DANIEL TRUJILLO RIVAS INTERVIEW TO CARLOS CASTANEDA

Chilean journalist Daniel Trujillo Rivas interviewed Carlos Castaneda, not in person but by sending him written questions. His report and Castaneda's responses were published in the Argentine-Chilean magazine "Uno Mismo" in the February 1997 issue, number 86, pages 12-21. The transcript is provided below. You can download a PDF of the interview at this link. 

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INTRODUCTORY NOTE

From anthropologist to sorcerer: the metamorphosis of a rational man

Carlos Castaneda shocked the world in the early 1960s when he published his first book, "The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge." In this work, he recounted his experience as a sorcerer's apprentice under the guidance of an elderly Yaqui Indian from Sonora, Mexico, whom he had met while seeking information about the hallucinogenic peyote cactus for his anthropology thesis at the University of California.

From then on, Castaneda became a cult figure. Hundreds of people —it was the hippie era— flew to the Mexican desert in search of Don Juan, while thousands began to consider drugs as a way to expand their perceptions. This characteristic of the 1960s is a clear indication of the impact of Castaneda's books.

However, the hallucinogenic theme quickly faded in his work and became just one element among the intricate web of the world of the nahual Juan Matus, the knowledge of the Toltec seers. Castaneda's subsequent books presented a new worldview: the totality of the self through the warrior's path — being flawless, erasing personal history, using death as a counselor, and losing personal importance.

Throughout this process, Castaneda presented his work by sharing roles in his books with Don Juan and the other characters linked to his initiation. In this way, we can see how the serious and rational Western academic, who is the target of all kinds of mockery and criticism from the old Indian, abandons his mental frameworks and begins to expand his consciousness toward the unknown.

Beyond their pragmatic value, Castaneda's works possess undeniable literary quality. They are brimming with poetry, magic, and beauty. His nine books have far surpassed bestseller status and have been translated into every language on Earth. Don Juan is part of humanity's mystical heritage, and his disciple, a legend. 

Castaneda's companions, Taisha Abelar and Florinda Donner-Grau, have also recounted their experiences with Don Juan in the books "Where the Sorcerers Cross" and "Being in the Dreaming" respectively.

Carol Tiggs, in turn, is a co-protagonist in some of Castaneda's books in her role as the "Nagual Woman." She has not yet published anything herself. 

PREAMBLE

Suddenly thrust into public life, writer-anthropologist-sorcerer Carlos Castaneda and his companions Carol Tiggs, Florinda Donner-Grau, and Taisha Abelar seek to make the world of Don Juan accessible to everyone. From California, Castaneda answered questions from 'Uno Mismo' (Oneself).

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Encountering Carlos Castaneda is one of those situations where half of you wants to run away and the other half is petrified. His figure stands out, barely visible, amidst the gloom of mystery. After all, 30 years of legends and myths surround this unclassifiable writer.

Just as difficult, or even more so, than maintaining composure in such a supposed encounter with Castaneda is understanding the "world of Don Juan" through his books or those of his companions Taisha Abelar and Florinda Donner-Grau.

Having an interview with Carlos Castaneda is therefore an honor and, at the same time, a cognitive challenge, even though it was not done face to face.

After having starred in one of the most important publishing phenomena of the century, after revolutionizing ideas about the culture of pre-Columbian America, after disappearing for 30 years and returning to proclaim to the four winds the good news of his Indian master's world, Nagual Castaneda must face the fact that his readers still have the same questions as at the beginning: Who is Castaneda? Anthropologist? Gifted writer? Sorcerer's apprentice?

But new questions have also begun to arise, mainly among those who have sought in "nagualism" a practical guide for their lives: What do Don Juan's teachings contain? What is their pragmatic value?

Armed with this barrage of questions, I recently had the opportunity to approach the foothills of the mountain from whose summit one can glimpse the "world of Don Juan." The metaphor is apt, since to gain even a minimal understanding of all that nagualism encompasses, one would have to ascend unsuspected and perilous heights.

Castaneda was at the top of the summit and, without climbing very high or getting close, I sent him this message and he was kind enough to answer it.

THE INTERVIEW

Perhaps some who read this interview will be surprised. Most still believe that Castaneda lives in hiding or in other dimensions. I don't have the pleasure of knowing him personally, but I can assure you that he is as real, as flesh and blood, and as ordinary as anyone who has dedicated their life to spirituality. One would only have to do the same to get close to him.

