Carlos Castaneda

Carlos Castaneda (December 25, 1925 – April 27, 1998) was the author of a series of books that purport to describe his training in traditional Mesoamerican shamanism. The bulk of his work, particularly that of his early career, was inspired directly from the teachings of and his experiences with don Juan Matus, the Yaqui shaman with whom Castaneda had a ten-year apprenticeship beginning in the early 1960's. During this time, don Juan, with the aid of various medicinal plants, took Castaneda on a metaphysical journey through an unknown spiritual realm referred to by the author as "nonordinary reality."

Castaneda's descriptions of psychedelic experiences stood so exceedingly apart from others' in an age where such experiences were not uncommon, in part due to the fact that they were conducted within a organized system instituted under the discipline of an experienced shaman. In addition, Castaneda possessed the ability to hold a rationalist perspective throughout these fantastic encounters, and could thereby capture the attention of psychedellic enthusasts and intellectuals alike.

Overview

In his books, Castañeda narrates in first person the events leading up to and following his meeting Juan Matus. He claims to have inherited from don Juan the position of nagual, or leader of a party of seers. He also used the term "nagual" to signify the part of perception which is in the realm of the unknown yet still reachable by man—implying that, for his party of seers, don Juan, and later Castaneda , acted as links to that unknown. The term nagual has also been used by anthropologists to mean a shaman or sorcerer who is capable of shapeshifting into an animal form, and/or, metaphorically, to "shift" into another form through Toltec magic rituals, shamanism and experiences with psychoactive drugs.

Much debate has arisen concerning the claims of Castañeda in his works, the subject matter of which, though highly unbelievable from an earthbound perspective, is written in such a lucid, pragmatic style that readers are often led to believe that the magical experiences described are entirely factual. Supporters claim the books are either true or at least valuable works of philosophy and descriptions of practices which enable an increased awareness; critics claim the books are shams, or pieces of fiction, and not empirically verifiable works of anthropology as so claimed.

Professor Michael Harner of The New School for Social Research, a friend of Castaneda's and an authority on shamanism, explained the key ingredient for Castaneda's widespread appeal: "Most anthropologists only give the result. Instead of synthesizing the interviews, Castaneda takes us through the process."

Biography

Castaneda's history remained for many years convoluted, as the author, while always putting an emphasis on conveying the honest emotion of his past rather than the need to provide accurate external details, such as names, dates, places, etc.

To ask me to verify my life by giving you my statistics, is like using science to validate sorcery. It robs the world of its magic and makes milestones out of us all.

However, thanks to the research done by Time magazine for their cover article on the author in March of 1973, much of Castaneda's previously gray history was elucidated. According to the immigration records they discovered, Carlos Cesar Arana Castañeda was born in Cajamarca, Peru, December 25, 1925. He was the only child of César Arana Burungaray, a goldsmith, and Susan Castañeda Navoa. The family moved to Lima in 1948 where Castañeda entered the Colegio Nacional de Nuestra Señora de Guadelupe. After graduation he studied painting and sculpture at the National School of Fine Arts.

At the age of 25, Castaneda entered the United States through San Francisco in 1951. Between 1955 and 1959, he enrolled as a pre-psychology major at Los Angeles City College where he took courses in creative writing and journalism. After graduating from there, Castañeda entered the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) (B.A. 1962; Ph.D. 1970) to study anthropology in 1959, and either that same year, or two years prior, became a United States citizen. He married an American woman, Margaret Runyon, in 1960 who was 14 years his senior. Their marriage lasted only a few months, although it was not until 1973 that they separated officially. According to Castaneda he'd had a vasectomy operation previously and the couple's adopted son, named C.J., had been fathered by a friend.

At UCLA, one of his teachers, Professor Clement Meighan, had interested him in shamanism. Castañeda decided the best field through which he could legitimately educate himself on the subject was ethnobotany, the classification of psychotropic plants used by sorcerers. His work with such plants led him on several trips south to collect and study specimens, and it was on one of these excursions in the summer of 1960 that Castañeda supposedly met and befriended don Juan Matus, whom he had met at a bus station in the Mexican border town of Nogales, Arizona. After Castañeda's several visits from Los Angeles to the border regions of Mexico, don Juan revealed that he was in fact a diablero, a sorcerer. The following year, Castañeda became his active apprentice and was introduced to many of don Juan's shaman colleagues, including don Genaro Flores, a Mazatec Indian, who would serve as another tutor.

