Lucid dreaming Castaneda style

Hi out there

Castaneda was fiction right? I've read and reread and obsessed over his books and been forever hung on the fact that the dreaming world is exactly as he describes it. I'm a Castaneda dreamer looking to connect my knowledge with others and continue stepping through the next dreaming gates. Has anyone actually solidly practiced his dreaming techs, because I have and it's mind blowing that he was right! One thing he taught me, in your lucid dream if you only look at your surroundings in short glances, always shifting your view, never staring and never trying to fly or do anything too dramatic, your dreams can last for hours. I have been in complete realms for days on end, places that always seem even more visceral and solid than waking reality.
Anyways, please ping me back if you use Castanedas methods and can share. I've met lots of people in my life who have had lucid dreams, but never once a dreamer that has, for instance, found (in their dream) the room where they are sleeping and found their dreaming body. Or touched the roof of their mouth with their tongue physically while dreaming and experienced the explosion of energy... I have
Write me back if you're out there doing the same

I forget the terminology but have you seen the eggs with their center where the fibers of the world cross? Have you seen the dream entities that will make you choose between your reality and theirs, the olden time wizards who sought too much? When visiting other realms days on end, do you at all attempt to integrate the societies that inhabit these realms, make friends, contribute to the workforce? Or do you simply explore, the ultimate goal of Castenada's wizard master?

I just remember the story was captivating, rarely do you read a story and listen carefully to all the teachings with the intention of practicing them actively at night. :)
The problem is I was probably very busy with school when I read it and had too little lucid dreaming success to truly practice.

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Originally Posted by Malahaoeste

Hi out there

Castaneda was fiction right?

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Who knows? The evidence 'for' is anecdotal (Castaneda's books; Abelar's book; Donner-Grau's book); the evidence 'against' falls down when one examines it thoroughly.

There are four main accusations of fiction:

1) That the (Scientologist) author Richard de Mille wrote that Castaneda was recorded as being in the UCLA library, when he wrote that he was in Sonora - the infamous "library stack requests" accusation. However, this is a fake story, as de Mille had never written anything of the sort and never did. This accusation was first published on 27.04.98., which happened to be the day of Castaneda's death, which wasn't made public until a little over 2 months later. So, whoever published that fake story probably had inside information of Castaneda's death. One can check this info by custom date-searching the phrase "library stack requests". Usage of this accusation continues to this day;

2) That Castaneda's arboreal and mycological information regarding Sonora, was erroneous: to wit - that mushrooms and trees that Castaneda described 'didn't grow in the desert'. This accusation was disproved in 1968, when the mushroom collector R. Gordon Wasson published a correspondence between himself and Castaneda. There is also a seminal work entitled 'Sonoran Desert Mushrooms' which contains a many and varied catalogue of mushrooms of the Sonora region. This latter info hasn't stopped the same accusations being repeated down the years, right up to the present day;

3) That Castaneda lied about his birthplace and origin. He wrote and also always said in interviews that he was born and raised in Brazil, as also described in several of his books. He spoke fluent portuguese with a Sao Paolo regional accent (Veja radio interview). His spanish was not that great - neither was his english. All of his works in english were translated into english by professional translators, from a mixture of portuguese, spanish and english. In the 1970s, Time magazine published a purported birth certificate from 'FBI Immigration records', which they said was Castaneda's 'real' birth certificate from Peru. The problems with that are that there's no such thing as 'FBI Immigration records', there are many other people with the same name (check the telephone directories) and also there is no way that the cited document couldn't be faked;

4) That all of the concepts, ideas and philosophies as presented by Castaneda are plagiarised from other sources. Detractors claim to be able to prove this, by citing similar ideas from other works. Some authors have made careers from this. The problem is that one could find correlations between every belief system that exists: this in itself proves nothing. It also doesn't explain such writings as 'The Rule of the Nagual', 'The Abstract Cores' nor 'Not-Doings' nor 'Stalking', to mention but four.

So.. my personal jury is 'out' on Castaneda.

