Anyone into Carlos Castaneda?

I found the books, and found that I was traveling the same path.

 

I read all the ones that were around in the 70's and thought they were awesome and interesting.
Then I started college and took classes in psychology, sociology ansd cultural anthropology. I looked at his stuff with a more critical eye after that.
Then it was starting to become apparent in the academic arena that Castaneda was pretty much a fake.
borrowed from Wikipedia;

Castaneda's works were presented as real-life accounts, but critical work showed that they were more likely fictional. According to Robert J. Wallis, in his 2003 book Shamans/Neo-Shamans: Contested Ecstasies, Alternative Archaeologies, and Contemporary Pagans:

At first, and with the backing of academic qualifications and the UCLA anthropological department, Castaneda’s work was critically acclaimed. Notable old-school American anthropologists like Edward Spicer (1969) and Edmund Leach (1969) praised Castaneda, alongside more alternative and young anthropologists such as Peter Furst, Barbara Myerhoff and Michael Harner. The authenticity of don Juan was accepted for six years, until Richard de Mille and Daniel Noel both published their critical exposés of the don Juan books in 1976 (De Mille produced a further edited volume in 1980, in which he withdrew some previously published criticism about Castaneda's knowledge of flora indigenous to the Sonoran desert. In short, de Mille had asserted that mushrooms did not grow in that desert, which was completely wrong, and he edited out this criticism in the 1980 volume). Most anthropologists had been convinced of Castaneda’s authenticity until then — indeed, they had had little reason to question it — but many averred that De Mille’s meticulous analysis disproved the veracity of Castaneda’s work. This is open to debate.

Beneath the veneer of anthropological fact stood huge discrepancies in the data: the books ‘contradict one another in details of time, location, sequence, and description of events’ (Schultz in Clifton 1989:45). There are possible published sources for almost everything Carlos wrote (see especially Beals 1978), and at least one encounter is ethnographic plagiarism: Ramon Medina, a Huichol shaman-informant to Myerhoff (1974), displayed superhuman acrobatic feats at a waterfall and, according to Myerhoff, in the presence of Castaneda (Fikes 1993). Then, in A Separate Reality, don Juan’s friend don Genaro makes a similar leap over a waterfall with the aid of supernatural power. In addition to these inconsistencies, various authors suggest aspects of the Sonoran desert Carlos describes are environmentally implausible,(mushrooms in the desert) and, the ‘Yaqui shamanism’ he divulges is not Yaqui at all but a synthesis of shamanisms from elsewhere (e.g. Beals 1978). Castaneda himself said that at first in the 1960s he presumed that it was a Yaqui belief system because Don Juan had told him that he had been born a Yaqui.. but some years later, Don Juan explained that it was a Toltec belief system, and Castaneda duly wrote this.

Wallis concludes that "there is no corroboration beyond Castaneda's writings that don Juan did what he is said to have done, and very little that he exists at all."

In the The Power and the Allegory, De Mille compared The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui way of Knowledge with Castaneda's library stack requests at the University of California. The stack requests documented that he was sitting in the library when his journal said he was squatting in don Juan's hut. One of the most memorable discoveries that De Mille made in his examination of the stack requests was that when Castaneda said he was participating in the traditional peyote ceremony—the least fantastic episode of drug use—he was not only sitting in the library, but he was reading someone else's description of their experience of the peyote ceremony. Other criticisms of Castaneda's work include the total lack of Yaqui vocabulary or terms for any of his experiences

 

I can't yet believe that TRUE magic exists, because even tho I've seen and experienced some ESP and witnessed some odd events,his books helped me to get my life on a differant path than the one I was on, which was that of a hard-core alcoholic that was dangerous to myself and others. Coupled with some contemporaneous window pane use, I saw and experienced some life changing mind-sets. So--no. I didn't and don't believe for a minute people could or can fly around or make objects REALLY disappear, but at the time(late 60s), the books were inspirational to me and I'm glad I read them for no other reason than understanding why the partial loss of ego was important to me. And learning to love and respect others. Altho the window -pane was perhaps more the reasons for the improvements gained. Many works of fiction are inspirational.

