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Editor's Note

Here's a real life story of sorcerer training in Mexico by Toltec decendents, the decendents in Carlos Castaneda's books. This two-part article details Jon Guzman' experience as he learns Don Juan's ancient teachings from the Toltec Indians. This page is part 1.

Part 1 traces the spiritual steps that led him to the Castaneda books, and the sorcerer workshop. Part 2

written by Jon Guzman guzman@hughes.net

Even as a young boy, I could sense a magical side to ourselves. One difficult to express verbally, but real none the less. Sometimes I would know things with a certainty, well beyond what I would now consider normal intuition. My mother thought I had some sort of radar for people or phone calls, just before they seemed to appear from out of the blue. And my dreams often would force themselves upon my daily life, by showing me simple events to come, or even teaching me what it felt like to move in the ways of different animals. I could dream myself running like a gazelle, or bouncing like a kangaroo. The next day at the school yard, I reproduced what my dream body had learned the previous night. As I remember back, it was more of a bodily knowledge. There was a tingling sensation down my back followed by what could best be described as an actual physical release. I could then sense the truth of things without putting it into words.

When I got old enough, I attended various church services with friends. My interest in spiritual awareness stayed with me into my university years, as I pursued studies in philosophy and religion. There, I was introduced to Eastern thought, and its approach to spirituality, which was much more experiential. Adherents are taught meditation techniques, and have spiritual guides to lead them toward their own personal gnosis. During this time, I chanced upon a strange and magical book, The Teachings of Don Juan, by Carlos Castaneda. It described an ancient Mesoamerican world view as vast and sophisticated as anything that I had read from the East. Unfortunately, the practices taught in the book by Don Juan, a professed sorcerer, to his apprentice were abstract. I had no idea how to begin transforming them from tales of power, into any practical application in my life. I tried a couple of the book's techniques. I attempted using a special form of attention by looking for my hands in my dreams. This was an attempt to become a lucid dreamer. This was in the early 80's and there were no classes in shamanism, Mexican or otherwise to help me.

When I left the university, I briefly lived in a spiritual community, before moving back to Los Angeles. In the years since, I tried to keep my spiritual life growing by being active in Zen Centers, wherever I have lived. I did this by practicing their sitting, walking and attention meditation techniques. I also studied the mystic teachings of the Christian church fathers. I had almost resigned myself to never being able to put into practice, at least in any comprehensive way, the teachings presented by Carlos Castaneda.

I have read Carlos Castaneda's books many times over, but never understood the real purpose of what Don Juan was trying to teach him. I got the impression that with each successive book, Carlos is on the verge of making sense of it all, but as a reader, I was more confused than ever. After reading The Art of Dreaming, his most recent book, I was no closer to understanding anything; maybe I was even farther away than after reading the first book.

While at my favorite bookstore in Los Angeles, I chanced across a book entitled The Teachings of Don Carlos-Practical Applications of the Works of Carlos Castaneda. I purchased it without the slightest hesitation. What I read was an epiphany. It was written by Victor Sanchez, who was involved in anthropological studies, specifically indigenous Mexican tribes. Victor Sanchez lived for 15 years with these people who, have kept alive the spiritual path of the ancient Toltecs, while hidden in the mountains. These were the same traditions from which Carlos says his teacher, Don Juan, claimed lineage. Victor had written this book after ten years of giving workshops, with those in Mexico interested in learning of their own lost heritage. In this small book of Victor's, only a couple hundred pages long, I saw that maybe there was a basic thread, or teaching, throughout what Carlos purports Don Juan taught him. Many of the techniques that Don Juan taught Carlos are de-mystified in this book.What a find I had made in this book. It was like being lost in a foreign country for years, and finding a map leading you to the places you'd heard of, and always wanted to visit.

Victor Sanchez's book shows us that Don Juan was teaching Carlos one main concept, saving energy. How do we save energy, and what is the purpose behind it? I will explain by listing some of ideas he presented.

• 1. One of the concepts is saving energy. Most of our energy is spent in the daily routines of life. Just getting through another day is all that most of us have energy for. We waste energy in everyday routines, such as always getting ready for work each day, the same way. We spend a lot of energy believing in our own self importance, Ego, and then defending it. To break these and other routines, Stalking, frees up energy, and this extra energy can then be redirected towards a greater awareness. The Toltec’s say that if we save enough energy, a door will open to an unknown side of ourselves, The Nagaul, a side that it is not possible to think or verbalize about,

• 2. All that we know as humans, and can describe with words, The Tonal, is a very small part of what actually exists. It is an island upon which we pass the whole of life. What lies beyond the borders of this island? It is an unfathomable mystery that cannot be understood verbally, but it can be witnessed, and experienced by anyone with enough energy. This side of ourselves is called The Nagaul. By integrating the known, The Tonal, with the unknown, The Nagual, a wholeness of self occurs. When an individual becomes whole, they recognize that the reality of the world is merely a matter of perception; their perception changes. The need to rescue and reintegration this side of ourselves into an everyday reality constitutes one of the most commonly reoccurring themes in the works of Carlos Castaneda.

• 3. The Toltec's believe the body to be a field of energy constantly affected by other fields of energy. Be they great, like the sun or earth, or smaller like our fellow human beings, they affect us accordingly. Don Juan taught Carlos that pieces of foreign energy can be left in our bodies by those we encounter during our life, affecting us for years. It’s important to regain our own energy left in the bodies of others, and to rid ourselves of the foreign energy inside ourselves. This energy holds us back, holds us under some dark spell because it interferes with our daily living.

  Recapitulation is an exercise to recall, review, release, and recharge energy. It rids a person of assumptions and preconceptions. It frees locked energy and restores balance. The Toltec's believe the body to be a field of energy constantly affected by other fields of energy. The idea is that all of your experiences have been stored inside your energy fields. Recapitulation is remembering or more precisely, reviving events and experiences. It happens naturally at the moment of death. Some describe it as our life passing before our eyes. To do this, body remembering, of or own volition, restores our energy field.

• 4. There are techniques designed to de-structure the ego as well as our ordinary view of the world. These techniques are called Not Doings. They are actions foreign to our ordinary description of how the world works. Examples of this are walking backwards, learning to be aware in dreams, and gazing at the shadows of things, instead of the things themselves. This suspends our normal perceptions; then the world truly becomes a magical place.

After I read Sanchez's book, I wrote him immediately for more information. Were there any groups in southern California practicing these techniques? Would he ever give workshops in the States? I was surprised, to say the least, when I actually got a response after only a few weeks. A workshop was to be given for the first time in English. This was going to happen over the Easter weekend in the mountains outside Mexico City, only six weeks hence. I was a little frightened by the whole idea. How would I get there? Could I get away from work and family? I didn't speak a word of Spanish!

I would soon find myself in the ancient land of Mexico. I wondered which of the practices that were so intriguingly described by Carlos Castaneda and Victor Sanchez I would learn. In Castaneda’s books, Don Juan says that when spirit presents itself in a chance happening, which usually happens only once in our lifetime, that most of us turn our back. I had prepared all my life for this opportunity, and even the thought of failing miserably could not have stopped me now.

Copyright © 1996, 1997 All Rights Reserved Jon Guzman

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This page was update November 14, 1997