "exposed a world view of an aspect of human consciousness independent of time and space and susceptible to control." <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref> The Mystical teachings of Matus expounded on the "interconnection between all life forms, and to be properly understood, the human connection and spirituality, it must mature." <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref><br><br> Please listen to and view a rare radio interview taken in 1968, as Carlos Castaneda explains his experiences with a "non-ordinary reality" giving validity to divination and the teachings of Don Juan. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ihfeOpyTDc&feature Discussion]<br><br>

	'''''The Yaqui Indian Culture'''''<br>The American Indian peoples of the Sonora desert have a varied past. They are noted for their sacred dance performances. The Yaqui people honor and celebrate the Laws of Nature: 1.) The Magic of the Children of the earth, 2.) Women in the global community led and guide the family with their language and Spiritual power, 3.) Family of Life, a reference to animism or the belief that a spirit lives in everything, and 4.) The Guardians of the Family or protectors of life. In 1978, the Yaqui Tribe was federally recognized as the Pueblo of the Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation where Indian identity and sovereignty could be maintained. Sonne Reyna, a Yaqui Sundance Peace Chief, speaks regarding Yaqui culture. Please view a video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXs77Vh_UHg&feature=related Chief video]		'''''The Yaqui Indian Culture'''''<br>The American Indian peoples of the Sonora desert have a varied past. They are noted for their sacred dance performances. The Yaqui people honor and celebrate the Laws of Nature: 1.) The Magic of the Children of the earth, 2.) Women in the global community led and guide the family with their language and Spiritual power, 3.) Family of Life, a reference to animism or the belief that a spirit lives in everything, and 4.) The Guardians of the Family or protectors of life. In 1978, the Yaqui Tribe was federally recognized as the Pueblo of the Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation where Indian identity and sovereignty could be maintained. Sonne Reyna, a Yaqui Sundance Peace Chief, speaks regarding Yaqui culture. Please view a video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXs77Vh_UHg&feature=related Chief video]
Line 15:		Line 15:
	"For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, and unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous time. I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while; in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it" <ref> Castaneda, Carlos. ''Journey to Ixtlan: the Lessons of Don Juan.'' New York: Washington Square Press, 1972. Print. </ref>		"For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, and unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous time. I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while; in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it" <ref> Castaneda, Carlos. ''Journey to Ixtlan: the Lessons of Don Juan.'' New York: Washington Square Press, 1972. Print. </ref>
	</blockquote>		</blockquote>
	Scholar Mirces Eliade states in his chapter "Antiquity of Shamanism in the Two Americas":<blockquote>		Scholar Mirces Eliade states in his chapter "Antiquity of Shamanism in the Two Americas" from his book ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy'':<blockquote>
	The difficulty of the “origin” of Shamanism in the two Americas is still far from solved. With the passage of time, a certain number of “magio-religious" practices were added to the beliefs of their earliest inhabitants. If the Fuegians (of Terra del Fuego) are taken to be descended from one of the first waves of immigrants to enter the Americas, we are justified in supposing that their religion represented the survival of an archaic ideology, which, from the point of view that concerned Castaneda, including belief in a celestial God, shamanic initiation by vocation or voluntary quest, relations with the souls of dead shamans and with familiar spirits (relations that sometimes reached the point of “possession”) the conception of illness as the intrusion of a magical object or as soul loss, and the shaman’s characteristics are also found not only in the regions where shamanism dominates the religious life of the community (North America, Eskimo, Siberians) but also in regions where it is but one of the constituent phenomena of magio-religious life (Australia, Oceania, Southeast Asia). Hence, we may assume that a certain form of shamanism spread through the two American continents with the first waves of immigrants, whatever their 'original home' may have been.”		The difficulty of the “origin” of Shamanism in the two Americas is still far from solved. With the passage of time, a certain number of “magio-religious" practices were added to the beliefs of their earliest inhabitants. If the Fuegians (of Terra del Fuego) are taken to be descended from one of the first waves of immigrants to enter the Americas, we are justified in supposing that their religion represented the survival of an archaic ideology, which, from the point of view that concerned Castaneda, including belief in a celestial God, shamanic initiation by vocation or voluntary quest, relations with the souls of dead shamans and with familiar spirits (relations that sometimes reached the point of “possession”) the conception of illness as the intrusion of a magical object or as soul loss, and the shaman’s characteristics are also found not only in the regions where shamanism dominates the religious life of the community (North America, Eskimo, Siberians) but also in regions where it is but one of the constituent phenomena of magio-religious life (Australia, Oceania, Southeast Asia). Hence, we may assume that a certain form of shamanism spread through the two American continents with the first waves of immigrants, whatever their 'original home' may have been.”
	<ref>Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 333. Print.</ref></blockquote> This could imply that, since traditional historic thinking believes the first waves came across the bearing straight land bridge from Europe via East Asia, it begs the question just how far back in our ancestry in Europe does the practice of Shamanism go? Does it have a European origin? Or does it go even further back in time to the Levant and the first cradle of human pre-civilization in the Crescent river valley of the Near East? <br>North American Shamanism according to ~~Scholar~~ Mirces Eliade represents as he states:		<ref>Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 333. Print.</ref></blockquote> This could imply that, since traditional historic thinking believes the first waves came across the bearing straight land bridge from Europe via East Asia, it begs the question just how far back in our ancestry in Europe does the practice of Shamanism go? Does it have a European origin? Or does it go even further back in time to the Levant and the first cradle of human pre-civilization in the Crescent river valley of the Near East? <br>North American Shamanism according to Professor Mirces Eliade represents as he states:
	<blockquote>		<blockquote>
	“Among many North American tribes shamanism dominates religious life, or at least is its most important aspect. But nowhere does the shaman monopolize all religious experience. Besides him, there are other technicians of the sacred—the priest, the sorcerer (black magician); in addition, as we have seen, every individual seeks to obtain, for his own personal advantage, a number of magical-religious “powers," usually identified with certain tutelary or helping “spirits." <ref> Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 298-99. Print.</ref> </blockquote>The shaman, for the tribe, is the ultimate “go between” of the present world, and the ethereal world, though every Indian possesses some ability to transverse with the ethereal, but not on the scale of the shaman. This brings us full circle back to the different views held of nature by native aboriginal peoples and those of modern day European descent. Europeans see the world through the eyes of utilitarianism (what can I get out of nature; how can I shape nature to my desired environment), while the native Indian or Aboriginal peoples have a symbiotic relationship with nature, living within it and internalizing the experience, whence the European sees nature as an external event or thing. Sayings such as “battling the elements” even conjure up a European mindset of nature as an adversary, versus that of the Indian seeing nature as ally.<br>Carlos Castaneda reflects on the shamans teaching: <blockquote>		“Among many North American tribes shamanism dominates religious life, or at least is its most important aspect. But nowhere does the shaman monopolize all religious experience. Besides him, there are other technicians of the sacred—the priest, the sorcerer (black magician); in addition, as we have seen, every individual seeks to obtain, for his own personal advantage, a number of magical-religious “powers," usually identified with certain tutelary or helping “spirits." <ref> Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 298-99. Print.</ref> </blockquote>The shaman, for the tribe, is the ultimate “go between” of the present world, and the ethereal world, though every Indian possesses some ability to transverse with the ethereal, but not on the scale of the shaman. This brings us full circle back to the different views held of nature by native aboriginal peoples and those of modern day European descent. Europeans see the world through the eyes of utilitarianism (what can I get out of nature; how can I shape nature to my desired environment), while the native Indian or Aboriginal peoples have a symbiotic relationship with nature, living within it and internalizing the experience, whence the European sees nature as an external event or thing. Sayings such as “battling the elements” even conjure up a European mindset of nature as an adversary, versus that of the Indian seeing nature as ally.<br>Carlos Castaneda reflects on the shamans teaching: <blockquote>

