Castaneda Carlos (1925–1998) – American writer, anthropologist, ethnographer, mystic. Author of an 11-volume chronicle of his apprenticeship with the Indian shaman Don Juan, published in millions of copies in many languages and becoming a worldwide bestseller. Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology.
Castaneda's works are difficult to attribute to any specific genre - they represent a synthesis, existing at the intersection of literature, philosophy, mysticism, ethnography and psychology. The poetic and esoteric concepts introduced in his books form a coherent and complete theory, known as the “teachings of don Juan.” Numerous fans and followers of Castaneda are involved in its interpretation. Some concepts, for example, “assemblage point”, “place of power”, etc., migrated from his books into modern vocabulary and life, reflecting the fashion for various esoteric and exotic teachings and practices.
Will is what makes you win when your mind tells you that you are defeated.
Castaneda Carlos
Carlos Cesar Salvador Arana Castaneda was born on December 25, 1925 in Cajamarca (Peru) in the family of a watchmaker and goldsmith, a native of Italy. His father owned a shop and made jewelry. In his father's workshop, the son received his first experience of artistic practice - he worked with bronze and gold. Among the usual impressions of the period of life in Cajamarca were curanderos - local shamans and healers, whose influence on Castaneda’s work later became obvious.
In 1935, the family moved to Lima, a city of arts, monuments and museums of Peruvian art dating back to the Incan culture. Here Castaneda graduated from the National College and in 1948 entered the National School of Fine Arts. Leads the lifestyle of a typical bohemian - communicates with artists, poets, writers, dandies, attends exhibitions and poetry evenings.
IN student years in Lima, obsessed with the desire to continue his studies and career as a professional artist in the United States. He is inspired by the example of his uncle, one of the most famous people South America Osvaldo Aranja is the Ambassador of Brazil to the United States and President of the UN General Assembly. After his return to Brazil, Castaneda finally decides to go discover “his America.”
Anyone who begins to learn must do his best, and the limits of learning are determined by the student's own capabilities. That is why conversations on the topic of training are meaningless. Fears of knowledge are common; We are all susceptible to them, and nothing can be done about it. However, no matter how terrifying the teaching may be, it is even more terrifying to imagine a person who does not have knowledge.
("Teachings of Don Juan")
Castaneda Carlos
In 1951 he moved to the USA - first to San Francisco, then to Los Angeles. Wanders along the Pacific coast, trying to earn money for further education. In 1955, he enrolled in Los Angeles Community College (LAOC), where, in addition to his main classes, he attended lectures on journalism and seminars on literary craftsmanship. To pay for tuition and housing, he works wherever he has to. He continues to paint and sculpt.
In 1956 he met Margaret Runyan, his future wife. Margaret is aware of the hobbies among the intellectual youth of the Pacific coast - these are psi factors, extrasensory perception, various mystical teachings, etc. She herself is interested in the teachings of the mystic Goddard Neville, who gave lectures on the topics of the search for selfhood and the practice of controlled dreams. They exchange books, discuss lectures, go to concerts, enjoy cinema, and conduct experiments on extrasensory perception. Gradually, a narrow circle of friends united by common interests develops around them.
Castaneda was greatly impressed by the book of the English writer Aldous Huxley, The Gates of Knowledge, about the influence of hallucinogens on human consciousness. Castaneda developed this theme in his second year course work. In it, he especially emphasized the role of linguistic tradition, which, on the one hand, facilitates communication between people and helps preserve accumulated knowledge, and, on the other, “narrows” consciousness - words are taken for real objects, and not for their symbols, and gradually the entire breadth of the world is reduced to a set of general propositions.
Nothing is given for free in this world, and the acquisition of knowledge is the most difficult of all tasks that a person can face. Man goes to knowledge the same way he goes to war - fully awakened, full of fear, reverence and absolute determination. Any deviation from this rule is a fatal mistake.