Connecting with Castaneda wasn't easy. Considering that he's someone who erased his personal history and that even a non-witch writer hides from his fanatical followers, thinking about finding him was naive.

A friend of mine who lives in France, reads tarot cards, and makes films and comics [Alejandro Jodorowsky] was the one who showed me how to properly direct my search, not in the external world, but in the internal one. Then, as in all stories, I found that what I was pursuing had always been within my reach ("I spent so much time looking for you and couldn't find you!" my friend says).

Carlos Castaneda was kind enough to answer these questions. They are my questions, but I trust they will resonate with as many people as possible. Certainly, his answers will be useful nonetheless to those with sufficient personal power. I believe that everything one could possibly need to know is here, so I have omitted any unnecessary interpretations, explanations, or introductions.

Spirit and Anthropology

Mr. Castaneda, for years you remained completely anonymous. What prompted you to abandon that status and dedicate yourself today to publicly disseminating the teachings that you, along with your three current companions, received from the Nagual Don Juan Matus?

What compels us to disseminate the ideas of Don Juan Matus is the urgent need to show what he taught us. I and his three other students have unanimously concluded that the world Don Juan Matus presented to us is within the reach of the perceptive means of all human beings. 

We discussed among ourselves what the proper course of action would be. Should we remain anonymous, as Don Juan had suggested? This idea did not resonate with us. The other available path was to spread Don Juan's ideas: a path immensely more dangerous and exhausting, but the only one we believe possesses the dignity with which Don Juan imbued his teachings.

Given that you have said that the actions of a warrior are unpredictable, and indeed we have witnessed this for three decades, can we expect this public phase of yours to continue? Until when?

There is no way to establish a temporal criterion for us. We live according to the premises proposed by Don Juan and never deviate from them. Don Juan gave us the terrible example of a man who lived as he described: a monolithic man without two faces.

And I say it's a terrible example because it's the hardest thing to emulate; to be monolithic and at the same time have the flexibility to face whatever came, but that was Don Juan's way of life. 

Within these premises, the only thing one can be is an impeccable conduit. One is not the player in this cosmic chess game; one is merely a chess piece. The one who decides everything is an impersonal, conscious force that the sorcerers call the Intent or the Spirit.

 

As far as I can tell, orthodox anthropology undermines the credibility of his work, as do the self-proclaimed defenders of pre-Columbian cultural heritage in the Americas. The belief persists that his work is merely the product of a literary talent, albeit an exceptional one; while other sectors accuse him of double standards because, supposedly, his lifestyle and activities contradict what most people expect from a shaman. How can he dispel these suspicions?

The cognitive system of Western man forces us to operate through preconceived ideas. We base our judgments on something that is always "a priori," for example, the idea of ​​"orthodox." What is orthodox anthropology? Is it the kind taught in the classroom?

What is the behavior of shamans? Do they put feathers on their heads and dance for the spirits?

For thirty years, Carlos Castaneda has been accused of creating a literary character simply because what I reported didn't align with the anthropological "a priori," with the established ideas in the classroom or in the field of anthropological research. However, what Don Juan presented to me could only fit within a total field of action, and under such circumstances, very little or almost nothing of the preconceived notions actually occurs.

I've never been able to draw any conclusions about shamanism, because to do that you need to be an active member of the shamanic community. It's very easy for a social scientist, say a sociologist, to reach sociological conclusions about any topic related to the Western world. But how can an anthropologist, who spends at most two years studying other cultures, reach reliable conclusions about them?

To acquire membership in a cultural world requires a lifetime. I have been working for over thirty years in the cognitive world of the shamans of ancient Mexico, and frankly, I don't believe I have yet to acquire the membership that would allow me to reach conclusions, or even propose them.

I've discussed this with people from different disciplines, and they always seem to understand and agree with the premises I'm putting forward. But then they turn around, forget everything they agreed to, and continue to uphold "orthodox" academic principles, regardless of the possibility of an absurd error in their conclusions. Our cognitive system seems to be impenetrable.

What purpose does your refusal to be photographed, have your voice recorded, or have your biographical details made public? Could any of this affect, and if so, how, the achievements you have made in your spiritual work? Don't you think it would be helpful for some sincere seekers of truth to know who you really are, as a way of verifying that it is indeed possible to follow the path you advocate?

Regarding photographs and personal information, Don Juan Matus's three other disciples and I followed his instructions. The main idea behind refraining from giving personal information is very simple for a shaman like Don Juan. It is essential to set aside what he called personal history.