wikademia>Candyangel43 at 04:29, 5 June 2009

2009-06-05T04:29:32Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 04:29, 5 June 2009
Line 7:		Line 7:
	[[Image:Carlosdesign.jpg\|left‎\|200px\|thumb\|<small> Artist Illustration of Carlos Castaneda</small>]]		[[Image:Carlosdesign.jpg\|left‎\|200px\|thumb\|<small> Artist Illustration of Carlos Castaneda</small>]]
	=='''Taking Castaneda Seriously'''==		=='''Taking Castaneda Seriously'''==
	Castaneda, according to scholar Benjamin Epstein in his 1996 ''Psychology Today'' journal interview, was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Christmas Day in 1931. However immigration records show an earlier date of December 25, 1925 in Cajamarca, Peru.<ref> Epstein, Benjamin. "My Lunch with Carlos Castaneda :( Author of Teachings of Don Juan and other books)." ''Psychology Today.'' 29.2 (1996): 30-4. Print. </ref> Castaneda earned his B.A. in 1962 and Ph.D. in 1970 from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Anthropologist Carlos Castaneda was a controversial author of a series of books that recounted his training in traditional Native American Shamanism. The Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, founded in 1984 by Joseph Long, states: "Castaneda, acquiring fame from his publications with the academically respectable publishers Simon and Shuster, arguably, with the exception of Margaret Mead, was the only junior scholar whose name was know to the general public" <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref> This reflected a disagreement fueled by envy and quite possibly contempt that is still present today; that of the teachings of Shaman don Juan Matus, which "exposed a world view of an aspect of human consciousness independent of time and space and susceptible to control." <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref> The Mystical teachings of Matus expounded on the "interconnection between all life forms, and to be properly understood, the human connection and spirituality, it must mature." <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref><br><br> Please listen to and view a rare radio interview taken in 1968, as Carlos Castaneda explains his experiences with a "non-ordinary reality" giving validity to divination and the teachings of Don Juan. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ihfeOpyTDc&feature ~~discussion~~]<br><br>		Castaneda, according to scholar Benjamin Epstein in his 1996 ''Psychology Today'' journal interview, was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Christmas Day in 1931. However immigration records show an earlier date of December 25, 1925 in Cajamarca, Peru.<ref> Epstein, Benjamin. "My Lunch with Carlos Castaneda :( Author of Teachings of Don Juan and other books)." ''Psychology Today.'' 29.2 (1996): 30-4. Print. </ref> Castaneda earned his B.A. in 1962 and Ph.D. in 1970 from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Anthropologist Carlos Castaneda was a controversial author of a series of books that recounted his training in traditional Native American Shamanism. The Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, founded in 1984 by Joseph Long, states: "Castaneda, acquiring fame from his publications with the academically respectable publishers Simon and Shuster, arguably, with the exception of Margaret Mead, was the only junior scholar whose name was know to the general public" <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref> This reflected a disagreement fueled by envy and quite possibly contempt that is still present today; that of the teachings of Shaman don Juan Matus, which "exposed a world view of an aspect of human consciousness independent of time and space and susceptible to control." <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref> The Mystical teachings of Matus expounded on the "interconnection between all life forms, and to be properly understood, the human connection and spirituality, it must mature." <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref><br><br> Please listen to and view a rare radio interview taken in 1968, as Carlos Castaneda explains his experiences with a "non-ordinary reality" giving validity to divination and the teachings of Don Juan. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ihfeOpyTDc&feature Discussion]<br><br>

	'''''The Yaqui Indian Culture'''''<br>The American Indian peoples of the Sonora desert have a varied past. They are noted for their sacred dance performances. The Yaqui people honor and celebrate the Laws of Nature: 1.) The Magic of the Children of the earth, 2.) Women in the global community led and guide the family with their language and Spiritual power, 3.) Family of Life, a reference to animism or the belief that a spirit lives in everything, and 4.) The Guardians of the Family or protectors of life. In 1978, the Yaqui Tribe was federally recognized as the Pueblo of the Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation where Indian identity and sovereignty could be maintained. Sonne Reyna, a Yaqui Sundance Peace Chief, speaks regarding Yaqui culture. Please view a video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXs77Vh_UHg&feature=related Chief video]		'''''The Yaqui Indian Culture'''''<br>The American Indian peoples of the Sonora desert have a varied past. They are noted for their sacred dance performances. The Yaqui people honor and celebrate the Laws of Nature: 1.) The Magic of the Children of the earth, 2.) Women in the global community led and guide the family with their language and Spiritual power, 3.) Family of Life, a reference to animism or the belief that a spirit lives in everything, and 4.) The Guardians of the Family or protectors of life. In 1978, the Yaqui Tribe was federally recognized as the Pueblo of the Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation where Indian identity and sovereignty could be maintained. Sonne Reyna, a Yaqui Sundance Peace Chief, speaks regarding Yaqui culture. Please view a video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXs77Vh_UHg&feature=related Chief video]

