Long On Stories, Short on Infinity
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There are a few passages in this book that turn the mind away from society and towards the possibility of conscious evolution. Possibly the best and most succinct is the following:
`For sorcerers, there's no pondering, wondering or speculating. They know that all they have is the possibility of merging with the intent of infinity, and they just do it.' (p 72)
Other passages include:
`Don Juan defined inner silence as a peculiar state of being in which thoughts were cancelled out and one could function at a level other than that of daily awareness. he stressed that inner silence meant the suspension of the internal dialogue--the perennial companion of thoughts--and was therefore a state of profound quietude. "The old sorcerers," Don Juan said, "called it inner silence because it is a state in which perception doesn't depend on the senses. What is at work during inner silence is another faculty that man has, the faculty that makes him a magical being." ' (p 103)
`He had defined the concept of warrior-travellers, saying that it referred to sorcerers who, by being warriors, travelled in the dark sea of awareness. He added that human beings were travellers of the dark sea of awareness, and that this Earth was but a station on their journey; for extraneous reasons, which he didn't care to divulge at the time, the travellers had interrupted their voyage. He said that human beings were caught in a sort of eddy, a current that wen in circles, giving them the impression that they were moving when they were, in essence, stationary. He maintained that sorcerers were the only opponents of whatever force kept human beings prisoners, and that by means of their discipline sorcerers broke loose from its grip and continued their journey of awareness.'
(p 202)
However, most of the book is full of exaggerated stories about Carlos's childhood and tales of his weak, vain Angelino friends. These stories are not particularly well-written or meaningful, and the reader can get rather tired by Carlos's repetitive emotional over-reaction to circumstances.
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Powerful
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It is not possible to view the world the same way after reading this book. If your views have not been altered at the slightest then you have wasted your time.
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Our own predator's Mind
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What a great book!. My heart started thumping in horror when it came to the point of predator and flyers. Castaneda's book has his own class of unimaginable spiritual adventures , but this goes beyond all of that. No Real adventure movies can surpass the spiritual adventures.
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A warning for humanity
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The Active Side Of Infinity is probably the best book Castaneda ever wrote next to Journey to Ixlan. No one can quite describe a subjective experience with as much objective clarity as Castaneda. It was his gift. Castaneda was one of the few that could truly see the unseen and describe it with a clarity as sharp as a needle. Don Juan may have been a sugar coated myth based on real persons that Castaneda had met in his life but there are deep truths buried at the core of his teachings.
He gave us a pill. The outer part of the pill was his fantastic adventures and stories, that is, his 'hoaxing,' but the center of the pill were deep truths. Castaneda's talk of "the unseen predator of man" is most relevant in today's times and he is one of the few in the past who has helped prepare man to face the terrifying revelations concerning the nature of reality that is presently unfolding before us today. Most likely, at the time he wrote it, he could not speak directly of these things so he hid certain truths in the myth of Don Juan to lessen the reaction from those forces that wish to remain unseen who strive to control the destiny of man with deception and trickery. He may have been taking the way of the 'sly man.' Only now, at this unique time in man's History, because of necessity, could the real truth be revealed to humanity without any sugar coating and books like "The Wave" and "The Secret History Of The World And How To Get out Alive" by Laura Knight-Jadczyk are taking up where Castaneda and Gurdjieff left off. Castaneda alludes to the Hyperdimensional Control System AKA The Matrix reality with superb brilliance and elegance that few could match.
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Beyond belief
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I had read all of Castaneda's other work and was an avid fan when I came across this belatedly, but even I had not expected something like this. It surpassed my wildest dreams and was simply beyond imagination or expectation. Awesome, stupendous yet elegant & beautifully written. Cannot be compared to anything that I can think of.
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