7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Shamanism and dream power, October 4, 2003
This review is from: Don Juan and the Power of Medicine Dreaming: A Nagual Woman's Journey of Healing (Paperback)
This book relates the author's 30+ years of interaction with guides in the mystical world of the Toltec and Maya and discusses the power of the healing energies that may be applied in healing and transforming the world.
A meeting with the writer William Burroughs was the catalyst for a journey to Mexico. Here she was taught by Don Juan Matus, the same shaman that mentored Carlos Castaneda as documented in his best selling books. After the initial apprenticeship with Matus she spent 12 years as a linguist and teacher before returning to the world of Toltec/Maya esotericism after an AIDS diagnosis.
Her story makes interesting reading. The epilogue contains a novel view on four different categories of illness, the methods of discerning these and the proper treatments. This is a great book on shamanism, dream power, sorcery and healing that will definitely appeal to fans of the author Castaneda.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Just a review, February 1, 2004
This review is from: Don Juan and the Power of Medicine Dreaming: A Nagual Woman's Journey of Healing (Paperback)
Hello fellow readers:
This book, which I wanted 'eagerly' to read, was given to me not so long ago. I read a few pages, I listened to one of her radio interviews. I just can say.. a few things about this book. And sorry before handm but I am very picky with these things.
It feels a bit "touristic", meaning that what she does a lot of times but not entirely in the first 60 pages or so is talk about Mexican food and places. It is okay if you do it a few times, but more than a few, it becomes a bit boring so I skipped some bunches of paragraphs.
To me it lacks a bit more of "going deeper into the matter". Apparently she is a natural dreamer. This aspect of being a "natural" is not well supported if she really is a natural. For example, in the case of Florinda (one of the witches from Castaneda's group), she had not only one, but several dreaming experiences that were described in her own book for her ability to dream awake. This was presented first thoroughly and then very much later, we found out she was a "natural". What I read was only one dreaming experience, which just turned out to be a little weird, and therefore she gets called "natural dreamer" based on one dream. The same is with other concepts. Sometimes it comes to mind that she knew everything before she met "don Juan" because not many things are explained or at least, the people she met, apparently do not seem to explain too much in depth.
Down to Don Juan. This Don Juan #2 is by far... so different from the don Juan #1 we read in Carlos' books that I do not see any relationship between the two. If she met don Juan#2, I have come to the conclusion it certainly wasn't the same don Juan#1 who instructed Carlos. One of my reasons come from the things #2 tells her, which seem to come more from readings I have done myself over the internet and some sense of the "new age" movement, instead of the new material presented by Carlos.
I like explanations. At least, I like books that elaborate everything, that explain terms from where they came from.
So from 1 to 5.. I give 1. I won't say that she did or not make it up, but it is just not as cohesive, explanatory, objective as I would have liked it to be. Sometimes the narration leans too much towards the romantic side with a few lapses of self-service.
There are chapters in which she exposes her dreaming experiences with the Mayans.. These facts are in the history books, so nothing new there.
The title refers to Medicine Dreaming which might be a bit misleading. Is the book supposed to explain and inform about Dreaming so one can heal oneself?. or is it just an account on how it works?. Either way, I did not find any of those answers. On the cover, she is referred to as a nagual woman, yet I never read anything to back-up this, nor was she ever referred as such by any of the characters involved.. just an observation.
On the other hand, I "believe" (because I have not proven this yet) that healing oneself is possible in Dreaming, but I do not see how this book could help anyone to achieve such feat.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Doesn't live up to its title., February 4, 2004
This review is from: Don Juan and the Power of Medicine Dreaming: A Nagual Woman's Journey of Healing (Paperback)
That the book is promoted as non-fiction is a miracle as it clearly is a cross between the latest lady's romance novel and a nickel&dime Indiana Jones comic.
- The characters she brings forth lack depth. Two dimensional are the words that are most appropiate here.
- The dreaming techniques that she is supossed to present in order to justify the title, which indicates that the book is about Medicine Dreaming, something that I know is possible hence my interest in the book, are totally absent. Thats right, there is absolutely nothing in the entire book on the topic of healing via the medium of dreams!
I wonder if the reviewers who are so wildly enthusiastic about this book are not confussing it with another.
A real let down. All in all, I have the impression that MT is a bored housewife who wrote down her own daydreams and presented them as fact.
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