Customer Reviews

Medicine Dream: A Nagual Woman's Energetic Healing

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Having read all of Castaneda's books, Taisha Abelar's book, Florinda Donner's last two books, articles by Tunneshende and interviews with her, interviews with Castaneda and statements about her by the editors of Magical Blend magazine, I can state with no effort that Merilyn is legit. How do I know? Because my dreams underwent a dramatic and powerful change the first night I started her book.I'm sorry some were disappointed but the only way to judge books such as these is by how you feel after reading them. I was touched by the book and by the woman's view of Juan Matus' world. As an aside, the publisher of her book informed me that the book was written in the form of a novel based on fact.

I'll start off by saying that this is not a bad book, and that Merilyn Tunneshende is not a bad person. Many people no doubt have learned things about their own spirituality from this book, and more personal power to them. However, people who decide whether to support this author should know that she has achieved massive popularity among New Age readers largely by slandering the very person whose mystical methodology she has borrowed.

For those who don't know the story, I'll give the nutshell version. The late Carlos Castaneda is the author of 12 books which describe his apprenticeship to a group of shamanic "Sorcerers" in Mexico led by a man called Don Juan Matus. In his books, he asserted that he was trained in an incredible system of knowledge, with the ultimate intent of his teachers being that he become the leader, or "Nagual," of the next generation of this lineage. His teachers made it clear to him that his success in this great endeavor would not be a sure thing, and that only by learning to be "impeccable" in every aspect of his life could he fulfill this destiny. Enter Merilyn Tunneshende. Tunneshende made the sensational claim that she is the true disciple of Don Juan, that Castaneda's teachers had decided at some point to forego Carlos because he was becoming a "dark Sorcerer, " and chose her as their rightful successor.

Tunneshende's literary style is a mix of Castaneda's ideas and a Lynn Andrews-esque women's spirituality. If she had written all of this and called it "a new interpretation of Castaneda's knowledge" without claiming any other credentials, she might have done OK, but it is doubtful that she would have ended up the success story she is today. The fact of the matter is, the raging controversy which has ensued from her claim has made her a household name among Castanedophiles everywhere, whether they think that she is the true Nagual Woman or a demon from hell.

I do not mean to disregard any or all of the content in Tunneshende's books, but to express my extreme skepticism about her slanderous claim. I say this not from the perspective of a scientist comparing cosmological systems, but as someone who has read all of CC's books so many times that I have lost count. What has kept me coming back to these works was not the beliefs and techniques--I could take in most of those in one reading--it was a fascination with the brilliant and inspiring characters of Carlos's mentors, Don Juan and Don Genaro. The nuances of behavior which Carlos describes paint a picture of people who are at the same time infinitely serious and irreverent, solid yet totally fluid, compassionate yet accessible to no one, and above all, completely devoid of self-indulgence. His books may have the greatest value not for their accounts of bizarre metaphysical journeys, but for the description of a way of being which is a supreme human achievement.

No one can prove or disprove Ms. Tunneshende's claims, since neither Carlos nor his teachers have been forthcoming in setting the record straight. One way or another, it appears that, like me, she has pored over Castaneda's books for untold hours. Let us consider the possibility that at some point, a person with some commendable spiritual beliefs realized the value of someone else's image of a mystical teacher, and then proceeded to try to repackage it according to what she thought was missing. If this is the case, Tunneshende was not acting on sinister intentions, though some of her chosen methods have been devious and dishonorable. And, as I said, there are positive aspects of her revising Castaneda's metaphysics; for instance, her own philosophy is not as cold or terrifying as Castaneda's (who once described his books as "not for the timid New Ager"), so she makes intriguing ideas available to a larger, if slightly more homogenous, demographic.

However, if Carlos never truly became a "Dark Sorcerer," it follows that Tunneshende has involved herself in a despicable scheme, capitalizing on efforts to discredit a man's integrity as a spiritual seeker and teacher. Carlos himself doesn't seem to have cared what she or anyone else had to say about him, which is totally in keeping with Don Juan's teaching of losing self-importance. This illustrates and important point: no one has given a strong argument that Castaneda ever compromised his integrity, either in his works or his life. In spite of his worldwide notoriety as one of the most prolific authors of the 60's generation, he chose to spend most of his life in isolation, literally spending years without any known friends or contacts. Most communication to the public occurred in the form of obscure meetings with journalists, which he used to speak about a system of knowledge in which he was a self-proclaimed imbecile, rarely mentioning his own accomplishments or activities. Tunneshende has never offered proof to support her claims about Carlos, but has given exorbitant mention to the idea of how "bad" he is and how "Good" she is. She professes to be the true emissary of a system of knowledge which Castaneda has described at far greater length, with a message that is consistent from his first book to his last.

What personally made up my mind on the subject was not comparing claims, but trying to take in the essence of these two authors' narratives. When I read Tunneshende's books, her accounts of Don Juan and Don Genaro seem to fit the mold of a "teacher prototype" but fall flat when trying to capture the true character of the teachers as described by Castaneda. She has the formula down pat, but has missed the spirit, which one could not capture without having met those wondrous beings.

