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Cleargreen Cult

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educatedindian:
The long needed topic. Here's background on them.

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http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2007/04/12/castaneda/index3.html
In the late '80s, perhaps because book sales had slowed, or perhaps because he no longer feared media scrutiny, Castaneda sought to expand. Jennings believes he may have been driven by a desire to please Partin. Geuter confirms that Castaneda told followers that the Blue Scout had talked him into starting Cleargreen. But she also suggests another motivation. "He was thinking about what he wanted for the rest of his life," Geuter told me. "He always talked about 'going for the golden clasp.' He wanted to finish with something spectacular."

Castaneda investigated the possibility of incorporating as a religion, as L. Ron Hubbard had done with Scientology. Instead, he chose to develop Tensegrity, which, Jennings believes, was to be the means through which the new faith would spread. Tensegrity is a movement technique that seems to combine elements of a rigid version of tai chi and modern dance. In all likelihood the inspiration came from karate devotees Donner-Grau and Abelar, and from his years of lessons with martial arts instructor Howard Lee. Documents found by Geuter show him discussing a project called "Kung Fu Sorcery" with Lee as early as 1988. The more elegant "Tensegrity" was lifted from Buckminster Fuller, for whom it referred to a structural synergy between tension and compression. Castaneda seems to have just liked the sound of it.

A major player in promoting Tensegrity was Wagner, whose fifth novel, "The Chrysanthemum Palace," was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner prize (his sixth, "Memorial," was recently released by Simon and Schuster). Wagner hadn't yet published his first novel when he approached Castaneda in 1988 with the hope of filming the don Juan books. Within a few years, according to Jennings and Wallace, he became part of the inner circle. He was given the sorceric name Lorenzo Drake -- Enzo for short. As the group began to emerge from the shadows, holding seminars in high school auditoriums and on college campuses, Wagner, tall, bald and usually dressed in black, would, according to Geuter and Wallace, act as a sort of bouncer, removing those who asked unwanted questions. (Wagner declined requests for an interview.) In 1995 Wagner, who'd previously been wed to Rebecca De Mornay, married Tiggs. That same year his novel "I'm Losing You" was chosen by the New York Times as a notable book of the year. John Updike, in the New Yorker, proclaimed that Wagner "writes like a wizard."

In the early '90s, to promote Tensegrity, Castaneda set up Cleargreen, which operated out of the offices of "Rugrats" producer and Castaneda agent (and part-time sorcerer) Tracy Kramer, a friend of Wagner's from Beverly Hills High. Although Castaneda wasn't a shareholder, according to Geuter, "he determined every detail of the operation." Jennings and Wallace confirm that Castaneda had complete control of Cleargreen. (Cleargreen did not respond to numerous inquiries from Salon.) The company's official president was Amalia Marquez (sorceric name Talia Bey), a young businesswoman who, after reading Castaneda's books, had moved from Puerto Rico to Los Angeles in order to follow him.

At Tensegrity seminars, women dressed in black, the "chacmools," demonstrated moves for the audience. Castaneda and the witches would speak and answer questions. Seminars cost up to $1,200, and as many as 800 would attend. Participants could buy T-shirts that read "Self Importance Kills -- Do Tensegrity." The movements were meant to promote health as well as help practitioners progress as warriors. Illness was seen as a sign of weakness. Wallace recalls the case of Tycho, the Orange Scout (supposedly the Blue Scout's sister). "She had ulcerative colitis," Wallace told me. "She was trying to keep it a secret because if Carlos knew you were sick he'd punish you. If you went for medical care, he'd kick you out." Once Tycho's illness was discovered, Wallace said, Tycho was expelled from the group.

educatedindian:
Statement about survivors of the cult.

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http://www.sustainedaction.org/Explorations/compassion_for_cleargreen.htm
Compassion for the Remaining Staff at Cleargreen:
The Difficulties of Emerging from a Cult
Introduction by Corey Donovan

In honor of the holiday season, not to mention the ending of a millenium, I would like to urge us to take a moment to find compassion and love in our hearts for the remaining gang at Cleargreen.

While they do and say things from time to time that may make a number of us angry, I don't want us to lose sight of the fact that they are the biggest victims of Castaneda's often abusive, authoritarian guru behavior, and that, as a result, they cannot exactly be expected to think or act entirely very rationally.

