BIOGRAPHY OF CARLOS CASTANEDA'S ADOPTED DAUGHTER: NURY ALEXANDER

HER EARLY YEARS

Her birth

Patricia Lee Partin was born on September 4, 1957 at 11:40 am at St. Luke's Hospital in Pasadena, California.

She is the daughter of Marion Lee ("Buck") Partin, 30, and Joyce Jeanette Jensen, also 30.

The family resided at this time in Azusa, about 20 miles east of Pasadena, in Los Angeles County. She was the fourth of five daughters in the Partin family.

Birth certificate

Her childhood

According to Patricia's former friends interviewed for episode 9 of the Trickster podcast, the Partin family, with six women in the house in La Verne, California, seemed like a very close-knit household with a strong female presence.

Patricia, or Patty, is described as very thin, with long, dark hair. She is said to have been "beautiful with an angelic face."

The mother was quiet, and so was Patty, "until you got to know her well."

The girls were very close to their father, who was outgoing and hardworking. He was considered the "pillar of the family" and spent most of his free time in the garage or working on the family caravan. They say he was always happy and full of life.

Patty was her father's favorite child. The family often went camping.

Family tragedy

In 1969, during a camping trip to Joshua Tree, the family gathered to watch Buck and a friend compete in a motorcycle race. The two collided, and Buck was thrown into the air. He survived, but suffered severe and permanent brain damage. He would spend the next 27 years in nursing homes, a shadow of his former self.

Patty's mother mourned for years. Patty, who was ultimately the only daughter to continue living with her mother after the others graduated, became increasingly isolated. She often declined invitations from her former playmates to go out to parties or the movies. When they did pass by, her friends recounted finding her answering the door wrapped in sweaters, a cup of tea in her hand, with no desire to go out with them.

Her studies

From September 1971 to May 1973, Patty attended Bonita High School in La Verne, California, where she enjoyed art classes but failed some subjects; most of her grades ranged between C and D.

She spent her time in an orchard area with other marginalized students. It was there that he discovered Castaneda's books. She also drank more and more, to the point of passing out, and used LSD (according to interviews on the Trickster podcast).

This photo was taken from Bonita's 1972 yearbook. Patty had already dropped out of school in 1973, before her junior year photo was taken.

From May 1973 to the spring of 1975, Patricia attended Chapparal Continuation High School in San Dimas. She did not graduate, earning 116 credits (190 were needed for graduation). Toward the end of her time there, she enrolled in a training program for a medical-legal secretary position.

According to interviews on the Trickster podcast, she sometimes dressed in vintage clothing with her friends and went downtown. She aspired to be an actress and identified with Greta Garbo. She also took advantage of her mother, stealing money from her purse, drinking her liquor, and taking her car.

HER INCORPORATION INTO THE WORLD OF CASTANEDA

Her relationship with Mark Silliphant

Sometime between late 1975 and 1976, Patricia left home for Hollywood. There she worked as a waitress at a Denny's restaurant.

sHe met Mark Silliphant, nephew of Hollywood writer and producer Stirling Silliphant.

Patty's mother commented that it was after meeting Silliphant that her daughter "started behaving very strangely"

On January 23, 1977, Patty married Mark Wood Silliphant in Las Vegas, Nevada.

On February 10, 1977, Patty and Mark separated after 19 days of marriage (according to the divorce petition).

On February 22, 1977, Mark filed for divorce from “Patricia Lee Silliphant” (Los Angeles Superior Court No. WED 31357).

On April 11, 1977, Mark filed a financial statement indicating that he was 30 years old and his profession was writer. Patricia Lee Silliphant was 19 years old and worked as a waitress.

In 1977, Patty visited her mother for the last time; her mother was then living in Anaheim. (Patricia would not have contact with her family of origin again until a brother-in-law located her through Cleargreen in 1996 or 1997 for a brief telephone conversation.)

On August 2, 1977, Mark applied to change his name to Richard Rollo Whittaker. He listed his address as 11603 Darlington Blvd., LA 90049 (the address where Patricia was presumed to be living when Mark filed for divorce). The application states that he was born on October 7, 1946, in Pasadena and lists his father, Leigh Arlington Silliphant, a resident of Hawaii, as his next of kin. The final order was filed on September 6, 1977. [WEC 49429]

Mark Silliphant is known to have been part of Castaneda's inner circle for a time in the 1970s, and is said to have introduced Castaneda to Carol Tiggs, with whom he had a romantic relationship in the late 1960s.

