Customer Reviews

Tales of Power

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The Castaneda series has become one of the most controversial
in literary history, abetted by the fact that the author himself
swore to the truth of every fantastical event he described in their pages until his dying day. That Castaneda died an old,
frail man when the books promised an extraordinarily long and healthy life seemed to give lie to his words, but in fact this
does not take away from the philosophical beauty of works like
"Tales Of Power", which is my favorite of the six I have read
so far (there are ten in all).

The first book, "The Teachings Of Don Juan", is easily the
slightest--although it introduces the saga and provides the reader with some of the terminology, it is clear that Castaneda
had yet to grasp what was happening to him, and much of it is (as he later admits) a strange cross between far-fetched prose and overly-analytical text. "A Separate Reality" is a vast improvement, even as the stories get wilder and wilder; some readers have howled with laughter over tales of invisible 'allies' which guard the sorcerer, or of an astral
"yoke" which can give a man superhuman powers, but the imagery
is extraordinary and the philosophical lessons behind such
truly bizarre events are unique and important.

The third book, "Journey To Ixtlan", is the easiest to swallow for most people, since it concentrates on the self-help and ethical aspects of the teaching and keeps the wild stories to a bare minimum (as such, it is highly recommended). However, "Tales Of Power" picks up where "A Separate Reality" left off and ups the ante on both the crazy events (at one point Castaneda is teleported in time and space) and the overall
philosphical arc of the series, for it is in this volume that the all-important ideas of the 'tonal' and 'nagual' are introduced, discussed and exhibited. Although the concepts may sound like a souped-up version of Sartre-styled existentialism (anyone remember "Nausea"?) and Zen, there is nothing wrong with
this and, in fact, by presenting the ideas in these new terms
he makes them sound fresh and arguably easier to understand. His characterizations of Don Juan and Don Genaro are as meticulous as ever, and both men emerge in the book as spiritual
masters of a most peculiar order. Even if neither ever existed,
or if Casteneda made every word up out of thin air (and he didn't--researchers have verified his trips to Mexico on these
dates), it doesn't matter--the wisdom you will receive from these books is priceless.

If you could only choose to read one of Carlos' books, this has to be the one. For those who aren't familiar with the books, this is the sixth. The first three, expected by most readers at the time of publication to be a "trilogy", describe the first several years of Castaneda's apprenticeship to a native nagual, or shaman in Sonora and other parts of Mexico.

In the first volume Carlos describes the weird rituals and exercises that his teacher puts him through as he trains him in the ways of his line of sorcerers. It concludes with a quasi-scholarly analysis, really nothing more than an outline of the concepts of his teacher's world-view. This book focuses on the concept of living like a warrior and the book is structured as a question and answer sequence between student and teacher.

In the second book, whose time frame has a good deal of overlap with the first book, carlos' activites center around coming to believe that the world is an artifical construction of the human ego, a fantasy that we all choose to agree on. Don Juan batters Carlos with psychotropic drugs to break down his ego and force his consciousness over to the other side of awareness, beyond normal human perception.

The trilogy concludes with Carlos pursuing "stopping the world". This offering portrays the final challenge along the path to becoming a sorcerer. The apprentice will be faced with his own imminent death, and either stop the world, disassembling and reassembling "reality" in a way that ensures his survival, or accept death and enter the eternal realm. Obviously Carlos survives, as he wrote a book about it, and in the process spawned an immense controversy. What was all this bizarre stuff? Was it real? Was there a real Don Juan? A Don Genaro? The debate went on and still goes on, in a greatly diminished form, to this day.

The sixth book continues into the time after the cliff jump in book three, but it does a lot more than that. In this book, Don Juan explains to Carlos how it all works, why he was selected for this task, and what he's supposed to do from this point on. In typical thick-headed fashion, Carlos stumbles on, writing it all down, and seeming to still miss the real essential points that the teacher is making. What's good about this book is that it explains all of the goings on in the first three books, as well as how the sorcerers structure their view of reality. Very powerful stuff.

The remainder of Carlos' writings are very obscure, fastastical, and just downright strange, except for "The Active Side of Infinity", written towards the end of his life.

Don't get me wrong, I love CC, I've been reading him since 1971. I've read every book, multiple times, as well as his wife's book, and books by detractors and debunkers, and a great many articles and papers on him and his work. If you like it, read them all, it's great literature if nothing else. But if I could only have one. This is it.

Back in 1985 I read this book and was fascinated. Was it real or not?

I finally came to the conclusion that I didn't really care, the writing was extraordinary, magical in itself. Then last week (February 20, 2004) I woke up in the night during a dream. I soon found I was still dreaming. I woke up again, and figured I was again still dreaming. This has happened before and I go to great lengths to wake up, because it is terrifying. (You feel as if you will never 'really' wake up.)

This time I let the terror go, and went to use the bathroom, realizing I was dreaming. The bathroom door wasn't there, so I intended it to be there and it materialized. I was experiencing something I later discovered is called lucid dreaming. Why I hadn't come across this concept before is inexplicable, but I'd always considered Castaneda to be in some sort of waking state induced by Don Juan when he did his 'dreaming'. In retrospect, that oversight seems to be a defense mechanism my mind set up to protect me from the obvious fact that Carlos was asleep and doing lucid dreaming.

