Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!pacbell!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!bloom-beacon!pur-ee.UUCP!mendozag From: mendozag@pur-ee.UUCP (Grado) Newsgroups: comp.ai.digest Subject: Re: Carlos Castaneda Message-ID: <19880724055730.5.NICK@HOWARD-JOHNSONS.LCS.MIT.EDU> Date: 24 Jul 88 05:57:00 GMT Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 45 Approved: ailist@ai.ai.mit.edu To: comp-ai-digest@uunet.UU.NET Path: pur-ee!mendozag From: Grado Newsgroups: comp.ai.digest Subject: Re: Carlos Castaneda Date: Mon, 18 Jul 88 19:07 EDT References: <19880718041814.6.NICK@HOWARD-JOHNSONS.LCS.MIT.EDU> Reply-To: Victor M Grado Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network Lines: 34 >In a previous article, James J. Lippard writes: >> >>And then Jeff Hartung adds: >I noticed that the most recent Casteneda book in the series, "The Fire From >Within," was published as a work of fiction, unlike the previous six books. I >took this to be a confession that the works were largely fictitous even prior >to it. Furthermore, the later books state that what Casteneda believed to be >a Yaqui philosophy initially was in fact a view belonging to a small cult of >"sorcerers" and not to the Yaqui in general, even if you *do* believe the >assertion that the first six books make of being non-fiction. I think that the last book is "The Power of Silence" (which I have not read). Anyway, thanks to Mr. Lippard for posting the controversy references. Having grown up in the Valley Yaqui and heard many sorcery stories, I always took the Castan~eda's books with a grain of salt. It was not until I read a Stanford CS Memo by Avron Barr (1977, MetaCognition or some such), giving as reference "Tales of Power", that I tried to go back to those books. Although my views about these books were always the ones reflected in the last sentence Jeff wrote above, I found "The Teachings of Don Juan" to be very believable (I need to read the posted references). On the other hand, the fact that the last books are published as fiction (although in "The Fire From Within" Foreword Castaneda asserts that he "had no other choice but to render his teachings [Don Juan's] in the form of a narrative, a narrative of what happened, as it happened.") does not imply a confession that the previous books were fiction (although it could be fraud). Castaneda is a prolific writer but he might be using a Sly Stallone tactic to keep his income secure. Maybe next time I go back to the Yaqui Valley I go look for a sorcerer teacher :-). At least I will finish reading those books and the references. Victor M. Grado