The Active Side of Infinity [Hardcover]

Carlos Castaneda (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 9, 1998

"Ordinarily, events that change our path are impersonal affairs, and yet extremely personal.

"My teacher, don Juan Matus, said this in guiding me as his apprentice to collect what I considered to be the memorable events of my life. Don Juan Matus was a Yaqui Indian shaman from Sonora, Mexico; he was a nagual, a leader of a group of fifteen men and women shamans who traced their lineage to the shamans who lived in Mexico in ancient times. Over the course of thirteen years, don Juan ushered me into the cognitive world of those shamans, a world which was, according to him, ruled by a different system of cognition than the one which rules our world of everyday life.

"Writing "The Active Side of Infinity" was a response to don Juan's directive to collect such an album of memorable events. Though it seemed at the time that don Juan had given me this instruction on the spur of the moment, as time went by he revealed to me that gathering such a collection was a traditional task given by the shamans of his lineage to their apprentices. Don Juan said that it was called a collection or an album because it was like an album of pictures made out of the recollection of events that had profound significance in the shaman's life, events that changed things for him, that illuminated his path. Don Juan stated that to formulate an album of this nature demanded such discipline and impartiality that it was, in essence, an act of war.

"Don Juan described the total goal of the shamanistic knowledge that he handled as the preparation for facing the "definitive journey": the journey that every human being has to take at the end of his life. He said that what modern man referred to vaguely as 'lifeafter death' was, for those shamans, a concrete region filled to capacity with practical affairs of a different order than the practical affairs of daily life, yet bearing a similar functional practicality. Don Juan considered that to collect the memorable events in their lives was, for shamans, the preparation for their entrance into that concrete region, which they called the a "active side of infinity."

In this book written in the final years of preparation for his definitive journey, anthropologist and shaman Carlos Castaneda gives us his most autobiographical and intimately revealing work ever, the fruit of a lifetime of experience and perhaps the most moving volume in his oeuvre.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although he died last April, Castaneda, dubbed "the Godfather of the New Age" by some, speaks, as seems only fitting for a man who called himself a sorcerer, from beyond the beyond. Castaneda undertook this somewhat autobiographical record of memories and experiences during his famous apprenticeship to don Juan, the Yaqui Indian who tutored him in the ways of shamanism. According to Castaneda, don Juan asked him to remember the most significant events of his life and to describe them in great detail as a means to recoup psychic energy and to understand the forces of "infinity" that had led him to the path of the "warrior-traveler." Castaneda uses those personal events to illustrate aspects of Yaqui mysticism, restating the fundamental themes of his work in a more accessible manner than some of his other writings. Gone are the tales, typical of his earlier books (A Journey to Ixtlan; The Teachings of Don Juan; etc.), of humans who transformed themselves into eagles and wolves, hallucinogenic adventures on peyote and superhuman physical challenges. Instead, readers get accounts of the visionary's lonely but privileged childhood on a hacienda in an unnamed Latin American country, as well as endearing memories of his life as a bumbling and rather neurotic anthropology graduate student at UCLA. "The active side of infinity" is an intelligent energy that intentionally guides the warrior-traveler. Reading Castaneda's account of don Juan's preparation for the "definitive journey" of death will likely be a poignant experience for Castaneda's fans, who may see the writing of the book as the author's preparation for his own departure.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Completed shortly before anthropologist-shaman Castaneda's death in April 1998, this book serves as the fulfillment of a task his teacher, the Yaqui Indian sorcerer Don Juan Matus, gave him many years ago, when Castaneda was instructed to collect the significant events of his life. This was not, however, meant as a collection of major milestones in his physical existence but as a selective work describing the transcendent moments and meaningful insights that changed his life and brought him new understanding. Castaneda excels as a storyteller. Incidents both poignant and empowering form a solid thread through his shamanic development and ultimately total embrace of the world view of the Yaqui sorcerers. This basically autobiographical work is more personal than Castaneda's previous books, presenting a human portrait of a remote, mysterious figure. The supernatural occurrences defy explanation yet help to provide a fascinating look at a complex life.
-?Elizabeth Anne Salt, Otterbein Coll. Lib., Westerville, OH
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1 edition (December 9, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060192208
• ISBN-13: 978-0060192204
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #523,296 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in 1925 in Peru, anthropologist Carlos Castaneda wrote a total of 15 books, which sold 8 million copies worldwide and were published in 17 different languages. In his writing, Castaneda describes the teaching of Don Juan, a Yaqui sorcerer and shaman. His works helped define the 1960's and usher in the New Age movement. Even after his mysterious death in California in1998, his books continue to inspire and influence his many devoted fans.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

73 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Preparing for the definitive-journey..., November 24, 2002

By 

C. Middleton (Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Active Side of Infinity (Hardcover)

Sometime in 1998, on a not-so unusual evening, my computer, once booting it up, seemed to explode in a dance of light and sound - my email had been inundated with the news that the famous author of 'The Teachings of Don Juan', Carlos Castaneda, had leaped into the abyss, never to return. The general response to his final passing, the commencement of his 'definitive-journey', was an ecstatic celebration: his work, it had been said, was finally complete. My feelings were mixed. Castaneda had been a close 'literary friend', a quasi-spiritual companion who, through his many books, made me aware that all things are indeed possible. The 'warrior-traveller' had moved on, and it was rumoured that his last book, ~The Active Side of Infinity~ was on the way.