During thIS period he was also known as "Mark Austin," which is interesting, since Carol's legal name from November 1972 to May 1988 was "Elizabeth Austin."

Mark enrolled at UCLA to study Theater Arts in September 1972, but dropped out of college in March 1974 without obtaining a degree.

On June 30, 1978, the final judgment in Mark and Patricia's divorce was issued. Patricia's address was then listed as 11603 Darlington, Los Angeles 90049.

Her name change

On July 28, 1978, Patricia Silliphant applied for a name change to Nury Alexander. She indicated that her place of birth was Pasadena and her date of birth was September 4, 1957. She stated that her place of residence was 1376 ½ Midvale, Los Angeles, and that the reason for the change was:

“I am currently preparing for a career in show business. I am aware that it is very important to have a name that increases my chances of success. I believe that the name I have chosen, Nury [the typed word “Nuri” was handwritten to replace the “i” with a “y”] Alexander, has a fluidity that will help me in the profession I have chosen.”

She also claimed that her father had died and that she had no known relatives (both claims were false at that time). Los Angeles Superior Court No. WEC 54721. Decree of name change filed September 11, 1978.

[Note: On the same date, July 28, 1978, Beverly Evans (formerly Beverly Madge Ames) applied to change her name to Cecilia Evans. The petition indicated that she also resided at 1376 1/2 Midvale, Los Angeles. Her final judgment was also issued on September 11, 1978 (WEC 54720).]

Carol Tiggs also used this address when she applied for a second name change in October 1988, and Reni used it when she applied for a name change in 1989. Both Reni and Zaia Alexander, who applied for her name change in November 1992, also gave this address as that of "Nuri" Alexander in their applications, both claiming that Nuri was their "sister".

Her studies at UCLA

On November 3, 1982, Nury's high school transcripts were sent to the Admissions Office at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). (Presumably, by this time she had also taken and passed the California High School Proficiency Test.)

In the 1980s, at least two people who knew Nury and other members of Castaneda's group recall that Castaneda was paying for Nury's studies at UCLA and that she was enrolled for a time, at least, in the Business School.

UCLA does not provide information about Nury's attendance dates or the degrees she obtained, as she requested confidentiality regarding information related to her academic record.

The UMI Dissertation Service —which holds most doctoral theses and some master's theses from the country's universities— has no record of any master's or doctoral theses in the name of Nury or Nuri Alexander.

They claim that Nury is the daughter of Castaneda and Carol

Jacobo Grinberg was a famous Mexican scientist who became interested in shamanism; in 1991 he spent a week with Castaneda and his women in Los Angeles, and commented that there he was introduced to Nury as the daughter of Castaneda and his partner Carol Tiggs.

"Castaneda and his nagual wife had had a daughter, and she was the thin girl we had met on the first day."

Castaneda transforms Nury into a supernatural being

In 1993 Castaneda published the book "The Art of Dreaming" in which, among other things, he recounted his supposed encounter with an 'entity of consciousness' whom he called the 'Blue Scout', who was imprisoned in the world of inorganic beings and whom Castaneda saved, and this entity materialized in the physical world becoming a girl of flesh and blood (who turns out to be Nury).

From July 23 to 25, 1993, a tensegrity workshop was held at the Rim Institute in Arizona, and there Florinda Donner (one of Castaneda's witches) claimed that the Blue Scout was the daughter of Carol Tiggs.

From May 26 to 29, 1995, a tensegrity workshop was held at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York. Florinda reaffirmed that Carol had given birth to the Blue Scout, who was Nury Alexander.

Tensegrity instructor Nyei Murez, in the conference she gave on the 29th, affirmed the same thing, as she said: 

 

 “The Blue Scout is the daughter of Carol Tiggs. Carol Tiggs gave birth to her. Her energy has a bluish hue instead of the whitish one that most humans have. Castaneda found this agglomeration of bluish energy in the realm of inorganic beings.”

But as this biography demonstrates, all these claims are lies since Patty had other parents and she was not a special being but an ordinary person.

