In the 1960s, the author Carlos Castaneda took America by storm with his stories of studying psychedelic sorcery under the Yaqui wizard Don Juan. Unfortunately, the stories turned out not to be true, and Castaneda quickly spiraled into cult leader territory.
Carlos Castaneda was one of the most celebrated authors of the 1960s—his tales of psychedelic initiation at the hands of the probably at least partially fictional shaman Don Juan inspired a generation of seekers, including numerous celebrities.
Arriving on the scene just as the youth of America were discovering drugs, and into a marketplace that was largely devoid of any real information on shamanism or consciousness exploration, Castaneda’s books cleaned up.
Over a successive series of new tales, Castaneda described his initiation into what he called sorcery, the ability to alter awareness at will, and to live fearlessly by cutting all ties to the world. He regaled his readers with increasingly bizarre stories of energetic parasites that blanket the earth, trips into other realms and even stranger forays into high weirdness.
Carlos Castaneda’s ideas remain unique, standing out as completely “other” in today’s “Mind/Body/Spirit” marketplace of recycled ideas.
However, for those who knew Castaneda personally, and strove to join his inner circle of devoted female acolytes, the “Separate Reality” they had entered could be a very dark one indeed. Amy Wallace’s book Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a harrowing recounting of her time under Castaneda’s influence (and a great read, as well).
The book recounts how a highly educated member of a prominent literary family could get sucked into the hallucinatory web of a personality cult, and stands as an important testament (one of many) to the dangers faced on the road to higher consciousness.
RELATED: The 7 Biggest Mistakes People Make When Learning Magick
Below, Amy Wallace is interviewed about the book and her experiences.
From the Examiner:
One night, my parents returned from a dinner party thrown by my dad’s agent, who was also Carlos’ agent. They were excited and enthusiastic, and my dad said, “We just met Carlos Castaneda! He’s fantastic – you have to meet him!” I was 15, and on a break from my New England hippie boarding school. I was never scared to meet famous people, they were part of the landscape. When Irving met John Lennon, Lennon was shaking with excitement. Yoko had grabbed him by the sleeve and said, “Look, John, it’s your favorite author, Irving Wallace!” (His favorite book was The Man, about a black man becoming president. Oh, if he had lived to see that dream come true!)
If a Lennon/Ono invitation had been forthcoming, I would have jumped at the chance. But Carlos Castaneda! He would grace the cover of Time magazine, lived in secrecy, and was too famous for me, too awe-inspiring.
I said, “No.”
My father said something very unusual for him: “I insist”…
[…]
Never give your power away to someone else, who claims to have special knowledge. Its the worst mistake I ever made. This is not to say that Carlos’ speeches and books do not contain some wisdom, they do indeed, but cults are evil, and I was in a cult. Still suffering from PTSD, nightmares, chills in the old neighborhood, etc. That this book has helped others so much means more than I can ever say.
RELATED: 3 Ways to Recognize Spiritual Charlatans and Fake Gurus
Though the try and recovering GDP and achieving decrease unemployment charges in advanced countries after the GFC, many nations are nonetheless experiencing low wage progress rates.
I am good with regular meals.
I have observed that online degree is getting common because attaining your degree online has become a popular choice for many people. Numerous people have definitely not had an opportunity to attend a regular college or university but seek the improved earning possibilities and career advancement that a Bachelor Degree grants. Still other people might have a degree in one field but wish to pursue a thing they now develop an interest in.
Different sources credit score Frans W Lindqvist for the same factor at the identical time.
I have seen lots of useful items on your web-site about pc’s. However, I’ve got the view that notebooks are still less than powerful adequately to be a option if you typically do tasks that require loads of power, like video touch-ups. But for world-wide-web surfing, microsoft word processing, and many other popular computer work they are all right, provided you may not mind the little screen size. Thank you for sharing your opinions.
But if the entire point of investing is picking a stock that will grow continually over time, then it might be smart to avoid publicly traded companies with debt-to-income ratios that are consistently in negative territory.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Can I simply say what a aid to seek out someone who actually is aware of what theyre talking about on the internet. You undoubtedly know methods to convey an issue to gentle and make it important. Extra folks need to learn this and perceive this facet of the story. I cant consider youre not more popular because you positively have the gift.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
hello!,I like your writing very much! share we communicate more about your article on AOL? I require a specialist on this area to solve my problem. May be that’s you! Looking forward to see you.