 

I've read a couple of Castaneda books and they supposedly are not fiction...right?
I found them to be actually strange, especially parts like walking off into an abyss to go to the mountain on the other side. I must have picked up the only couple of books where drug use was not a big part of the "story"; because I just remember thinking...no effing way could this be true unless you were on acid and just Thought all this was happening - while you were lying in your bed, most likely totally alone. lol
I am glad so many ppl are inspired by CC and Scratcho, from what you just said, I'm certainly glad you got off the self-destructive path and were inspired by him.
However, I kind of found the 2 books I read to be bs - and was really hoping for more.

 

The area behind your head. The back of your brain to out about a foot or two.

You can alter the energy there, to navigate.

 

"When you believe in things you don't understand you will suffer..." Stevie Wonder

ZW

 

"First thing you know,you won't know nuthin". R. Lancaster

 

The thimble has prevented the untimely demise of many individuals.

 

most of his books weren't about drugs. most likely, he intended on creating a new, more scientific mythology, than those present in america during his time. he was imperfect, as we all are, and made mistakes, as we all do. seems to me that he succeeded in what he originally set out to do, however, and his books have had the effect (as some have already posted) of helping some to question and even change their life/thought patterns.

would his books have positively affected as many people as they did if he hadn't tricked them?

 

Excerpted from "Active side of Infinity"

Don Juan Mateus:
"They [the sorcerers of ancient Mexico]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." " […] 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, gallineros, the predators rear us in human coops humaneros. Therefore, their food is always available to them." […]

Nuthin' here but us chickens...

ZW

 

That's a Hell of a passage!! I've not read "The Active Side Of Infinity" yet. I have though made it through the first book (Don Juan: A Yaqui Way Of Knowledge) and am about 3/4 or so through "A Separate Reality" right now. I actually started reading that last year, haha.... Sometimes I fall out of reading a book and it takes me forever to pick it back up. If nothing else, Castaneda's books are interesting, regardless of their truth or validity.

 

the fact that he has help some on their path is good. but i think he made it up. has anyone you know had mind blowing trip by smoking mushrooms? (not just hearsay)

 

I'm currently reading

'the teachings of don Juan, the yaqui way of knowledge'

Carlos has just drunk some devil's weed brew, and has seen red spots and has lots of restless energy. He's planted the remaining chute of the plant so it will grow again. =)

 

enk-it starts getting good in 'tales of power'

 

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Being-in-Dreaming An Initiation into the Sorcerers World by Florinda Donner one of Carlos "witches" and fellow traveller. Really enjoyed this book 'cause it was nice to get the Casteneda thing from a womans perspective.

 

I started reading his books soon after his first one came out, and waited impatiently for each new book to be published. I've read his books over and over as the years have passed. I even wrote to him twice through his publisher, but got no reply (big surprise).

It does seem likely that he made a lot of stuff up...but there's a lot of stuff that is very true to my own experience, and it's hard to see how he could have come up with some details about certain experiences unless he had actually experienced them, as I have.

In more recent years I've been "apprenticed" to a real, live person who acts in many ways very similarly to the way don Juan acted in Castaneda's books. Because of what I've seen this person and a few others like her do, I can understand how Castaneda could have made up a lot of his stories, or even all of them, and still have been writing the truth. And his reputation as a prefabricator and trickster would be absolutely and completely in accord both with his own teachings and with the behavior of my own "benefactors." People who use logic to evaluate the validity of Castaneda's writings are missing the whole point. As my own "benefactor" once wrote to me in an email, "Logic has nothing to do with anything."

 

I don't know much about Castaneda's work as a whole, and just in the middle of reading, "Journey to Ixtlan." The lessons are interesting, and I like his honesty concerning himself. Definitely will read more of his books.

 

Wether it was all a true account or not, the writings are deep and meaningful. I'm still looking for a few books but have most and have read them over at least twice each. They expanded my perception of the natural world, plants, rituals, awareness, perception and reality - to name a few.

 

I read The Four Agreements and loved it. I had recently come to realize the truths in the book just by thinking about life. It was interesting to find out they were ancient teachings, which happened to me an awful lot during that time. I just kept stumbling upon example after example.