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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Blinded by the Light of ICE (edit)

Posted by Joe (@joe) on Jan. 30, 2026, 12:30 p.m.

Yeah I wouldn’t argue that Heaven’s Gate is more famous than the OKC bombing, I’d just have thought people would know about them both.

As far as cult suicides go, Jonestown was 30 times bigger and, without checking, I think those people were mostly Americans, but of course it didn’t happen here.

It’s almost certain that 5 women died by suicide or murder/suicide after Carlos Castaneda died (although not as certain as his massive academic fraud)

Castaneda’s students
After Castaneda stepped away from public view in 1973, he bought a large multi-dwelling property in Los Angeles, which he shared with some of his followers, including Taisha Abelar (formerly Maryann Simko) and Florinda Donner-Grau (formerly Regine Thal). Like Castaneda, Abelar, and Donner-Grau were students of anthropology at UCLA.[6] Each subsequently wrote a book about her experiences of Castaneda’s / don Juan’s teachings from a female perspective: The Sorcerer’s Crossing: A Woman’s Journey by Taisha Abelar, and Being-in-Dreaming: An Initiation into the Sorcerers’ World by Florinda Donner. Castaneda endorsed both of these books as authentic reports of the sorcery experience of Don Juan’s world.[18]

Around the time Castaneda died, his companions Donner-Grau, Abelar and Patricia Partin informed friends they were leaving on a long journey. Amalia Marquez (also known as Talia Bey) and Tensegrity instructor Kylie Lundahl also left Los Angeles. Weeks later, Partin’s red Ford Escort was found abandoned in Death Valley. Luis Marquez, Bey’s brother, went to the police in 1999 over his sister’s disappearance, but could not convince them that it merited investigation.[6]

In 2003, Partin’s sun-bleached skeleton was discovered by a pair of hikers in Death Valley’s Panamint Dunes area and identified in 2006 by DNA testing. The investigating authorities ruled the cause of death as undetermined.[6][19] However, Castaneda often talked about suicide, and associates believe the women killed themselves in the wake of Castaneda’s death.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Castaneda

and he still has mostly positive reviews on Goodreads.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8088.Carlos_Castaneda