How, precisely, his journey stems from here is subject to much speculation, but purportedly these years consisted of intense study and practice under the guidance of Juan Matus. Castañeda later admitted that what began as an objective study evolved more into an autobiography, as under don Juan's direction the author himself became the subject.

In his apprentice years Castañeda used peyote (called 'Mescalito'), datura (Jimson weed), and Psilocybe mexicana mushrooms to enlarge his vision of reality. This period of learning lasted from 1961 until the Autumn of 1965, when Castañeda decided, out of fear of a psychic breakdown, to discontinue his course with don Juan. These initial experiences with shamanism and psychoactive agents were the basis for Castañeda's first book, "The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge," (1968) published by the University of California Press.

Castañeda's analysis of the beliefs of Juan Matus was accepted as his Master's thesis, although no field notes were submitted at the time, Castañeda claiming that he had lost them. Meanwhile, as fuel to the budding new age movement of the 1960s, "The Teachings of Don Juan" gained reputation as an underground classic before going on to become an international bestseller.

In 1968, Castañeda returned to Mexico and began his second period of learning under Matus, which lasted until 1971. This period produced the follow-up, "A Separate Reality: Further Conversations with Don Juan" (1971). English poet and author, Ted Hughes, wrote in his review of the title:

Castañeda becomes the guinea-pig hero of a modern quest as the weird glamour of the hypnotic, manipulating, profound, foxy old Indian carries him, with his notebooks and tape recorder, into regions where the words "rational" and "scientific" are violently redefined.

Castañeda's third book, also inspired by this second phase of his learning, was "Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan" (1972) and was accepted as his doctoral dissertation by the UCLA Anthropology Department in 1973. Surprisingly, in "Journey," Castaneda disavowed all use of drugs for the purposes detailed in his earlier works:

My perception of the world through the effects of those psychotropics had been so bizarre and impressive that I was forced to assume that such states were the only avenue to communicating and learning what don Juan was attempting to teach me. That assumption was erroneous.

Nevertheless, Castañeda has since defended his past use of drugs, stating they were part of his initial phase of apprenticeship, and that don Juan had taught him later to achieve the same results without drugs.

It was around this time, in the early 1970's, that the popularity of his books began to create problems for the author, as he was hounded by "very strange people," forcing him to live as a virtual recluse. Castañeda would sink increasingly into reclusion over the years, though he still maintained a decent output of writings on the subject of the "nonordinary reality."

He would go on to write twelve books total through the 1970's, 80's and 90's, as well as several academic articles detailing his experiences with the Yaqui Indians. Today, these works have sold more than 8 million copies in 17 languages.

In 1993, he married Florinda Donner, a woman he had met in the 70's and who had authored "Being-in-Dreaming: An Initiation into the Sorcerer's World" in 1991. Also in 1993, he began holding tensegrity workshops which educated participants in special shamanistic movements that had been taught to him for the purposes of improving physical health, vigor, and freedom of perception.

In 1997 Castañeda sued his ex-wife, Margaret Runyan Castañeda , over her book, A Magical Journey with Carlos Castaneda; but this was dropped when Castaneda died. A part from these incidents, the author's personal life remained quite private throughout his latter years.

Castañeda died of liver cancer on April 27, 1998, at his home in Westwood. His cremated remains were taken to Mexico. Castaneda's last book was "The Active Side of Infinity" (1999), about entering life in the Next World.

The Controversy

Castañeda's writings have been criticized by academics, and are seen as highly suspect in terms of strict anthropological fieldwork. As well, many have tried unsuccesfully to corroborate Castañeda's stories with his own personal history and that of his fellow apprentices. But considering that Castañeda described, as part of his efforts to follow the precepts learned from don Juan Matus, a strict effort to erase his own personal history, the fact that much of his reported happenings remain unclear is not surprising.

