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Carlos Castaneda (December 25, 1925 - April 27, 1998) was a US writer of Peruvian origin, primarily known for his Don Juan book series (12 books and many shorter works).
He claimed to have been born in São Paulo, Brazil on Christmas Day in 1931, but immigration records show that he was born 6 years earlier in Cajamarca, Peru. He anglicized his name by changing "ñ" (Castañeda) into "n". He was educated at the University of California, Los Angeles (B.A. 1962; Ph.D. 1970).
In 1960, he met the Yaqui shaman Don Juan Matus, and learning from him, Castaneda wrote the partly autobiographical works for which he is known. He inherited from Don Juan Matus the position of Nagual, or leader of a party of seers.
Notable works include:
Although they started out with the premise of anthropology, his works became a mixture of story, religion, and philosophy.
Castaneda's works contain descriptions of paranormal experiences, several psychological techniques, Toltec magic rituals, shamanism and experiences with psychoactive drugs (e.g. peyote).
Criticism
Many critics doubt the existence of Don Juan, citing inconsistencies in Don Juan's personality across the books and in the sequence of events in the books. Many Castaneda supporters claim in turn that the very fact of handling awareness and perception accounts for this; and that the actual existence per se of Don Juan is irrelevant, since the important matter is the themes that Don Juan presents.
As Castaneda was very elusive, and because his works were taken up by young people at a time when mystical and shamanic traditions were in fashion, many professionals cast doubt on the authenticity of contents of his works. When he followed up The Teachings of Don Juan with a series of equally popular books, including A Separate Reality (1971) and Tales of Power (1975), even more questions were raised as to how much of his work was true anthropology and how much was his own creation.
Another way to read the books is as a sort of game, almost like a detective novel. Depending upon one's approach, they could be either accepted at face-value in their entirety, or discarded. Some of the material could be considered true, some fictional; and some of the events described probably appeared to be real at the time, but could be interpreted as hallucinations. It is up to the reader to decide.
Castaneda's Proposed Philosophy
His books can be read as a philosophical/pragmatical text that express a world view by which a person can live one's life. There is a growing movement world-wide of practitioners of this philosophy.
This world view is unlike either traditional Western or Eastern culture. Though some precepts can be said to resemble Eastern "Zen" in terms of the disciplines taught and techniques used, the underlying structure is fundamentally different.
According to Castaneda, the most significant facts in a person's life are his possession of awareness and its impending termination at death. The primary goal of a Toltec "Warrior" is the continuation of his awareness after bodily death - to "dart past the Eagle and be free", in the words of the tradition, where the Eagle is the force which consumes the awareness of all living beings.
To cheat death in this way requires all of the discipline and procedures that constitute the Warrior's way of life. These practices are devised to maximise the Warrior's personal power, or energy. The condition of not wasting this energy is known as "impeccability".
Sufficient personal power leads to the mastery of awareness, chiefly the controlled movement of what is known as the "assemblage point". This is an artifact of the tradition's description of a true world underlying what we perceive as ordinary reality. In this description men are glowing cocoons of awareness inhabiting a universe consisting of the Eagle's "emanations", described euphemistically as all-pervading filaments of light.
Our cocoons are intersected throughout by these filaments, producing perception, but we filter our perceptions by concentrating on only a small bundle. The assemblage point is the focusing lens which selects from the emanations. In it's accustomed position, the assemblage point produces what we perceive as the daily world of human beings. Movement of the assemblage point permits perception of the world in different ways; small movements lead to small changes in perception and large movements to radical changes. For example, dreaming is presented as the result of a movement of the assemblage point; "power plants" such as Peyote, used in the early stages of Castaneda's apprenticeship, produce powerfully altered states of mind through such movement.
Castaneda describes complex and bizarre worlds experienced through the controlled movement of the assemblage point in dreaming; his premise is that the world of the dreams of a warrior is no less real than the world of daily life. This follows logically from the description of both worlds as being simply the result of positions of the assemblage point. He depicts complex interractions with unearthly beings in dream worlds and describes his fear of being physically trapped by these malicious but charismatic beings.
Amongst the various practices of a warrior, Tensegrity, a series of meditative stretching and posing techniques, is introduced in Castaneda's final works. The term is borrowed from architecture - "tensional integrity". Tensegrity is promoted by Cleargreen, Inc, a company founded in the 90s, closely affiliated with Castaneda, which runs workshops and sells various materials relating to Castaneda's work. There are many individual and group practitioners around the world. Tensegrity and much of Castaneda's later (post Cleargreen) work is completely discredited by other practitioners and students of the Toltec belief system. (see external links)
Related authors
Two other authors, Taisha Abelar and Florinda Donner-Grau, have also written books in which they claim to be from Don Juan Matus' party of Toltec warriors. Both Abelar and Donner-Grau were endorsed by Castaneda as being legitimate students of Don Juan Matus, whereas he has dismissed many other pretenders. Another author of note is Victor Sanchez; Sanchez claims to have had similar teachings, and met Castaneda, but emphasises in his books that Castaneda does not endorse his work.
Significant characters In Castaneda's works
This is a list of characters, claimed to be real persons, mentioned in Castaneda's works. Castaneda makes it clear that these are not the persons' real names (ostensibly to protect their identity). In denoting their function within each generation of practitioners terms are used which can only be understood by reading Castaneda's writings:
Generation Of Practitioners Peer To Castaneda
- Florinda Donner-Grau -- "Northerly" "dreamer" in Castaneda's generation of practitioners
- Taisha Abelar -- "Easterly" "dreamer" in Castaneda's generation of practitioners
- Carol Tiggs -- "nagual woman" in Castaneda's generation of practitioners
Generation Of Practitioners Preceding Castaneda
- Don Juan Matus -- leader or nagual man to a generation of practitioners, teacher to Castaneda
- Carol -- nagual woman in Don Juan's generation of practitioners
- Genaro Flores -- the "man of action" and "master of awareness" in Don Juan's generation of practitioners, benefactor to Castaneda
- Vincente Medrano -- herbalist in Don Juan's generation of practitioners
- Silvio Manuel -- "master of intent" and purported to be permanently in a state of "heightened awareness" in Don Juan's generation of practitioners
- Juan Tuma -- "scout" in Don Juan's generation of practitioners
- Florinda Grau -- "Northerly" "dreamer" in Don Juan's generation of practitioners
- Nelida Abelar -- "Northerly" "stalker" in Don Juan's generation of practitioners
- Marta -- "Southerly" "dreamer"? in Don Juan's generation of practitioners
- Zoila Abelar -- "Westerly" "stalker" in Don Juan's generation of practitioners
- Zuleica Grau -- "Westerly" "dreamer" in Don Juan's generation of practitioners
- Delia Abelar -- "Easterly" "stalker" in Don Juan's generation of practitioners
- Celia Grau -- "Easterly" "dreamer" in Don Juan's generation of practitioners
Generation of Practitioners Preceding Juan Matus
- Julián Osorio -- leader or nagual man to a generation of practitioners, teacher to Juan Matus
Generation of Practitioners Preceding Julián Osorio
- Elias Grau -- leader or nagual man to a generation of practitioners, teacher to Julián Osorio, and to Juan Matus as well.
External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Carlos Castaneda
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