wikademia>Candyangel43 at 04:24, 5 June 2009

2009-06-05T04:24:53Z

wikademia>Candyangel43 at 04:04, 5 June 2009

2009-06-05T04:04:01Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 04:04, 5 June 2009
Line 15:		Line 15:
	"For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, and unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous time. I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while; in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it" <ref> Castaneda, Carlos. ''Journey to Ixtlan: the Lessons of Don Juan.'' New York: Washington Square Press, 1972. Print. </ref>		"For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, and unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous time. I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while; in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it" <ref> Castaneda, Carlos. ''Journey to Ixtlan: the Lessons of Don Juan.'' New York: Washington Square Press, 1972. Print. </ref>
	</blockquote>		</blockquote>
	~~<br>~~Scholar Mirces Eliade states in his chapter "Antiquity of Shamanism in the Two Americas":<blockquote>		Scholar Mirces Eliade states in his chapter "Antiquity of Shamanism in the Two Americas":<blockquote>
	The difficulty of the “origin” of Shamanism in the two Americas is still far from solved. With the passage of time, a certain number of “magio-religious" practices were added to the beliefs of their earliest inhabitants. If the Fuegians (of Terra del Fuego) are taken to be descended from one of the first waves of immigrants to enter the Americas, we are justified in supposing that their religion represented the survival of an archaic ideology, which, from the point of view that concerned Castaneda, including belief in a celestial God, shamanic initiation by vocation or voluntary quest, relations with the souls of dead shamans and with familiar spirits (relations that sometimes reached the point of “possession”) the conception of illness as the intrusion of a magical object or as soul loss, and the shaman’s characteristics are also found not only in the regions where shamanism dominates the religious life of the community (North America, Eskimo, Siberians) but also in regions where it is but one of the constituent phenomena of magical-religious life (Australia, Oceania, Southeast Asia). ~~<br>~~ Hence, we may assume that a certain form of shamanism spread through the two American continents with the first waves of immigrants, whatever their “original home” may have been”		The difficulty of the “origin” of Shamanism in the two Americas is still far from solved. With the passage of time, a certain number of “magio-religious" practices were added to the beliefs of their earliest inhabitants. If the Fuegians (of Terra del Fuego) are taken to be descended from one of the first waves of immigrants to enter the Americas, we are justified in supposing that their religion represented the survival of an archaic ideology, which, from the point of view that concerned Castaneda, including belief in a celestial God, shamanic initiation by vocation or voluntary quest, relations with the souls of dead shamans and with familiar spirits (relations that sometimes reached the point of “possession”) the conception of illness as the intrusion of a magical object or as soul loss, and the shaman’s characteristics are also found not only in the regions where shamanism dominates the religious life of the community (North America, Eskimo, Siberians) but also in regions where it is but one of the constituent phenomena of magical-religious life (Australia, Oceania, Southeast Asia). Hence, we may assume that a certain form of shamanism spread through the two American continents with the first waves of immigrants, whatever their “original home” may have been”
	~~</blockquote>~~ <ref>Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 333. Print.</ref> This could imply that, since traditional historic thinking believes the first waves came across the bearing straight land bridge from Europe via East Asia, it begs the question just how far back in our ancestry in Europe does the practice of Shamanism go? Does it have a European origin? Or does it go even further back in time to the Levant and the first cradle of human pre-civilization in the Crescent river valley of the Near East? <br>North American Shamanism according to Scholar Mirces Eliade represents as he states:		<ref>Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 333. Print.</ref></blockquote> This could imply that, since traditional historic thinking believes the first waves came across the bearing straight land bridge from Europe via East Asia, it begs the question just how far back in our ancestry in Europe does the practice of Shamanism go? Does it have a European origin? Or does it go even further back in time to the Levant and the first cradle of human pre-civilization in the Crescent river valley of the Near East? <br>North American Shamanism according to Scholar Mirces Eliade represents as he states:
	<blockquote>		<blockquote>
	“Among many North American tribes shamanism dominates religious life, or at least is its most important aspect. But nowhere does the shaman monopolize all religious experience. Besides him, there are other technicians of the sacred—the priest, the sorcerer (black magician); in addition, as we have seen, every individual seeks to obtain, for his own personal advantage, a number of magical-religious “powers," usually identified with certain tutelary or helping “spirits." <ref> Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 298-99. Print.</ref> </blockquote~~><br~~>The shaman, for the tribe, is the ultimate “go between” of the present world, and the ethereal world, though every Indian possesses some ability to transverse with the ethereal, but not on the scale of the shaman. This brings us full circle back to the different views held of nature by native aboriginal peoples and those of modern day European descent. Europeans see the world through the eyes of utilitarianism (what can I get out of nature; how can I shape nature to my desired environment), while the native Indian or Aboriginal peoples have a symbiotic relationship with nature, living within it and internalizing the experience, whence the European sees nature as an external event or thing. Sayings such as “battling the elements” even conjure up a European mindset of nature as an adversary, versus that of the Indian seeing nature as ally.<br><blockquote>		“Among many North American tribes shamanism dominates religious life, or at least is its most important aspect. But nowhere does the shaman monopolize all religious experience. Besides him, there are other technicians of the sacred—the priest, the sorcerer (black magician); in addition, as we have seen, every individual seeks to obtain, for his own personal advantage, a number of magical-religious “powers," usually identified with certain tutelary or helping “spirits." <ref> Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 298-99. Print.</ref> </blockquote>The shaman, for the tribe, is the ultimate “go between” of the present world, and the ethereal world, though every Indian possesses some ability to transverse with the ethereal, but not on the scale of the shaman. This brings us full circle back to the different views held of nature by native aboriginal peoples and those of modern day European descent. Europeans see the world through the eyes of utilitarianism (what can I get out of nature; how can I shape nature to my desired environment), while the native Indian or Aboriginal peoples have a symbiotic relationship with nature, living within it and internalizing the experience, whence the European sees nature as an external event or thing. Sayings such as “battling the elements” even conjure up a European mindset of nature as an adversary, versus that of the Indian seeing nature as ally.<br><blockquote>
	“Don Juan stated that in order to arrive at “seeing” one first had to “stop the world” was indeed an appropriate rendition of certain states of awareness in which the reality of everyday life is altered because the flow of interpretation, which ordinarily runs uninterruptedly, has been stopped by a set of circumstances alien to that flow. In my case the set of circumstances alien to my normal flow of interpretations was the sorcery description of the world. Don Juan’s precondition for “stopping the world” was that one had to be convinced; in other words, one had to learn the new description in a total sense, for the purpose of pitting it against the old one, and in that way break the dogmatic certainty, which we all share, that the validity of our perceptions, our reality of the world, is not to be questioned. After “stopping the world” the next step was “seeing”. By that don Juan meant what I would like to categorize as “responding to the perceptual solicitations of a world outside the description we have learned to call reality.” <ref>Castaneda, Carlos. ''Journey to Ixtlan: the Lessons of Don Juan.'' New York: Washington Square Press, 1972. xiv, introduction. Print. </ref>		“Don Juan stated that in order to arrive at “seeing” one first had to “stop the world” was indeed an appropriate rendition of certain states of awareness in which the reality of everyday life is altered because the flow of interpretation, which ordinarily runs uninterruptedly, has been stopped by a set of circumstances alien to that flow. In my case the set of circumstances alien to my normal flow of interpretations was the sorcery description of the world. Don Juan’s precondition for “stopping the world” was that one had to be convinced; in other words, one had to learn the new description in a total sense, for the purpose of pitting it against the old one, and in that way break the dogmatic certainty, which we all share, that the validity of our perceptions, our reality of the world, is not to be questioned. After “stopping the world” the next step was “seeing”. By that don Juan meant what I would like to categorize as “responding to the perceptual solicitations of a world outside the description we have learned to call reality.” <ref>Castaneda, Carlos. ''Journey to Ixtlan: the Lessons of Don Juan.'' New York: Washington Square Press, 1972. xiv, introduction. Print. </ref>
	</blockquote>		</blockquote>

wikademia>Candyangel43 at 03:55, 5 June 2009

2009-06-05T03:55:20Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:55, 5 June 2009
Line 15:		Line 15:
	"For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, and unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous time. I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while; in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it" <ref> Castaneda, Carlos. ''Journey to Ixtlan: the Lessons of Don Juan.'' New York: Washington Square Press, 1972. Print. </ref>		"For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, and unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous time. I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while; in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it" <ref> Castaneda, Carlos. ''Journey to Ixtlan: the Lessons of Don Juan.'' New York: Washington Square Press, 1972. Print. </ref>
	</blockquote>		</blockquote>