Stepping away from the self is quite cumbersome and difficult. What shamans like Don Juan seek is a state of flow where the personal self doesn't matter. He believed that this fact undeniably affects those who enter that realm, and it affects them in a positive, albeit subliminal, way, since we are so accustomed to photographs, recordings, biographical data, all of which are born from the idea of ​​personal importance.

He said that it is better not to know anything about a shaman; that way, instead of a person, one encounters a sustainable idea, the opposite of what happens in the everyday world, where we only find people with psychological problems and no ideas, and all of them filled to the brim with "me, me, me". 

Advertising and literary work

How should your followers understand the existence of an entire commercial and advertising apparatus—separate from your literary work—surrounding the knowledge that you and your colleagues disseminate? What is your actual relationship with Cleargreen Incorporated and other companies (Laugan Productions, Toltec Artists)? I'm referring to commercial ties.

At this stage of my work, I needed someone who could represent me in disseminating Don Juan Matus's ideas. Cleargreen is a corporation that has a great affinity with our work, as do Laugan Productions and Toltec Artists.

The idea of ​​disseminating Don Juan's teachings to a modern world like ours requires the use of commercial and artistic means that are beyond my individual resources. As corporations aligned with Don Juan's ideals, Cleargreen Incorporated, Laugan Productions, and Toltec Artists are able to provide me with the means to disseminate what I wish to share.

The aim of impersonal corporations is always to dominate and transform everything that comes their way and adapt it to their own ideology. Were it not for the genuine interest of Cleargreen, Laugan Productions, and Toltec Artists, everything Don Juan said would have already been transformed into something else. 

(Cid's note: the high prices Castaneda charged for his workshops and videos show that his goal was not to disseminate knowledge but to profit from these ventures.)

There are countless individuals who, in one way or another, have tried to capitalize on your influence to gain public notoriety. What is your opinion of Víctor Sánchez, who has interpreted and rearranged your teachings to develop a personal theory? Or of the claims of Ken Eagle Feather, who asserts that he was chosen as a disciple by Don Juan himself, who returned to this dimension solely for that purpose?

Indeed, there are a number of people who call themselves my students or students of Don Juan himself, whom I have never met and whom I can assure you Don Juan never met.

Don Juan Matus was exclusively interested in perpetuating his lineage of shamans. He had four disciples who remain to this day [Castaneda, Carol, Taisha, and Florinda].

He had others who left with him. Don Juan wasn't interested in teaching his knowledge; he did so with his disciples so they could continue his lineage. And since his disciples [Castaneda, Carol, Taisha, and Florinda] cannot continue Don Juan's lineage, they have been forced to spread his ideas.

The concept of a teacher imparting knowledge is part of our cognitive system, but it wasn't part of the cognitive system of the shamans of ancient Mexico. For them, teaching was absurd. Transmitting their knowledge to those who would perpetuate the lineage was a different matter altogether.

The fact that there are a number of individuals determined to use my name or that of Don Juan is simply an easy maneuver to benefit without much work.

Let us consider the meaning of the word "spirituality" as a state of consciousness in which human beings are fully capable of controlling the potential of the species, an achievement obtained by transcending the mere condition of animals through arduous psychic, moral, and intellectual conditioning. Do you agree with this statement? How does the world of Don Juan fit into this context?

For Don Juan Matus, as a pragmatic and level-headed shaman, "spirituality" was an empty idea, an unfounded assertion that seems very beautiful to us because it is embedded in literary concepts and poetic expressions, but it doesn't go beyond that.

Shamans like Don Juan are essentially practical. For them, there is only a predatory universe where intelligence or self-awareness is the product of life-or-death challenges. He considered himself a navigator of the Infinite and said that to navigate the unknown, as a shaman does, one needs boundless pragmatism, immeasurable sanity, and nerves of steel.

In view of all this, Don Juan believed that "spirituality" is simply a description of something impossible to achieve under the patterns of the everyday world and not a living way of acting.

(Cid's note: This shows me Don Juan's limitations, since the great masters indicate that true spirituality is a vast field, but one needs to have developed one's spiritual faculties to access it, while Don Juan was only a nagual who could only explore the astral plane.)

You have indicated that your literary activity is due to instructions from Don Juan, as is the case with Taisha Abelar and Florinda Donner-Grau. What are the objectives of this?