One theory suggests Castañeda wrote his seemingly factual books in the traditional allegorical style of the storyteller (ethnopoetics) common to many native Indian cultures.

Time magazine's 1973 article state:

"Look at it this way," says one. "Either Carlos is telling the documentary truth about himself and Don Juan, in which case he is a great anthropologist. Or else it is an imaginative truth, and he is a great novelist. Heads or tails, Carlos wins."

Perhaps the most highly contested aspect of Castañeda's work is the fact that no one except for the author himself has ever met or even seen the storied figure, don Juan. Some think don Juan was a either figment of Castaneda's hyper-conscious imagination, a spiritual entity, or maybe a composite of various shamans who the author met. If don Juan is real, though, it is likely that "Juan Matus"—a name as generic in Mexico as "John Smith" is in America—is a pseudonym used to protect his teacher's privacy, as the need to be inaccessible and elusive is a central theme in the books.

Despite Castaneda's convoluted past and the controversy surrounding his books, one cannot discount the author's initial motivations for producing the very first book which began his rise to fame: "The Teachings of Don Juan." First off, the book was submitted, not to a major publisher, but to the university press, a very unlikely prospect for creating a bestselling author. Secondly, getting an anthropology degree from U.C.L.A. is not so difficult that a student would go through such arduous measures just to avoid research. Therefore, it is not reasonable to presume, at least concerning Castaneda's initial incentives, were for the sake of fame, money, or a college degree.

A Second Controversy

In a controversy separate from his work, it has been reported that a number of women from Castaneda's inner circle vanished shortly after the author's death and are presumed dead themselves as result of a planned suicide. Only one of these women has been found; the remains of Patricia Partin, sometimes referred to by Castañeda as Blue Scout, Nury Alexander, and/or Claude, surfaced in 2004 near to where her abandoned car had been discovered a few weeks after Castañeda's death in the spring of 1998. Her remains were in a condition requiring DNA identification which was made in 2006. The other women remain missing and are presumed, as well, to be deceased.

Works

The nine popular works of Carlos Castaneda are organized into three sets of three, where each set corresponds to a Toltec mastery: the mastery of awareness, the mastery of transformation, and the mastery of intent. For each mastery there is also a compendium that describes essential teachings from the overall body of work. The three compendiums were published posthumously.

Thus, each mastery is described in four works: three works presented in story form and one work compiled as a cross-set reference:

The Mastery of Awareness

The Mastery of Awareness entails the re-emphasis of awareness from the world of the tonal (every day objects) to the world of the nagual (spirit). During this stage of development the warrior-traveler endeavors to minimize self importance, and to find and store power. First and foremost, the student is encouraged to take action and assume responsibility for his or her life.

• The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge (1968)
• A Separate Reality: Further Conversations with Don Juan (1971)
• Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan (1972)
• Magical Passes: The Practical Wisdom of the Shamans of Ancient Mexico (compilation) (1998)

The Mastery of Transformation

During The Mastery of Transformation the warrior-traveler endeavors to cleanse and retrieve energy and to hone his only link to spirit, the intuition. The warrior-traveler becomes impeccable by empirically testing this connection and eventually banishing all doubts, accepting her or his fate, and committing to follow a path with heart.

• Tales of Power (1975)
• The Second Ring of Power (1977)
• The Eagle's Gift (1981)
• The Active Side of Infinity (compilation) (1999)

The Mastery of Intent

Mastery of Intent – Once the warrior-traveler has accumulated enough surplus energy, enough personal power, the dormant second attention is activated. Dreaming becomes possible. The warrior-traveler maintains impeccability, walks the path with heart, and waits for an opening to freedom.

• The Fire from Within (1984)
• The Power of Silence: Further Lessons of Don Juan (1987)
• The Art of Dreaming (1993)
• The Wheel Of Time : The Shamans Of Mexico (compilation)(2000)

Ideas

The crux of don Juan's philosophy, and Castañeda's as well, might be summed up by the author's own words:

For me there is only the traveling on the paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart.

There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge for me is to traverse its full length. And there

I travel—looking, looking, breathlessly.