	<br>Scholar Mirces Eliade states in his chapter "Antiquity of Shamanism in the Two Americas":<blockquote>		<br>Scholar Mirces Eliade states in his chapter "Antiquity of Shamanism in the Two Americas":<blockquote>
	The difficulty of the “origin” of Shamanism in the two Americas is still far from solved. With the passage of time, a certain number of “magio-religious" practices were added to the beliefs of their earliest inhabitants. If the Fuegians (of Terra del Fuego) are taken to be descended from one of the first waves of immigrants to enter the Americas, we are justified in supposing that their religion represented the survival of an archaic ideology, which, from the point of view that concerned Castaneda, including belief in a celestial God, shamanic initiation by vocation or voluntary quest, relations with the souls of dead shamans and with familiar spirits (relations that sometimes reached the point of “possession”) the conception of illness as the intrusion of a magical object or as soul loss, and the shaman’s characteristics are also found not only in the regions where shamanism dominates the religious life of the community (North America, Eskimo, Siberians) but also in regions where it is but one of the constituent phenomena of magical-religious life (Australia, Oceania, Southeast Asia). <br> Hence, we may assume that a certain form of shamanism spread through the two American continents with the first waves of immigrants, whatever their “original home” may have been”		The difficulty of the “origin” of Shamanism in the two Americas is still far from solved. With the passage of time, a certain number of “magio-religious" practices were added to the beliefs of their earliest inhabitants. If the Fuegians (of Terra del Fuego) are taken to be descended from one of the first waves of immigrants to enter the Americas, we are justified in supposing that their religion represented the survival of an archaic ideology, which, from the point of view that concerned Castaneda, including belief in a celestial God, shamanic initiation by vocation or voluntary quest, relations with the souls of dead shamans and with familiar spirits (relations that sometimes reached the point of “possession”) the conception of illness as the intrusion of a magical object or as soul loss, and the shaman’s characteristics are also found not only in the regions where shamanism dominates the religious life of the community (North America, Eskimo, Siberians) but also in regions where it is but one of the constituent phenomena of magical-religious life (Australia, Oceania, Southeast Asia). <br> Hence, we may assume that a certain form of shamanism spread through the two American continents with the first waves of immigrants, whatever their “original home” may have been”
	</blockquote> <ref>Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 333. Print.</ref> This could imply that, since traditional historic thinking believes the first waves came across the bearing straight land bridge from Europe via East Asia, it begs the question just how far back in our ancestry in Europe does the practice of Shamanism go? Does it have a European origin? Or does it go even further back in time to the Levant and the first cradle of human pre-civilization in the Crescent river valley of the Near East? ~~<br>~~<br>North American Shamanism according to Scholar Mirces Eliade represents as he states:~~<br>~~		</blockquote> <ref>Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 333. Print.</ref> This could imply that, since traditional historic thinking believes the first waves came across the bearing straight land bridge from Europe via East Asia, it begs the question just how far back in our ancestry in Europe does the practice of Shamanism go? Does it have a European origin? Or does it go even further back in time to the Levant and the first cradle of human pre-civilization in the Crescent river valley of the Near East? <br>North American Shamanism according to Scholar Mirces Eliade represents as he states:
	<blockquote>		<blockquote>
	“Among many North American tribes shamanism dominates religious life, or at least is its most important aspect. But nowhere does the shaman monopolize all religious experience. Besides him, there are other technicians of the sacred—the priest, the sorcerer (black magician); in addition, as we have seen, every individual seeks to obtain, for his own personal advantage, a number of magical-religious “powers," usually identified with certain tutelary or helping “spirits." <ref> Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 298-99. Print.</ref> </blockquote><br>The shaman, for the tribe, is the ultimate “go between” of the present world, and the ethereal world, though every Indian possesses some ability to transverse with the ethereal, but not on the scale of the shaman. This brings us full circle back to the different views held of nature by native aboriginal peoples and those of modern day European descent. Europeans see the world through the eyes of utilitarianism (what can I get out of nature; how can I shape nature to my desired environment), while the native Indian or Aboriginal peoples have a symbiotic relationship with nature, living within it and internalizing the experience, whence the European sees nature as an external event or thing. Sayings such as “battling the elements” even conjure up a European mindset of nature as an adversary, versus that of the Indian seeing nature as ally.<br><blockquote>		“Among many North American tribes shamanism dominates religious life, or at least is its most important aspect. But nowhere does the shaman monopolize all religious experience. Besides him, there are other technicians of the sacred—the priest, the sorcerer (black magician); in addition, as we have seen, every individual seeks to obtain, for his own personal advantage, a number of magical-religious “powers," usually identified with certain tutelary or helping “spirits." <ref> Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 298-99. Print.</ref> </blockquote><br>The shaman, for the tribe, is the ultimate “go between” of the present world, and the ethereal world, though every Indian possesses some ability to transverse with the ethereal, but not on the scale of the shaman. This brings us full circle back to the different views held of nature by native aboriginal peoples and those of modern day European descent. Europeans see the world through the eyes of utilitarianism (what can I get out of nature; how can I shape nature to my desired environment), while the native Indian or Aboriginal peoples have a symbiotic relationship with nature, living within it and internalizing the experience, whence the European sees nature as an external event or thing. Sayings such as “battling the elements” even conjure up a European mindset of nature as an adversary, versus that of the Indian seeing nature as ally.<br><blockquote>

wikademia>Candyangel43 at 03:53, 5 June 2009

2009-06-05T03:53:48Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:53, 5 June 2009
Line 16:		Line 16:
	</blockquote>		</blockquote>

	~~<br>~~<br>Scholar Mirces Eliade states in his chapter "Antiquity of Shamanism in the Two Americas":<blockquote>		<br>Scholar Mirces Eliade states in his chapter "Antiquity of Shamanism in the Two Americas":<blockquote>
	The difficulty of the “origin” of Shamanism in the two Americas is still far from solved. With the passage of time, a certain number of “magio-religious" practices were added to the beliefs of their earliest inhabitants. If the Fuegians (of Terra del Fuego) are taken to be descended from one of the first waves of immigrants to enter the Americas, we are justified in supposing that their religion represented the survival of an archaic ideology, which, from the point of view that concerned Castaneda, including belief in a celestial God, shamanic initiation by vocation or voluntary quest, relations with the souls of dead shamans and with familiar spirits (relations that sometimes reached the point of “possession”) the conception of illness as the intrusion of a magical object or as soul loss, and the shaman’s characteristics are also found not only in the regions where shamanism dominates the religious life of the community (North America, Eskimo, Siberians) but also in regions where it is but one of the constituent phenomena of magical-religious life (Australia, Oceania, Southeast Asia). <br> Hence, we may assume that a certain form of shamanism spread through the two American continents with the first waves of immigrants, whatever their “original home” may have been”		The difficulty of the “origin” of Shamanism in the two Americas is still far from solved. With the passage of time, a certain number of “magio-religious" practices were added to the beliefs of their earliest inhabitants. If the Fuegians (of Terra del Fuego) are taken to be descended from one of the first waves of immigrants to enter the Americas, we are justified in supposing that their religion represented the survival of an archaic ideology, which, from the point of view that concerned Castaneda, including belief in a celestial God, shamanic initiation by vocation or voluntary quest, relations with the souls of dead shamans and with familiar spirits (relations that sometimes reached the point of “possession”) the conception of illness as the intrusion of a magical object or as soul loss, and the shaman’s characteristics are also found not only in the regions where shamanism dominates the religious life of the community (North America, Eskimo, Siberians) but also in regions where it is but one of the constituent phenomena of magical-religious life (Australia, Oceania, Southeast Asia). <br> Hence, we may assume that a certain form of shamanism spread through the two American continents with the first waves of immigrants, whatever their “original home” may have been”
	</blockquote> <ref>Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 333. Print.</ref> This could imply that, since traditional historic thinking believes the first waves came across the bearing straight land bridge from Europe via East Asia, it begs the question just how far back in our ancestry in Europe does the practice of Shamanism go? Does it have a European origin? Or does it go even further back in time to the Levant and the first cradle of human pre-civilization in the Crescent river valley of the Near East? <br><br>North American Shamanism according to Scholar Mirces Eliade represents as he states:<br>		</blockquote> <ref>Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 333. Print.</ref> This could imply that, since traditional historic thinking believes the first waves came across the bearing straight land bridge from Europe via East Asia, it begs the question just how far back in our ancestry in Europe does the practice of Shamanism go? Does it have a European origin? Or does it go even further back in time to the Levant and the first cradle of human pre-civilization in the Crescent river valley of the Near East? <br><br>North American Shamanism according to Scholar Mirces Eliade represents as he states:<br>

wikademia>Candyangel43 at 03:52, 5 June 2009

2009-06-05T03:52:15Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:52, 5 June 2009
Line 6:		Line 6:

