Live data from Hacker News

The dark legacy of Carlos Castaneda (2007)

salon.com

61–63 of 63 posts

Re: The dark legacy of Carlos Castaneda (2007)

#61
post #45
post #34

At least his lucid dreams techniques are not that difficult to reproduce. I stopped them many years ago after I had strange experience of waking up for several times in a row. I woke up, went to a next room and, all of a sudden, I realised that it was still a dream. After short panic I woked up again only to repeat the story. And so on, actually I'm not sure if I've really woked up that day or I'm still in that dream…

That's such a profound experience! Do you have a reference for learning those techniques?

I think the classic book from Dr LaBerge [0] is quite good (although dated).

Lucid dreaming itself is a researched subject and there are a lot of material on that but the simplest techniques as keeping a dream journal (writing what you dreamt about each morning) so the mind recognizes that it's important to be aware of dreams and testing if you are dreaming. When you are reading this comment do you think you are dreaming? How do you know? Contrary to usual thinking dream world is quite different from "normal" world. For example you can block you nose and mount in a dream and not suffocate. Or turn on a light, in a dream it won't be as fast as in real world.

Usually sleeping during the day also triggers lucid dreams. One way or another it's a skill one can learn given some time and practice.

[0]: https://www.amazon.com/Exploring-World-Dreaming-Stephen-LaBe...

Re: The dark legacy of Carlos Castaneda (2007)

#62

I first heard of Castaneda 7 years ago when I was at university. I started with the first book "The Teachings of Don Juan" and proceeded with reading all his other works. I was fascinated not only with the story he was telling but more so, the practical wisdom he revealed. One of the techniques he revealed in his books for expanding your awareness as a human being was to consciously diffuse your gaze for long stretch…

If you thought the scientist A and scientist B discovering X at the same time phenomenon was neat you'll probably like Kevin Kelly's take on it ( https://www.amazon.com/What-Technology-Wants-Kevin-Kelly/dp/... ). More or less he claims that not only does that sort of pattern occur, but that that's the norm, and that all human advancement, biological, social, technical etc. is a part of evolution.

Thanks for that gem. Will add to my list

Re: The dark legacy of Carlos Castaneda (2007)

#63
post #44
post #12

Although the subject matter is captivating and the article well written, the whole thing left a bitter taste in my mouth. It really does seem to be the case that charismatic individuals can, as a rule of thumb, get away with almost anything at all. I do understand the need to escape the "tedium of life" as one of the witches put it but it's still highly irritating to see otherwise normal people be consumed by conmen.…

> It really does seem to be the case that charismatic individuals can, as a rule of thumb, get away with almost anything at all. I've come to believe that the ordinary state of human consciousness is actually a form of mild anhedonic depression. It makes sense for a species that evolved in a world that rarely changed when most activity consisted of slow and painstaking work like farming, making simple things, and hun…

Wow. I've never thought of it that way before
Post reply on HN