Don Juan's teachings are reminiscent of various mystical traditions and supernatural beliefs, and include many practices that purport to focus one's energy and awareness into a "second attention," leading to higher consciousness and views of non-ordinary reality outside the bounds of everyday reality. In The Art of Dreaming, Castañeda wrote that don Juan contended that our ordinary world...

...which we believe to be unique and absolute, is only one in a cluster of consecutive worlds, arranged like

the layers of an onion. He asserted that even though we have been energetically conditioned to perceive

solely our world, we still have the capability of entering into those other realms, which are as real,

unique, absolute, and engulfing as our own world is.'

According to Castañeda, the most significant quality in a person's life is that of one's dormant awareness. The primary goal of a spiritual warrior (also warrior-traveler) is to elevate awareness. To increase awareness in this way requires all of the discipline that constitutes a "warrior's" way of life. Don Juan often used a warrior metaphor, and he told Castañeda on August 20 1961, "A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war, wide—awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes it will live to regret his steps" (The Teachings of Don Juan, 43).

Sufficient personal power leads to the mastery of Intent and awareness. Such mastery is chiefly the controlled movement of what is known as the assemblage point, a center of a bundle or cocoon of energy emanations, called the Eagle's emanations, emerging from the body. When we are young, our luminous cocoon is not yet rigid and the assemblage point flows fluidly. Humans' cocoons are intersected by filaments of awareness, producing perception, but as people grow and live in ordinary existence, they concretize only a small bundle of emanations, which becomes their perceived reality. Excessive attention on only a small area this way limits awareness, which hardens into a narrow world view that excludes reality outside of normal awareness—non-ordinary reality. Ultimately, Castaneda argues, everything we perceive, feel and how we act is determined by the position of the assemblage point. Conscious movement of the assemblage point permits perception of the world in different ways (non-ordinary reality). The goal of the warrior is to achieve totality of the self by illuminating all of the Eagle’s emanations within the cocoon at once and aligning them with the greater whole of existence and experience. Small movements lead to small changes in perception and large movements to radical changes.

Ultimately, most adults can only move or shift their assemblage point by way of drug use, love, hunger, fever, exhahustion, through inner silence, or as is preferred, through "intent of awareness." The most straightforward or common form of movement of the assemblage point can be achieved through dreaming. Descriptions of dreaming in Castaneda's books and the varied techniques he employs to achieve mastery of awareness often resemble lucid dreaming.

In Journey to Ixtlan, don Juan's friend, don Genaro, warns that “intent is not intention. ”Our energy body, as a metaphysical entity, is composed of Intent. Through techniques such as stalking the self (recapitulation of one's life experience, erasing personal history and developing the warriors mood), dreaming, and handling Intent (changing awareness), the warrior aims at regaining the luminosity that has been lost through the ordinary awareness of everyday life, and ultimately to control Intent.

