The Teachings of Don Carlos: Practical Applications of the Works of Carlos Castaneda

"I trully enjoyed reading this book. Victor Sanchez has helped me to understand Carlos Castaneda's books by describing in more detail what both Carlos Castaneda and Don Juan were trying to teach us. If you are trying to compare Carlos Castaneda's writing skills to Victor Sanchez's, then you are missing the point. This great book is a practical guide so that those of us interested in shamanism can improve our lives and take on the challenge of becoming a true warrior."
~ Written on 2007-06-19

"For one, who read Carlos Castaneda books couple of times and knows the contents pretty well, this book will be a great disappointment. Castaneda is (or at least, was) a cult writer in the Europe; one could not possibly live through the high school or university without running into this magic world - and Dr. Sanchez just repeat over and over again information you already know "by heart". I have originals - why do I need the poor copy?

Just for the sake of "impeccability" - two stars for pointing the Castaneda's books for somebody who did not read them yet. "
~ Written on 2004-10-01

"Self help books are nice. Right? They teach us how to cope with
stress, how to count to ten before we have a temper tantrum, all sorts of
good stuff we can learn from them. We can even sign up for a "workshop" and
go traipsing around the Pyramids outside of Mexico City for a week with some
New Age guru who can help our team from our corporation work more lovingly
and productively while we make smart bombs or toxic food additives or
whatever. But if we have to believe that our gurus here are Toltec Indians,
we need a reality check, I am afraid, because the Toltec Indians disappeared
from history some 700 years ago, I hate to break it to you, and it does not
matter how many times someone has been on Oprah claiming otherwise. It is
just a hard, historical fact that someone is going to have to face up to.
Well, if your accountant can get this junket written off of the company's
tax statement, I guess it is okay. But as far as buying a book like this -
well, CAVEAT LECTOR.
"
~ Written on 2004-09-11

"Victor Sanchez's book may not be for the Carlos Castaneda purist. However, anyone interested in learning some techniques that facilitate serious Self-growth will not be disappointed.

Before I go too much further, I must point out that I don't agree with everything Sanchez has to say or suggest, and likewise I'm not in total agreement with Carlos Castaneda or Don Juan.

An example in this book is Sanchez's beliefs about emotions being the product of thought: "feelings are a natural reaction to what we perceive, while emotions are the product, not of perception, but of thought, of reason. Feelings are not energy-consuming; emotions are to a high degree."

I believe feelings and emotions are both important and vital in our growth, and being more in touch with feelings and emotions is essential to attaining any real Self-growth or magical knowledge.

This is partly semantics on the part of Sanchez, as he lists joy and sorrow as natural feelings (whereas I believe they are emotions also) while lumping as unwanted emotions such things as "wrath, jealousy, and, self-destructive depression." However, from my own experiences and varied teachings from Transpersonal Psychology and Psychosynthesis, depression is brought about through the suppression of emotion. Likewise anger (wrath) is not something to be suppressed, due to its Self-destructive properties, while appropriate ways of expressing it must be found.

This aside, I was impressed with this book, from the introduction. Sanchez coins the term anti-anthropology, which he likes to anti-psychiatry. His approach to the study of the Indians was "not to transform them, but to transform" himself.

Chapter One really sets the scene for continued work throughout the book. Sanchez sets about defining the various concepts he will deal with, including references to Castaneda's books where appropriate. Such topics include: "The Eagle's Emanations", "The Assemblage Point", "The Forms of Attention", "The Internal Dialogue", and "Not-Doing".

The most important sections of this book, to me, are those dealing with "Erasing Personal History" and "Stopping Internal Dialogue". On the subject of "Erasing Personal History" the best words to sum it up are Don Juan's:

"It is best to erase all personal history... because that would make us free from the encumbering thoughts of other people." - Don Juan, "Journey to Ixtlan" by Carlos Castaneda.

To me, what is being discussed is various means of breaking down the belief structures we've inherited from our parents (primarily) and also society. This line of thought is heavily discussed in other fields such as Psychosynthesis (where the concepts of belief structures and the sub-personalities which emerge from them are of critical importance) and memes (mind viruses). By working our way through various stages, starting with recognition and awareness of our personal history (belief structures, memes) we start to be able to make choices based on better meeting our needs, rather than pleasing or rebelling against our parents or society.

