Has anyone tried to do the things Castaneda wrote about in his books such as to chase ‘scouts’ from another world who penetrate our dreams by pretending to be different weird objects? One of his techniques was to point your finger at any strange thing in your dream that constantly changes its shape and order it to show its true nature, something like that. He then travelled through the labyrinth of tunnels in their world guided by those creatures to get more energy; could be a nice (though deadly risky!) thing to do in your LD.
heh, strange you mention that:
In my normal dreams I have a recurring DC that keeps telling me crazy ass stuff in my NDs that usually makes no sense what so ever.
Don’t take Castenada too seriously.
He made it up.
It was in many ways inspired invention, but it was still invention. Many dream researchers found it usefully thought provoking, but follow-up studies found many basic errors, such as what plants can be found in what places, etc.
AFAIK, He eventually basically admitted to this. But he appears to have been not so much a fraud as a prankster and a story teller. So enjoy your reading. Just don’t confuse it with actual ethno-botany or anthropology.
What did Castenada write about anyways? Was he a fiction writer or something?
it’s called “fictional non-fiction”.
The books were supposedly the accounts of Castenada’s training in a shamanistic/magical/whatever tradition of Yaqui “Sorcery” by the Yaqui sorcerer/warrior Don Juan, whom Castenada met while doing ethno-botanical fieldwork.
The first two books were mainly about drug experiences, and starting with the third he got into dreaming stuff. After a couple of these it got ludicrously elaborate and complicated, but people kept snapping up each new book as they came out.
So, they are based in reality but aren’t actually factual stories?
No, they’re fiction, but presented as though they actually happened.
Ahhh, I see.
Maybe I’ll give them a read, they sound interesting.
? Somebody else must have mentioned that. In my NDs, DCs usually have a point.
Well, I also think that he rather made it all up. However, this does not mean that his works have no value. They may not be authentic but they still can be valuable. For example, my LD experiences started after I read about watching your own hands in your dreams (was it in the Journey to Ixtlan?). Many things that he describes in his Art of Dreaming quite accurately reflect on how one’s perception work in an LD.
I also noticed that for some reason there are few ‘strange’ things in my LDs while plenty of them in NDs. Since I ‘killed’ a monster several years ago in an LD, all LDs have been particularly boring when compared to NDs; not a single monster since that time 
. This fits well in how Castaneda explains the evasive behaviour of scouts, no matter whether he was telling the truth or not.
If anyone of you guys is more lucky than me in bumping into scouts, give it a try - who knows what you can get out of it (and what they can get out of you)!
I didn’t try this myself.
A very good LD’er, Flo, tried to see scouts with the “pointing finger” technique, and it gave no result. She tried also the “twin sleep position” (in your LD, you fall asleep in the same position you’re really sleeping). No results, too. 
I could explain this naturally. If you kill a monster, it means that you do no more experience fear in LD’s. Dreams are made of your emotions. No more fear, no more monsters.
Expressed in a Castanedian way, you’ll probably remember that inorganic beings feed themselves on fear.
There is perhaps a relation between fear and energy. Flo noticed that there is a dream state, full of energy, in which the dream background is not fully constitued. She named it the “grey world”. In this state, your thoughts and emotions quite immediatly take form. She said that the more energy is invested in the dream, the more the dream is clear and solid; and the less you can practise energy exercices in it.
Moreover, I don’t think that Castaneda clearly understood some points about dreaming. Do you remember when he met the tiger in a shared LD with La Gorda? How is it possible that, while he thought the tiger was real, La Gorda told him it was just a dream? She speaks exactly like a LD’er. Didn’t they receive the same teachings? 
Yes, Carlos Castenada clearly had some useful insughts. And this has been acknowleged by many of the same researchers that pointed out that it is actually fiction.
(A somewhat similar case is that of Kilton Stewart, and his anthropological work on the Senoi tribal dream tradition – which apparently has little to do with the Senoi).
Still, aside from “finding your hands” and perhaps a few other useful nuggets, most of his writing is pure fantasy. If anyone knows some good examples of useful info, please point them out. I personally don’t have the time to do that much reading, researching, double-checking, debunking, validating and sifting through work that deliberately blurs or ignores the line between pretence and reality.
Basilus and Artizzzan: An even easier way to explain the loss of ‘scouts’ in Artizzzan’s dreams, could be down to the placebo effec. Remember, placebo’s affect everything in your dreams.
Good suggestion. I guess you remember that according to Castaneda DCs are the most powerful and dangerous scouts who don’t feed on fears. They might well represent human feelings. However, most of Carlos’ scouts are just strange objects, not necessarily scary. They are just strange, different from their ‘normal’ environment. Although now I see another explanation why I don’t encounter them in my LDs.
Castaneda was explaining that the objects start losing their shape once you try focus on them. It is quite common in NDs when something strange grabs your attention. Don Juan told Carlos not to focus on anything particular in his dreams. Otherwise it is quite likely that you will wake up. I quickly realised that glancing instead of staring both makes the dream world more steady and gives you more time to explore it. Probably, this comes at the expense of poor scouts and monsters.
But I do recall that the DCs who attract my attention in my LDs start changing their shape and I have no control over them.
What kind of energy exercises? This ‘grey’ description reminds me the OBE-type surroundings which I perceive as more ‘energetic’ than LDs.
Oh, this technique is my favorite and the only one that gave me several OBEs.
To be honest, can’t remember that episode. Funny enough, I better recall the techniques themselves rather than this kind of stuff. I can just guess that she was more masterful in LDs. Anyway, I think Castaneda deliberately plaid a fool when descibing his real or not that real experiences.
You can read Ken Eagle Feather; he is the one who uses Castaneda’s techniques and looks like his honest follower. I see no reason why not to try Castaneda’s techniques ‘there’. I find the Jorney to Ixtlan and the Art of Dreaming as the most useful ones that have a lot of good stuff.
You mean ‘you see what you believe in’? Who knows, who knows.
Bernard, every time I read a paragraph of his books again, I’m fill with wonder by the profoundness of its content. If Castaneda is a fiction writer, he’s probably one of the very best of the XX century. It’s impossible to summarize his work.
Artizzzan, I’ll read again his books. I can’t reply to your comments about scouts, I don’t remember what he said.
Any sort of exercises: breathing, mantras, chakras, etc.
That’s exactly what she meant, OBE-type surroundings. According to her, this ‘grey world’ is clearly related with OBE’s.
I agree with Sureal. Not really placebo effect, IMO, but beliefs.
I don’t trust anybody amongst the Castaneda’s followers. I’m allergic to feathers. Sorry. 
i’ve seen “scouts” many a time in bedroom environments, i just bump into an invisible person/thing and grab a hold and such.
they won’t talk though.
it might also be perhaps your “astral double” or you confusing your real body with your fake one, or something… i dunno.
What are these scouts that Castaneda wrote of anyway?
Are they like Spirit Guides or something?
Essentially, they are indeed like SG’s. If I were Castaneda, I would have said that SG’s are disguised scouts. Scouts can appear in any shapes. If you believe in SG’s, they would fool you to believe that you are dealing with one of them.
An important thing he wrote about scouts is that they never tell you anything new. All you hear from them is what you already know or something you don’t realise you already know.
In a way, you can use them no matter whether you believe in them (or whether they are real). If you ask them how you can improve your LD skills, they might help. Treat it as if they were bringing to the surface what you already know subconsciously.