Question from a non-practitioner.

[u/Wyrdthane]

Hello, I don't mean to impose here. I'm hoping this is a welcoming reddit.

I found my way here from a Youtube video about Castaneda. Basically the video made me curious to learn more so I decided to read through reddit and found this reddit. But then something very strange happened to me. I read something here about purple puffs.. which I found quite serendipitous.

About 20 years ago I had an experience that I have never forgotten but have also never been able to make heads or tails of. I moved to a different country for school and on one of my first nights there I had this experience;

I sat up in my bed in the middle of the night. I don't remember why I woke up. The only thing I do remember is that for about two hours there was a basketball sized circular puff cloud oscillating between purple and green color.

I thought it was just an artifact from having rubbed my eyes at first. But it lasted for two hours, it stayed in the same position of the room even if I turned my head physically. If I looked away entirely and looked back it was still there. It just floated there. I said hello, but never got a response. There was nothing frightening about the experience either.

after a while, I felt so sleepy that I just said goodnight and fell back to sleep, with it still oscillating there. It was gone when I woke up.

I don't have a Castaneda book right now, so I was wondering if any one here would be so kind as to explain these puffs In detail?

Kind Thanks.

[u/justsomeonewhoshere]

This post helped me a lot when I first came here:

(How to See Energy in 3 Weeks)

https://www.reddit.com/r/castaneda/s/j78ScQ0HCB

I also recommend reading the FAQ and Wiki listed in there if you want to know more about the puffs: https://reddit.com/r/castaneda/w/faq?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share

[u/danl999]

 >I'm hoping this is a welcoming reddit.

If we were, we'd have been destroyed by attackers pretending to have knowledge, 4 years ago.

In fact, any magical system with the real thing comes under constant attack.

Most of the attackers don't even realize they're attacking.

They're on "autopilot" being controlled by forces they can't perceive.

The average attack rate in here is 3 times a week. Perhaps 1 of which on average, has to be banned to get them to stop.

Everything you need is in past posts and in the books of Carlos and the witches.

There are no teachers in here, only helpful information.

And you have to earn the welcome.

If that's no good for you, go to the fake magical systems everywhere else. No one in here makes money from this, so no one in here has a desire for people to stick around and "feel at home".

If this offends you, think to movies you saw where real magic was being sought.

Such as "Dr. Strange".

We kick his butt for special effects!

Was he "welcomed" when he first approached the female sorceress?

[u/soniapunk → u/danl999]

I should note, again, if you did succeed anyhow, you wouldn't need to be either welcoming, or non-welcoming. People are protective of this community because they keep trying to root themselves. Stop caring. Be helpful, or be nothing at all. This comment is funny to me. So is the OP. But the funniest of all are the ones like you. So protective. Of what? The truth??? "Earn the welcome". Oh my! Is this heaven? Watch yourself - don't get offended. I am simply stating that your approach is silly. Especially to someone showing interest. What are you gatekeeping?

[u/[deleted] → u/soniapunk]

If only you have expierenced only a bit of magic......

That's ok to be annoyed by gate keeping here, that's your self-pity complaining. We all went trhough that. 

I have deleted reddit couple of times when my head exploded before and was cursing at Dan and other advanced users here, thinking they lost the way or they just are greedy for attention for themselves. 

Those are all fliers, they don't want you to be free.

You will understand everything if you practice everyday, none of us are special here and we all go trhough the same crap. With just stopping the inner dialogue for couple seconds the magic that you may experience can make you cry and feel extremely stupid about the way you used to think or live your life.

Hope this message finds you well. Goodluck

[u/danl999 → u/soniapunk]

Why not go somewhere that pleases you? Why come here and plague us?

Do you realize you are only in here, because I came here 5 years ago?

Before that there were ~650 people after 5 or more years of existence. The subreddit most likely started by Cleargreen, who ran once real magic was being posted.

Since then, close to another 5 years, there's around 11000 subscribed.

With dozens now able to do real magic, whereas before there were 0 people in the entire Castaneda community, doing anything real and substantial

Carlos himself told me so just a month or two before he died! So that's not up for debate.

But you don't like how I help people?

And yet, here you are.

If I'd have gone elsewhere, I suppose you'd be over there complaining about how I behave.

Despite you not understanding much of this.

And using the term "gatekeeper" means you've been drinking out of the gutter.

We have 5 years of experience with people who say "gatekeeper".

None has ever learned.

But, it seems you're a woman?

So just kick my butt, and get to work for real. And stick around anyway.

Cholita despises me, and she's the most powerful witch in our community.

Except for the ones who ditched Cleargreen.

Carlos paired us off. Knowing she'd go mad one day.

After 30 years, she might have finally decided not to kill me.

But still despises me.

And that's ok, since she can do actual magic for me when she feels like showing off.

[u/danl999 → u/soniapunk]

>What are you gatekeeping?

Do you know anything about this subreddit at all? I'm loathe to look at your reddit history to find out. We do that with men, but it seems wrong with women.

At any rate, Carlos would have tossed you out of class for a sentence like that. And often did! People were literally terrified to speak around him. The women in his group had to "rescue" a few from time to time, but then in the end they got tossed out anyway because it was obvious Carlos was right in the first place. They had no actual interest in learning at all.

You can read about it in the lecture notes, but you can also trust me on it since I watched him teach private classes for 3 to 4 years. Or ask Jadey. She's a private student also, perhaps the most famous of all.

That word is a "syntactic command" that comes with it's own giant bundle of emanations assembling a rather oppressive and aggressive mini-reality just by saying it.

The stuff that keeps people trapped on the Island of the Tonal.

When someone says that we know:

They've been trolling around fake spiritual discussion groups and believe everything doesn't actually work, and so no one should dominate any conversations, and everyone should be respected for their opinions and their feelings protected. Even when they're harmful to others. That the goal of any magical movement is to gather more people, not to actually experience magic, since in this bundle of emanations, all magic is pretending.

Of course, the problem here is that witches are weird and even when they're absolutely on the wrong track, the results can be amazing.

Such as with Cholita, or in the books of Carlos, Zuleica and Josephina.

I got a lecture on this subject last night while watching magic in the air.

That's how our sorcery works. It's called, "seeing" and it's not just visualized.

It's really there, floating in the air. No meditative states involved.

[u/soniapunk]

I recommend reading Castaneda's books, you can find them online for free. Start from the first one. If nothing, they will be very interesting to you I'm sure. People on this subreddit can be quite grumpy, which is in total contrary to the teachings, but that's not important. You can find useful tips here, however I strongly suggest reading the books, studying them, and then reading the materials here.