Castaneda formally adopts Nury

It was probably in 1995 that Castaneda began the process of formally adopting Nury as his daughter. This was despite the fact that Nury was 38 years old at this time, but California is one of the states that allows adult adoption, and the consent of the biological parents is not required.

Castaneda's then lawyer, Deborah Drooz (who later became executor of his estate and trustee of the Eagle Trust), commented in 1998 that she had handled that procedure for Castaneda "a few years earlier."

She jokingly recalled how the judge, upon seeing several women with very short hair and similarly dressed in the courtroom, abruptly asked her, "Debbie, what's going on here?" 

Nury's first appearance as a speaker at a workshop

From November 10 to 12, 1995, a workshop was held in the auditorium of Culver City High School in California. The topic was “Intersubjectivity.” The speakers were Castaneda, Carol, Florinda, Taisha, and Nury, in her first appearance as a workshop speaker.

The fantasy where Castaneda put Nury

Castaneda treated Nury as if she were a princess, giving her a luxurious life, trips to Disneyland and Las Vegas, organizing shows where she was the artist. Nury had several apartments and behaved like a capricious seven-year-old girl, playing with dolls and being rude to others.

But in sexual matters, Nury did behave like a woman, and apart from having sex with Castaneda, she was taking turns with her female lovers.

Nyei Murez was one of the tensegrity instructors, and for a time she occupied one of the nice apartments that Nury had available, where Nyei cooked organic meals and had tea in the garden with Nury.

Nury had briefly grown fond of her, but the woman who would eventually be known as Zaia Alexander soon took Nyei's place as Nury's favorite, becoming her lover and frequent companion. So Zaia kept the nice apartment next door to Nury's, while Nyei was relegated to an ugly one.

But in the spring of 1997, a young and attractive blonde from the Sunday group became Nury's new favorite and lover, replacing Zaia. And this blonde eventually adopted the name Halley Alexander van Oosten.

On May 28, 1997, Nury's father died without having had contact with his daughter for 20 years.

On June 8, 1997, a special performance of Theatre of Infinity was offered to the Sunday group. The performances included "Alien Invocation" (Nury, Zaia, and Halley).

On August 2, 1997, Zaia gave a talk at the Midnight Special bookstore on the Santa Monica waterfront with Nury, Florinda, Carol and other attendees (video recorded by Greg and Gaby).

On August 16, 1997, there was a 'witchcraft theater' rehearsal and party at the Pandora compound. Most of the Cleargreen members attended. Nury played several roles, including that of a helpless inorganic being worried about imaginary disasters likely to befall Taisha in "Globus and Phoebus Save the World" with Carol; "Space Pirates in Search of the Golden Butt" with Zaia and Halley; "The Burden of Decision-Making," a short dialogue between two self-absorbed roommates trying to get each other's party outfit advice, with Zaia; "Man's Best Friend," a skit about two hunters encountering a flyer, with Kylie; "The Appropriate Spirit," a rather lovely piece featuring a floating head and spirit mediums, apparently written by Nuri, with Erin and Darien; and "Love Among Insects," with Halley.

Some of the sketches were presented to the public on August 27 at a workshop held  at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Nuri appeared in  “Alien Invocation, or Ode to Air”, “Love Among Insects” which she performed with Halley, and “Space Pirates” in which she, Zaia and Halley played stereotypical homosexual male characters, with a taste for rather decorous and improbable sadomasochism.

(Cid's note: since Nury wanted to be an actress, Castaneda allowed the creation of these grotesque sketches to please his daughter-lover.)

Nury's last public appearance

On April 4, 1998, a workshop was held in the gymnasium of Santa Monica College, California. Florinda, Taisha, and Carol were present, and Nury and Halley led part of the 'Wheel of Time' series of passes.

This was the last time people saw Nury.

WHAT HAPPENED AFTER CASTANEDA'S DEATH

Castaneda died on April 27, 1998.

After that, Nury and four other personal disciples of Castaneda never reappeared. It is suspected that they committed suicide.

On May 2, 1998, a Death Valley park ranger found the car Nury used abandoned on the dirt road leading to the trail to the Panamint dunes.

On February 15, 2003, two hikers discovered bones scattered in the Panamint dune area.

In February 2006, those remains were positively identified as belonging to Nury using advanced DNA analysis techniques. 

(Note: this information was compiled by sustainedaction.org)