Brief description of books

1. The Teachings of Don Juan, A Yaqui Way of Knowledge - description of plant allies and way towards knowledge: mescalito (peyote) - the protector of man; seeing beings as liquid colors; mushrooms- learning to handle, to fly, and to perceive one's animal form; datura- female spirit, hard to handle, gives strength, lengthy procedure. This book was unique in the series in that the last part included a detailed scholarly "Structural Analysis" of Don Juan's teachings.
2. A Separate Reality - Discusses the ideas of will, controlled folly, and seeing (as opposed to looking) as tools a warrior uses to be a man/person of knowledge.
3. Journey to Ixtlan - lessons about the warrior's way, or stopping the world, routines, personal history, self-importance, death as an advisor, not-doing, dreaming
4. Tales of Power - description of points of perception in body or luminous cocoon, tonal (1st attention, known, right side awareness, [possibly the left-brain]^{[citation needed]}) and nagual (2nd attention, unknown, left side awareness, [right-brain ^{[citation needed]}), dreaming double
5. The Second Ring of Power - describes events after Don Juan's departure, experiences with the women warriors of the original nagual's party, 2nd attention (second ring of power), losing "human 'form'," human mold, dreaming, gazing
6. The Eagle's Gift - description of the force that creates, destroys, and rules the universe (or at least the 48 bands of earth), also source of emanations themselves, description of the eagle's command to man, the rule of the nagual, various levels of petty tyrants, and way towards freedom, self-stalking and dreaming, power spots. Note that Don Juan described the energy-structure/entity called eagle a thing that is not what we call an eagle, but rather a thing so vast as to be incomprehensible.
7. The Fire From Within - step by step (actually chapter by chapter) elucidation of the mastery of awareness or the new seers' knowledge: everything is energy (the Eagle's emanations or luminous emanations), the luminous cocoon and assemblage point (glow of awareness), the known (1st attention or tonal), unknown (2nd attention or nagual), unknowable (outside luminous cocoon), petty tyrants as a way to move assemblage point and foster warrior's way, twin worlds of organic and inorganic ( more correctly matter-beings and non-matter-bound beings — carbon-based/not carbon based wasn't what was meant), shifting the assemblage point and other bands of awareness, bundles of emanations that are the basis for the different species source of awareness and forms/molds, the human mold, the rolling force or tumbler (that hits luminous cocoon), the death defier, self-stalking, intent, and dreaming.
8. The Power of Silence - stories about essentially the mastery of intent, set into what were called sorcery cores.
9. The Art of Dreaming - steps to mastering control and consciousness of dreams.
10. Magical Passes - descriptions with photos of sorcery-based physical movements intended to increase well-being, a system which became known as Tensegrity
11. The Active Side of Infinity - recapitulation, making a log of significant life events (as seen by the spirit)
12. The Wheel of Time - recollection of the mood in which each previous book was written; significant quotes from each previous book

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 (Compact group for "three-pronged Nagual")

• Florinda Donner-Grau — "Northerly??" "dreamer" for Castaneda
• Taisha Abelar — "Westerly/Northerly??" "self-stalker" for Castaneda
• Carol Tiggs — "nagual woman" to Castaneda's party and originally for all the practitioners in Castaneda's generation

Generation of practitioners peer to Castaneda (Original group for "four-pronged Nagual")

• Pablito — the "man of action" in Carlos' generation of practitioners
• Nestor — the "scholarly man" in Carlos' generation of practitioners
• Benigno — the "master of intent" in Carlos' generation of practitioners
• Eligio — a "courier" who ultimately joined previous generation due to Carlos' lack of ability to follow his explorations of awareness, apparently a manifestation of Carlos not being a four-pronged nagual
• La Gorda — "Northerly" "dreamer" who was originally thought to be the "Southerly" "dreamer," this was apparently a manifestation of Carlos not being a four-pronged nagual
• Rosa — "Northerly" "dreamer" in Carlos' generation of practitioners
• Lidia — "Easterly" "dreamer" in Carlos' generation of practitioners
• Josephina — "Westerly" "dreamer" in Carlos' generation of practitioners
• Doña Soledad — "Northerly" "self-stalker" in Carlos' generation of practitioners

Generation of practitioners preceding Castaneda

• Don Juan Matus — leader or "nagual man," teacher to Castaneda
• Olinda — "nagual woman" to Don Juan's party of sorcerers
• Genaro Flores — the "man of action" and "master of awareness," benefactor to Castaneda
• Vicente Medrano — "scholarly man" and herbalist
• Silvio Manuel — "master of intent" and purported to be permanently in a state of "heightened awareness"
• Florinda — "Northerly" "self-stalker"
• Nelida — "Northerly" "dreamer"
• Zoila — "Westerly" "self-stalker"
• Zuleica — "Westerly" "dreamer"
• Carmela — "Easterly" "self-stalker"
• Hermelinda — "Easterly" "dreamer"
• Delia — "Southerly" "self-stalker"
• Cecilia/Clara — "Southerly" "dreamer"
• Teresa — "Southerly woman" and "scout" for Cecilia and Delia
• Marta — "Southerly woman" and "scout" for Zoila and Zuleica
• Emilito — "Scout" for nagual Don Juan
• Juan Tuma — "Scout" for Carmela and Hermelinda

All names and attributes belonging to Don Juan's party are presented as in "The Eagle's Gift."

According to Taisha Abelar and Florinda Donner-Grau every stalker-sorceress gets traditionally the surname "Abelar" and every dreamer-sorceress gets the surname "Grau." Nagual men are Graus and Abelars by turns; naguals don Juan and Elias were Abelars and naguals Julían and Carlos were Graus. Sorceresses can also take the forenames of their predecessors if they want to.

