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Rating: 
Summary: Who said it would be easy?
Review: According to the Sorcerers of ancient Mexico, antagonistic forces intentionally bombard human beings from the moment of their birth. The result of this ceaseless bombardment is the dispersal of energy, which should be located in the vital energy centers, to the periphry of the luminous cocoon. After many years this energy becomes stuck to the periphery, stiff and hard, like bark, and unavailable. Thus we become stiff and lacking in energy, or old in the colloquial sense. The magical passes purport to jolt and unstick this energy, making it available to us again! However, it would appear unrealistic to expect the damage accrued over many years of "harassment" to be undone overnight! A ceaseless bombardment caused the problem, and a ceaseless process is needed to correct it. This process might be likened to the removal of calcium deposits from an old bathtub using a mild scouring cleanser; though it might take days or months, it could eventually be accomplished. Based on the above premise, the Magical Passes book, the Tensegrity videos, and/or the attendance of Tensegrity seminars are recommended.
Rating:
Summary: They work if you do
Review: I ordered this book the moment I saw who the author was. This man taught me SO much back in the late 60s & early 70s..he is, indeed, a master at understanding "places" and "forces" most don't even know exist.
Rating: 
Summary: It works
Review: I tried the magical passes and that night I had a very strange dream that was half-lucid, with a higher level of consciousness than in usual dreams. I was amazed by that. I simplly tried to learn the magical passes for dreaming, working on it for about half an hour.
Rating: 
Summary: The Most OBVIOUS Fraud Castaneda Ever Did
Review: It's amusing to see that the other reviewers did not recognize that "magical passes" are actually an obvious (and quite cheesy) ripoff of TAI CHI. Castaneda actually had to pay a huge settlement to the Tai Chi master he stole his ideas from.Even more telling about Castaneda's followers is their utter ignorance of the history of Native peoples of Mexico. There is nothing even remotely similar to "magical passes) among Mexico's Indians, and never has been. Thinking there is only reveals the depth of their wishful thinking, how desperate they are to give up on rational thought and follow blindly a man who was debunked over thirty years ago. Castaneda by this point in his life had long since quit pretending he had ever been truthful. In fact since the late 1970s he openly admitting to being a fraud and a liar. He laughed at his own followers and took perverse pleasure in exploiting them and seeing just how much nonsense they would swallow. This books was just the last sad chapter in a lifetime of hustling posing as spirituality seeking.
Rating:
Summary: Onwards To Infinity
Review: Magical Passes the book is out, 486 photos with a woman calledKylie - she appears on the tensegrity tapes, and a man called Miles,both showing throughout the book how to execute a series of novel movements to promote energy and well-being. The black and white photos are of the highest quality in all respects. The only critique to the entire book is that the publishers should had given copies of the book beforehand to several selected people who had never seen these movements in their lives, write down and add their suggestions on how to make the descriptions of the movements more clear. Therefore I give the book a nine. The other critique is to the usage of the word tensegrity itself. Tensegrity is a term borrowed from architecture. It is a vast discipline today involving civil, structural and mechanical engineering, mathematics, calculus, algebra and geometry, applied to the design and engineering of primarily space structures, eg, bridges. First concocted by Buckminster Fuller back in the forties at the prompt of one of his cohorts Ken Snelson's sculpture, which he very convinientely ignored, it is two words glued together, tension and integrity, to form tensegrity....The series for preparing intent, womb, westwood, heat, left and right body and masculinity series, and at the very end the devices, balls and paper-weight, used in conjunction with specific magical passes are covered. Nothing on not-doings or the sorcerer's code. None of the passes shown on the tapes are mentioned. Lots of info on what each pass is for and detailed descriptions on how to do them which, as mentioned before the publishers could have learned enourmously by providing copies beforehand to physical instructors, gymnasts, tai-chi, anatomy folks, etc., for syntax, movement and taxonomy review in order to make the descriptions easier and clearer to understand. Often with more than one photo for each pass, the book's short intro is great, packed with Don Juan's unequaled prose and incredible sense of timing. This is exciting. If this works humans can for the first time from this point on in history easily do away with all leaders, bosses, tutors, instructors, gurus, presidents, popes, over the shoulder nerds and other self-appointed cooks, you name it, any ape with a stick, to freely and willingly plot their way into their own evolution, and into infinity. Keep all your fingers tensely crossed, and good luck to y'll. Mandatorily recommended. Yes, this is a dictartorship.