("Teachings of Don Juan")
Castaneda Carlos
Neville's ideas about the possibilities of dream programming and “controlled imagination” were also discussed in Castaneda's circle. Topics were raised about the existence of a luminous sphere around a person with an “awakened” imagination. The idea was expressed that in the conditions of the modern world, it is better to propagate a new teaching not on behalf of an adept - the bearer of the teaching, but on behalf of a student initiated into its mysteries. Many of these ideas were later deeply interpreted in Castaneda's writings. In addition, young American intellectuals were seriously interested in studying the lifestyle and rituals of Indian shamans, which were treated with disdain by the middle class in Castaneda’s native Cajamarca.
In 1959 he graduated from college, receiving a diploma from the Association of Arts in psychology. In 1960 he entered the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and his specialization changed - now it is anthropology. Professor Clement Meighan, who supervised Castaneda in anthropology, encouraged the collection of interviews with representatives of the peoples studied. For this purpose, Castaneda travels first to Arizona, then to Mexico. Establishing contacts with Indians is facilitated by knowledge Spanish, Hispanic appearance and familiarity with the lifestyle of shamans in Cajamarca. The topic of his field interviews is the use of plants containing hallucinogens in Native American rituals. He distances himself from his friends and wife, misses business meetings and spends more and more time in Arizona and Mexico. According to Professor Meighan's reaction to the collected material presented in coursework, it becomes clear to him that he has entered a very interesting and little-studied direction.
The volume of field recordings became more and more extensive; Castaneda spends most of his time in Los Angeles at the typewriter. Money goes into decline, there is nothing to pay for tuition, and he leaves the university. After numerous doubts and alterations, by 1965 Castaneda had an impressive manuscript ready - a book called The Teachings of Don Juan: The Way of Knowledge of the Yaqui Indians. It was distributed for review to UCLA professors for feedback and recommendations for publication. In the university community, attitudes towards the book were divided - there were both its supporters (led by Professor Meighan) and those who feared that a personal, “non-academic” approach could discredit the objectivity of the university’s scientific traditions. But representatives of both camps agreed in assessing the work as bright and extraordinary.
Fear is the first inevitable enemy that a person must defeat on the path to knowledge.
("Teachings of Don Juan")
Castaneda Carlos
It took three years to clarify the professors' positions regarding the publication of Castaneda's book. Finally, in the spring of 1968, it was published by the University of California Press under the standard cover of university textbooks. Before our eyes, it became a bestseller and sold better than any other publication - 300 thousand copies were sold in the first 2 years. Later, when Castaneda had his second book ready, he turned to a professional intermediary agent, because... his works clearly had the potential for mass distribution and did not fit into the category of university textbooks. Under an agreement with the copyright holder, the UCLA publishing house, The Teachings of Don Juan were also published by the large publishing houses Bollentine and Simon and Schuster.
In Carlos Castaneda's first book, The Teachings of Don Juan: The Path of Knowledge of the Yaqui Indians, it is about how one day, as a student, Castaneda, in search of a subject for a research interview, meets don Juan, an old brujo Indian, i.e. magician, healer and master of ancient ritual. The Indian, sensing a seeking nature in the young man, offers to directly get acquainted with magical reality, without which it is impossible to understand the essence of Indian shamanic rituals. The anthropology student agrees and describes in detail the events that followed and his feelings. He talks about "mitotes" - ceremonies for the use of peyote and mushrooms, during which participants acquired the ability to interact with a magical reality full of certain friendly or hostile forces.
Don Juan makes an offer to Castaneda to become his student - he calls it: to take the path of a “man of knowledge”, i.e. give up prejudice, open up to new knowledge of the world, discarding the teachings drilled into him from birth. Castaneda is confused; the brujo's proposal evokes mixed feelings of apprehension and interest. Becoming a “man of knowledge,” according to don Juan, includes a process of cleansing from personal everyday experience. The meaning of this requirement is to gain a different understanding of oneself, a different perception of the world, to rethink and often reject the previous life. The reader becomes acquainted with the concepts of don Juan's teachings - “man of knowledge”, “power”, “place of power”, “objects of power”, “ally”, etc. Four dangers on the path of a man of knowledge are also indicated - fear, clarity, strength and old age.