Mentioned persons of generation of practitioners preceding Juan Matus

• Julián Osorio — leader or "nagual man" to a generation of practitioners, teacher to Juan Matus
• Talía — "nagual woman" to Julían's party of sorcerers
• "La Catalina" — woman sorceress who still remained in the world at the time of Carlos' training, part of Julián's generation of practitioners (probably a southern woman and a scout to a woman sorceress of Julían's generation)
• four men acting to be one being called Tulío (all scouts?)

Mentioned persons of generation of practitioners preceding Julián Osorio

• Elias Ulloa — leader or "nagual man" to a generation of practitioners, teacher to Julián Osorio, and to Juan Matus as well.

Significant event in the lineage

• The nagual Sebastian's encounter in the 1700s with an ancient seer, the "death defier," also referred to as the "tenant." That encounter dramatically altered their lineage and was what separates the "new" seers from the "old" seers. Castaneda stated that the death defier met with every nagual since Sebastian, including with Carlos. The death defier also met and possessed Carol Tiggs. Capable of taking male or female form, existing or not existing corporeally in this world.

Related authors

• Two other authors, Taisha Abelar (born Maryann Simko) and Florinda Donner-Grau, (born Regine Thal) 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 all other writers as pretenders. The two women were part of Castaneda's inner circle which he referred to as The Witches and both assumed different names as part of their dedication to their new beliefs. They were originally both graduate students in anthropology at UCLA

• Donald Barthelme parodied Castaneda's books in his The Teachings of Don B.: A Yankee Way of Knowledge, in which he substitiutes "brujo" with "brillo."

• Anthropologist Victor Sanchez claims to have received similar teachings from the Wirrarika people in Mexico. He admits that Castaneda's books have been an inspiration for him. While he has met Castaneda, he emphasizes that Castaneda does not endorse his work.[1]
• Martin J. Goodman claimed to have spent 2 days with a "reconstituted" Carlos, or Carlos' double, after the death of Carlos in his book "I Was Carlos Castaneda."
• Ken Eagle Feather claims to have met Don Juan Matus, inspiring him to write several books.
• Don Miguel Ruiz is known for bestselling book The Four Agreements. He has been called the Paulo Coelho of the Toltec.^{[citation needed]}
• Armando Torres claims to have been a favored with several long didactic conversations with Castaneda, several of which he relates in his book "Encounters with the Nagual: Conversations with Carlos Castaneda." (originally in Spanish). Among other things, he reveals the "rule of the three-pronged Nagual," which explains the special rule pertinent to Castaneda due to his "distinct energy configuration" of three energy-compartments instead of the normal four for a nagual. At the end, Torres claims to have gained a mentor and joined a party of naguals unrelated to that of Carlos Castañeda.
• Theun Mares is a nagual from South Africa who published several books on Nagualism and teaches a similar philosophy to Castañeda, only from the perspective of a Natural Man, proving through subtle hints that in fact the Path with Heart is the only one worth pursuing, Mr. Mares takes the reader from being a timid person to being an Enlightened Warrior of the Spirit.
• Graham Kane first read Castaneda in 1975 and proceeded to plunge into the system of sorcery as outlined by Carlos Castañeda, learning lucid dreaming and eventually following the instructions of "The Art of Dreaming" when it was published. His book "Toltec Dreamer" was published in 2002, outlining his struggle to come to terms with the teachings, specifically centering on the lucid dreaming aspect.

