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Title: The Art of Dreaming by Carlos Castaneda ISBN: 0-06-092554-X Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 July, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (36 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Delve Deep into your psyche to find answers
Comment: This book in 'The Teachings of Don Juan' series is all about dreaming, lucid dreaming, traveling to other realms and meeting non-corporal beings using your dreams as a key. It's about finding the keys to your inner self, your inner power, and unlocking your potential to find the answers you need to know in your life.
Like all the 'Don Juan' books this isn't so much a how-to manual like many books on magic are. Rather, this is a story about one man and one teacher and thier experiences together. There is much to learn here, but individuals may have different experiences with some of the methods than Carlos Castenada had. A good book to read if you are working on unlocking the power of your dreams.
Rating: 5
Summary: Back and Forth
Comment: The motion of reading a work such as this: back and forth. I've read a bit of Castenada (primarily his first book) and I read this out of an interest in Dreaming. I've seen a lot of reviews here. My advice is simple: mix all the reviews together mentally, and you'll gain a sense for Castenada. But then, forget that sense entirely and approach this book fresh, with an open-mind.
If you've never read any of his stuff before I don't think you'll get much out of this book. Furthermore, their is a tremendous consensus in the academic world that Castaneda was not simply "telling it as he lived/observed it". His works, with the possible exception of the first book, are certainly not just the plain narratives they appear to be. For one thing: Castaneda's character in the stories is, at times, almost unbelievably dense if you consider his thoughts and actions in context. Furthermore, about half-way through the Castaneda series, he apparently starts all over again, describing totally different accounts of his relationship, and how he got to know Don Juan. Many of the details seem to contradict each other, eliminating the notion that Castaneda was simply telling details he left out. And then, as has been noted, he writes this book which seems a shift in focus, the introduction of Dreaming as what "it is really all about". One can also run across all sorts of other people who run workshops and write books claiming to have known Don Juan, or Carlos himself, which is all very hard to determine as Carlos simply disappeared from view. Apparently he died in the late 90's and it was only months later, or something like that, that anybody found out about it. I may have details wrong here but the above is the picture I gathered as I informally researched the context for this book.
The Art of Dreaming demands a back and forth approach. One should gain some experience with lucid dreaming, as another reviewer recommended, and try to understand what he says in that context. He has written down some novel techniques (the exercise of Dreaming attention for instance) although a lot of it coincides with other traditions. For instance, the talk of training the dreaming attention as a way of accessing and honing the energy body is found, in almost identical form, in Tibetan Dream Yoga (see the chapter called "developing the mayic body" in Chogyal Namkhai Norbus "Dream Yoga and the practice of Natural Light", or the Dalai Lamas sketching of dream yoga in the book "sleeping, dreaming, and dying"). After a period, it may be time to let Castaneda go, and then return to this book when you feel so compelled. Tentatively, it seems a weaving of a fictional story line with real experiences/insights. Approach it as such and one won't be very disappointed.
Rating: 3
Summary: It's difficult for me to know how to read Castaneda.
Comment: This is the second Castaneda book that I've picked up. I honestly probably wouldn't have picked up a second except that I've been doing some research on dreaming and it was recommended to me.
He certainly has created an interesting world and world-view around dreaming. I give him a lot of credit for that. I have no basis at all to base the truth of what he's writing, and I guess that truth isn't really the point as much as that he's trying to make you think or relate his own experiences. I'm really not sure what it's all about.
I didn't find it useful as a research source, and I unfortunately didn't find it particularly well-written either. I'd probably give it even less stars, but I think that it's fairly clear that I'm the wrong reader to try and judge it.
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Title: The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Castaneda ISBN: 0671600419 Publisher: Washington Square Press Pub. Date: 03 March, 1985 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Power of Silence by Carlos Castaneda ISBN: 067173248X Publisher: Washington Square Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1991 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Active Side of Infinity by Carlos Castaneda ISBN: 006092960X Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 January, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Fire from Within by Carlos Castaneda ISBN: 0671732501 Publisher: Washington Square Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 1991 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Magical Passes : The Practical Wisdom of the Shamans of Ancient Mexico by Carlos Castaneda ISBN: 0060928824 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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