Carlos Castaneda wrote and published four books:
- "The Second Ring of Power" (1977)
- "The Eagle's Gift" (1981)
- "The Fire from Within" (1984)
- "Silent Knowledge" (1987)
Whose
plots revolve around his gradual recollection of things that Don Juan
and his sorcerers supposedly taught him in a heightened state of
consciousness, and also of the interactions he had with various members
of Don Juan's group.
For example, Castaneda in the book "The Eagle's Gift" acts as if he were only then remembering what he did with several of
the persons associated with Don Juan, such as the Fat Lady or Carol
Tiggs (the nagual woman).
«The
hazy memories I had of the Fat Lady, or the feeling of having lived in this house, in a way constituted threats to my survival, but all that was
nothing compared to the act of remembering the nagual woman. »
(Chapter 6)
But in his book "The Active Side of Infinity" (1998) Castaneda claims that he remembered everything he had been
taught and experienced in this heightened state of consciousness all at
once in 1973, when he was sitting in the Ship restaurant, after having
made his leap into the abyss.
« I had jumped into an abyss in Mexico! The next thought I had was a
quasi-logical deduction: since I had deliberately jumped into the abyss, I must now be a ghost.
"How
strange," I thought, "that I should return in ghostly form to my
apartment on the corner of Westwood and Wilshire in Los Angeles after
I'd died. No wonder my feelings weren't the same. But if I were a
ghost," I reasoned, "why would I have felt the rush of cool air on my
face or the ache in my calves?"
. . . .
My
relationship with my companions had been an example of both
consequences. I had companions, the other apprentices of Don Juan,
companions on my ultimate journey. I interacted with them only with
heightened awareness. The clarity and scope of our interaction were
supreme.
The
problem for me was that in my daily life, these were just vague,
poignant memories that plunged me into despair, filled with anxiety and
anticipation. I could say I lived my normal life constantly searching
for someone who was going to suddenly appear before me, perhaps stepping
out of an office building, perhaps turning a corner and bumping into
me.
Wherever
I went, my eyes moved incessantly all over the place, looking for
people who did not exist and yet existed like no one else.
As
I sat in Ship's restaurant this morning, everything that had happened
to me with greater awareness, down to the smallest detail, during all
the years I spent with Don Juan, returned as a continuous and
uninterrupted memory. »
(This is at the end of the book)
NOTE
This is yet another example of the numerous contradictions that Carlos Castaneda stated.
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