Carlos Castaneda


Carlos Castaneda was an American author.
Starting with The Teachings of Don Juan in 1968, Castaneda wrote a series of books that describe his training in shamanism, particularly with a group whose lineage descended from the Toltecs. The books, narrated in the first person, relate his experiences under the tutelage of a man that Castaneda claimed was a Yaqui "Man of Knowledge" named don Juan Matus. His 12 books have sold more than 28 million copies in 17 languages. They have been found to be fiction, but supporters claim the books are either true or at least valuable works of philosophy.
Castaneda withdrew from public view in 1973, living in a large house in Westwood, California from 1973 until his death in 1998, with three colleagues whom he called "Fellow Travellers of Awareness." He founded Cleargreen, an organization that promotes "tensegrity", which Castaneda described as the modern version of the "magical passes" of the shamans of ancient Mexico.

Early life

Castaneda moved to the United States in the early 1950s and became a naturalized citizen on June 21, 1957.
He received his B.A. from UCLA in 1962, and Ph.D. in anthropology in 1973.
Castaneda married Margaret Runyan in Mexico in 1960, according to Runyan's memoirs. Castaneda is listed as the father on the birth certificate of Runyan's son C.J. Castaneda even though the biological father was a different man.
It is unclear whether Carlos and Margaret were divorced in 1960, 1973, or not at all, and his death certificate even stated he had never been married.

Career

Castaneda's first three books – ; A Separate Reality; and Journey to Ixtlan – were written while he was an anthropology student at the University of California, Los Angeles. He wrote these books as his research log describing his apprenticeship with a traditional "Man of Knowledge" identified as don Juan Matus, allegedly a Yaqui Indian from northern Mexico. Castaneda was awarded his bachelor's and doctoral degrees based on the work described in these books.
In 1974 his fourth book, Tales of Power, was published and chronicled the end of his apprenticeship under the tutelage of Matus. Castaneda continued to be popular with the reading public with subsequent publications that unfolded further aspects of his training with don Juan.
Castaneda wrote that don Juan recognized him as the new nagual, or leader of a party of seers of his lineage. Matus also used the term nagual to signify that part of perception which is in the realm of the unknown yet still reachable by man, implying that, for his own party of seers, Matus was a connection to that unknown. Castaneda often referred to this unknown realm as "nonordinary reality."
The term nagual has been used by anthropologists to mean a shaman or sorcerer who claims to be able to change into an animal form, or to metaphorically "shift" into another form through magic rituals, shamanism and experiences with psychoactive drugs.
While Castaneda was a well-known cultural figure, he rarely appeared in public forums. He was the subject of a cover article in the March 5, 1973 issue of Time which described him as "an enigma wrapped in a mystery wrapped in a tortilla". There was controversy when it was revealed that Castaneda may have used a surrogate for his cover portrait. When confronted by correspondent Sandra Burton about discrepancies in his personal history, Castaneda responded: "To ask me to verify my life by giving you my statistics ... is like using science to validate sorcery." Following that interview, Castaneda completely retired from public view.

Don Juan Matus

Scholars have debated "whether Castaneda actually served as an apprentice to the alleged Yaqui sorcerer don Juan Matus or if he invented the whole odyssey." Castaneda's books are classified as non-fiction although they have been criticized as fictional. In two books, Castaneda's Journey: The Power and the Allegory and The Don Juan Papers, author and Castaneda critic Richard de Mille intimated that Don Juan was imaginary, although de Mille's critiques have also been questioned. Walter Shelburne contends that "the Don Juan chronicle cannot be a literally true account."

Tensegrity

In the 1990s, Castaneda once again began appearing in public to promote Tensegrity, which was described in promotional materials as "the modernized version of some movements called magical passes developed by Indian shamans who lived in Mexico in times prior to the Spanish conquest."
Castaneda, along with Carol Tiggs, Florinda Donner-Grau and Taisha Abelar, created Cleargreen Incorporated in 1995. The organization's stated purpose is "carrying out the instruction and publication of Tensegrity". Tensegrity seminars, books, and other merchandise were sold through Cleargreen.

Death

Castaneda died on April 27, 1998 in Los Angeles due to complications from hepatocellular cancer. There was no public service; Castaneda was cremated and the ashes were sent to Mexico. His death was unknown to the outside world until nearly two months later, on 19 June 1998, when an obituary entitled "A Hushed Death for Mystic Author Carlos Castaneda" by staff writer J. R. Moehringer appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
Four months after Castaneda's death, C. J. Castaneda, also known as Adrian Vashon, whose birth certificate shows Carlos Castaneda as his father, challenged Castaneda's will in probate court. C.J. challenged its authenticity. The challenge was ultimately unsuccessful. Carlos' death certificate states metabolic encephalopathy for 72hours prior to his death, yet the will was purportedly signed 48hours before Castaneda's death.