In my research, I've learned that a number of them come from very messed up backgrounds, and were, in some cases, either in bad physical or mental health (or both) when they met Castaneda. They have been taught to attribute their improved functioning to Castaneda. Like everyone else who came to work for Cleargreen when Castaneda was still alive, these people turned their lives over to Castaneda, ultimately submitting to his complete and unquestionable authority.

As the material on this site from The Guru Papers argues, this can, initially at least, be an empowering and energizing state for people who have long suffered from conflicting feelings and thoughts, since they now no longer have to think for themselves. Castaneda's group only slept with the people they were told to sleep with, only ate the food they were told to eat, only remained in touch with the friends or family they were allowed to remain in touch with, were barred from talking--even with each other--about things that they were not allowed to talk about, and were regularly given immensely time-consuming tasks that guaranteed they would have no room in their schedules to think about themselves. They were also kept in a constant state of concern that they were going to lose contact with the person on whom they had become so completely dependent (since people whom Castaneda threw out found that telephone numbers would immediately be changed and they would be barred from any further contact whatsoever). Emotionally, then, they were kept in a constant state of anxiety and focus on the guy in control.

When Castaneda died (after concealing the true extent of his condition from many of them in his final months), they were denied even the outlet of publicly grieving their loss. Those that remained (Fabricio left after a month or two--having lost not only Castaneda but the woman he loved that he gave up to Castaneda: Talia) simply shifted their allegiance and obedience to Carol. Can people like this afford to admit that Carol--who shows every sign of being an acute narcissist--is not a special and unique entity deserving of their total allegiance? Admit that she wasn't really out of this world for 10 years, the "energetic fact" that has been held over them for years as the basis for her superiority? No, it would be entirely too threatening. If they have to start thinking for themselves they will have to deal not only with the pain they ran away from in the first place, but also the realization that they were being manipulated and abused by Castaneda for years as well. Better to keep the myth in place and act like nothing whatsoever has happened. Hence, Carol easily succeeds in keeping them from looking at material that might make them question her authority. Yes, a few of them may simply be cynical opportunists willing to take advantage of a group that has put them in an elite position. Most of them, however, are so psychologically damaged that doing anything other than continuing to take orders and maintain the fantasy is too deeply threatening even to contemplate.

For further background on what it must be like for the people who completely turned their lives over to Castaneda, here is the bulk of a groundbreaking piece by Margaret Thaler Singer, the world's leading expert on the psychological dynamics of cults and "deprogramming."

"Coming Out of the Cults," by Margaret Thaler Singer, from Psychology Today January 1979.

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http://www.sustainedaction.org/Explorations/native_american_elders_reactions.htm
Vine Deloria, Jr. on 'don Juan'
From Sandy McIntosh

In trying to understand the problems that people from one culture (ours) meet with when they try to understand something fundamental in another culture (the "wisdom of the shamans of ancient Mexico"), I came upon the following by Vine Deloria, Jr. in his introduction to The Pretend Indian: Images of Native Americans in the Movies: Here he is discussing one of the strongest images whites have about Indians: the "old chief" stereotype.

"Carlos Castaneda parlayed the old man image into a series of best sellers that have much more relationship with an LSD travel tour than with Indians. Whatever Don Juan is, he is far from a recognizable Indian except to confused and psychically injured whites who have a need to project their spiritual energies onto an old Indian for resolution…. The whites are sincere but they are only sincere about what they are interested in, not about Indians about whom they know very little. They get exceedingly angry if you try to tell them the truth and will only reject you and keep searching until they find the Indian of their fantasies…. The obvious solution to the whole thing would be for the whites to achieve some kind of psychological and/or religious maturity. But the whole psychological posture of American society is toward perpetual youth. Everyone believes that he or she must be eternally young. No one wants to believe that he or she is getting or will ever get old. Somehow only Indians get old because the coffee table books are filled with pictures of old Indians but hardly a book exists that has pictures of old whites."

Kevin:
- sounds like the inner circle are candidates for another Waco moment......he could have had more women if he had gone the fundamentalist Mormon route but then maybe all that glitters for him is gold.....la la land

Ari:
Thanks for starting the thread, Al.

I appreciate you brought our attention to compassion issue... To tell sincerely i have no clarity on how to apply compassion to something that was touched and crooked by Castanedian mentality.

