CAROL TIGGS' FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH DON JUAN

There are three versions of how Carol Tiggs met the naHual Don Juan Matus.

THE FIRST VERSION

This version was given by Carlos Castaneda in his book "The Eagle's Gift" (1981).

« Almost immediately after meeting me, Don Juan encountered a 'double woman' [Carol Tiggs]. 

. . .

Don Juan told me that one day, when he lived in Arizona, he went to a government office to fill out an application. The woman at the counter told him to take the application to an employee in the next section, and without looking at him, the woman pointed to her left.

Don Juan followed the direction of her outstretched arm and saw a 'double woman' sitting at a desk. When he handed her his application, he realized she was just a young girl. She told him she had nothing to do with such applications, but taking pity on the poor old indigenous man, she took the time to help him process. »

(Chapter 11)

Observations

A "double man" or "double woman" is what Don Juan called people who possessed a "double" energy structure that allowed them to become naguals; Carlos Castaneda and Carol Tiggs had that structure.

In this account, Don Juan states that almost immediately after meeting Carlos Castaneda, Don Juan also met Carol Tiggs, who at that time worked in a government office in Arizona.

Castaneda claimed that he met Don Juan in the summer of 1960.

It was later discovered that Carol Tiggs was born on November 24, 1947, which means she was twelve years old in the summer of 1960. But it's absurd that a twelve-year-old would work in a government office!

Furthermore, when Carol Tiggs' life is investigated, it is discovered that she never lived in Arizona, but rather resided her entire life in California, so Castaneda's story is a lie.

THE SECOND VERSION

At a workshop held in Longmont, Colorado, in 1995, Carol Tiggs told the attendees a completely different story about how she met Don Juan Matus.

« Carol said her first encounter with Castaneda and Don Juan was when she was 19. She said she had been in Mexico City studying art history. She described herself as a spoiled girl who spoke with a pronounced lisp that she believed made her endearing.

One night, while she was walking alone through Alameda Park, she noticed an old man and a short, stocky young man staring at her from nearby. They seemed like "rough Mexicans" to her.

She started walking quickly to get away from them, but they kept coming closer. The young man got very close to her and heard the old man say:

     "Don't let her get away. Grab her leg if you can."

The young man didn't know what to do. He asked Carol:

-       "Are you American? What's your name? How old are you? Do you have a boyfriend?"

Carol was truly terrified at that moment and threatened to scream for the police when the old man let out a tremendous burp. She froze and replied:

     "My name is Carol Tiggs, I'm 19 years old and I don't have a boyfriend."

The young man (Carlos) "was horrified by my lisp," she said. She told them where she was staying, and they visited her while she was in Mexico. By the time she returned home, "a fog had enveloped the memory of those two men," Carol remarked.

Upon her return, she told her parents about her vague memories of being approached by two Mexicans and her inability to remember what happened afterward. Her parents thought she had been drugged and abused. They sent her to a psychiatrist, and she continued her life as an art history student at university. »

Observations

Carol's mother told a friend that her daughter did attend a summer course at a private university in Mexico City in 1967, when Carol was 19 years old.

I haven't found a document that proves this assertion, but this story is more plausible, although I think that rather than the absurdity of the first story, Carol chose to invent this second version because it is more believable, but that in reality she did not meet either Don Juan or Casataneda during her stay in Mexico City.

THE THIRD VERSION

In September 2015, after 17 years without appearing in public, Carol participated in a workshop in Sochi, Russia, where she told a different story. She recounted that her first encounter with Don Juan did occur in Mexico City, but during a visit to the Museum of Art, not in the centar garden Alameda.

« Carol commented that she was drawn to a painting depicting a caterpillar transformed into a butterfly.

An older gentleman appeared behind her and asked Carol what she thought of the painting. She was an art student and began to repeat what she had learned from her textbooks.

The old man seemed interested in her every word, and she felt like the smartest person in the world. The conversation progressed, and she asked her admirer if the painting was about life and death.

The old man was lost in thought, his eyes half-closed, he seemed contemplative, he rocked back and forth, muttered something unintelligible, clicked his lips, opened his eyes again and asked:

   "Excuse me... what was the question?"

She thought the old man was charming and posed no threat, so she repeated the question, and he seemed interested, suggesting that since he was tired, perhaps they could sit down in a nearby cafe to continue the conversation. 

He begged her a couple more times and they finally went. They ordered two sodas and talked about how Carol had come to Mexico; Carol shared much of her personal story. 

Carol realized that Juan Matus knew something more about life and death from the painting of the caterpillar. 

Don Juan brought the straw to his lips, covered his ears with his thumbs, and then blew through the fingers of both hands, making a buzzing sound. He told Carol to do the same until she felt the vibration throughout her body.

Once this was over, Don Juan asked Carol:

    "Tell me now what you think of that painting."

Carol was speechless, and all the knowledge she had acquired from the books she had shown moments before was useless; she only felt vibrations. She looked at Don Juan, whose eyes shone brighter than ever. They both burst into laughter, and Don Juan Matus said to her:

    "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

»

Observations

In Sochi, Carol taught everyone the straw technique, which was supposedly the first body energy technique she had learned from Don Juan Matus.

But in reality, she had just learned this technique as part of her training in Heather Lyle Vocal Yoga, for which she received her instructor certification on August 15, 2015 (a few days before the Sochi workshop).

Here you can see the group photo of the students, Carol is the woman in the back row with the black t-shirt.

Clearly Carol invented this story about her first encounter with Don Juan to make the people who attended the Sochi workshop believe that the straw technique was an ancient ancestral witchcraft technique, which is not true, and this shows that Carol became as much of a liar as Castaneda.

CONCLUSION

Knowing how much of a liar Carlos Castaneda was, how unethical Carol Tiggs became, and how incompetent she is in shamanic matters, it is most likely that she never met the nagual Don Juan Matus.