	[[Image:Carlosdesign.jpg\|left‎\|200px\|thumb\|<small> Artist Illustration of Carlos Castaneda</small>]]		[[Image:Carlosdesign.jpg\|left‎\|200px\|thumb\|<small> Artist Illustration of Carlos Castaneda</small>]]
	=='''~~Antiquity of Shamanism in the Two Americas~~'''==		=='''Taking Castaneda Seriously'''==
	Castaneda, according to scholar Benjamin Epstein in his 1996 ''Psychology Today'' journal interview, was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Christmas Day in 1931. However immigration records show an earlier date of December 25, 1925 in Cajamarca, Peru.<ref> Epstein, Benjamin. "My Lunch with Carlos Castaneda :( Author of Teachings of Don Juan and other books)." ''Psychology Today.'' 29.2 (1996): 30-4. Print. </ref> He was educated at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and earned a B.A. in 1962 and a Ph.D. in 1970. Carlos Castaneda was a controversial author of a series of books that recounted his training in traditional Native American Shamanism. The Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, founded in 1984 by Joseph Long, states: "Castaneda, acquiring fame from his publications with the academically respectable publishers Simon and Shuster, arguably, with the exception of Margaret Mead, was the only junior scholar whose name was know to the general public" <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref> This reflected a disagreement fueled by envy and quite possibly contempt that is still present today; that of the teachings of Shaman don Juan Matus, which "exposed a world view of an aspect of human consciousness independent of time and space and susceptible to control." <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref> The Mystical teachings of Matus expounded on the "interconnection between all life forms, and to be properly understood, the human connection and spirituality, it must mature." <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref><br><br> Please listen to and view a rare radio interview taken in 1968, as Carlos Castaneda explains his experiences with a "non-ordinary reality" giving validity to divination and the teachings of Don Juan. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ihfeOpyTDc&feature discussion]<br><br>		Castaneda, according to scholar Benjamin Epstein in his 1996 ''Psychology Today'' journal interview, was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Christmas Day in 1931. However immigration records show an earlier date of December 25, 1925 in Cajamarca, Peru.<ref> Epstein, Benjamin. "My Lunch with Carlos Castaneda :( Author of Teachings of Don Juan and other books)." ''Psychology Today.'' 29.2 (1996): 30-4. Print. </ref> He was educated at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and earned a B.A. in 1962 and a Ph.D. in 1970. Carlos Castaneda was a controversial author of a series of books that recounted his training in traditional Native American Shamanism. The Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, founded in 1984 by Joseph Long, states: "Castaneda, acquiring fame from his publications with the academically respectable publishers Simon and Shuster, arguably, with the exception of Margaret Mead, was the only junior scholar whose name was know to the general public" <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref> This reflected a disagreement fueled by envy and quite possibly contempt that is still present today; that of the teachings of Shaman don Juan Matus, which "exposed a world view of an aspect of human consciousness independent of time and space and susceptible to control." <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref> The Mystical teachings of Matus expounded on the "interconnection between all life forms, and to be properly understood, the human connection and spirituality, it must mature." <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref><br><br> Please listen to and view a rare radio interview taken in 1968, as Carlos Castaneda explains his experiences with a "non-ordinary reality" giving validity to divination and the teachings of Don Juan. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ihfeOpyTDc&feature discussion]<br><br>

Line 16:		Line 16:
	</blockquote>		</blockquote>

	<br><br>The difficulty of the “origin” of Shamanism in the two Americas is still far from solved. With the passage of time, a number of ~~syncretically merged “magic~~-religious" practices added to the beliefs of their earliest inhabitants. If the Fuegians of Terra del Fuego are taken to be descended from one of the first waves of immigrants to enter the Americas, we are justified in supposing that their religion represented the survival of an archaic ideology, which, from the point of view that concerned Castaneda, including belief in a celestial God, shamanic initiation by vocation or voluntary quest, relations with the souls of dead shamans and with familiar spirits (relations that sometimes reached the point of “possession”) the conception of illness as the intrusion of a magical object or as soul loss, and the shaman’s characteristics are also found not only in the regions where shamanism dominates the religious life of the community (North America, Eskimo, Siberians) but also in regions where it is but one of the constituent phenomena of magical-religious life (Australia, Oceania, Southeast Asia). <br> Hence, we may assume that a certain form of shamanism spread through the two American continents with the first waves of immigrants, whatever their “original home” may have been” <ref>Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 333. Print.</ref> This could imply that, since traditional historic thinking believes the first waves came across the bearing straight land bridge from Europe via East Asia, it begs the question just how far back in our ancestry in Europe does the practice of Shamanism go? Does it have a European origin? Or does it go even further back in time to the Levant and the first cradle of human pre-civilization in the Crescent river valley of the Near East? <br><br>North American Shamanism according to Scholar Mirces Eliade represents as he states:<br>		<br><br>Scholar Mirces Eliade states in his chapter "Antiquity of Shamanism in the Two Americas":<blockquote>
			The difficulty of the “origin” of Shamanism in the two Americas is still far from solved. With the passage of time, a certain number of “magio-religious" practices were added to the beliefs of their earliest inhabitants. If the Fuegians (of Terra del Fuego) are taken to be descended from one of the first waves of immigrants to enter the Americas, we are justified in supposing that their religion represented the survival of an archaic ideology, which, from the point of view that concerned Castaneda, including belief in a celestial God, shamanic initiation by vocation or voluntary quest, relations with the souls of dead shamans and with familiar spirits (relations that sometimes reached the point of “possession”) the conception of illness as the intrusion of a magical object or as soul loss, and the shaman’s characteristics are also found not only in the regions where shamanism dominates the religious life of the community (North America, Eskimo, Siberians) but also in regions where it is but one of the constituent phenomena of magical-religious life (Australia, Oceania, Southeast Asia). <br> Hence, we may assume that a certain form of shamanism spread through the two American continents with the first waves of immigrants, whatever their “original home” may have been”
			</blockquote> <ref>Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 333. Print.</ref> This could imply that, since traditional historic thinking believes the first waves came across the bearing straight land bridge from Europe via East Asia, it begs the question just how far back in our ancestry in Europe does the practice of Shamanism go? Does it have a European origin? Or does it go even further back in time to the Levant and the first cradle of human pre-civilization in the Crescent river valley of the Near East? <br><br>North American Shamanism according to Scholar Mirces Eliade represents as he states:<br>
	<blockquote>		<blockquote>
	“Among many North American tribes shamanism dominates religious life, or at least is its most important aspect. But nowhere does the shaman monopolize all religious experience. Besides him, there are other technicians of the sacred—the priest, the sorcerer (black magician); in addition, as we have seen, every individual seeks to obtain, for his own personal advantage, a number of magical-religious “powers," usually identified with certain tutelary or helping “spirits." <ref> Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 298-99. Print.</ref> </blockquote><br>The shaman, for the tribe, is the ultimate “go between” of the present world, and the ethereal world, though every Indian possesses some ability to transverse with the ethereal, but not on the scale of the shaman. This brings us full circle back to the different views held of nature by native aboriginal peoples and those of modern day European descent. Europeans see the world through the eyes of utilitarianism (what can I get out of nature; how can I shape nature to my desired environment), while the native Indian or Aboriginal peoples have a symbiotic relationship with nature, living within it and internalizing the experience, whence the European sees nature as an external event or thing. Sayings such as “battling the elements” even conjure up a European mindset of nature as an adversary, versus that of the Indian seeing nature as ally.<br><blockquote>		“Among many North American tribes shamanism dominates religious life, or at least is its most important aspect. But nowhere does the shaman monopolize all religious experience. Besides him, there are other technicians of the sacred—the priest, the sorcerer (black magician); in addition, as we have seen, every individual seeks to obtain, for his own personal advantage, a number of magical-religious “powers," usually identified with certain tutelary or helping “spirits." <ref> Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 298-99. Print.</ref> </blockquote><br>The shaman, for the tribe, is the ultimate “go between” of the present world, and the ethereal world, though every Indian possesses some ability to transverse with the ethereal, but not on the scale of the shaman. This brings us full circle back to the different views held of nature by native aboriginal peoples and those of modern day European descent. Europeans see the world through the eyes of utilitarianism (what can I get out of nature; how can I shape nature to my desired environment), while the native Indian or Aboriginal peoples have a symbiotic relationship with nature, living within it and internalizing the experience, whence the European sees nature as an external event or thing. Sayings such as “battling the elements” even conjure up a European mindset of nature as an adversary, versus that of the Indian seeing nature as ally.<br><blockquote>
Line 22:		Line 24:
	</blockquote>		</blockquote>