"Stopping Internal Dialogue" is something which can assist in our process of "Erasing Personal History" because primarily our belief's "talk" to us (through our sub-personalities) and create the string of seemingly constant and consistent inner dialogue, when in fact it is discontinuous and the result of conflict between diametrically opposed beliefs (which inherently are "the encumbering thoughts of other people"). Richard Brodie's book "Virus of the Mind" also suggests that stopping the internal dialogue is possibly the best way to deal with memes and suggests some techniques similar to Victor Sanchez.

On the topic of "Stopping Internal Dialogue", Sanchez stresses "that thinking is not perceiving. Thinking is not perceiving. As human beings we can think and we can perceive. The problem is, even though our intimate natures as fields of energy mean we are natural perceivers, we are also tied to our thoughts that we do not perceive our possibilities as such. As average people, we perceive so little that we have since forgotten the distinction between thought and perception; we believe that what we think is what we perceive."

This to me is a very important insight, and something I believe deserves a reasonable about of thought (ironically!), and experience (through various exercises and techniques) for anyone involved in personal (Self) growth or magical training. Our ability to genuinely perceive is also tied to our connection with our feelings and emotions, as we perceive with more than one sense. If we are constantly lost in thought, at the mercy of the "encumbering thoughts of other people", and in a constant intellectualisation of reality we are reinforcing the illusion we choose for ourselves.

There is a lot more in this book than the concepts I have chosen to focus on here. It is up to the individual to decide what works for them and what doesn't. I'm sure for many, especially those focused on processes of intellectualising the world, the book will seem full of crazy, irrational ideas which make little or no sense. Such is the world of magic and sorcery, where things are not necessarily as they seem, with our minds being full of Self deception and illusion, and where the resourceful and aspiring sorcerer or magician must find increasingly clever ways to overcome his or her limitations."
~ Written on 2004-01-21

"Victor Sanchez has done a good job of presenting various practical ways to "get at" the concepts in Castaneda's books. The book is part exposition and part exercise, disseminated throughout the various chapters. It is really more of a reference manual or a workbook than a book to read straight through.

Some of the exercises seem more accessible to me than others. To start dealing with self-importance, he gives some cogent suggestions like telling yourself lies (to erase personal history) and making an inventory of energy expenditures by paying attention to what you are thinking and doing at various times throughout the day. Then there are other exercises that I never quite got, like his exercises on "awareness of the skeleton" which are supposed to help you access awareness of your own death, so that you can use death as an adviser. And personally, as someone who has worked with lucid dreams for a while, I feel that his section on dreaming is fairly weak and lacks flesh, compared to the rest of the book.

But those are minor quibbles. It's clear to me that he considers these exercises a beginning, and that any enterprising individual can take his ideas and run with them, or make up new techniques. Take some and leave some.

I had the opportunity to ask Sanchez during a workshop what parts of this book he would now revise, since it has been around a decade since the original printing, and he has had many additional experiences in that period of time, including his workshops (www.toltecas.com) and his work with indigenous tribes in Central America. He replied that he felt that it was still fairly solid, except for his revision of his ideas of recapitulation, which have since been updated in a new book, The Toltec Path of Recapitulation.

As for the accusations that Sanchez "has neither the eloquence nor the literary wit of Castaneda" and "has made a career from riding on Castaneda's coattails" ... Well, sure, Castaneda was a master storyteller, but this book ain't about telling stories, it's about what you can do with the lessons in the stories. And although I do not claim to know Sanchez in any depth, having tried many of his techniques and attended one of his short workshops, I would say that he is genuinely dedicated to practicing and teaching his knowledge -- knowledge that has been gained partially from studying Castaneda's works, yes, but by his own admission he has learned the most by far from his experiences with the various indigenous Toltec peoples living in Central America. That is not what I would call making a career from riding on Castaneda's coattails. Judge for yourself from his writings whether or not he is real or fake.

There is definitely plenty of controversy surrounding the figure of Castaneda himself, whether he himself succumbed to the lure of power and became a petty tyrant. The last thing I'll say about this is that Castaneda sued Sanchez and Bear & Co. for an earlier version of the cover of this book, claiming that it ripped off the cover of The Teachings of Don Juan. If you're interested you can read up about that and other Castaneda controversies at www.sustainedaction.org.

To sum up the book: Good workbook to complement Toltec ideas, YOU do the work."
~ Written on 2003-11-09