What is apparent is that there is a small but vocal cohort of fanatic Castaneda detractors out there on the web, who visit connected sites and who post false and misleading information and verbal attacks on those who question their assertions. Don't be surprised if they show up here. They've certainly been here before.

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Originally Posted by Malahaoeste

..but never once a dreamer that has, for instance, found (in their dream) the room where they are sleeping and found their dreaming body. Or touched the roof of their mouth with their tongue physically while dreaming and experienced the explosion of energy..

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The 'glancing method' and the 'tongue trick' are good, as are the 'double fixation' and the 'pointing with little finger' techniques, too. One word of advice: don't 'touch' anything and don't let anything 'touch' you. Good luck.

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Originally Posted by Malahaoeste

Anyways, please ping me back if you use Castanedas methods and can share. I've met lots of people in my life who have had lucid dreams, but never once a dreamer that has, for instance, found (in their dream) the room where they are sleeping and found their dreaming body.

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Once I got up from bed and saw me sleeping - I got up and went out through the window, 7-th floor. I was about eleven. I haven't a slightest idea of Castaneda of course. That repeated three or four times (usually after sleep paralysis) then had gone. Two years ago my colledge professor showed me a trick with the palms of the hands. In four nights after that I saw my palms in my dream. And finally a year ago I read "Viagem a Ixtlan" - in Portuguese. Everything he wrote is true

Thank u so much to all of you for taking the time to reply so elaborately! I've been a bit obsessed with Castaneda since I learned to lucid dream from him when I was 15. And as crazy far out as his books get, all of his dreaming guidance is dead on. So I can't discount him.
When people in my life have told me they have had lucid dreams, in my experience they have been just describing regular dreaming. In truly lucid dreams reality is more real than this, except i can't read for shit. I hold the world together with my will and i move around through will and it does eminate from my stomach. I went through a long period, several years, when every time I realized the dream and started looking in glances at my surrounds, all of a sudden another me, a double of me, would consistently appear and attack me physically until I lost lucidity. Now I've learned to ignore that person, and not to touch or fight this person, who I think is my rational mind fighting against my will coming out.
In answer to occipitalred above, in long explorations of dream worlds that seemed to last for days, I have many many times tried to communicate with the people living there, but they react as zombies. As soon as I interupt whatever they were doing, the loose facial expression and personality. So not much society to discover so far.
So to repeat, I'm calling out to those that have experienced Castaneda's dreaming world. And have you stored energy for dreaming by undoing, by learning to stop your mind? I would love to hear from dreamers or anyone who can run in complete darkness. Anyone with a perfect tonal out there, hola privet u beau soir!!!!

I had a series of true LD a year ago. Every evening I was looking forward to the moment I fall asleep. If I had an opportunity I would stay there for good.
That all was triggered by an insomnia issue. I was sick and could't fall asleep for 42 hrs. Then I had a kind of sleep paralysis, which was followed by the package of 7-8 lucid dreams at a row. I could even roughly set the topic of every dream coming. and this repeated during the next two weeks. I bet I've never expirienced such euphoria and exaltation whenever in my life. Recently I tried to stimulate that mental condition by deliberate sleep deprivation, but it was of little help:blue:
The things you're telling about are even more striking. How do you usually achieve the proper mood for LDs I wonder? Have you some tricks?

Some epic threads for you to catch up on:

http://www.dreamviews.com/beyond-dre...eral-life.html

http://www.dreamviews.com/attaining-...-endeavor.html

One quick way to slow the mind is to stop breathing... three sets of holding your breath as long as you can will stop the brain from wasting oxygen and glucose on unnecessary thoughts. Another good breathing exercise: Kapalbhati, exhaling as hard and fast as you can - within a second, then inhaling by just relaxing the breathing muscles and letting the void from the forceful exhalation fill. Repeat at least 10 times - shouldn't take more than 30 seconds total, then look up for added effect. Might take a few rounds before you feel the power. Do not attempt while driving, operating machinery or standing!

Death is my adviser. And I benefit greatly from sorcery at work - knowing that I have a finite amount of energy and might not survive the trip to my next meeting gives me a major advantage over immortals that are too scared to think about their death and think they have the rest of their lives to get things done...