Now all of Castaneda's work, seen from the viewpoint of lucid dreaming, makes sense in a completely new way. Whether his entire episodes in Mexico are lucid dreams or whether he actually met a 'Don Juan' there who taught him how to enter lucid dreaming, there is no doubt in my mind that THIS is what he is talking about. His feelings of dread, his lapses of consciousness and being shaken awake by Don Juan, the feeling of being in two places at once, all fit with what I've experienced first hand in my false awakenings and my one (so far)lucid dream.

Was Castaneda a sincere communicator of his 'field' experiences or a cynical charlatan or both? I don't know. What I do know is that the reality of lucid dreaming, as I've experienced it, is congruent with his writings.

So I'm reading them all again ....

Contact me by email with your thoughts or experiences. big_bill_jeff@yahoo.com

I would rate all of Castaneda's books five stars because they are fascinating reading. But starting with this one and going forward, the similarities between the teachings and beliefs of Don Juan to all religions and "New Age" tenets are remarkable.

If you have ever read Jane Roberts "Seth" books, you will find striking parallels between what Seth tells us about life, death and the afterlife, and what Don Juan teaches. Don Juan's philosophy of "impeccability" embraces all the great religions' philosophies: live life as perfectly as you can each day, enjoying it, being kind and helpful to your fellow man, learning from it.

Did any of you read "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom, or see the TV movie? Morrie says death is a little bird sitting on your left shoulder, always ready to take you. Thus, live your life to its fullest each day, savoring every moment. What does Don Juan tell Carlos in each book? Death is always at your left shoulder ready to tap you.

And last but not least, this is only one reality which we perceive. Don Juan (and Seth, and countless others) tell us of a multitude of realities that we can tap into. Seth's whole preaching that our dreams are as real and as important as our waking life is Don Juan's teaching that dreaming gets you into a different reality.

Obviously, one needs to be at a receptive point that this type of information and philosophy is believable. Many people will find Castenada's writings rediculous, but many others can get tremendous benefits out of the teachings. After all, whether you embrace the Golden Rule, or live your life with "impeccability" what does it matter as long as you are doing good and loving all people?

This is the last of the Castenada books that I bothered reading, and I was thrilled with it. It documents the extraordinary conclusion of Castenada's apprenticeship with don Juan and as such, should have ended here. But like a blockbuster movie with interminable bad sequels, Castenada continued to crank out increasingly lousy permutations of the don Juan teachings theme that degenerated into obfuscation and just plain silliness. Lost was the focus and tautness of the earlier works. As Robert Graves once observed, the story of an ugly duckling who becomes a swan is far more interesting than the story of a swan, formerly an ugly duckling. Castenada should have stopped here, master of a path with heart bequeathed to him by the Yacqui old ones and a thousands-of-years old oral tradition. He chose instead to create a don Juan franchise with Tensegrity workshops and other such nonsense available at your local New Age emporium. Only Castenada diehards will want to read much beyond Tales Of Power. The books written after this shows a Carlos Castenada more in pursuit of a fat bank account then a Shaman's power and knowledge.

I think, it's the best book of Castaneda. The pages are full of philosophical concepts. Anyway, don't forget to read before it, the previous ones. You'll enjoy "Tales of Power" much more.

a visionary work filled with inspiration on almost every page. This is like Harry Potter for adults - simple, easily digested nuggets of magic to inspire your soul. Castaneda had the eternal heart of a child and was probably laughing all the way through to the other side.

This is an amazing book, by far the best of the entire series. The writing is beautiful, and the book grabs you into the story. If you are kind of iffy about Castaneda, read this book. Even if you don't believe the truth of what he is saying, you can't help but be affected by it's beauty

Mr. Perches asked a question about the order of Castaneda's books. I, too, have read them all several times. I think Mr. Perches' uncertainty stems from the difficulty Castaneda himself experienced with the chronology of his training. Because Castaneda's interaction with the sorceror's of Don Juan's party often occurred while Castaneda was in a state of heightened awareness, he had no recollection of the events when he returned to normal awareness. Later he was confronted with memories of events or people which he couldn't explain in terms of his everyday reality. Also, Castaneda's understanding of what he was doing obviously progresses throughout his works; some of the events and training he describes in his later works took place early in his apprenticeship, but he returns to them to reassess what has happened to him. If you look at his first book after reading his last one, you realize that at the time "The Teachings of Don Juan" was published, Castaneda apparently had little idea of the scope of what was happening to him.

I notice the the publishing date on this book is 1991 or sometime in the 90's. I remember reading Tales of Power sometime in the late 70's or early 80's. Since then I have read several more of his books and over the years I re-read this books over three to four times each. I find them facinating. I allways wonder if there is a chronological order in reading his books since they are about a subject that is been tought over period of many years. If there is one, which book should be read fisrt, second, third,... and so on. I would certainly appreciate a responce to my question.