I appreciate, cause I found exactly what I was looking for. You’ve ended my four day long hunt! God Bless you man. Have a nice day. Bye
Every time a new grammatical assemble seems, a footnote introduces it and offers a simplified explanation of the principle involved.
This theme is ideal for a glamorous and refined celebration.
And don’t get caught up in the various flavors of HDTV – 720p, 1080i and 1080p – because Blu-ray players can send an HD signal to any of them.
Hmm it seems like your site ate my first comment (it was super long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I wrote and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I too am an aspiring blog writer but I’m still new to everything. Do you have any tips and hints for novice blog writers? I’d definitely appreciate it.
Is there something higher than hand-cut fries, cheese curds (preferably from Quebec), and a heavy drizzle of brown gravy?
You can come to know the tomorrow’s market position either you are trader, investor, officer, insurance adviser or business man.
Love the depth of your analysis!
New Hanover College to decide on center college proposal”, Burlington County Instances, March 11, 2011. Accessed October 1, 2014. “NEW HANOVER – The township’s faculty district will resolve on Wednesday whether or not to enter an settlement with the Bordentown Regional Faculty District for a send-obtain settlement for center college children.
Profit pay by the corporation in a proportion of the profit as a dividend to shareholders.
This webpage doesn’t render properly on my iphone 3gs – you might want to try and repair that
Hmm it appears like your blog ate my first comment (it was super long) so I guess I’ll just sum it up what I submitted and say, I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I as well am an aspiring blog blogger but I’m still new to the whole thing. Do you have any tips for novice blog writers? I’d definitely appreciate it.
Its like you read my mind! You appear to know so much about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you just can do with a few p.c. to power the message house a little bit, but other than that, that is magnificent blog. A great read. I will certainly be back.
An interesting dialogue is value comment. I believe that you must write more on this matter, it won’t be a taboo topic but typically individuals are not enough to talk on such topics. To the next. Cheers
I am so happy to read this. This is the kind of manual that needs to be given and not the accidental misinformation that is at the other blogs. Appreciate your sharing this best doc.
The first thing you should do is mutually agree on a trustee.
It?s really a nice and helpful piece of info. I?m happy that you just shared this helpful information with us. Please stay us informed like this. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for your post. I’d really like to comment that the tariff of car insurance differs from one insurance policy to another, given that there are so many different issues which contribute to the overall cost. As an example, the make and model of the car or truck will have a huge bearing on the purchase price. A reliable older family vehicle will have a more economical premium than a flashy expensive car.
Kingdom of Heaven. Though building of this kind is expensive, such a facility is perhaps thought of for the protection of extremely valued breeding inventory.
Have you ever considered writing an e-book or guest authoring on other sites? I have a blog based on the same subjects you discuss and would love to have you share some stories/information. I know my audience would value your work. If you are even remotely interested, feel free to send me an email.
I really admire how you presented a multifaceted perspective that challenged my previous assumptions in a constructive way.
Clark, Ross (24 March 2007).
One more thing. It’s my opinion that there are a lot of travel insurance web pages of respected companies than enable you to enter a trip details and get you the prices. You can also purchase the actual international holiday insurance policy online by using your current credit card. Everything you need to do is always to enter the travel information and you can start to see the plans side-by-side. Only find the program that suits your capacity to pay and needs and then use your credit card to buy it. Travel insurance online is a good way to check for a respected company with regard to international holiday insurance. Thanks for discussing your ideas.
When I initially commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get three e-mails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove people from that service? Thank you!
Magnificent site. Plenty of useful information here. I am sending it to some friends ans also sharing in delicious. And obviously, thanks for your effort!
I?ve recently started a web site, the information you provide on this site has helped me tremendously. Thank you for all of your time & work.
Your comprehensive explanation helped me see the connections between different ideas that I had never noticed before.
Hello there I am so happy I found your web site, I really found you by accident, while I was searching on Askjeeve for something else, Nonetheless I am here now and would just like to say thanks for a marvelous post and a all round enjoyable blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to read through it all at the moment but I have book-marked it and also added in your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read more, Please do keep up the great work.
Hi there, You have done an excellent job. I will certainly digg it and personally recommend to my friends. I am confident they’ll be benefited from this web site.