The purpose of writing the books was given by Don Juan. He asserted that if one is not a writer one can still write, but writing transforms from a literary act into a shamanistic one.

The one who decides the theme and development of a book is not the writer's mind, but a force that shamans consider the foundation of the universe and call "the Intent." And it is the Intent that determines a shaman's output, whether literary or otherwise.

(Cid's note: Castaneda, Florinda, and Taisha's books are full of falsehoods; it was not the Intent that drove them to write them, but the desire for profit.)

According to Don Juan, a practitioner of shamanism has the duty, the obligation, to saturate themselves with all available information. The work of a shaman is to become fully informed about everything possible related to their topic of interest.

The shamanic act consists of abandoning all interest in directing the course that such information takes. The one who arranges the ideas that arise from such a source of information is not the shaman—Don Juan said—it is the Intent. The shaman is simply an impeccable conduit. For Don Juan, writing was a shamanic challenge, not a literary task.

Do you have any immediate plans in that direction, other books, for example?

There are several books currently in production. Cleargreen Corporation, as a publisher, is about to release a book on Tensegrity and another on Inner Silence. Taisha Abelar, Florinda Donner-Grau, and Carol Tiggs also have projects nearing completion.

Compare and check

If I may make the following statement, your work presents concepts closely related to Eastern philosophical doctrines, but it contradicts what is known about indigenous Mexican culture. Where do the similarities and differences lie between the two?

I haven't the slightest idea. I'm not an expert in either. My work is a phenomenological report of a cognitive world into which Don Juan Matus introduced me.

From the perspective of phenomenology as a philosophical method, it is not possible to arrive at assertions related to the phenomenon under scrutiny. Don Juan's world is so vast, mysterious, and contradictory that it does not lend itself to a linear exposition; at most, it can be described, and even then, only with a supreme effort.

Assuming that Don Juan's teachings have become part of occult literature, what is your opinion of other teachings from this group, such as Masonic and Rosicrucian philosophies, Hermeticism, and disciplines like Kabbalah, Tarot, and astrology, in comparison to nagualism? Have you ever had or do you currently have contact with any of these traditions or their practitioners?

Again, I haven't the slightest idea what the premises, viewpoints, or topics of such disciplines are. Don Juan presented us with the problem of navigating the unknown, and this takes all the effort we can muster.

Do some of the concepts in your work, such as the assemblage point, the energy emanations that compose the universe, the world of inorganic beings, intent, stalking, and dreaming, have a counterpart in Western knowledge? For example, some see man as a luminous egg, an expression of the aura...

No, nothing that Don Juan taught us seems to have a counterpart in Western knowledge, as far as I know.

(Cid's note: there are several similarities with Western and Eastern esoteric knowledge.)

 

Once, when Don Juan was still around, I spent an entire year searching for gurus, teachers, sages who could give me some insight into what I was doing. I wanted to know if there was anything in the world at that time that was similar to what Don Juan said and did.

My resources were very limited and only led me to meet established teachers, who had thousands of followers, and unfortunately, I couldn't find any similarity.

Focusing now specifically on his work, his readers encounter different Carlos Castanedas.

First, a somewhat inept Western academic permanently bewildered by the power of Indian elders like Don Juan and Don Genaro (mainly in The Teachings of Don Juan, A Separate Reality, Journey to Ixtlan, Tales of Power and The Second Ring of Power).

Then with a seasoned shaman apprentice (in The Eagle's Gift, The Inner Fire, Silent Knowledge and especially in The Art of Dreaming).

If you agree with this assessment, when and how did one disappear to make way for the other?

I consider myself neither a shaman, nor a teacher, nor an accomplished student of shamanism, nor do I consider myself an anthropologist or social scientist of the Western world. My presentations have all been descriptions of a phenomenon impossible to discern under the conditions of linear Western knowledge. I was never able to give Don Juan a cause-and-effect explanation for what he taught me, nor the possibility of predicting what he was going to say or what was going to happen.

Under these conditions, the transition from one state to another is subjective and not something elaborate or the product of premeditation or wisdom.

In your work, one can find episodes that are frankly unbelievable from a Western perspective. How could someone uninitiated verify the truth of these "separate realities" given your assertion that they are real?

This can be verified in a very simple way: by lending one's whole body instead of just the intellect. One cannot enter Don Juan's world intellectually, like a dilettante seeking fleeting, quick knowledge, nor can anything be proven within it. The only thing one can do is reach a heightened state of consciousness that allows us to perceive the world around us in a broader way.

