Manuel
Carballal is a respected Spanish researcher specializing in the
paranormal, and in an interview with Santiago Camacho, he recounted his
encounter with Carlos Castaneda.
Carballal:
I met Concha Labarta in very curious circumstances, it was at a
congress that had been held in Valencia on spiritism, where several
researchers attended to give talks, and talking with her the topic of
shamanism came up.
I
have always been very interested in shamanism because I was an avid
reader of Carlos Castaneda as a child, that is, long before I had the
good fortune to meet the Nagual personally, which is how we
reverentially referred to Castaneda, I had already read all his books
and several times.
I
became friends with Concha and we stayed in touch. She worked at the
magazine "Más Allá". Later I discovered that she was the one who led the
group of Carlos Castaneda's followers in Spain.
What
happened in 1994 is that one day Concha called me and said: "Look, next
Tuesday the Nagual will be in Spain and a very exclusive meeting will
be organized, but he has allowed me to invite some people."
And he invited Javier Sierra and me. Javier was his desk mate at the "Más Allá" newsroom.
I
immediately took the first bus I could to go to the offices of "Más
Allá", which was quite an epic journey because from Galicia, where I
live, I had to combine buses and trains until I finally arrived near
Majadahonda [which is a Spanish municipality belonging to the Community
of Madrid].
I
arrived at a venue very close to the "Más Allá" offices, in a
restaurant where they had rented the back area. There were approximately
50 of us in total.
Because
the mere fact of being able to see Carlos Castaneda in person was like
being offered the chance to attend a meeting where you could see your
greatest idol, the person you admire most in the world, and you would
finally have the opportunity to see them. In Castaneda's case, this was
something few had achieved because he remained very secretive; he didn't
allow himself to be photographed or recorded, and he gave few
interviews. So, that fact alone made you feel chosen.
And
that's part of that Machiavellian game of emotions that existed in the
whole world of Castanedaism, because simply having the chance to shake
his hand, to see him, to hear him in person, made you feel chosen. Many
would have done crazy things to meet Castaneda, so Javier and I were
blown away.
And
what happened was that Castaneda gave his talk but he was also
accompanied by several witches, among them Kylie Lundahl, a
six-foot-tall valkyrie, a spectacular woman, she was Castaneda's escort,
so to speak.
And
these witches (Taisha Abelar, Florinda Donner and Kylie) while people
were there listening to the Nagual, they passed among us as if they were
watching something; according to their belief system, they were
examining our energy egg.
Being
examined has always made me very nervous, but to put it simply, it's
like having your aura clairvoyantly observed. And their inspection was
intended to detect, through our energetic bodies, potential candidates
to become shamanic warriors.
I
can't speak for the others, I don't know what the others did, but when
the event ended I ran to the bathroom and started writing down
everything I could remember, because they didn't let us take notes or
record.
Then
I returned home, of course completely amazed, and after a couple of
days I received a call from Concha who told me: "The Nagual was talking
to the witches and they have said that they want you to join the
personal group in Spain, so that you can continue the path of the
warrior, they have seen your energy egg and the Nagual agrees."
And
that's how I entered Castaneda's world: through the front door. So
grand, in fact, that they did something to me I've never seen them do to
anyone else, and believe me, I've read everything published about
Castaneda, but in no other account, in no other testimony, have I found
that they did the same to anyone else as they did to me. Because people
were killing each other to get access to the most secret information
they possessed.
Santiago:
There's something you haven't mentioned but that I think is very
significant, and that is that after that talk that Javier and you
attended, there was a question period, and I think that your behavior at
that moment was what motivated them to choose you, and that later
Castaneda asked about you.
Carballal: Yes,
of course, imagine you're Christian and you can travel back in time and
attend Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. Imagine a Christian having the
opportunity to be face to face with Jesus Christ. Well, that's what
Castaña was like for us.
So imagine Jesus finishing his sermon and saying: Any questions?
Well, nobody dares to raise their hand and ask him.
And
that's what happened at that meeting, when the time came for questions
and Castaneda said if anyone had any questions, nobody raised their
hand, but since I'm a bit reckless, I raised my hand, and I remember
Concha glaring at me, a look that exclaimed "how dare you ask the Nagual
directly," which was like asking God.
And I also asked him a question that was completely outside his usual topic because I asked him about UFOs.
I
remembered that in one of his books, in the second book when he talks
about his trips to the Sonoran Desert with Don Juan Matus, he recounts a
couple of episodes in which he says they saw some strange lights in the
desert that chased them.
And
I remember that Castaneda didn't understand the question, so he was a
little taken aback, which was understandable since Castaneda had never
been asked about the UFO topic before, so I had to insist and insist
three or four times until he answered me.
And
I imagine that that audacity, that reckless act of daring to bother the
Nagual, was what truly motivated them to become interested in me, and
not my luminous egg, which I think is quite ordinary.
Then
my warrior training begins, and the first thing you have to do is find
your place of power, which is one of the practices that already appears
in Castaneda's first book, my magical place, let's say, and there I
carried out the recapitulation process that lasted several months.
Recapitulation
is an exercise I used to do every morning when I woke up in the middle
of the forest in A Coruña. The first thing I did on an empty stomach was
to relive every event of my life backwards, because according to
Castaneda's shamanic teachings, that's what allows you to disconnect
from those memories that can drain your energy.
And
once the recap was completed, what followed was what, from that year
onwards, began to be taught initially very secretly to very small
groups: 'the magic passes'.
At
that time it was very difficult to access that, but in my case it was
absolutely disconcerting because I didn't have to go and learn the magic
passes, but two of Castañeda's witches in Spain told me that they were
coming to my house for a week to teach them to me personally.
And
that was absolutely incredible because I haven't heard of anyone else
being offered the privilege of having them taught at home.
VIDEO
In this video you can listen to the transcript I put above starting at minute 41:55.
HIS DESCRIPTION OF CASTANEDA
In another broadcast, Carballal described Castaneda as follows:
« Castaneda commanded a lot of respect. He was very short: one meter
fifty-seven, he was of Latin American origin with a very dark skin, his
family called him César the black precisely because of the dark tone of
his skin, it's not that he was mulatto but he had a markedly Latin skin
tone.
He was very magnetic, very wiry, very muscular; you could tell he was a very athletic guy, very physically active.
He was an absolutely irresistible charmer, not only with women, but also with his stage presence. I remember him chatting nonstop, moving energetically all over the stage. »
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