In one hallucinogenic trip Carlos discovers an Alice character as in ALICE IN WONDERLAND. First he sees a ball of blue energy he calls the Blue Scout who then changes into an eight year old girl. Similar to Alice using her magic mushroom ritual to enlarge and shrink herself when she became trapped, Carlos uses his ritual to extract the girl from the shadow world.
Nowhere in this story does Carlos ever tell the reader that his material is a story. Castaneda makes of himself a character, Carlos, a man in search of the mysteries of becoming a sorcerer. The conflict is between Carlos, a man who wants all the answers, and the guru or nagual, don Juan, who demands that Carlos discover his own answers. Carlos is pretty much under don Juan's spell and control. Don Juan makes Carlos ingest a considerable array of hallucinogenics (peyote, mescaline and magic mushrooms) to keep his assemblage point or his point of view fluid.
Near the end of the story the conflict shifts to include a woman in the church, the death defier. She is a chameleon character who can become whoever she intends to be. She can recreate virtual realms and then step into them. She takes Carlos past the fourth gate of `dreaming.' The reader continues on hoping to determine if Carlos can discover what is on the other side of the final gate. Carlos finishes the story as confused as he began it. In the end the reader along with Carlos finds nothing there--there is no there, there.
Now, as suspected, there are a lot of rumors concerning the 'authenticity' of Castaneda's experiences with a Yaqui Shaman named Don Juan and the teachings he revealed. I however, believe them all to be non-relevant in this particular instance. The fact is, Castaneda has torn a gapping hole in many peoples way of perceiving what they ?think? to be reality. And because of this, many of the critics and ?egos? choose to turn their heads and deny any possibility that all we perceive is a just a very convincing hallucination.
?The Art of Dreaming? gives the reader a first hand account of what a ?person? is capable of, that is, if his/her intention is strong enough to overcome the illusion of space, time, and self, and in so doing experience that which underlies and goes beyond our normal illusionary existence without trying to give it an objective meaning.
That said; I would like to justify why I believe (the majority of) this book is ?authentic,? and not just a good writers imagination and I would also like to remind everyone that they travel to the fourth dimension every night when sleep paralysis sets in and there energy bodies float out into his/her own small corner of the astral realm which we refer to as dreaming.
Anyone with any occult knowledge will automatically realize the significance of the wisdom enumerated in this book. The organic beings are called larvae that only bother those which cannot control there own emotions and desires. The energy body is the astral body or linga sharira. The assemblage point is a great insight into the subtle assimilation of our conscious perceptions. Astral projection is discussed. But towards the end I do believe Castaneda puts more imagination than fact, thus the four stars and not five, but again whose to say what fact is or isn?t? Nonetheless it makes an interesting reading.
When I first read it I did not realize the importance of the material, but after progressing in my practice by utilizing the much needed info in the below books, I realized Castenada gives the reader valuable tips for advancing beyond the normal lucid dream, tips that the dream yoga?s are very allusive in explaining.
And it is for this reason that I highly recommend anyone SERIOUS about becoming conscious of the subconscious to give this book a thorough study ? but anyone just beginning to have lucid dreams I would recommend you research and read the following titles beforehand, which are also available on this web-site:
****** ?The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep?****** ?Tsongkhapa?s Six Yogas of Naropa?****** ?Natural Liberation, Padmasambhava?s Teachings??****** ?Initiation into Hermetics?
Oh, one more thing ? the ?third and forth gate? is the secret of the homunculus.