Works by Castañeda

• The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge (1968) ISBN 0-520-21757-8
• A Separate Reality: Further Conversations with Don Juan (1971) ISBN 0-671-73249-8
• Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan (1972) ISBN 0-671-73246-3
• Tales of Power (1975) ISBN 0-671-73252-8
• The Second Ring of Power (1977) ISBN 0-671-73247-1
• The Eagle's Gift (1981) ISBN 0-671-73251-X
• The Fire from Within (1984) ISBN 0-671-73250-1
• The Power of Silence: Further Lessons of Don Juan (1987) ISBN 0-671-73248-X
• The Art of Dreaming (1993) ISBN 0-06-092554-X
• Readers of Infinity: A Journal of Applied Hermeneutics (1996) Number 1/2/3/4
• Magical Passes: The Practical Wisdom of the Shamans of Ancient Mexico (1998) ISBN 0-06-092882-4
• The Active Side of Infinity (1999) ISBN 0-06-092960-X
• The Wheel Of Time : The Shamans Of Mexico (2000) ISBN 0-14-019604-8

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Florinda Donner[-Grau]. Shabono: A Visit to a Remote and Magical World in the South American Rain Forest by (1992) ISBN 0-06-250242-5 This book was originally published before Witch's Dream in 1985.
• Florinda Donner-Grau. The Witch's Dream. 1st edition 1985 ISBN 0-671-55198-1; current re-print(1997) ISBN 0-14-019531-9
• Florinda Donner-Grau. Being-In-Dreaming: An Initiation into the Sorcerers' World (1992) ISBN 0-06-250192-5
• Taisha Abelar. The Sorcerer's Crossing. 1st hardback edition 1992. 1993 edition ISBN 0-14-019366-9
• Victor Sanchez. The Teachings of Don Carlos ISBN 1-879181-23-1
• Richard de Mille. Castaneda’s journey : the power and the allegory (1976)- ISBN 0884960676 - Capra Press, Santa Barbara, CA.
• Richard de Mille (ed.). The Don Juan Papers: Further Castaneda Controversies (1980) - ISBN 0915520257 - Ross-Erikson, Santa Barbara, CA. / (1990) ISBN 0534121500 Wadsworth Pub. Co., Belmont, CA.
• Jay Courtney Fikes. Carlos Castaneda: Academic Opportunism and the Psychedelic Sixties (1993)
• Daniel C. Noel The Soul of Shamanism: Western Fantasies, Imaginal Realities (New York: Continuum, 1997)
• Robert J. Wallis. Shamans/neo-Shamans: Ecstasy, Alternative Archaeologies and Contemporary Pagans. London: Routledge, 2003. ISBN 0-415-30203-X
• Amy Wallace. The Sorcerer's Apprentice: My Life with Carlos Castaneda (2003)
• Filming Castaneda: The Hunt for Magic and Reason" by Gaby Geuter (2004) ISBN 1-4140-4612-X
• Kelley, Jane Holden. YAQUI WOMEN: Contemporary Life Histories (1997)
• Edward Plotkin The Four Yogas Of Enlightenment: Guide To Don Juan's Nagualism & Esoteric Buddhism (2002) ISBN 0-9720879-0-7
• Armando Torres Encounters with the Nagual: Conversations with Carlos Castaneda (2002) Spanish (2004) English ISBN 968-5671-04-4
• Neville Goddard. "Awakened Imagination" by heavily influenced the work of Castaneda.
• Alice Kehoe, Shamans and Religion: An Anthropoligical Exploration in Critical Thinking. 2000. London: Waveland Press. ISBN 1-57766-162-1
• Graham Kane: Toltec Dreamer: A Collection of Memorable Events from the life of a Man-of-Action (2002 UK) Little Big Press. ISBN 0-9543630-0-0
• Martin Goodman: I was Carlos Castaneda: The Afterlife Dialogues (2001 New York) Three Rivers Press. ISBN 0-609-80763-3

External links

• Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan's Teachings, a 117,500 word book compiled from Carlos Castaneda's ten books
• Carlos Castaneda's Tensegrity, site maintained by ClearGreen Inc., the direct apprentices of Carlos Castaneda, who also inherited his estate and currently conduct Tensegrity seminars and classes
• Nagualism, collection of information, interviews and forum discussion on Carlos Castaneda, Nagualism, and Shamanism
• Sustained Action, a website devoted to analysis and discussion of evidence and controversy about Carlos Castaneda
• Sanchez Interview with Victor Sanchez focusing on Castaneda)
• The Skeptic's Dictionary on Castaneda
• Yaqui Nation Website
• Pasqua Yaqui Indian Website
• The dark legacy of Carlos Castaneda, by Robert Marshall from Salon Magazine April 12, 2007

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