A violent and indecipherable start, I know. So let's go little by little.

Carlos Castañeda, or Castaneda, as he is known for his books, came to me almost magically.

I remember that, since I was very little, one of the books my father had in his library caught my attention: The Second Ring of Power (my father prefers to read in English). Although I didn't even fully understand what the title said, I memorized his name. It was a book that, whenever I went to my old man's house, attracted me. It was like a source of power.

Much later, in my early twenties, rummaging through the bookstore that was in the Chacaíto Shopping Center, a reference for me, I found the book in Spanish. I immediately knew that I should buy it and satisfy my curiosity.

Although I am a very broad person when conceptualizing reality, a great admirer of Zen stories and teachings, at first it was difficult for me to enter it. I was not able to see anything in that haze of words. But, even so, I could perceive that there was something important in them.

I decided that the problem resided in the fact that I wanted to evaluate and value what Castañeda said based on my cultural reference, using my intellectual patterns to pigeonhole things and feel comfortable and safe.

I began to read again without trying to judge everything and without trying to feel so intelligent. I let the words say what the author wanted to say and not what I wanted them to say.

There I entered a new world and a different way of evaluating life and its objectives.

I must say that, to understand and visualize things that Castañeda wrote, the experiences I had when I was recovering from a traffic accident that left me in a coma helped.

In that recovery stage, one of the hemispheres of my brain was very inflamed and was not working properly. In fact, I tried to speak and said nonsense: the words that came out of my mouth had nothing to do with what I wanted to say, even though I thought they were correct. In that state, the hemisphere that was healthy assumed what the other did, but in its own terms. Therefore, in that state, I was able to perceive life in another way and have abilities that would seem impossible to me, if I had not experienced them.

Accordingly, I must say that Carlos Castaneda was very famous in the 70s because his books talk about the consumption of peyote as a tool to achieve states that allow us to perceive reality in another way (I will say it this way, so that you understand me).

I achieved by a blow possibilities of perceiving things in another way, while the inhabitants of northern Mexico used drugs for it. Many young people of that hippie era used Castañeda's books to get into whatever they could, supposedly for cultural purposes. That made him famous for good and bad reasons.

Now, the formal analysis: Castañeda's work recounts his learning of the art of nahualism or shamanism of the Mesoamericans or Amerindians who resided in Central and South America of the USA.

He, a Peruvian who studied anthropology in California, while conducting studies for his thesis met Don Juan Matus, a Yaqui Indian who introduced him to the world of sorcerers or warriors. From that thesis his first book was born: The Teachings of Don Juan.

Ready. So far the encyclopedic text. Now, summarizing too much, let's get to the point: according to Don Juan, the world that the common man perceives is only one of the millions that we are capable of perceiving.

As he explained, the human being is an egg of energy, which possesses a sphere of differentiated energy within it through which some of the millions of energy filaments that the Eagle spits out, the center that generates all the energy of the universe, pass.

The human being is capable of perceiving only the energy filaments or realities that pass through that point, called the assembly point.

Supposedly, when we are very young, the assembly point moves freely and very easily, until socialization fixes it at a specific point, which allows it to perceive the world like the rest of us.

The first seers, sorcerers or warriors were able to perceive this and created the path of the warrior or witchcraft, whose objective is to learn to move the assembly point at will. In practical terms, perceive other worlds and take advantage of them.

But of course, this is not as simple as wanting it: you must have a specific energetic configuration and lead a life full of demands and learning, which have nothing to do with our day-to-day, to achieve it.

In his books Carlos Castañeda recounts all his experiences with Don Juan, his Nagual (Teacher or group leader) and his disciples. Each group of warriors is made up of a male nagual, a female nagual and a series of warriors who must be dreamers and stalkers (skills that must be developed).

Many of these teachings have things in common with those of Buddha and Jesus Christ, but their purposes, apparently, are different. For example, the death of the ego. According to Don Juan, the ego, maintaining the image that we create of ourselves, consumes almost all of our energy. That leaves us very little for tasks that are really important for sorcerers.

He also gives Castaneda tasks to end his self-pity and that of others.

Another of the teachings is that of dreaming. According to Don Juan, when we dream our assembly point is released and other worlds can be perceived. Learning to dream means learning to be aware in our dreams, perceiving other worlds and taking advantage of them.

Before reading The Art of Dreaming I slept like a log and did not remember any of my dreams. After reading it, I began to practice ways of being aware in my dreams. Today I can tell you that I have learned to fly, like Superman; I recurrently find myself in places to which I belong in those dreams, with people who have a history and I can recognize; I have composed music, or I have been able to convert a classical music that was playing into a techno that was better adapted to the environment in which I found myself. I have woken up from a dream within another dream, to continue in the new one (supposedly, a resource that generates a lot of energy).

Castaneda explains that at first the ancient sorcerers took advantage of these techniques to have benefits in purely earthly and human approaches, which almost led to their disappearance. Then came a group of new sorcerers whose only objective is to generate enough energy to satisfy the eagle when our time comes to die. Don Juan explained to him that we are a sphere of conscious energy that the Eagle spits out; that, when we die, that bubble explodes and the energy is reabsorbed by the Eagle. That if you generate enough energy and satisfy its demands, the Eagle allows you to remain as a conscious energy forever.

Of course, this is what I have concluded after reading many of Castaneda's books over many years. And of course, I am not a sorcerer nor have I dedicated myself to living according to those demands nor to looking for the person, the nagual, who will explain it to me and guide me.

What I am is a human being very curious to hear new interpretations, with meaning, about our life and the doubts that accompany most human beings.

Of course, some say that Castaneda is a charlatan. I do not know. If everything he writes is invented, he was a genius. In his books I have found brilliant syntheses about human behavior and society; explanations to worlds that I have been able to live in dreams or in the state in which I found myself, after the accident.

If you are a curious person and open to new interpretations about what we are, I recommend it. But be patient, to understand it completely you must stop judging.