new age

This is maybe the most practical book written about nagualism, as first described by Carlos Castaneda. It took me a long time to read this book, not because it was slow or dense, but because there are so many descriptions of practical exercises (often reminiscent of certain aspects of Tensegrity, but not always), that it took me five times as long to practice the maneuvers than to actually do the reading.

That said, it is a very good book, even if you're not planning to recapitulate or anything like that. For people who haven't read any Castaneda, it will probably seem a little off-the-wall, especially given that Taisha Abelar doesn't really provide a wealth of explanations as to what she experienced -- only descriptions -- which is perhaps a sign of why Castaneda described her as such a stupendous stalker.

This book is a good entry point into sorcery, especially so for women who have had a hard time getting into Castaneda, because of his inherently male bias. This book also works really well in conjunction with "Being in Dreaming" by Florinda Donner -- together, the two books cover the companion disciplines of stalking and dreaming.

Finally, if you're serious about freeing up energy and breaking the barriers of perception, Taisha Abelar's book has the most detailed account of the recapitulation out of any of the related works. You'll learn a lot by listening to what she is told.

First I must say that I consider these books (from Castaneda, Donner-Grau, Abelar etc) fiction. However by that I am not saying that the practices don't work -- they definitely do. For more information on refer to the site sustainedaction.org.

This book gives an different approach from that of Carlos Castaneda. Taisha does no lucid dreaming, but other exercises -- stalking, recapitulation, Tensegrity, kung Fu. The book contains good descriptions of some exercises, including the best description on recapitualation. The reader should be warned that there is one exercise (Small Heavenly Circulation, the one where Taisha is to move energy along the midline of her body from her vagina, over her back, her head and further down to her vagina again), that is potentially dangerous if practiced as casually as presented.

What I liked especially was that Taisha does not disdain practices like kungfu or meditation as strongly as Castaneda. This is a point where Castaneda was definitely lying, considering he practiced kungfu for over 10 years.

The book lacks the aphorisms and anecdotes of Carlos's books. The special type of humor familiar to reader of CC is also present in an inferor way. At the moment, however this is my favorite of all the "Ancient Mexican Shamanism, since 1950" books.

Another work of fiction from the Castanada "disciples"..To enjoy this book you must have bought into the Castananda myth of Don Juan.. Read Amy Wallace's book about Castanada and the "witches" before wasting your money on this book.