	'''==''Criticisms''=='''[[Image:Time_cover_carlos.jpg‎\|center‎\|165px\|thumb\|<small> Time Carlos Castaneda</small>]]		'''==''Criticisms''=='''[[Image:Time_cover_carlos.jpg‎\|center‎\|165px\|thumb\|<small> Time Carlos Castaneda</small>]]
	'''''Reviews'''''<br>		'''''Reviews'''''<br>

wikademia>Candyangel43 at 03:31, 5 June 2009

2009-06-05T03:31:40Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:31, 5 June 2009
Line 8:		Line 8:
	=='''Antiquity of Shamanism in the Two Americas'''==		=='''Antiquity of Shamanism in the Two Americas'''==
	Castaneda, according to scholar Benjamin Epstein in his 1996 ''Psychology Today'' journal interview, was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Christmas Day in 1931. However immigration records show an earlier date of December 25, 1925 in Cajamarca, Peru.<ref> Epstein, Benjamin. "My Lunch with Carlos Castaneda :( Author of Teachings of Don Juan and other books)." ''Psychology Today.'' 29.2 (1996): 30-4. Print. </ref> He was educated at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and earned a B.A. in 1962 and a Ph.D. in 1970. Carlos Castaneda was a controversial author of a series of books that recounted his training in traditional Native American Shamanism. The Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, founded in 1984 by Joseph Long, states: "Castaneda, acquiring fame from his publications with the academically respectable publishers Simon and Shuster, arguably, with the exception of Margaret Mead, was the only junior scholar whose name was know to the general public" <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref> This reflected a disagreement fueled by envy and quite possibly contempt that is still present today; that of the teachings of Shaman don Juan Matus, which "exposed a world view of an aspect of human consciousness independent of time and space and susceptible to control." <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref> The Mystical teachings of Matus expounded on the "interconnection between all life forms, and to be properly understood, the human connection and spirituality, it must mature." <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref><br><br> Please listen to and view a rare radio interview taken in 1968, as Carlos Castaneda explains his experiences with a "non-ordinary reality" giving validity to divination and the teachings of Don Juan. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ihfeOpyTDc&feature discussion]<br><br>		Castaneda, according to scholar Benjamin Epstein in his 1996 ''Psychology Today'' journal interview, was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Christmas Day in 1931. However immigration records show an earlier date of December 25, 1925 in Cajamarca, Peru.<ref> Epstein, Benjamin. "My Lunch with Carlos Castaneda :( Author of Teachings of Don Juan and other books)." ''Psychology Today.'' 29.2 (1996): 30-4. Print. </ref> He was educated at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and earned a B.A. in 1962 and a Ph.D. in 1970. Carlos Castaneda was a controversial author of a series of books that recounted his training in traditional Native American Shamanism. The Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, founded in 1984 by Joseph Long, states: "Castaneda, acquiring fame from his publications with the academically respectable publishers Simon and Shuster, arguably, with the exception of Margaret Mead, was the only junior scholar whose name was know to the general public" <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref> This reflected a disagreement fueled by envy and quite possibly contempt that is still present today; that of the teachings of Shaman don Juan Matus, which "exposed a world view of an aspect of human consciousness independent of time and space and susceptible to control." <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref> The Mystical teachings of Matus expounded on the "interconnection between all life forms, and to be properly understood, the human connection and spirituality, it must mature." <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref><br><br> Please listen to and view a rare radio interview taken in 1968, as Carlos Castaneda explains his experiences with a "non-ordinary reality" giving validity to divination and the teachings of Don Juan. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ihfeOpyTDc&feature discussion]<br><br>

			'''''The Yaqui Indian Culture'''''<br>The American Indian peoples of the Sonora desert have a varied past. They are noted for their sacred dance performances. The Yaqui people honor and celebrate the Laws of Nature: 1.) The Magic of the Children of the earth, 2.) Women in the global community led and guide the family with their language and Spiritual power, 3.) Family of Life, a reference to animism or the belief that a spirit lives in everything, and 4.) The Guardians of the Family or protectors of life. In 1978, the Yaqui Tribe was federally recognized as the Pueblo of the Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation where Indian identity and sovereignty could be maintained. Sonne Reyna, a Yaqui Sundance Peace Chief, speaks regarding Yaqui culture. Please view a video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXs77Vh_UHg&feature=related Chief video]

	'''''Journey to Ixtlan: the Lessons of Don Juan'''''<br>		'''''Journey to Ixtlan: the Lessons of Don Juan'''''<br>
	<blockquote>		<blockquote>
	"For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, and unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous time. I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while; in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it" <ref> Castaneda, Carlos. ''Journey to Ixtlan: the Lessons of Don Juan.'' New York: Washington Square Press, 1972. Print. </ref>		"For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, and unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous time. I wanted to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while; in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it" <ref> Castaneda, Carlos. ''Journey to Ixtlan: the Lessons of Don Juan.'' New York: Washington Square Press, 1972. Print. </ref>
	</blockquote>		</blockquote>

	'''''The Yaqui Indian Culture'''''<br>The American Indian peoples of the Sonora desert have a varied past. They are noted for their sacred dance performances. The Yaqui people honor and celebrate the Laws of Nature: 1.) The Magic of the Children of the earth, 2.) Women in the global community led and guide the family with their language and Spiritual power, 3.) Family of Life, a reference to animism or the belief that a spirit lives in everything, and 4.) The Guardians of the Family or protectors of life. In 1978, the Yaqui Tribe was federally recognized as the Pueblo of the Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation where Indian identity and sovereignty could be maintained. Sonne Reyna, a Yaqui Sundance Peace Chief, speaks regarding Yaqui culture. Please view a video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXs77Vh_UHg&feature=related Chief video]