I fully agree with the review number 1 for this book, and find it disappointing that some other review writers did not have a positive experience.

I have also read every single work by Carlos Castaneda, Florinda Donner-Grau and Taisha Abelar, and when all these writers bring in their piece of the puzzle a more and more multi-faceted picture of the teachings of don Juan emerges.

It is clear that Ms Tunneshende's experience with don Juan was very different from that of Castaneda or Donner-Grau, but to my understanding this book was never meant to be an extension of their experience but to let Ms Tunneshende describe her own. I have not read any articles etc by Ms Tunneshende, so perhaps I do not have the full picture, but the important thing is that the book is not about Carlos Castaneda or don Juan, but John Black Crow (who is the don Juan Ms Tunneshende knew).

Personally I thought that this book was fantastic and it gave me new insights and learning, and I would warmly recommend it to anybody interested in the path. I hope that Ms Tunneshende will write a continuation to this and I can't wait to read it. My heart goes out to her in the heavy work she has personally taken upon herself. However, this book does represent a different paradigm to the works of Castaneda and Donner-Grau (who I also appreciate very highly), and Tunneshende's work and role is different.

NB just for the record, my dreams also changed since starting to read it - interestingly they involved blood sacrifice before I got that far in the book (and I don't normally have this kind of thing in my dreams I am glad to say).

I've read this book three times now, and each read leaves me with new lessons learned and more awe. Merilyn's writing style and portrayal of John Black Crow (don Juan) and Chon Yakil (don Genaro) is very different from Carlos Castaneda's, but that's because she was a very different pupil from CC. Having a lot of natural energy and talent, Merilyn progresses quickly through her lessons, enabling John and Chon to involve her in deeply powerful and visionary dreaming practices.

I felt the author never really decided what she wanted to accomplish, what she wanted the reader to take away from her book. She swung between sharing personal information about her life and dreamlike accounts of her shamanistic experiences. Unfortunately, she did not provide sufficient context for either story line to be involving, compelling or credible. Castaneda fans who pick this up hoping for a similarly read will be disappointed.

The author Merilyn Tunneshende has, in interviews and scathing articles on the internet, and in magazines, professed to be a nagual woman and a member of Carlos Castaneda's world, a prospective nagual to the lost party of sorcerers from "The Eagle's Gift" & etc. who Castaneda was compelled to leave behind in Mexico. If so, there is no reference to anything of the sort in her book Medicine Dream. Many people are seriously interested in learning about the journey to freedom through the study of Castaneda's works and the works of some of his associates like Taisha Abelar.If you are one of these people you won't find a thing in Medicine Dream to light the way. However, it is interesting to learn a few things about the Mayan calander and the Maya in general, if what Tunneshende says about this has any basis in fact at all. Tunneshende's characters are bland, boring and vague. Her John Black Crow, supposedly Don Juan in disguise, bears no resemblance to Castaneda's benefactor. Chon, who Tunneshende claims in articles on the internet is Don Genaro, is weak and soppy, unlike the Don Genaro Castaneda readers know about. Tunneshende's dreams and dreaming descriptions are absolutely ridiculous and can only be the product of simple day dreams and mental meanderings from long train and bus rides around Mexico, with a standard university issue Mayan ethnography on her lap. Half of the book is written in italics-eerie and boring reconstructions of the Mayan past cloaked in the guise of a supposed past reality being lived again by Tunneshende. Disconnected and anachronistic figures like her portrayal of Kukulkan in the Mayan context appear as powerless fops pushed around by blood sacrificing idiots. Worse still, some of these bogus characters profess great love for Tunneshende's beauty, wisdom and energy which Tunneshende never has to prove or develop. It's a cry fest for new agers who want to play mental games over what happened hundreds of years ago to people who are long gone or never existed. It's a real shame how Tunneshende portrays the truly historical figures like Kukulkan, also know as Quetzalcoatl. Tunneshende, like Castaneda claims that her book is a product of intent and a sorcerers task. The energy from her dreaming and so on is supposed to have propelled her to write this book. I feel that the energy in Medicine Dream is droopy, scattered and superficial compared to Castaneda's books. After reading Medicine Dream I was left with the impression that Tunneshende has spent years seeking something out and has failed and now needs money to pay some bills and to justify whatever she has been doing with her life. I see her holding her book in one hand and a tin cup in the other, asking for alms in return. I wish I could get a refund for my copy of Medicine Dream.

Similar to several of the other reviewers, I have read all the works mentioned as well as Ken Eagle Feather and Victor Sanchez. This work is another piece of a very complex puzzle. It is simply not the story of Carlos nor the last piece of the puzzle for those looking (including me) for the A-B-C guide to becoming a Toltec. I am reading Merilyn's second book regarding sexuality now and will then move on to the Thune Mares series. I keep trying to remember that it's the path and how we walk it that matters. This is a good story.... read the intro and two pages at a bookstore. If you like what you read in that time, come back here and buy it. It is a good addition to my collection and I will read it again. Happy trails.