Carlos Castaneda, "The Predator of Man"

“The Predator of Man”

 by Carlos Castaneda
․

“’Predators Mind.’ This is the Castaneda term for that which aligns man
with the thought center of service to self. In “Active Side of
Infinity,” Don Juan tells Castaneda of the Earth being invaded in the
mists of time by creatures of condensed darkness, the so-called Flyers
which use man as food. The key idea as that these cosmic predators gave
man their own mind. This is reasonable in light of much other
material. At the human level, a system based on exploitation and
consuming and control is seen to shape people in its own image: The
slave tends to dream of becoming a master rather than of abolishing
slavery. Any organization based on dominance naturally takes the form
of a pyramid with few at the top and most at the bottom. For man to be
the bottom or in some cases intermediate level of such a system, man
must have the attributes of the dominators, only at a reduced scale.

Castaneda’s writings in large part deal with ways of claiming one’s own
in terms of energy and free will from such a system. The battle is in
large part internal. One must unmask and stand up to one’s internal
predator first. Otherwise one’s external actions, even if well
motivated, take place in the paradigm and mode of the predator. The
internal predator can be extremely subtle. Still, it has some general
recognizable characteristics: Castaneda puts it as follows:
․

“The Predator of Man”

“‘Ah, that’s the universe at large, ‘ he said, ‘incommensurable,
nonlinear, outside the realm of syntax. The sorcerers of ancient Mexico
were the first ones to see those fleeting shadows, so they followed
them around. They saw them as you’re seeing them, and they saw them as
energy that flows in the universe. And they did discover something
transcendental. They discovered that we have a companion for life…
․

We have a predator that came from the depths of the cosmos and took
over the rule of our lives. Human beings are its prisoners. The
predator is our lord and master. It has rendered us docile, helpless.
If we want to protest, it suppresses our protest. If we want to act
independently, it demands that we don’t do so. You have arrived, by
your effort alone, to what the shamans of ancient Mexico called the
topic of topics. I have been beating around the bush all this time,
insinuating to you that something is holding us prisoner. Indeed we are
held prisoner! This was an energetic fact for the sorcerers of ancient
Mexico.”

“‘Why has this predator taken over in the fashion that you’re
describing, don Juan?’ I asked. ‘There must be a logical explanation.”

“‘There is an explanation,’ don Juan replied, ‘which is the simplest
explanation in the world. They took over because we are food for them,
and they squeeze us mercilessly because we are their sustenance. Just as
we rear chickens in chicken coops, the predators rear us in human
coops. Therefore, their food is always available to them.”
․

I felt that my head was shaking violently from side to side. I could
not express my profound sense of unease and discontentment, but my body
moved to bring it to the surface. I shook from head to toe without any
volition on my part.

“‘No, no, no, no,’ I heard myself saying. ‘This is absurd, don Juan.
What your saying is something monstrous. It simply can’t be true, for
sorcerers or for average men, or for anyone.”

“‘Why not?’ don Juan asked calmly. ‘Why not? Because it infuriates you?’

“‘Yes, it infuriates me,’ I retorted. ‘Those claims are monstrous!”

“‘I want to appeal to your analytical mind, ‘ don Juan said. ‘Think for
a moment, and tell me how you would explain the contradiction between
the intelligence of man the engineer and the stupidity of his systems
of beliefs, or the stupidity of his contradictory behavior. Sorcerers
believe that the predators have given us our systems of beliefs, our
ideas of good and evil, our social mores. They are the ones who set up
our hopes and expectations and dreams of success or failure. They have
given us covetousness, greed and cowardice. It is the predators who make
us complacent, routinary, and egomaniacal.”

“‘But how can they do this, don Juan?’ I asked, somehow angered further
by what he was saying. ‘Do they whisper all that in our ears while we
are asleep?”

“‘No, they don’t do it that way. That’s idiotic!’ don Juan said,
smiling. ‘They are infinitely more efficient and organized than that.
In order to keep us obedient and meek and weak, the predators engaged
themselves in a stupendous maneuver – stupendous, of course, from the
point of view of a fighting strategist. A horrendous maneuver from the
point of view of those who suffer it. They gave us their mind! Do you
hear me? The predators give us their mind, which becomes our mind. The
predators’ mind is baroque, contradictory, morose, filled with the fear
of being discovered any minute now.”

Don Juan continues: “‘I know that even though you have never suffered
hunger… you have food anxiety, which is none other than the anxiety
of the predator who fears that any moment now its maneuver is going to
be uncovered and food is going to be denied. Through the mind, which,
after all, is their mind, the predators inject into the lives of human
beings whatever is convenient for them. And they ensure, in this
manner, a degree of security to act as a buffer against their fear.’”

- http://www.aloha.net/~ruth/Cassio.html

http://www.cassiopedia.org/glossary/Predator%27s_Mind