One of the most interesting interpretations of don Juan's teachings has been proposed by Jungian analysts. Thus, according to D.L. Williams (Crossing the Border), a “man of knowledge” is a person who strives to live in harmony with his unconscious and follow all the vicissitudes of personal destiny determined by this harmony, “strength” is the ability to reveal the potential of his unconscious, “ally” - the inclusion of unconscious potential in the process of gaining selfhood, etc. And the four enemies of knowledge mentioned - fear, clarity, strength and old age - are not enemies in themselves, but only when misunderstood. The book has a second part, written in the spirit of methodological research, duplicating the content of the Teachings of don Juan. It was included in the first publication, but later they stopped publishing it because... for the general public, it is the “artistically” written version that is of interest, containing emotional impressions and personal experience of a person immersed in the shamanic world.
Carlos Castaneda's first book achieved fantastic success, was translated into 17 languages and is still one of the super bestsellers. Disputes about its genre do not subside: some consider it a unique esoteric textbook, others – an equally unique literary and philosophical hoax, others – a surreal allegory, etc. For the author himself, its publication, among other things, helped improve his financial situation and, finally, get the opportunity to take exams for a master's degree. At this time, he became interested in philosophy, attended lectures on phenomenology, and became acquainted with the works of Husserl, Parsons, and Wittgenstein.
When a person begins to study, he never has a clear idea of the obstacles. His goal is vague, his intention is unstable. He expects a reward that he will never receive because he is not yet aware of the upcoming trials. Gradually he begins to learn - at first little by little, then more and more successfully. And soon he becomes confused. What he learns never matches what he imagined, and he is overcome with fear. Teaching always turns out to be not what is expected of it.
("Teachings of Don Juan")
Castaneda Carlos
The second book, A Separate Reality: Continued Conversations with Don Juan (1971, New York, Simon & Shuster) is also in the nature of an artistic and documentary account of meetings with an Indian brujo. New characters appear - don Juan's colleague don Genaro. He weans Castaneda from his addiction to Western logic and rationalism, demonstrating a violation of the Aristotelian laws of space and time. Don Genaro floats above the floor, in an instant moves to a mountain ledge, 10 miles away, dances on the edge of a waterfall. The reader has the right to think that the Indians are manipulating Castaneda’s consciousness. From this angle, one can also view the transformation and flight of Castaneda himself in the form of a crow described in the book. Don Juan continues to acquaint him with the system of shamanic views on the world, with the concepts of “warrior” and “hunter”, living simultaneously in two worlds, with the concept of “vision”, i.e. the ability to sense the Great Nothing behind the real events of this world, with the rule of “controlled stupidity” - the principle of life in the human world, etc.
The soon-to-be-published third book, Journey to Ixtlan (1972, New York, Simon & Shuster), contains a more systematic presentation of the basic principles of don Juan's teachings than in the previous ones. Castaneda once again turns to his notes from the first years of his acquaintance with don Juan, revises them and finally decides to take the path of apprenticeship as an Indian brujo. The last three chapters contain material about the third stage of apprenticeship, which began in May 1971. Castaneda understands that one who has set out on the path of the warrior - “the path with the heart” - can never turn back. Don Juan continues to discover aspects of this path - the art of being unattainable, the principle of erasing personal history, building relationships with one's "ally" and fighting him, the concept of death as an adviser, the need to take responsibility for one's actions, etc.
For this book in 1973, Carlos Castaneda received the title of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology. At the same time, he became a millionaire thanks to the fabulous circulation of his works. Now he is a popular personality, he is interviewed and invited to give lectures to students.
Man must challenge his four eternal enemies and defeat them. Anyone who defeats them becomes a man of knowledge.
