INTRODUCTION: On 6 September 1975 I wrote to Castaneda, telling him I was getting this book together, asking him to define emic, requesting permission to purchase Sorcery [Sorcery: A Description of the World, Castaneda’s doctoral dissertation] from Xerox, inquiring about the topic of his next book, and inviting him to lunch. On 4 November, having… Continue reading The Four Earliest Interviews with Carlos Castaneda: Excerpts and Annotations.
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The “don Juan” character from the books by Carlos Castaneda:
Was he a real person or an entirely fictional character? The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge was first published by the University of California Press in 1968. The book was, to all appearances, a legitimate work of anthropology, an account of the apprenticeship of a postgraduate student of anthropology, Carlos Castaneda,… Continue reading The “don Juan” character from the books by Carlos Castaneda:
Wittgenstein’s Tractatus and Castaneda’s Tales of Power: Whisperings of the Nagual
“CARLOS CASTANEDA: I have come to understand sorcery in terms of Talcott Parsons’ idea of glosses. A gloss is a total system of perception and language. For instance, this room is a gloss. We have lumped together a series of isolated perceptions—floor, ceiling, window, lights, rugs, etc.—to make a totality. But we had to be taught… Continue reading Wittgenstein’s Tractatus and Castaneda’s Tales of Power: Whisperings of the Nagual
A Suggestion on How to Read the Works of Carlos Castaneda
INTRODUCTION: Carlos Castaneda, born Carlos César Salvador Arana Castañeda in Cajamarca, Peru, in 1925, was the author of a series of nine books which purport to describe the author’s twelve-year apprenticeship to an indigenous Mexican sorcerer by the name of Juan Matus. The first two of these books, The Teachings of Don Juan (1968) and… Continue reading A Suggestion on How to Read the Works of Carlos Castaneda
The Dissociative Trance Experience:
An Almost Separate Reality I first witnessed people acting strangely—that is to say, many people acting strangely at the same time—while I was watching television at the house of a friend of mine. My friend Billy and I were both seven years old, going on eight. This must have been on a Sunday because, if… Continue reading The Dissociative Trance Experience:
From Healing and Sorcery to Wisdom
Ten years ago, I had the fortune of meeting a Yaqui Indian from North-western Mexico. I call him “don Juan.” In Spanish, don is an appellative used to denote respect. I made don Juan’s acquaintance under the most fortuitous circumstances. I was sitting with Bill, a friend of mine, in a bus depot in a… Continue reading From Healing and Sorcery to Wisdom
A Mazatec Way of Knowledge
Foreword by F. Lawrence Fleming: Although don Juan categorized his benefactor as a diablero, he never mentioned the place where he had acquired his knowledge, nor did he identify his teacher. In fact, don Juan disclosed very little about his personal life. All he said was that he had been born in the Southwest in… Continue reading A Mazatec Way of Knowledge
Healing and Sorcery in Mexico
[Foreword by the editor and publisher of the paper entitled Healing and Sorcery in Mexico, F. Lawrence Fleming: The following paper is, I assure you, a work of historical fiction. I could tell you that the original typescript for this paper was discovered in the library of the University of California, Berkeley, in 2022, and… Continue reading Healing and Sorcery in Mexico
Stopping the Internal Dialogue
With the Help of Electroencephalography INTRODUCTION: “Our house was a meeting place for Yaquis in Hermosillo [Mexico], just as it had been in Colorada and as it was in later years in Arizona. Almost every day Yaqui men and Yaqui families came to talk. Mama Grande served coffee to the guests and tomales when there… Continue reading Stopping the Internal Dialogue
17 August 1961, A Pivotal Day in the Field: Becoming Don Juan’s Chosen Man.
A scene script adapted from Chapter Ten of the book Journey to Ixtlan by Carlos Castaneda. (The scene script that follows has been previously presented in my book The Curious Case of Dr. Castaneda’s Twelve Pages of Field Notes.) 23. EXT. DON JUAN’S HOUSE — DAY The date is 17 August 1961. The time is… Continue reading 17 August 1961, A Pivotal Day in the Field: Becoming Don Juan’s Chosen Man.