Carlos Castaneda’s Don Juan’s Teachings

M: Wow! Much to offer, here, and perhaps not in the sequence that you might imagine. Here goes …, and hang on.

R: I’m struck with the imperative to proper action. But are you saying then, as don Juan said and I really just assigned to the “Tales of Power” department, that 99.99999% (one in ten million I’m guessing to be liberal) of us are just “consumed by the Eagle” and that’s it!!? I don’t know why, but I’ve, and I’m just noticing this, always assumed that “my” consciousness, whatever that is, would always be. Not that I would know a damn thing about it … and I have compiled CC’s books, but I guess I just didn’t really take the imperative to heart before as, for one thing, I guess I, before you, had started to stop believing it all true. (please read next paragraph before commenting)

M: I’ve already read through the whole E-mail, and came to the conclusion that this indeed is an appropriate place to insert discussion. Please try to flow with this thought and concept on a personal basis with me, for this while. For those like myself, particularly those familial in history, there is a huge level of confusion particularly in early life because society offers no “societally sane” explanation of how and why the way ‘we know’ what we know, and how and why the way ‘we feel/perceive’ what we feel and perceive. There is some research in science that suggests that mitochondrial DNA (derived from the mother’s side of the genetic heritage and attribute map) forms the primary derivative in individuals, however this is not conclusion by itself and only suggests a propensity toward the maternal side for certain attributes being transferred. Contemplate your mother’s characteristics, yes?

M: Back to the flow of the concept. As a youth, those endowed with these attributes, at least in my generation, have to overcome prejudices based on the common wisdom (being a bit facetious) of society. When we discovered (mother and self) that we were indeed empaths it was initially between each other. My mother, raised in the classic Spaniard tradition, was a devout Catholic and she raised me in the only value basis (reference) system that she had available to her: Catholicism. The concept that these paranormal abilities between us were “natural” to us, was acceptable to her because it came within the boundaries of her understanding of “god’s gift” between a mother and child.

M: When, however, I started reacting to perceptions that exceeded her boundaries of understanding, of “knowing” and perceiving beyond what she had long denied herself through many interventions with the religious orders, and the belief structure that they drove into her, there were emotional problems for her. For example, on one occasion (of many), she had a very wealthy friend who came from European nobility (a titled baroness, and her husband a titled count, that escaped before the Nazi invasion). One summer afternoon, the couple came over to relate that they were going on a multi-month steam ship voyage and would be unavailable to her for that time. I didn’t exactly care for this woman. She was loud and boisterous (although appearing something like Marlena Detrich, haughty in her bearing) and tended to embrace me in substitution for the children that she had not born for herself. On learning of her plans, my immediate response was to “go nuts”. I was overwhelmed with perception. My physical actions were to: roll around on the floor, screaming; roll to her feet (she was standing) and grab her ankles to keep her immobile; and shout for her “not to leave”. It was a profound experience in being overwhelmed by perception, as an out-of-control reflex, and it is very clear and indelible in my memory.

M: My mother’s friend heard my message. She did not take the voyage. Ship sank. My mother understood in amazement, overwhelmed amazement on the reported event, that her son …, heavens …, I’ve got to stop this and relax.

M: Okay, returned.

M: My mother’s response to the whole matter was to become rattled and decide in her form of logic that intervention through the Church was required. She had been very active as a volunteer in affairs of our local religious orders, and was well known at high levels in the Archdiocese. Using her ‘connections’, she had learned of an individual priest that actually lived in the estate (in (snip) – a subsection even with that exclusivity that was guard-gated separately) of the Arch-Bishop. This person, Spanish by birth, among other descriptions, was known to be an “exorcist”. Dutifully, my mother hauled me to visit this person.

M: It was an interesting experience. The “priest”, who I remember to be perhaps aged 55 years, was very protected. For an individual that had no structural title in the hierarchy, he had two layers of other priests positioned between himself and the outside world. Unusual, to say the least, and I was very accustomed to the structure of the organization. In any case, these layers would not allow my mother and her companion (another female friend) to meet this priest. Rather, I was escorted in to a lavish living room where the priest was resting on a sofa. (They did meet after our meeting.)

M: To truncate this long story at least somewhat, the sequence from this point (having established a background for you) was rather rapid. I was positioned in an armchair opposing the priest. There were only a few courteous spoken words. I started trembling, feeling the invasion of power. My body, my thoughts and my very being were being overwhelmed. Non-verbal, non-optical, communication started. The “priest” was “like me”. For the first time in my young life, there was another “like me”, other than mother and well, mom is always “just mom”. He communicated that he had found solace in “the church” within which definitions (for his generation) it was acceptable to “be different with ability”. He placed the palm of his hand above me. I dropped to the floor on my knees. His field, which I could see as well as feel, encompassed my body, and for the first time in my life, I merged with another and understood “the burden” of what this is. (Notice, please, no labels spoken here.) He communicated that I should never inform anyone about myself because it would not be accepted unless I became a priest and lived within my own cloisters. (My mother’s sister was a cloistered nun in (snip), rising to the position of Abbess of an Order, the “nunnery” hierarchical equivalent of “a cardinal”.) For a time I decided to withdraw from the world into the priesthood, but thankfully this did not last more than a year or two in my decision tree.

M: Although there is, of course, more to relate, but the result was that the priest informed my mother that I was “okay” in the eyes of the Church, and in obedience to my instructions, I went into a form of self-imposed hiding and didn’t even tell my mother exactly what had happened in that room that day. It wasn’t until I fell into contact with the psychological group prior mentioned, which eventually led in a sequence of three individuals, the third of which was “like me”, and he, basically, in about 1977 he saved my life. The period from that day with ‘the priest’ as a pre-teen to about age 36 was filled with depression and conflict and in general high withdrawal from myself. My focus had become on professional achievement, and gains there were initially meteoric – a story that has previously been touched upon. My teachers and my supervisors had decided variously, (particularly my high school physics teacher) that I could not possibly “know” what I reported, and therefore I must be cheating, but eventually in professional life when science-grade “proof” found correlation to statements, there was acceptance.

M: Not you know more. Much more.

M: The exploration into CC/DJM was found refreshing because in digging through CC’s poor explanatory form, I could find descriptions of events, perceptions, and ‘travels’ that I had been intrinsically capable of, and generally hid from, for a very – very long time. It was refreshing, if not reconfirming, but there were elements of CC himself that were “not coherent” and his writing style was not concise, and unfortunately that style of presentation would never find broad social acceptance.

M: Hopefully, now, you really understand and you might have even experienced my emotions as I wrote the above. My progression ‘on the way of knowledge’ has not been initially based on trying to wade through the written experiences of others that were sourced by their teachers but rather as finding some solace that others, anywhere, albeit in small numbers … understood.

M: For a very long time, I have been both “troubled” and curious in the same manner that YOU have been relative to “the percentages” that YOU have noted in the paragraph that you wrote that triggered my rattle above. Walking through a shopping mall crowd, for example, and perceiving separately each individual wandering around within the crowd as I selectively “tune” to each and “know” who and what they are (usually this requires only a few seconds to a minute), or standing in an obscure corner of an airport concourse, observing each individual as they hurry by, watching the color and intensity of their fields (for those that have sufficient energy to project a field) there has been the question: “how many circumvent consumption by the eagle?”. Looking at the percentage of society that explores the subject; for example, by CC’s book sales (about 1 million/book for the first few but over years sales) or those of Depak Chopra (15 books, 15 million sold at that time of review), yielded possibly the conclusion (sadly troubled) that perhaps something approaching less than ten percent “make it”: I really don’t know; it could be a much smaller number.