While we want to retain the two videos that were made this morning, we feel it is necessary to put out a policy message on such content, since from this point on such technology will only get more advanced and prolific.
It’s ok, and sometimes even preferable, to use A.I. to generate content to illustrate a direct personal experience that is a result of practice. Even if it’s not 100% accurate and is simply “close enough.”
For years, all the Castaneda community had was a prodigious body of published texts, four tensegrity videos, and a couple of sometimes problematic documentaries.
Now we have years of lived experience, and experiences, related by private class students, and illustrations from a multitude of active practitioners.
An improvement!
But what we don’t want to go back to is having people post the 2025 equivalent of short quotes from the books. Ten second AI generated videos without context.
From 2011 until 2019 that was what this subreddit was. Very “weak sauce.”
And we’re not going back to that.
So be aware, and use AI as a tool and not a new means of armchair pretending.
Our Frequently Asked Questions page has been updated, at the bottom, to reflect this policy.
6 Comments
In a few years it will be possible to input the text from the books, and get A.I. to generate an entire feature length movie from any one of them.
And while that may be a means by which individuals from younger generations, who aren't avid readers, find and digest the "books"...people will, at that point, be doing the same by the millions for anything they can imagine, and truth (and pragmatism) could get ground under by oceans of vapid mediocrity.
Oversaturation incarnate.
So we better work on finding the balance while we still can.
We might be buried alive by AI.
Which is the same thing we worried about 6 years ago.
Being buried alive by copycats.
The worry was that copycats have always destroyed our real magical system by pretending they can teach it to the lazy, in exchange for cash.
We hoped that when people saw the real thing was available, and was in no way just pretending and posturing, that we'd win that battle.
Even if slowly.
But now the effort to pretend in a convincing fashion, has been lowered to a few sentences, a drag and drop or two, and the click of a button.
I suppose at the least, we'll have restored the reputation of Carlos...
I believe that was my main goal when I first got pointed to this place.
It could be, that because it takes some effort, at this point Jadey will have better long term success.
Convincing people to practice the actual movements Carlos gave us, and not pick up any counterfeit movements along the way.
No one can override the obviousness of that priority.
As for all the books we have available, I just saw 3 new fake ones have been created!
Not "me too" Nagual books.
But books claiming to have been written by Carlos, and then "lost".
So even those aren't entirely safe from being buried alive.
The idea of books claiming to have been lost is sort of similar to the idea of invented passes… Hope a specific group of people don’t get any funny ideas.
Maybe it might even be best if I delete this comment?
For example, here’s
a YouTube shorts video link
Wow, that's so horrible I'm not even sure what harm it does to our community.
Maybe none? No one who was even a tiny bit serious would fall for that.
The posts that motivated the writing of this mod announcement, have been [deleted by user]. Something that moderators, obviously, can't prevent from happening. Here they are, with links to a re-uploaded version of their short A.I. videos:
https://www.reddit.com/r/castaneda/comments/1prah7y/wall_of_fog/
https://www.reddit.com/r/castaneda/comments/1prbndb/wall_of_fog_part_ii/