You know, if you express compassion to a Casta warrior, expect to be classified as ordinary human - petty tyrant, trying to project your self important victimhood upon ruthless warrior who has no care in the world but to move his assemblage point to as many positions as he can get not limiting himself just with this marvelous world where death as adviser won't give him much more time to treat any action as anything else but last battle on Earth... You know... Practitioner of Juanistic warriors way was invited to disregard any human motivation which not contributing directly to raising of his personal power, personal level of energy. Feelings like compassion were considered a wasteland of petty human conditioning. Warriors were discouraged to give or receive compassion...

All this was attributed to Wisdom of Old Indian Man...

I agree that members of inner circle were victims of Castanedian fraud.

Cleargreen became Castanedian private playground where ultimate abuser arranged his little separate reality to practice his perverted inclinations in total comfort.

People were thrown off of any balance to be truly accountable for their actions and decisions.

But... the guru died in 1998... 10 years ago. Hypnotic spell was broken. After his death the remaining staff of Cleargreen had chance to slow down their big green train and evaluate what they've done and do to make responsible choice: keep this fraud carriage going or ask people for apologies and retreat in whatever else...  as they were offered compassion and understanding...

After death of guru they were not left in the situation of total social breakdown which could affect their responsible decision.  All of them were given chance to study and had valid  degrees of education which they could use to make living, they were given some property rights and some starting funds to have real chance to say "no" to perpetuating the fraud.

Unlike  regular followers from the mass, who were asked to believe and give the project credits in condition of no info available, inner circle of Cleargreen was in direct touch with Castaneda to be able come to conclusions and responsibly refuse to continue with this abusive nonsense after guru's death.

Let me point it out that one thing would be to disregard the facts and keep believing in truthfullness of Castaneda's stories and propositions. Anyone surely have right to believe. Another thing would be to disregard the facts, showing that the plot have been corrupted with exploitive lies and abuse of life and offer this bag of poisons for sale to make a living out of it. Responsible adults are expected to make decision of not supporting the fraud when by common sense they could and should be aware of fraudulent nature of their actions.

Cleargreen officers made their choice: using freedom given by compassionate attitude of regular (ordinary) people and confusion and despair of cheated followers, willing to give them more credits, they decided to continue the fraud.

They did look lost and kinda scared for some time, then they obviously arrived to balance, confidence and professional skills in handling business of fraudulent  pretending, encouraged  by silence of critics and trust of followers. They became proficient and confident in manipulating  with trust and suppressing possible disagreements.

They don't hesitate now to consciously use deception and manipulate with their special inner membership position which by itself suppose to prove their initiation into higher secrets and possession of inaccessible to regular folks knowledge. They learned to apply little tricks to keep their position of authority over others to twist the situation to their favor and squeeze bucks out of follower's pockets. I mean... they know well they have no knowledge and they consciously pretending they do and they have worked out methods to stop anyone from asking for a proof of their competence.

Insisting on repeating the legend of mysterious Indian origin of this load of crap they sell is surely their strongest marketing trick. As responsible adults, they could and should know that what they offer on the market as "Wisdom of Old Indian", have no roots in Indigenous cultural reality. As responsible adults they could and should be aware that claiming themselves to be initiated representatives of Indigenous shamanism, they fraudulently exploiting Native American culture.

Now we all see that Tensegrity and all other proposed by Cleargreen practices do not do magic to you. Nobody from all the mass of practitioners, including Tensegity instructors, could  demonstrate success in arriving to promoted sorceric skills using promoted and sold methods.

I think as responsible and aware people, we should not stand indifferent and passively support fraud perpetuation. Time to ask Cleargreen inc. to assume responsibility.

educatedindian:

--- Quote from: Ari on April 29, 2008, 05:08:28 pm ---
You know, if you express compassion to a Casta warrior, expect to be classified as ordinary human - petty tyrant, trying to project your self important victimhood upon ruthless warrior who has no care in the world but to move his assemblage point to as many positions as he can get not limiting himself just with this marvelous world where death as adviser won't give him much more time to treat any action as anything else but last battle on Earth... You know... Practitioner of Juanistic warriors way was invited to disregard any human motivation which not contributing directly to raising of his personal power, personal level of energy. Feelings like compassion were considered a wasteland of petty human conditioning. Warriors were discouraged to give or receive compassion...

All this was attributed to Wisdom of Old Indian Man...


--- End quote ---

That could not be more different from the ways of being a warrior in actual Native traditions, which are all about self sacrifice for your people, esp to protect the very old and the very young. Yaquis especially. For people living out in the harsh desert, you have to cooperate to survive. Playing power games? No time for that.

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