	<br><br>The difficulty of the “origin” of Shamanism in the two Americas is still far from solved. With the passage of time, a number of syncretically merged “magic-religious" practices added to the beliefs of their earliest inhabitants. If the Fuegians of Terra del Fuego are taken to be descended from one of the first waves of immigrants to enter the Americas, we are justified in supposing that their religion represented the survival of an archaic ideology, which, from the point of view that concerned Castaneda, including belief in a celestial God, shamanic initiation by vocation or voluntary quest, relations with the souls of dead shamans and with familiar spirits (relations that sometimes reached the point of “possession”) the conception of illness as the intrusion of a magical object or as soul loss, and the shaman’s characteristics are also found not only in the regions where shamanism dominates the religious life of the community (North America, Eskimo, Siberians) but also in regions where it is but one of the constituent phenomena of magical-religious life (Australia, Oceania, Southeast Asia). <br> Hence, we may assume that a certain form of shamanism spread through the two American continents with the first waves of immigrants, whatever their “original home” may have been” <ref>Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 333. Print.</ref> This could imply that, since traditional historic thinking believes the first waves came across the bearing straight land bridge from Europe via East Asia, it begs the question just how far back in our ancestry in Europe does the practice of Shamanism go? Does it have a European origin? Or does it go even further back in time to the Levant and the first cradle of human pre-civilization in the Crescent river valley of the Near East? <br><br>North American Shamanism according to Scholar Mirces Eliade represents as he states:<br>		<br><br>The difficulty of the “origin” of Shamanism in the two Americas is still far from solved. With the passage of time, a number of syncretically merged “magic-religious" practices added to the beliefs of their earliest inhabitants. If the Fuegians of Terra del Fuego are taken to be descended from one of the first waves of immigrants to enter the Americas, we are justified in supposing that their religion represented the survival of an archaic ideology, which, from the point of view that concerned Castaneda, including belief in a celestial God, shamanic initiation by vocation or voluntary quest, relations with the souls of dead shamans and with familiar spirits (relations that sometimes reached the point of “possession”) the conception of illness as the intrusion of a magical object or as soul loss, and the shaman’s characteristics are also found not only in the regions where shamanism dominates the religious life of the community (North America, Eskimo, Siberians) but also in regions where it is but one of the constituent phenomena of magical-religious life (Australia, Oceania, Southeast Asia). <br> Hence, we may assume that a certain form of shamanism spread through the two American continents with the first waves of immigrants, whatever their “original home” may have been” <ref>Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 333. Print.</ref> This could imply that, since traditional historic thinking believes the first waves came across the bearing straight land bridge from Europe via East Asia, it begs the question just how far back in our ancestry in Europe does the practice of Shamanism go? Does it have a European origin? Or does it go even further back in time to the Levant and the first cradle of human pre-civilization in the Crescent river valley of the Near East? <br><br>North American Shamanism according to Scholar Mirces Eliade represents as he states:<br>
	<blockquote>		<blockquote>
	“Among many North American tribes shamanism dominates religious life, or at least is its most important aspect. But nowhere does the shaman monopolize all religious experience. Besides him, there are other technicians of the sacred—the priest, the sorcerer (black magician); in addition, as we have seen, every individual seeks to obtain, for his own personal advantage, a number of magical-religious “powers," usually identified with certain tutelary or helping “spirits." <ref> Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 298-99. Print.</ref> </blockquote><br>The shaman, for the tribe, is the ultimate “go between” of the present world, and the ethereal world, though every Indian possesses some ability to transverse with the ethereal, but not on the scale of the shaman. This brings us full circle back to the different views held of nature by native aboriginal peoples and those of modern day European descent. Europeans see the world through the eyes of utilitarianism (what can I get out of nature; how can I shape nature to my desired environment), while the native Indian or Aboriginal peoples have a symbiotic relationship with nature, living within it and internalizing the experience, whence the European sees nature as an external event or		“Among many North American tribes shamanism dominates religious life, or at least is its most important aspect. But nowhere does the shaman monopolize all religious experience. Besides him, there are other technicians of the sacred—the priest, the sorcerer (black magician); in addition, as we have seen, every individual seeks to obtain, for his own personal advantage, a number of magical-religious “powers," usually identified with certain tutelary or helping “spirits." <ref> Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 298-99. Print.</ref> </blockquote><br>The shaman, for the tribe, is the ultimate “go between” of the present world, and the ethereal world, though every Indian possesses some ability to transverse with the ethereal, but not on the scale of the shaman. This brings us full circle back to the different views held of nature by native aboriginal peoples and those of modern day European descent. Europeans see the world through the eyes of utilitarianism (what can I get out of nature; how can I shape nature to my desired environment), while the native Indian or Aboriginal peoples have a symbiotic relationship with nature, living within it and internalizing the experience, whence the European sees nature as an external event or thing. Sayings such as “battling the elements” even conjure up a European mindset of nature as an adversary, versus that of the Indian seeing nature as ally.<br><blockquote>
			“Don Juan stated that in order to arrive at “seeing” one first had to “stop the world” was indeed an appropriate rendition of certain states of awareness in which the reality of everyday life is altered because the flow of interpretation, which ordinarily runs uninterruptedly, has been stopped by a set of circumstances alien to that flow. In my case the set of circumstances alien to my normal flow of interpretations was the sorcery description of the world. Don Juan’s precondition for “stopping the world” was that one had to be convinced; in other words, one had to learn the new description in a total sense, for the purpose of pitting it against the old one, and in that way break the dogmatic certainty, which we all share, that the validity of our perceptions, our reality of the world, is not to be questioned. After “stopping the world” the next step was “seeing”. By that don Juan meant what I would like to categorize as “responding to the perceptual solicitations of a world outside the description we have learned to call reality.” <ref>Castaneda, Carlos. ''Journey to Ixtlan: the Lessons of Don Juan.'' New York: Washington Square Press, 1972. xiv, introduction. Print. </ref>
			</blockquote>
	thing. Sayings such as “battling the elements” even conjure up a European mindset of nature as an adversary, versus that of the Indian seeing nature as ally.

← Older revision		Revision as of 04:24, 5 June 2009
Line 7:		Line 7:
	[[Image:Carlosdesign.jpg\|left‎\|200px\|thumb\|<small> Artist Illustration of Carlos Castaneda</small>]]		[[Image:Carlosdesign.jpg\|left‎\|200px\|thumb\|<small> Artist Illustration of Carlos Castaneda</small>]]
	=='''Taking Castaneda Seriously'''==		=='''Taking Castaneda Seriously'''==
	Castaneda, according to scholar Benjamin Epstein in his 1996 ''Psychology Today'' journal interview, was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Christmas Day in 1931. However immigration records show an earlier date of December 25, 1925 in Cajamarca, Peru.<ref> Epstein, Benjamin. "My Lunch with Carlos Castaneda :( Author of Teachings of Don Juan and other books)." ''Psychology Today.'' 29.2 (1996): 30-4. Print. </ref> ~~He was educated at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and~~ earned a B.A. in 1962 and a Ph.D. in 1970. Carlos Castaneda was a controversial author of a series of books that recounted his training in traditional Native American Shamanism. The Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, founded in 1984 by Joseph Long, states: "Castaneda, acquiring fame from his publications with the academically respectable publishers Simon and Shuster, arguably, with the exception of Margaret Mead, was the only junior scholar whose name was know to the general public" <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref> This reflected a disagreement fueled by envy and quite possibly contempt that is still present today; that of the teachings of Shaman don Juan Matus, which "exposed a world view of an aspect of human consciousness independent of time and space and susceptible to control." <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref> The Mystical teachings of Matus expounded on the "interconnection between all life forms, and to be properly understood, the human connection and spirituality, it must mature." <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref><br><br> Please listen to and view a rare radio interview taken in 1968, as Carlos Castaneda explains his experiences with a "non-ordinary reality" giving validity to divination and the teachings of Don Juan. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ihfeOpyTDc&feature discussion]<br><br>		Castaneda, according to scholar Benjamin Epstein in his 1996 ''Psychology Today'' journal interview, was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Christmas Day in 1931. However immigration records show an earlier date of December 25, 1925 in Cajamarca, Peru.<ref> Epstein, Benjamin. "My Lunch with Carlos Castaneda :( Author of Teachings of Don Juan and other books)." ''Psychology Today.'' 29.2 (1996): 30-4. Print. </ref> Castaneda earned his B.A. in 1962 and Ph.D. in 1970 from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Anthropologist Carlos Castaneda was a controversial author of a series of books that recounted his training in traditional Native American Shamanism. The Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, founded in 1984 by Joseph Long, states: "Castaneda, acquiring fame from his publications with the academically respectable publishers Simon and Shuster, arguably, with the exception of Margaret Mead, was the only junior scholar whose name was know to the general public" <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref> This reflected a disagreement fueled by envy and quite possibly contempt that is still present today; that of the teachings of Shaman don Juan Matus, which "exposed a world view of an aspect of human consciousness independent of time and space and susceptible to control." <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref> The Mystical teachings of Matus expounded on the "interconnection between all life forms, and to be properly understood, the human connection and spirituality, it must mature." <ref>http://www.sacaaa.org/Boulders_in_the_Stream.pdf</ref><br><br> Please listen to and view a rare radio interview taken in 1968, as Carlos Castaneda explains his experiences with a "non-ordinary reality" giving validity to divination and the teachings of Don Juan. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ihfeOpyTDc&feature discussion]<br><br>

