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I'm not sure how the forum feels about Castaneda, these days. In the mainstream world, he's been reclassified as fiction--but so is most everything we think and talk about to mainstream people. I feel that he made some blunders as a professional and author, not the least of which was to name all his various sources "don Juan Matus." Maybe he deserves to be considered fiction, but not because his stories are fictitious. In the next post to this, I'll begin my treatise. I'd like to provoke discussion, but if it's too long or delves too far into unknowns, or if you think I'm making magickal connections that aren't there , feel free to say that too!

In the story of don Juan from Carlos Castaneda's books, all people act as a part of this "internet" of reality by collectively enforcing our shared description of everything, which in turn guides our awareness. To his lineage of Toltec-borne seers/explorers of consciousness, all the universe is a collection of light filaments at its purest level. The filaments represent what we might call the self-aware universe, God-consciousness, or similar. I find their explanation of reality so fascinating because it has so many parallels in science, literature, and others' messages about consciousness being a frequency or underlying waveform.

You can juxtapose our current description/awareness of our completely formed reality with that of an ancient Native American one, with no more or less complete a reality, but a different description for it involving spirits of the land, water, animals, and sky. A long-since dried up water hole may be said to be desolate in today's description, but a different description might hold that the water spirit of that location, without its water, is vengeful and restless. In both cases, people would tend to avoid it and maybe even feel a little eerie all alone in a hole in the desert.

Today we say that magick isn't real and nature is ruled by science, but that's all a matter of the perception involved in some complete reality, all governed by what we're aware of.

There is a concept that everything is conscious to a point, even if it's not the individualized ego-consciousness we would recognize? This ties into both the quantum physical concept that even matter is really just a form of energy and that everything is aware on some level, even if it's not self-aware in the human ego-individualized sense. What this lineage of ancient seers call the "assemblage point" is where they say a small bundle of filaments are packed tightly together into a bright ball. The filaments, so collected, form the complete universe we perceive, even if it's not everything perceivable. The matter consisting of rock is a form of energy, just as this ancient lineage of seers would call it a collection of light filaments (though a rock's filaments would be noticeably less dense than an organic Being's assemblage point).

They speak of there being two types of energy: an energy shell and the energy inside the filaments, themselves. Some subset of all the filaments that exist are housed within the shell of the energy body, and the filaments tightly gathered in the assemblage point form what we perceive at any given moment (part of the known). We're able to perceive any complete reality involving any filaments in the energy body (what at any point in awareness might be considered the unknown, or not presently tracked awareness), but we're always limited to the shape and size of the assemblage point. I think that's how it remains a complete reality--the assemblage point always bundles the same size "length" or the same "amount" of filaments, as much as can be described since they're infinitely thin.

To draw all this back to the idea of the "internet" of a holographically simulated universe, one might consider the whole universe--all that could be perceived even if a human, in our current form, can't (the unknowable)--exists at all points and times whether we perceive it or not. Our little slice might have features connecting the known and unknown to the unknowable like a simulation might have a tell revealing it to not be the entire reality, but we're still limited by how we, as a collective species with our shared forms of communication, choose to describe it, and therefore how we perceive it.

This is especially true when considering how empirical physics, even if it can seem to explain a lot and lets us accomplish a lot of things, is always going to be limited by the senses we have in whatever reality we collectively perceive. All our accomplishments under such a science will always be limited by the ability to sense and measure that reality. Thus was born the realization that not only is there more than traditional physics can explain, but the proof that there should be more to reality that we can perceive at present. I.e., the possibility that what we think is all of reality is merely a hologram or simulation.

These are some insights to the chatGPT-posed question,

"Please analyze this upload of Carlos Castaneda's writings on the teachings of the person called "don Juan Matus." Look for parallels in society, literature, film, religion, spirituality, and science. Particularly with science, examine the aspects of quantum physics related to consciousness, both mainstream accepted concepts and any less or non-accepted aspects."

I uploaded the following link's PDF download of all his works (with Castaneda's dialog removed for less whining): https://prismagems.com/castaneda/.

- Reality is a description, not an absolute.
- Stopping the world = halting habitual perception to access deeper reality.
- Seeing = perceiving reality beyond social conditioning.
- Dreaming and gazing = tools to access other realities/dimensions.
- The four enemies of a man of knowledge: fear, clarity, power, and old age.
- Impeccability, intent, and personal power as disciplines.
- Death as an adviser – to live purposefully.

1. Buddhism and Maya
- Buddhism sees the world as “maya” (illusion), constructed by mental habits—direct match with Don Juan’s “description” of reality.
- Practices like vipassana meditation aim to see reality directly, much like “seeing” in Don Juan’s teachings.
2. Gnostic Christianity
- Gnosticism posits hidden, divine knowledge beyond the material world.
- "The Eagle” as the indescribable force parallels the Gnostic Pleroma—the ineffable source.
3. Shamanism and Animism
- Castaneda draws directly from indigenous Mexican shamanism (Yaqui or otherwise).
- Spirits, power places, non-human intelligences, and animistic cosmologies match practices in Amazonian ayahuasca, Siberian shamanism, and African traditions.
4. Hindu Advaita Vedanta
- The self is not the mind/body but awareness itself.
- “Losing the human form” in Don Juan's teaching aligns with dissolution of ego to realize the Self (Atman).

Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan Teachings: A Comprehensive Summary

Concept.................................................................Relation to Castaneda
------------------------------------------------------..............----------------------------------------------------------------
Morphogenetic fields (Rupert Sheldrake)..............Resonates with “molds” and energetic patterns.
Biocentrism (Robert Lanza)...................................Life and consciousness create reality—like tonal/nagual split.
Noetic Sciences (IONS).........................................Researching consciousness, intention, healing—“unbending intent.”
Remote Viewing / ESP...........................................Mirrors dreaming and “seeing” beyond ordinary perception.
Simulation Theory...............................................World is informational, projected—Don Juan: “description.”

dRider wrote: ↑Thu Aug 07, 2025 12:06 am I'm not sure how the forum feels about Castaneda, these days. In the mainstream world, he's been reclassified as fiction...

Long ago I knew a woman who used to attend his group in California. She said that most of the time he was ordinary - but occasionally he was a real Nagual.

I have read most of his books. Some of the Don Juan's technical material is excellent - for example the death spirit standing behind the left shoulder. I have seen that many times since - and used the knowledge, for example to test whether the person is about to die.

Is that technique unique in spiritual literature?


Much of my own interaction with the planes of Existence is using threads of energy. Some threads are light and others can be very dark.

Threads are useful in tracking interference in humans etc. Just follow thread back to the immediate source and consider whether to approach. Not all humans are well set up to confront adverse intelligences

As for reality. Consider some of the exopolitics accounts of folds in this universe. Systems within a fold may operate local realities - quite concealed from the rest of the universe.


>There is a concept that everything is conscious to a point

Consciousness is not the same as awareness. Elemental substance occurs throughout Existence on all planes. Elemental substance is intelligent and can cooperate with humans and nature spirits.

For example when using Steiner's two way stirring of fluids - put attention to the elemental of a clean water body and ask the elemental to assist with the energies of the fluid. I sometimes get a friend to test the before and after energies.