It has been four years, and for a variety of reasons, I never got around to reading it, but finally did last week. To be sure, this last installment ranks, in my mind, as one of his best. This is the last in a long line of texts concerning Castaneda's appreticeship as a sorcerer, working under the tutelage of Don Juan Matus - a 'nagual' of mystery, power and hilarious wit. Don Juan has to be one of the most interestiing characters of the twentieth century. And to finally meet him again in ~Infinity~ was certainly a pleasure.

~Infinity~ has to be the most accessible of all Castaneda's books. We can almost categorize it as being his last will and testament before his final exit into infinity - an effort to pay off his spiritual debts as a warrior-traveller, recapitulating (Don Juan's term) memorable events and relationships in his life that changed his path or had, either consciously or not, affected or had a profound significance in his life as a sorcerer. The book is a collection of Castaneda's memories, intense and not so, that through re-living would prepare him for the 'definitive-journey' into the abyss. Death is the central theme in ~Infinity~, communicating the importance of preparing oneself for the unavoidable end we all must embark upon...

I was reminded of Carl Jung, the famous Swiss psychiatrist who, in the last years of his life, always had 'The Tibetan Book of the Dead' on his night stand, referring to it before falling to sleep. This was Jung's way of preparing himself for the definitive journey. Castaneda, though, through re-living the past, sought-out some of the more significant people in his life, and made a practical attempt to set things right. This made a lot of sense to me on many levels.

To suggest to new readers of Castaneda to begin with ~Infinity~ would be, in my mind, a disservice. My advice would be to start from the beginning with 'The Teachings of Don Juan' and move on from there...one's appreciation of the entire philosophy will be much deeper as a result. That said, however, ~Infinity~ could well be a good starting point, because as I mentioned before, it's the most accessible of the canon.

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Creative artistic work of a masterful surrealist author, May 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Active Side of Infinity (Hardcover)

For many years now I have been following Carlos Castaneda in his literary journey into the supernatural world of sorcery. Taking a comprehensive look at all of his books, Castaneda's narrative "feels" like a cleverly-crafted tales of ambiguous meanings that captivate the imagination; the creative artistic work of a masterful surrealist author. What Castaneda does for his readers is the same as what a Van Gogh or a Dali does for their admirers but on a different level. Castaneda is the protagonist of his subjectivism, making of himself a mysterious and legendary character. He ventures forth from the world of commonsense into the regions of the supernatural. There, with the aid of don Juan, he encounters tremendous forces. After a fierce battle he comes out triumphant, returning from his subjective adventure with the knowledge which he bestows to his readers. With every new book, Castaneda introduces a new concept that supersede others. For example, if the use of psychotropic hallucinogens was so important in don Juan's method of teaching, why did he stop writing about them in later books? On the other hand, if "Dreaming" was also such an important practice, why he did not talk about it from the very beginning? Why he did not mention the assemblage point in any of his first five books? Why did he wait until the end to introduce us to the practice of the "Magical Passes"? The reason is because over the years Castaneda appears to have borrowed from other sources, reformulating old concepts into new ones and accommodating his narratives to the spiritual undercurrents of the times. In the '60s it was spirituality through hallucinogenic substances, in the '70s and '80s there was a renewed interest in the esoteric (Seeing) and altered states of consciousness (Dreaming), and now in the '90s the spiritual awareness is being redefined in terms of bioenergy and its manipulations (Tensegrity). All these ideas have been built upon the preceding ones in a very intelligent manner. Don't get me wrong, I am a Castaneda "aficionado" and always will be . The essential meaning of his journey is that he united spiritual adventure with the modern-day search for meaning. Castaneda's merit lies in that he was able to link the ordinary waking consciousness with knowledge of the vast mystery and wonder that is our existence.

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Active Side of Infinity, May 18, 2002

By 

Cassandra Barnes "Cassandra" (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Active Side of Infinity (Paperback)

The Active Side of Infinity is the last book Carlos Castaneda wrote before his death in 1998. He described it as "a collection of the memorable events in my life," which he gathered at the recommendation of don Juan Matus, the Yaqui Indian shaman who was his teacher. An anthropologist and shaman, Castaneda wrote ten other books, including The Teachings of Don Juan.
Collecting the memorable events in one's life is a way of stirring "caches of energy that exist within the self," and making that energy available.
The process requires "the genuine and all-consuming act of putting together the sum total of one's emotions and realizations, without sparing anything." It's not a process that one undertakes lightly. Castaneda says that, for a shaman, the act of collecting memorable events is preparation for a "definitive journey" into the "active side of infinity."
Non-shamans call the definitive journey "death," and the active side of infinity "the afterlife." Shamans believe that human energy exists in a very real place after death, and they prepare themselves for continued existence in that place.
The collection of memorable events is not a personal memoir, or a rehashing of life's experiences, but instead is stories and events that touch something universal in all humans. They often change the life path of those to whom they occurred.
Castaneda describes how he first met don Juan, and his difficulties in finding him after they lost contact just after their meeting. He also includes several stories from his life as a child and a young man--events he had totally forgotten, but that had irrevocably changed his life.
Whether or not one agrees with Castaneda and don Juan about the afterlife, those who read The Active Side of Infinity will find themselves thinking about their lives, and journeys they must take after death, in a different way.