In other words, the goal of Don Juan's shamanism was to break free from the parameters of historical and everyday perception and enter into the realm of the unknown. Hence, he called himself a navigator of the infinite. He maintained that beyond the parameters of daily perception lies infinity.

Achieving that was the directive of his life, and since he was an extraordinary shaman, he instilled it in the four of us [Castaneda, Carol, Taisha, and Florinda] just as he wished. He forced us to transcend the intellect and embody the concept of breaking the parameters of historical perception.

Energy perception

You maintain that the basic characteristic of human beings is their condition as "energy perceivers." You point to the assemblage point movement as imperative for directly perceiving energy. What use can this be to a 21st-century person? How does achieving this goal contribute to spiritual advancement, as previously defined?

Shamans like Don Juan maintain that all human beings possess the ability to perceive energy directly as it flows in the universe. They consider the assemblage point, as they call it, to be a point that exists within the total energy field of humankind.

In other words, when a shaman perceives a man as energy flowing in the universe, he "sees" a luminous ball. Within that luminous ball, the shaman can "see" a point of great brightness located at the level of the shoulder blades and about a meter behind them.

Shamans maintain that this is where perception takes place, that the energy flowing in the universe is transformed there into sensory data, and that this sensory data is then interpreted to result in the world of everyday life.

Shamans maintain that we are taught to interpret, therefore we are taught to perceive.

The pragmatic value of perceiving energy directly as it flows in the universe is the same for 21st-century man as it was for man in the 1st century. It allows him to expand the limits of his perception and utilize that expansion within his environment. Don Juan said it would be extraordinary to "see" directly the wonder of the order and chaos of the universe.

Besides her three companions, those attending her seminars have met another group of people, such as the Chacmols, the Energy Trackers, the Elements, the Blue Explorer... Who are they? Is this a new group of seers led by her? If so, how could someone join this group of apprentices?

Each of those people you're asking about are specific individuals whom Don Juan Matus, as the head of his lineage, instructed us to await. He predicted the arrival of each of them as an integral part of a vision.

(Cid's note: that's false and in reality Castaneda invented those roles for the closest members of his group.)

Since the lineage could not continue due to the unique energetic configurations of its four students [Castaneda, Carol, Taisha, and Florinda], their mission shifted from perpetuating their lineage to closing it, if possible, with a flourish.

We are not in a position to change that directive. We cannot seek out or accept apprentices or current members of Don Juan's new vision. The only thing we can do is abide by the decisions of the Intent.

The fact that the magical passes, so carefully guarded by so many generations, are being taught shows that it is possible to become part of this new vision indirectly, through the practice of Tensegrity and the observation of the premises of the warrior's path.

You and your colleagues have focused the public dissemination of your teachings in parts of the United States, primarily California, and in Mexico. Will other countries in the Americas be able to access them directly from you? What are the chances that you will accept the invitations you have received from Latin America, specifically from Chile, to offer seminars in these regions?

We are currently in a crucial position to expand the scope of our seminars to include other Latin American countries. Cleargreen Corporation's plans for 1997 include extensive tours throughout Latin America.

In ' Readers of Infinity ' you used the term "navigation" to define what sorcerers do. Are you ready to hoist sails and weigh anchor to begin the ultimate journey? Will the lineage of Toltec warriors, custodians of this knowledge, end with you?

Yes, indeed, Don Juan's lineage will wipe us out.

Does the warrior's path include the spiritual work of the couple, as found in other approaches?

The warrior's path encompasses everything and everyone. There can be an entire family of flawless warriors. The difficulty lies in the terrible fact that individual relationships are based on emotional investments, which crumble the moment the practitioner actually puts what they learn into practice. Typically, in the everyday world, these emotional investments are never reviewed, and we live our entire lives waiting for them to be reciprocated.

Don Juan said that my way of living and feeling was described in a very simple way: "I only give what I am given," and that I was a hardened investor.

We're all going to die

If someone wanted to undertake spiritual work based on the knowledge disseminated in his books, what prospects for progress could they expect? What recommendations would you offer to those who wish to put Don Juan's teachings into practice on their own?

There is no way to limit what one can achieve individually if the attempt is impeccable. Don Juan's teachings are not spiritual, I repeat, since this point has been raised repeatedly. The idea of ​​spirituality does not fit with the warrior's iron discipline. What matters most to a shaman like Don Juan is the idea of ​​pragmatism.

