Being-In-Dreaming: An Initiation Into the Sorcerers' World

Since it has been more than a decade since I read this book (after Florinda's book signing at the Sisterhoood Bookstore in Westwood), I'd forgotten how artfully and eloquently she had presented rare elements of the sorcerer's world. Now that I am reading it again, I find myself experiencing that strange and wonderful world as if it were my very own. Once again, thank you, Florinda. I wish you very well on your own journey.

A masterpiece. This book, like Taisha Abelar's "The Sorcerer's Crossing", is very well written and done with the same impeccable spirit as Castaneda's books. Fiction myth or truth; what one gains from the books will depend on the individual and their own sense of magic.

in my opinion one of the best books in castaneda series-if i may call it that.as soon as i read the book-(and the other dreaming book by castaneda) i started having vivid dreams. after a while i could actually manipulate the dream. not long after that i was to wake up in dream- still sleep yet and i could see the room clearly from different perspectives. then i started to precieve other things which kind of scared me. i stopped. that was 4 years ago. i re-read the book again this week. i am going to start dreaming.

With this book, Florinda Donner (FD) gives us another view of the sorcerer's world revealed in the works of Carlos Castaneda (CC) - the way of knowledge ; the warriors path. As with CC's books it was a difficult book for me to put down. Unlike CC, however, FD's presentation is much more of a view from the outside, only entering that world for brief periods. Perhaps because FD is a woman, or maybe because she is not a "nagual", her tales of power bring that world to the reader in a unique way. It's the same world, seen through a different pair of eyes. Eyes which, for me, could more likely have been my own.In one sense, "Being In Dreaming" is more believable than the stories of CC. The tales have a more ordinary, real-life quality, while still being told artfully and with a great sense of adventure and humor. This same real-life quality, however, in a sense makes it more difficult to accept the juxtaposition of such people to our day-to-day reality.Throughout most of the book, it's easy to think (of the characters in "Being In Dreaming") things like "those people are crazy", or "they're just irresponsible non-conformists". But by the end of the book, our own phantom-like nature becomes clear, and one is left with the haunting realization that it's we, not them, who are not seeing "ourselves and our surroundings for what we really are: breathtaking events that bloom into transitory existence once and are never to be repeated again".Where CC's works are like high explosives, shattering the ego at it's foundation, "Being-In-Dreaming" is like a subtle, consistent chipping-away at that same foundation. While the ego has the capacity to totally rebuild itself; to simply "forget" the blasts of CC, FD's stories enter the reader's mind and remain, like those small plants that grow in the cracks of huge boulders, eventually cracking them to pieces.The subtitle, "An Initiation into the Sorcerer's World", is a very good description. Read with caution.

Writing style and content is exactly the same as Taisha Abelar's "Sorceror in Crossing" book (same writer?) - which I recommend that you read BEFORE reading this one - so that you can follow the method. For those of you who are totally new to the whole Carlos Costaneda thing - especially if you didn't like the Costaneda books - try these out, they're very different! If you really enjoy these books, you might also like the children's/fantasy books by Jane Yolen called "Sister Light, Sister Dark" (ring a bell?). Or maybe your kids would. Another adventurous writer that delves into mystical matters is Katherine Neville, also well liked (by most) ... especially "The Magic Circle" and "The Eight". I wouldn't call any of these books New Age (ack!) ... which to me means "goopy radiant enlightenment blah blah" - - they are all wonderful! Very grounded, and no wool pulling, but sheer fun & struggling.