You must not have been getting the good stuff....

And, I never realized they were supposed to be 'real'...
I got a dogeared copy from a friend at school and read it for enjoyment, not education.

Hard to be terribly strict with a story where all the good parts happen when the protagonist is under the influence of powerful hallucinogens....

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On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif

I first started reading Castaneda's works when i was about 15 and read 5 books by him. Thought the story telling was excellent and compelling, but had no way of knowing if they were documentaries. IIRC they were sold in the religion part of the book stores, a key detail.

After reading the comments above I did a quick look to Wikipedia and accordingly, he sold 28 million books in 17 languages. I didn't know he had died. His works were clearly very successful and he was a heck of a fine story teller. Carlos Castaneda - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“You're either on the bus or off the bus.”

“I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismograph.”

“[Aldous Huxley] compared the brain to a 'reducing valve'. In ordinary perception, the senses send an overwhelming flood of information to the brain, which the brain then filters down to a trickle it can manage for the purpose of survival in a highly competitive world. Man has become so rational, so utilitarian, that the trickle becomes most pale and thin. It is efficient, for mere survival, but it screens out the most wondrous part of man's potential experience without his even knowing it. We're shut off from our own world.”

“They were...well, Beautiful People! - not 'students', 'clerks', 'salesgirls', 'executive trainees' - Christ, don't give me your occupation-game labels! We are Beautiful People, ascendant from your robot junkyard.”

“It's like a boulder rolling down a hill - you can watch it and talk about it and scream and say ****! but you can't stop it. It's just a question of where it's going to go.”

“A person has all sorts of lags built into him, Kesey is saying. Once the most basic is the sensory lag the lag between the time your senses receive something and you are able to react. One-thirtieth of a second is the time it takes if you are the most alert person alive and most people are a lot slower than that.... You can't go any faster than that... We are all doomed to spend the rest of our lives watching a movies of our lives - we are always acting on what has just finished happening. It happened at least 1/30th of a second ago. We think we are in the present but we aren't. The present we know is only a movies of the past and we will really never be able to control the present through ordinary means.”


― Tom Wolfe, "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test"

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

Journey to Ixtlan, which if memory serves was his 4th book, was a nearly word for word commercialization of his PhD dissertation for UCLA. A pretty huge embarrassment to that fine institution and his committee.
Several of his former mistresses- one who was also a step-daughter- went missing right after his death and have not been found. The step daughter's remains were found and ID'd in the CA desert recently.

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You're a daisy if you do.
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84 Euro 240D 4spd. 220.5k sold
04 Honda Element AWD
1985 F150 XLT 4x4, 351W with 270k miles, hay hauler
1997 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4
1993 Toyota 4wd Pickup 226K and counting

Checking his library stack requests was a smart detective move. Carlos Castaneda - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

^ That was smart. Psychedelics are interesting, I don't think they're a complete waste but my take is that many dabblers in that stuff get carried away with it and ascribe way more credit to them than is due. Timothy Leary clearly did, IMO and the following that Castaneda gained from the the Peyote mystique is another example of that.

My feeling is that psychedelics can give you a glimpse of the power that lies mostly dormant in your mind, the next step, the one that Alpert/Baba Ram Dass took, is to pursue organic means to achieve real enlightenment.

That wiki piece is interesting, I'd heard briefly about the disappearances of the women before but not this bit:

That's a trip. His supposed biological son is shut out by a will signed 2 days before his death and the will stands??

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Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

"Timothy Leary clearly did....."
I would beg to differ.
Mayhap you ought to read more of his writings.

__________________
On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif

I don't see a reason to prefer altered states of consciousness be they drug induced or not to normal states of consciousness. I think a fair number of people are attracted to altered states of consciousness because they think these states give some information about before/after life.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

I was hoping it would enlighten me and give me the MegaMillion numbers.

Again, just kidding.

I suspect the Indians that use it as a part of their religion don't do it every day

We did get the paper mill back on line Friday.

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Jim

I know a couple of guys (white) in Eastern WA that have gotten heavily into some sort of peyote church who are very solid members of their community, FWIW.

__________________
Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

I can understand that. Most forms of mysticism are pretty conservative.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

If I read the article correctly. Your friends could not legally partake unless they can prove at least 1/4 American Indian ancestry.

One of my psychedelic drug experiences seemed deeply spiritual. If nothing else, it was memorable. Most of the rest were introspective. A few were fun, but most were anything but fun. Very intense and deeply interesting, but not fun. I'll never take them again.

When weed is legalized I'll probably smoke it again. It was relaxing and gentle with the soul. I understand it is a lot more powerful then what I smoked 40 years ago. But really, that's a matter of choice. There is no compulsion to over-indulge. At least for me.

Cannebis has two active components, THC and CBD.
THC increases your sensitivity (makes you "high") and CBD is sedative (makes you "stoned")

The original cannebis and the medical cannebis have a high CBD and a low THC content.

In modern recreatial cannebis the THC content is very high, up to 25%.

Rob

I don't think they are native. Oh well.

__________________
Te futueo et caballum tuum

1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K