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Summary: It's a WORK-BOOK
Review: This book by Carlos Castaneda is different then those before (9). Older books one can simply "read", this is a *REAL* Work-Book, and in order to benefit from it, one must do the work, the magical passes. For those out of the arm-chair and wanting to navigate infinity there is a way(s), and the magical passes may take you there, or not. Sorcery is a solo flight/fight. Don't get this book for a quick read, remember, it's a WORK-BOOK, so get to work! ..... Paul
Rating: 
Summary: Castaneda is a tricky subject
Review: This book is basically another approach to the same things Tai Chi and Yoga have already been doing, and in fact the movements are essentially the same most of the time.
Well, by now, we should all be aware that Carlos Castaneda is a creative individual who created his world of Don Juan and the Mexican Shamans himself, and not the esoteric initiate of any super sacred line. This doesnt make the practices he describes less valid. If his words speak to you in a way the other materials did not, then he has succeeded as an author. If he has opened your eyes to a wider world, he has done his job. His language is a fair amount more engaging and open than the more "serious" materials can be, so it is an excellent book for your spiritually minded High Schooler, or new age beginner.
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Summary: Castaneda's Legacy
Review: This book, the separate two video set (also entitled "Magical Passes") and Carlos's "Wheel of Time" book constitute Castaneda's legacy of "abstract sorcery" for the general public. CC's extended apprenticeship with Don Juan is detailed in the 8 or 9 books beginning with "Don Juan" and ending with the "Art of Dreaming." In the Nagualist Newsletter, privately published by Daniel Lawton, fans of the series reported how they had gleaned "not doings" and "dreaming techniques" from the Don Juan books. Then two of CC's cohorts, Donner and Abelar, gave bookstore lectures on practical application of the materials, such as recapitulation, and then began teaching movements they called the Magical Passes or later, Tensegrity. Most people who tried the Passes in the various workshops that followed reported a feeling of energy, or well being, and of a reduction in the "internal dialog." The public materials on Tensegrity consist of the three videos released before this book, this book, and the two video set that is based on this book. This book contains some complex and some simple movements. Some sets are easier to learn on your own than others. Some feel better to different people than others. In between the various sets described in the book are snippets of explanation written in the "Don Juan" style, that is ascribed to Don Juan with most of the wit and humor, and insights, that make the Don Juan series so interesting. Some of these exercises are more vigorous than they sound, and beginners are cautioned to work through them gently at first until they find their limits. The best description of these passes (to compare them with something else) is that they are a cross between qi gong movements, martial arts movements and Gurdjieffian body movements. Whatever they are, they do produce results.
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Summary: Land of Confusion, Mixture of Many Things, New Age Aerobic
Review: Well, Castaneda has never acted as an author properly indicating where certain information is 'hired' from and Don Juan was always a good medium for hiding his conceptual weaknesses. If you ever get involved in studying and practising Eastern philosophy of any sorts(yoga, buddhism, thai-chi, etc.) and then you meet Castaneda, especially this Magical Aerobic book, it is so easy to recognize that there is nothing new he could offer - it is simply a mixture of many meaningful, esoteric things without proper foundation - in terms of concepts it is a land of confusion. After a short introduction, he provides the Dear Reader with many aerobic-like easy-to-do excercises. This book is a real must for all the bored, difficult-to-get-amused housewife type of person. A real disappointment for all who believed that he could deliver some meaning. He should definitely know after ages of documenting his troubles with and fears associated with meeting the unseen that such skills are not for sale.
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