Editing Carlos Castaneda (section)

== Metaphysical aspects==
===The Witches===

After Castaneda dropped from public view in 1973, he bought a large house in Los Angeles which he shared with three of his female followers, who became known as the Witches. All of the women who lived with him and who were known by this title were said to be or have been his lovers at some point.<ref>Lachman, Gary, 'Don Carlos and the Witches', Fortean Times 238, July 2008</ref>

The Witches were required to break off their relationships with friends and family when they joined Castaneda's group. They also refused to be photographed and took new names - Regina Thal became [[Florinda Donner|Florinda Donner-Grau]], Maryann Simko became [[Taisha Abelar]] and Kathleen Pohlman became [[Carol Tiggs]].

According to Corey Donovan (aka Richard Jennings), creator of the Sustained Action website:
<blockquote>The use of the term "the Witches" to relate to the three women Castaneda was eventually to claim had also been apprentices of don Juan seems to date to the early nineties, when books by two of these women purporting to describe their experiences with don Juan and his party were published. These three women are Florinda Donner-Grau, Taisha Abelar and Carol Tiggs. All three of them appeared and sometimes lectured at many of the Tensegrity workshops that began in July 1993, and Florinda and Taisha appeared at book signings and gave occasional lectures or radio interviews as well.</blockquote>

Shortly after Carlos died, Florinda and Taisha disappeared, along with [[Patricia Partin]] (see the Blue Scout below). [[Talia Bey]] ([[Cleargreen Incorporated|Cleargreen]] president - born Amalia Marquez) and Tensegrity instructor Kylie Lundal had their phones disconnected and also disappeared. On August 2, 1998 Carol spoke at a workshop in Ontario. None of the Witches have been seen in public since. Spokespeople from Cleargreen have said only that they are "travelling", but no other information is available. It is speculated that they have committed suicide.<ref name="dark">[http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2007/04/12/castaneda/index3.html The dark legacy of Carlos Castaneda] page 4 from Salon magazine April 12, 2007</ref>

Because the women had cut all ties with family and friends it was some time before people noticed they were missing. There has been no official investigation into the disappearances of Donner-Grau, Simko and Lundal. Luis Marquez, the brother of Talia Bey, went to the police in 1999 over his sister's disappearance, but was unable to convince them that her disappearance merited investigation. Their opinion changed in 2006 after the remains of Patricia Partin were identified, and the LAPD finally added Talia to their missing person database.<ref name="charlie">[http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/marquez_amalia.html The Charley Project]</ref>

===The Chacmools===

This extract from a [[Tensegrity (Castaneda)|Tensegrity]] workshop brochure was published in the ''Nagualist Newsletter'' in 1995.

<blockquote>Don Juan explained that the gigantic reclining figures called the [[Chac Mool|chacmools]], found in the pyramids of Mexico, were the representations of guardians. He said that the look of emptiness in their eyes and faces was due to the fact that they were dream-guards, guarding dreamers and dreaming sites. 
<br><br>
Following don Juan's tradition, we call Kylie Lundahl, Reni Murez and Nyei Murez chacmools. The inherent energetic organization of their beings allows them to possess a single-minded purpose, a genuine fierceness and daring which make them the ideal guardians of anything they choose to guard, be it a person, an idea, a way of life, or whatever. 
<br><br>
In the instance of our video, these three guardians demonstrate the techniques of Tensegrity because they are best qualified for the task, the three of them having completed the gigantic task of compiling the four individual strands of magical passes taught by don Juan and his people to us. 
<br><br>
-Carlos Castaneda<ref>http://www.sustainedaction.org/_nagualist/_NNL5/whats_a_chacmool.htm|''The Nagualist Newsletter and Open Forum'', Issue February 5 / March 1995</ref></blockquote>

===The Blue Scout===

In his book ''[[The Art of Dreaming]]'', Castaneda describes an encounter during a lucid dreaming session with a supposed conscious entity that was trapped by other inorganic beings.  The trapped entity was named the Blue Scout because its "energy" appeared blueish and it was an energetic scout (meaning it was outside of its original realm).  The Blue Scout was apparently bait used by the inorganic beings to trap Castaneda as well.  But instead they (Castaneda and the Blue Scout) escaped by supposedly merging their energies.

The alleged result of merging their energies was that the Blue Scout followed Castaneda to our world.  Furthermore, Castaneda claimed that he gave the Blue Scout a human physical body by helping Carol Tiggs give normal birth to her.  

A real girl was brought forward at various public sessions Castaneda and Tiggs and introduced as the Blue Scout, and Tiggs was referenced as her mother.  This is strange because that girl was someone named [[Patricia Partin]] who had real, known biological parents other than Castaneda and Tiggs.

The remains of Partin, sometimes referred to by Castaneda as ''Blue Scout'', ''Nury Alexander'' and/or ''Claude'', were found in 2003 near where her abandoned car had been discovered a few weeks after Castaneda's death in 1998, on the edge of Death Valley.  Her remains were in a condition requiring DNA identification, which was made in 2006.<ref name="dark">Salon page 4</ref>