	'''''The Yaqui Indian Culture'''''<br>The American Indian peoples of the Sonora desert have a varied past. They are noted for their sacred dance performances. The Yaqui people honor and celebrate the Laws of Nature: 1.) The Magic of the Children of the earth, 2.) Women in the global community led and guide the family with their language and Spiritual power, 3.) Family of Life, a reference to animism or the belief that a spirit lives in everything, and 4.) The Guardians of the Family or protectors of life. In 1978, the Yaqui Tribe was federally recognized as the Pueblo of the Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation where Indian identity and sovereignty could be maintained. Sonne Reyna, a Yaqui Sundance Peace Chief, speaks regarding Yaqui culture. Please view a video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXs77Vh_UHg&feature=related Chief video]		'''''The Yaqui Indian Culture'''''<br>The American Indian peoples of the Sonora desert have a varied past. They are noted for their sacred dance performances. The Yaqui people honor and celebrate the Laws of Nature: 1.) The Magic of the Children of the earth, 2.) Women in the global community led and guide the family with their language and Spiritual power, 3.) Family of Life, a reference to animism or the belief that a spirit lives in everything, and 4.) The Guardians of the Family or protectors of life. In 1978, the Yaqui Tribe was federally recognized as the Pueblo of the Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation where Indian identity and sovereignty could be maintained. Sonne Reyna, a Yaqui Sundance Peace Chief, speaks regarding Yaqui culture. Please view a video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXs77Vh_UHg&feature=related Chief video]
Line 16:		Line 16:
	</blockquote>		</blockquote>
	Scholar Mirces Eliade states in his chapter "Antiquity of Shamanism in the Two Americas":<blockquote>		Scholar Mirces Eliade states in his chapter "Antiquity of Shamanism in the Two Americas":<blockquote>
	The difficulty of the “origin” of Shamanism in the two Americas is still far from solved. With the passage of time, a certain number of “magio-religious" practices were added to the beliefs of their earliest inhabitants. If the Fuegians (of Terra del Fuego) are taken to be descended from one of the first waves of immigrants to enter the Americas, we are justified in supposing that their religion represented the survival of an archaic ideology, which, from the point of view that concerned Castaneda, including belief in a celestial God, shamanic initiation by vocation or voluntary quest, relations with the souls of dead shamans and with familiar spirits (relations that sometimes reached the point of “possession”) the conception of illness as the intrusion of a magical object or as soul loss, and the shaman’s characteristics are also found not only in the regions where shamanism dominates the religious life of the community (North America, Eskimo, Siberians) but also in regions where it is but one of the constituent phenomena of ~~magical~~-religious life (Australia, Oceania, Southeast Asia). Hence, we may assume that a certain form of shamanism spread through the two American continents with the first waves of immigrants, whatever their ~~“original home”~~ may have ~~been”~~		The difficulty of the “origin” of Shamanism in the two Americas is still far from solved. With the passage of time, a certain number of “magio-religious" practices were added to the beliefs of their earliest inhabitants. If the Fuegians (of Terra del Fuego) are taken to be descended from one of the first waves of immigrants to enter the Americas, we are justified in supposing that their religion represented the survival of an archaic ideology, which, from the point of view that concerned Castaneda, including belief in a celestial God, shamanic initiation by vocation or voluntary quest, relations with the souls of dead shamans and with familiar spirits (relations that sometimes reached the point of “possession”) the conception of illness as the intrusion of a magical object or as soul loss, and the shaman’s characteristics are also found not only in the regions where shamanism dominates the religious life of the community (North America, Eskimo, Siberians) but also in regions where it is but one of the constituent phenomena of magio-religious life (Australia, Oceania, Southeast Asia). Hence, we may assume that a certain form of shamanism spread through the two American continents with the first waves of immigrants, whatever their 'original home' may have been.”
	<ref>Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 333. Print.</ref></blockquote> This could imply that, since traditional historic thinking believes the first waves came across the bearing straight land bridge from Europe via East Asia, it begs the question just how far back in our ancestry in Europe does the practice of Shamanism go? Does it have a European origin? Or does it go even further back in time to the Levant and the first cradle of human pre-civilization in the Crescent river valley of the Near East? <br>North American Shamanism according to Scholar Mirces Eliade represents as he states:		<ref>Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 333. Print.</ref></blockquote> This could imply that, since traditional historic thinking believes the first waves came across the bearing straight land bridge from Europe via East Asia, it begs the question just how far back in our ancestry in Europe does the practice of Shamanism go? Does it have a European origin? Or does it go even further back in time to the Levant and the first cradle of human pre-civilization in the Crescent river valley of the Near East? <br>North American Shamanism according to Scholar Mirces Eliade represents as he states:
	<blockquote>		<blockquote>
	“Among many North American tribes shamanism dominates religious life, or at least is its most important aspect. But nowhere does the shaman monopolize all religious experience. Besides him, there are other technicians of the sacred—the priest, the sorcerer (black magician); in addition, as we have seen, every individual seeks to obtain, for his own personal advantage, a number of magical-religious “powers," usually identified with certain tutelary or helping “spirits." <ref> Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 298-99. Print.</ref> </blockquote>The shaman, for the tribe, is the ultimate “go between” of the present world, and the ethereal world, though every Indian possesses some ability to transverse with the ethereal, but not on the scale of the shaman. This brings us full circle back to the different views held of nature by native aboriginal peoples and those of modern day European descent. Europeans see the world through the eyes of utilitarianism (what can I get out of nature; how can I shape nature to my desired environment), while the native Indian or Aboriginal peoples have a symbiotic relationship with nature, living within it and internalizing the experience, whence the European sees nature as an external event or thing. Sayings such as “battling the elements” even conjure up a European mindset of nature as an adversary, versus that of the Indian seeing nature as ally.<br><blockquote>		“Among many North American tribes shamanism dominates religious life, or at least is its most important aspect. But nowhere does the shaman monopolize all religious experience. Besides him, there are other technicians of the sacred—the priest, the sorcerer (black magician); in addition, as we have seen, every individual seeks to obtain, for his own personal advantage, a number of magical-religious “powers," usually identified with certain tutelary or helping “spirits." <ref> Eliade, Mirces. ''Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy.'' Trans. by Willard R. Trask. New York: Bollingen Foundation, 1964. 298-99. Print.</ref> </blockquote>The shaman, for the tribe, is the ultimate “go between” of the present world, and the ethereal world, though every Indian possesses some ability to transverse with the ethereal, but not on the scale of the shaman. This brings us full circle back to the different views held of nature by native aboriginal peoples and those of modern day European descent. Europeans see the world through the eyes of utilitarianism (what can I get out of nature; how can I shape nature to my desired environment), while the native Indian or Aboriginal peoples have a symbiotic relationship with nature, living within it and internalizing the experience, whence the European sees nature as an external event or thing. Sayings such as “battling the elements” even conjure up a European mindset of nature as an adversary, versus that of the Indian seeing nature as ally.<br>Carlos Castaneda reflects on the shamans teaching: <blockquote>
	“Don Juan stated that in order to arrive at “seeing” one first had to “stop the world” was indeed an appropriate rendition of certain states of awareness in which the reality of everyday life is altered because the flow of interpretation, which ordinarily runs uninterruptedly, has been stopped by a set of circumstances alien to that flow. In my case the set of circumstances alien to my normal flow of interpretations was the sorcery description of the world. Don Juan’s precondition for “stopping the world” was that one had to be convinced; in other words, one had to learn the new description in a total sense, for the purpose of pitting it against the old one, and in that way break the dogmatic certainty, which we all share, that the validity of our perceptions, our reality of the world, is not to be questioned. After “stopping the world” the next step was “seeing”. By that don Juan meant what I would like to categorize as “responding to the perceptual solicitations of a world outside the description we have learned to call reality.” <ref>Castaneda, Carlos. ''Journey to Ixtlan: the Lessons of Don Juan.'' New York: Washington Square Press, 1972. xiv, introduction. Print. </ref>		“Don Juan stated that in order to arrive at “seeing” one first had to “stop the world” was indeed an appropriate rendition of certain states of awareness in which the reality of everyday life is altered because the flow of interpretation, which ordinarily runs uninterruptedly, has been stopped by a set of circumstances alien to that flow. In my case the set of circumstances alien to my normal flow of interpretations was the sorcery description of the world. Don Juan’s precondition for “stopping the world” was that one had to be convinced; in other words, one had to learn the new description in a total sense, for the purpose of pitting it against the old one, and in that way break the dogmatic certainty, which we all share, that the validity of our perceptions, our reality of the world, is not to be questioned. After “stopping the world” the next step was “seeing”. By that don Juan meant what I would like to categorize as “responding to the perceptual solicitations of a world outside the description we have learned to call reality.” <ref>Castaneda, Carlos. ''Journey to Ixtlan: the Lessons of Don Juan.'' New York: Washington Square Press, 1972. xiv, introduction. Print. </ref>
	</blockquote>		</blockquote>