Stuff about Castaneda being a bullshitter
Had heard that, but as you say, the druggy bits are nuts.. never had a outer space trip, but I reckon if I do, it'll be DMT.. love reading people's experiences tho'
I have recently (four or five years ago) come down from a long Castaneda-induced hallucinogenic experience. I read all his books. I didn't skim them, I pondered each paragraph and thought about each chapter for hours after finishing them. He didn't do DMT. I don't think he ever claimed to have done DMT. The two things I remember that he was specific about doing were Peyote (main active component being mescaline) and Jimson weed (active components being atropine, hyoscyamine and scopolamine). Then there was
humito, the little smoke, which was described as containing a mushroom, amongst other things, but people report that you can't smoke mushrooms. I haven't tried.
I found his writing immensely seductive, engaging, imaginative and entertaining. The ideas seemed hugely profound and original. However I keep finding writings from people who wrote years, decades or centuries before him which prefigure his ideas. The reason his ideas seemed original to me was that I had not read the authors he stole ideas from. On occasion the plagiarism goes beyond the conceptual and becomes verbatim. I do not have references and I can't be bothered looking for them, so I'll apologise for that now. It's feasible he also used ideas from some native american cultures that he worked with, it's also feasible he made stuff up.
The narrative in his work follows a couple of sharp bends. The first is where the writing moves from a scientific, anthropological style to that of a travelogue or adventurer's diary. I think this is where he realised he could make money writing books for drugged up hippies. The second turn is where he seems to throw everything away and focus on
tensegrity, his system of bodily movement ("magical passes"), akin to Tai Chi. I think this ties in with his realisation that he could charge people huge fees to come to workshops, and then have sex with the attendees.
I conclude he was a charlatan and his books should be read for pure fantasy value
if at all. I would not say I
lost years of my life because of him but I did say stupid things to people, that I regret, thanks to taking his words seriously.
It would be better to read the Greeks, Marx and/or the Situationists if one wishes to embark on a philosophical journey. It would be best to read them all! But always
read critically, never
believe.
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
