I don't know if most of you blindly believe in everything you've read in the books, but I just can't accept the idea (not that I remember being dead but I read other stuff too) that you die and after a while of dreamlike existence your other body dies and that's it. I wouldn't mind that but it just doesn't make sense. However, I do accept the idea that this occurs, but since we aren't any of our bodies, not truly, our essence gets brought back here over and over again. And the seers just couldn't see past the point of our double or whatever you want to call it dying. Change my mind, as annoying kids would say.
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Afterlife
*that you die and after a while of dreamlike existence your other body dies and that's it.
Not really sure if you are trying to quote Carlos here but this doesn’t sound like anything I read in his books.
Death as described in the books of Carlos is more like being run over by a Mack truck who then slams it into reverse and runs you over a couple more times just to be sure.
Have we read the same books?
Well I have read all of the books by Carlos Castaneda.
The description of death in those works involve the life energy of a being slipping through the crack (gap) on our luminous shell and being absorbed by the universe.
This crack on our luminous shell (egg) is caused by our fixation on the first attention which causes our shell to become hard and inflexible. The crack appears and eventually becomes so large our energy escapes or the crack is enlarged through accidental means.
It is however through this crack that allows our will can have direct contact with the first attention so I’m not entirely sure if we don’t have a natural gap or if it is entirely a fixation issue.
It is possible that our will might be used outside of our shell through mere power alone without an actual crack in the wallpaper.
However death is constantly on our tail, ceaselessly bombarding our luminous shell trying to enlarge the gap ( the tumbler). When it does succeed the results are the same and our shell collapses and our energy flows back to the eagle for consumption.
This however doesn’t mean the end it means that the tunnel of light is a process of shedding all of life’s experiences as the eagle rolls you around on it’s tongue. This is where a mature double comes in handy.
There is also nothing mentioned that once your life force has been purified and consumed that the energy isn’t not repurposed ( which I believe), just as Don Genaro pointed out, if an eagle eats, an eagle shits!
I think he is talking about the death process referred in Amando Torres "Encounters With the Nagual".
Even though Dan said he's a book deal, I actually do believe what he says there. It's also somewhat in line with the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Plato's myth of Er and Meister Eckhart, which said: "The only thing that burns in hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life; your memory, your attachments. They're not punishing you, they're freeing your soul." So I think death is just the process of dissolution between the soul (which comes back to its source) and the ego (which is desintegrated). But if I'm not mistaken, Castaneda (supposedly) says in that book that your ego stays about 100-200 years (or more depending on how many people impinge you with their rituals/memories/thoughts) in a dreamlike state where they relive over and over their experiences (process of purification), and if you exchanged energy believing in a God, during your death he will make it better for you by offering you "heaven". Or something like that.
To me it explains why people's energies can still be felt (ghosts) at a locale for about 200 years at the most before every trace of 'you' is destroyed. That's why we are scared of Victorian Era ghosts, but not ancient Roman ghosts lol.
Hey witch! I think you’re right. I read the same thing. It must’ve been either an interview or mentioned in a class. It wasn’t in the books, but Castaneda did amend the original impression about death being sudden and then poof you’re gone, to you linger wandering around for some untold time until you wither away.
Hey, glad you agree!
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Meaningless maybe but something definitely happens and I want to know what people think that might be.
The Afterlife is a complicated topic which goes well beyond Castaneda. I am going to be speaking from my experience rather than trying to stay consistent with Castaneda.
There are infinite layers to Reality, with fibers and bundles of fibers passing through and around each others. These fibers come in varying types, Emotions, Feelings, Thoughts, and so on. Our Self/Soul is a fiber extending from Infinity into our Reality, which then is wrapped in other fibers, which form our various bodies.
While the Self is Eternal, none of these other bodies are, and start to "decompose" from the lowest level up after Death. IMO what is being described in the books is the process of the bodies decomposing, from the physical on up, but doesn't describe the entire process.
Yes, the Eagle is going to consume all your Emotions, Feelings, Thoughts, etc. when you die, but that's not all that happens. Heck it's not even the best parts.
IMO the goal is to connect with as many levels of your infinite Self as possible and integrate them all into your Being. If YOU identify with that physical body, then you die when it dies and little connection with your Self happened. If you identify with your Self, you are immortal (you just go through a lot of disposable bodies, lol).
So while I 100% agree with the books are true, that truth is "from a certain perspective", to quote Obi Wan.
Thank you, that's very thorough and reasonable.
I'd say that the "truth" about physical death and how it goes from there, actually belongs more to the Unknownable, and much less to the Unknown and Known.
So far, my understanding is here - Physical death is just the transformation of one's existence, for which we (can) know only but a few things about after-death ( u/Grampong said it more eloquently than I ever could), and it can be guaranteed that it will happen to each one of us, without knowing when and how.
Yet, I'm curious to hear how'd you come to such an idea?
“Sorcerers know that beliefs based on ideas are false.”
How did I come to what idea?
This one
Oh from the books. Or was it an interview with carlos?
Idea is greek word and etimological comes from the word Όρω= oro means see .
If you want to learn what's in his books, stay out of the religion business.
Believe what you like!
Has nothing to do with what's outside the Island of the Tonal.
How is that in any way related to religion?
Religions start off (all I've ever seen) with someone doing magic.
But then it gets corrupted, in order to maximize profit for the resulting temples and churches.
The type of magic is always the same! There's only one. Our awareness and what it can do.
The explanations they add on, are what you don't need to worry about when practicing sorcery.
Those are additions. Like a big plastic nose, or fake googly eye glasses.
Or a funny hat.
Or a little throne to sit on.
Do whatever you like in that regards.
In fact, I recommend truly believing the religion into which you were born.
La Gorda did.
And Carlos had a strong sense of Catholic guilt.
Those are your shields.
Sometimes you need them.
But they have nothing to do with what's outside the Island of the Tonal.
The magic is out there!
Most of it can't be described at all.
So it can never be part of an actual religion.
Oddly, no religion I know of forbids doing magic.
It's always ok, as long as you follow their rules for being good to other people, and agreeing with whatever it is they're selling.
Okay, still not related to my question. It's easier to say you don't know or don't care about it.
Are you confessing that you are an annoying kid?
Only if you're quite older than me and easily annoyed.