Does the unconscious exists?

Originally posted by David C
Indeed. Castaneda drew lucid dreaming into his new age shamanism, thereby consigning it to "flakiness".

Yeah, although Journey to Ixtlan was not too flaky--no flakier than Zen or Taoism--and even Tales of Power was good; after that they got kinda weird... But I remembered "looking for your hand."

EDIT: Okay, there was weird stuff in those books too, but I took a lot of it allegorically...

Originally posted by kirksey957
OK, I did that. Nothing happened.

However, I have been known to go to sleep with a dilemma and I do believe that my unconscious solved the problem for me. I have no way of explaining this "apparition."

I am hoping that this thread also has some relevence to another thread about the existence of God.

what you are describing here is called "incubation", a situation in which you find yourself unable to solve a problem and then you go to sleep and you wake up and find that your problem has been solved by way of your unconscious.maybe you had a dream in which you had an epiphany or talked with "a wise old man" who gave you the answer that had up till then eluded you.

Originally posted by vistesd
Yeah, although Journey to Ixtlan was not too flaky--no flakier than Zen or Taoism--and even Tales of Power was good; after that they got kinda weird... But I remembered "looking for your hand."

EDIT: Okay, there was weird stuff in those books too, but I took a lot of it allegorically...

Castaneda learned his teachings from a Yaqui shaman who taught him things no Yaqui ever believed. He took in a lot of people with his hoax, which was never any more than a well-crafted set of fantasy novels.

Originally posted by Wulebgr
Castaneda learned his teachings from a Yaqui shaman who taught him things no Yaqui ever believed. He took in a lot of people with his hoax, which was never any more than a well-crafted set of fantasy novels.

He also seemed to borrow a lot from taoism (e.g., wei wu wei = Don Juan's "not doing" ) and some Jungian stuff as well. I think that allegorical and symbolic content is what made them so compelling; very few fantasy writers seem to do that as well--except maybe for Tolkein, who didn't pass it off as anthropology.

Originally posted by kirksey957
I believe that it does, though I cannot see it or touch it. I dream so I think I have evidence of it, though no one else can see my dreams. I have certain behaviors that must be defense mechanisms to hide things that I am afraid of, but people tell me that they are just "behaviors" and indicate nothing. What do you think?

It does, but it's a very woolly concept, a "tumbling ground for whimseys", as William James said. The drawing of further conceptual distinctions is necessary, to prevent lapses into unproductive abstraction.