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A wonderful book to ponder on	Customer Rating:
I loved this book! The author is descriptive and clear bringing the reader into the story and making them really care about the characters and their feelings. The theories and practices that are described and interesting and easy to follow if one desires to do them. I loved this book and found myself wanting more at the end.

wonderland revisited	Customer Rating:
This book was my first introdction to the Castenada books. Abelar is one of 16 female members of carlos' clan. Her journey from insecure artist to competant "sorceress" was fascinating and informative. It was easy to get lost in the world of her magic apprenticeship. Great reading!

Good Book	Customer Rating:
Good book. Talks about the recap as per her experience and an interesting read. Was part of my interests for sometime. Highly recommended.

Sorcery from a woman's perspective

Customer Rating:

For anyone who has followed the legendary exploits of Carlos Castaneda, whether you judge them to be fact or fiction, the personal account of Taisha Ablelar's induction into Castaneda's realm is an experience not to be missed. If anything, her accounts offer the reader a level of clarity and easy understanding of Castaneda's concepts that surpass even her infamous mentor. However, in the interest of providing a modicum of balance, the reader may also want to peruse another work by one of her longtime comrades-in-arms. I speak here of "Sorcerer's Apprentice," author, well-known writer Amy Wallace, daughter of the late best selling novelist Irving Wallace. While this work offers little corroboration of either Castaneda's or Abelar's claimed experiences in the realm of sorcery, since the time of the events she describes is well after the period when their relationships with don Juan were alleged to have occurred, it does provide a troubling look inside Castaneda's, Abelar's and Wallace's final years together, a picture of descent into sexual addiction and possibly madness, leaving one to wonder if Castaneda's entire circle may have been just one cup of cool-aid short of a Jonestown. On a personal note, many have asked me why I put any stock whatsoever in the tall tales of Castaneda and his associates, Abelar included. A story from my own autobiography, "The Vortex" may shed some light. A year before Castaneda published his first book I had an experience that would remain a mystery until Castaneda published "Power of Silence" twenty years later. For a brief time, in my youth, I became a practicing Muslim, meticulously performing the complex prayer ritual five times a day. Then one night, sitting in my car, frustrated and complaining at not being able to find the address of my next sales appointment, something inside me snapped. It was as if some part of me had disconnected from my body and assumed control, lecturing me about my lack of discipline. A profound calm settled over me, rendering me simultaneously detached and engaged. For two days my sales figures soared. It was as if no one could say no to me. On the evening of the second day I decided to put my new state of being to the acid test by visiting my parents. Their response was cordial beyond anything I had ever experienced from them, and convinced me that I was now living in an altered reality. But by the following morning I had returned to "normal." So distracting had this event been that I had completely forgotten to perform my Muslim prayers, and in fact, never did so again. Twenty years later, in a chapter of "Power of Silence" entitled "Place of No Pity" Castaneda describes a very similar experience. In the aftermath of the event don Juan explains that humans are like televisions stuck on a channel called "self-preoccupation," lacking the energy to tune into any of the vast array of other channels available to us. To change channels, he explains, we first need to accumulate energy, by practicing rituals that are deliberate, precise and repetitious. Do this long enough and eventually we experience a shift to a channel where self-importance and self pity are no longer possible. Once this happens we connect with the force that controls the entire universe, a force called "intent," and everything can be bent to our will and even more channels can be opened, assuming we remember to keep practicing the rituals that save our energy. This one realization alone was enough to inspire me to dedicate my autobiography "To Carlos, with gratitude." Maxwell Austin van Lack, Author of The Vortex: A True Story of Passion and Karma

Something different	Customer Rating:
Breathtaking! A journey into, or maybe I should say OUT of this world! We all need to consider Taisha Abelar's story as reality, because who are we to say/judge what is real and what's not? Astonishing statements, I was only able to read a chapter at the time, to be able to actually absorb and understand the assertions.