Castaneda's associates

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. Among those who lived there were Taisha Abelar and Florinda Donner-Grau. Like Castaneda, Taisha Abelar and Florinda Donner-Grau were students of anthropology at UCLA. Each went on to write books that explored the experience of being followers of Castaneda's teachings from a feminist perspective. Cf. "Related Authors"
Around the time Castaneda died in April 1998, his companions Donner-Grau, Abelar and Patricia Partin informed friends they were leaving on a long journey. Amalia Marquez and Tensegrity instructor Kylie Lundahl also left Los Angeles. Weeks later, Partin's red Ford Escort was found abandoned in Death Valley.
Luis Marquez, the brother of Talia Bey, went to police in 1999 over his sister's disappearance, but was unable to convince them that it merited investigation.
In 2006, Partin's sun-bleached skeleton was discovered by a pair of hikers in Death Valley's Panamint Dunes area and was identified by DNA testing. The investigating authorities ruled Partin's death as undetermined.
Since his death, Carol Tiggs, a colleague of Castaneda, has spoken at workshops throughout the world, including at Ontario, California in 1998, Sochi, Russia in 2015 and Mérida, Yucatán in 2016. Tiggs had the longest association with Castaneda and is written about in some of his books. Today, she serves as a consultant for Cleargreen.

Reception

Although Castaneda's accounts of the Teaching of Don Juan were initially well-received as non-fiction works of ethnography, the books are now widely regarded as works of fiction.
At first, and with the backing of academic qualifications and the UCLA anthropological department, Castaneda's work was mostly praised by reviewers. Edmund Leach praised the book as "a work of art rather than of scholarship", doubting its factual authenticity. Anthropologist E. H. Spicer offered a somewhat mixed review of The Teachings of Don Juan, highlighting Castaneda's expressive prose and his vivid depiction of his relationship with Don Juan. However, Spicer noted that the events described in the book were not consistent with other ethnographic accounts of Yaqui cultural practices, concluding it was unlikely that Don Juan had ever participated in Yaqui group life. Spicer also stated: " wholly gratuitous to emphasize, as the subtitle does, any connection between the subject matter of the book and the cultural traditions of the Yaquis."
In a series of articles, R. Gordon Wasson, the ethnobotanist who made psychoactive mushrooms famous, similarly praised Castaneda's work, while expressing doubts regarding the accuracy of some of the claims.
An early unpublished review by anthropologist Weston La Barre was more critical. La Barre questioned the book's accuracy, calling it a "pseudo-profound deeply vulgar pseudo-ethnography." The review, initially commissioned by The New York Times Book Review, was rejected and replaced by a more positive review from Paul Riesman, also an anthropologist.
Later reviews were more critical, with several critics positing that the books were fabrications. Beginning in 1976, Richard de Mille published a series of criticisms that uncovered inconsistencies in Castaneda's field notes, as well as several instances of apparent plagiarism. Later, anthropologists specializing in Yaqui Indian culture, such as Jane Holden Kelley, questioned the accuracy of Castaneda's work. Other criticisms of Castaneda's work include the total lack of Yaqui vocabulary or terms for any of his experiences, and his refusal to defend himself against the accusation that he received his PhD from UCLA through deception. Stephen C. Thomas notes that Muriel Thayer Painter, in her book With Good Heart: Yaqui Beliefs and Ceremonies in Pascua Village, gives examples of Yaqui vocabulary associated with spirituality: "morea", an equivalent to the Spanish brujo; "saurino", used to describe persons with the gift of divination; and "seataka", or spiritual power, a word which is "fundamental to Yaqui thought and life." Thomas further states:
It is hard to believe that Castaneda's benefactor, a self-professed Yaqui, would fail to employ these native expressions throughout the apprenticeship. In omitting such intrinsically relevant terms from his ethnography, Castaneda critically undermines his portrait of Don Juan as a bona fide Yaqui sorcerer.

John Dedrick, a Protestant missionary who lived among the Yaqui Indians of Vicam, Sonora, from 1940 to 1979, stated in his letter of May 23, 1989 that:
I've only read "The Teachings of Don Juan", and before I got to the third part of the book I knew that he did know of the Yaquis and that
he had not been to the Rio Yaqui river, or that there is no terminology in the Yaqui language for any of the instructions and explanations that "Don Juan" was giving it to him .

Clement Meighan and Stephen C. Thomas point out that, for the most part, the books do not describe Yaqui culture at all with its emphasis on Catholic upbringing and conflict with the Federal State of Mexico, but rather focus on the international movements and life of Don Juan, who was described in the books as traveling and having many connections, and abodes, in the Southwestern United States, Northern Mexico, and Oaxaca. Don Juan was described in the books as a shaman steeped in a mostly lost Toltec philosophy and decidedly anti-Catholic.
A March 5, 1973 Time article by Sandra Burton, looking at both sides of the controversy, stated:
David Silverman sees value in the work even while considering it fictional. In Reading Castaneda he describes the apparent deception as a critique of anthropology field work in general – a field that relies heavily on personal experience, and necessarily views other cultures through a lens. According to Silverman, not only the descriptions of peyote trips but also the fictional nature of the work are meant to place doubt on other works of anthropology.
Donald Wieve cites Castaneda to explain the insider/outsider problem as it relates to mystical experiences, while acknowledging the fictional nature of Castaneda's work.

In popular culture

Castaneda was quoted in Season Two, Episode 6 of The Sopranos.

Related and associated authors