When I met Don Juan, I considered myself a practical man, a social scientist full of objectivity and pragmatism. He shattered my illusions and made me see that, as a true Western man, I was neither pragmatic nor spiritual. I came to understand that I simply repeated the word "spirituality" to contrast it with the mercenary nature of everyday life's commercialism; I called that very striving spirituality.

When Don Juan demanded that I come to a conclusion, to a definition of what I considered spiritual, I realized that he was right. I didn't know what he was talking about.

It sounds a bit presumptuous to say what I'm saying, but there's no other way to put it. What a shaman like Don Juan wants is the expansion of the consciousness of being, that is, the ability to perceive with all the human capacity for perception, which implies a monumental effort and a boundless purpose—things that cannot be provided by spirituality in the Western world.

Is there anything you would like to explain to us South Americans? Would you like to present any other points besides those already made?

I have nothing more to add. All human beings are on the same level. At the beginning of my apprenticeship with Don Juan Matus, he tried to make me see the commonality of man's situation. I, as a South American, was very intellectually involved with the idea of ​​social reform. One day I posed to him the question that I believed was crucial. I said to him:

"How is it possible, Don Juan, that you remain unmoved by the appalling situation of your fellow countrymen, the Yaqui Indians of Sonora?"

I knew that a percentage of the Yaqui population suffered from tuberculosis and that there was no remedy due to their economic condition.

"Yes," Don Juan told me, "it's a very sad thing, but imagine how sad your situation is too, and if you think you're in better conditions than the Yaqui Indians, you're mistaken. The human condition in general is one of appalling chaos. No one is better off than anyone else; we are all beings who are going to die, and unless we fully grasp this situation, there is no remedy for us."

 

This is another aspect of the shamans' pragmatism: the realization that we are beings who will die. And they say that in doing so, everything acquires a transcendental measure and order.

(Cid's note: this last point is one of Don Juan's valuable lessons.)

THE TENSEGRITY OF CARLOS CASTANEDA

Today, Carlos Castaneda and his companions' main concern is the dissemination of a discipline of physical exercises they call "Tensegrity." Their seminars dedicate several hours to teaching these movements, and there are also videocassettes available for individual learning.

Vol. I: Twelve basic movements to gather energy and promote well-being.

Vol. 2: Redistributing Scattered Energy.

Vol. 3: Energetically crossing from one phylum to another.

We also asked Castaneda about this:

You recently introduced a physical exercise discipline called Tensegrity. Can you explain what it is? What is its purpose? And what benefits can someone who practices it individually find in it?

According to what Don Juan Matus taught us, the shamans who lived in ancient Mexico discovered a series of movements, performed with the body, that led them to a state of physical and mental development of such magnitude that they decided to call such movements 'magical passes'.

Don Juan told us that through their magical passes, these shamans acquired an increased level of consciousness that led them to perform indescribable feats of perception.

 

The magical passes were taught through generations only to shamanic practitioners, amidst tremendous secrecy and complex rituals. This is how they were taught to Don Juan Matus, and this is how he taught them to his four disciples [Castaneda, Carol, Taisha, and Florinda].

Our effort has been to extend the teaching of these magical passes to anyone who wants to learn them. We have called them Tensegrity and have transformed them from movements entirely personal and unique to each of Don Juan's four disciples into generic movements applicable to anyone.

The practice of Tensegrity, whether individually or collectively, promotes health, vigor, youth, and overall well-being. Don Juan said that the practice of magical passes helps accumulate the energy necessary to increase consciousness and expand the parameters of perception.

Tensegrity is a word used in architecture, which means: "The property of frames that employ continuous tension members and discontinuous compression members, such that each member operates with maximum efficiency and economy."

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Castaneda says that this is a highly appropriate word to designate his physical discipline, since it mixes the terms "tension" and "integrity," expressions that denote the two driving forces of magical passes.

Carlos Castaneda's Tensegrity videocassettes can be purchased directly from Cleargreen Inc. via the Internet (http://www.web.com/castaneda) or soon in Chile through their authorized distributors.

MY OPINION OF THIS INTERVIEW

This must have been the last interview Carlos Castaneda gave, as he fell ill and died a year later in April 1998. I didn't like this interview because Carlos Castaneda repeated his usual verbosity and didn't say anything he hadn't said before; moreover, his great disdain for spirituality shows the limitations of his discernment.