("Teachings of Don Juan")
Castaneda Carlos
The fourth book, Tales of Power (1974, New York, Simon & Shuster), is based on data from the final stage of apprenticeship in 1971–1972. Castaneda is being prepared for the initiation rite. In the desert, don Juan reveals his secrets to him and gives detailed explanations about the magician's strategy. At this stage of his apprenticeship, Castaneda feels that his own consciousness is splitting. He becomes convinced that the usual picture of the world (or tonal) is only a tiny island in the endless, unknowable and impossible to formulate world of magic - the so-called nagual. The tonal and the nagual are the central concepts of don Juan’s teachings: the tonal is the given, systematized and rational world, the nagual is the world of magical possibilities, will and transformations. There is a crack, or a qualitative fault, between them, and the warrior’s path presupposes the ability to exist and act in both worlds. After the initiation rite, Castaneda and two other students of don Juan and don Genaro, having said goodbye to their teachers forever, jump from the top of the mountain into the abyss - into the crack between the worlds. It is assumed that that same night don Juan and don Genaro leave this world forever. This is how Castaneda’s books end the story about the period of his direct training with don Juan.
Immediately after the first books about Don Juan appeared, the question arose about the degree of reliability of his image - whether he was a real person and whether there was a prototype, or whether he was a product of artistic fiction. In favor of the possibility of existence real prototype or prototypes is evidenced by the fact that Castaneda’s colleague at the University, Douglas Sharon, long before meeting Castaneda, also completed an apprenticeship with the Peruvian curandero Eduardo Calderon Palomino. In conversations between themselves, Castaneda and Sharon noted a huge number of coincidences between the teachings of Eduardo and don Juan.
At the same time, when analyzing Castaneda’s writings, it becomes clear that many of the views and theories he expounded are related to existentialism, phenomenology and modern psychotherapy. This circumstance suggests that the figure of Don Juan could have been invented by a person with a university education, i.e. Carlos Castaneda. This question remains unanswered.
Any path is just one of a million possible paths. Therefore, a warrior must always remember that the path is only a path; if he feels that it is not to his liking, he must leave it at any cost. Any path is just a path, and nothing will prevent a warrior from leaving it if his heart tells him to do so. His decision must be free from fear and ambition. Any path must be looked at directly and without hesitation. All paths are the same: they lead to nowhere. Does this path have a heart? If there is, then this is a good way; if not, then it is of no use. One path makes traveling along it joyful: no matter how much you wander, you and your path are inseparable. The other way will make you curse your life. One path gives you strength, the other destroys you.
("Teachings of Don Juan")
Castaneda Carlos
Castaneda's life became more and more similar to the lifestyle of a modern guru. He divorces Margaret, leaves his adopted son, to whom he was strongly attached, moves away from his former friends and finally immerses himself in the study of shamanic practices. He writes books, gives lectures, maintaining an aura of mystery around his figure. In the spirit of his theory of erasing personal history, he is reluctant to give interviews, does not allow himself to be photographed, drawn, etc. Some themes from his books sometimes migrate into real life. So, sometimes after a conversation with some person he could claim that it was not he himself who was present at the meeting, but his “double”.
In the works written by Castaneda in the 1970s–90s - The Second Ring of Power, The Gift of the Eagle, Fire from Within, The Power of Silence, The Active Side of Infinity, The Art of Dreaming - goes further description the teachings of don Juan and tells about the vicissitudes of the fate of a modern magician. The latest book, The Wheel of Time, is a kind of author’s summary the most important concepts and comments on Castaneda's works.
In The Second Ring of Power (1977), after jumping off a cliff into an abyss, Carlos survives and returns to Mexico to find out how real that incredible jump was. Here he meets a group of female magicians - students of don Juan, and in a duel with them he discovers the magical ability to leave his body in the form of a powerful double. After contacts with the female warrior La Gorda, Carlos assumes responsibility as the leader of the nagual's new party.
The things that people do can under no circumstances be more important than peace. And thus, the warrior treats the world as an endless mystery, and what people do as endless stupidity.
("Separate Reality")
Castaneda Carlos
In Gift of the Eagle (1981), a former student attempts to lead a new squad of magicians, but conflicts increase between him and the other students. With the help of La Gorda (Florinda Donner), he realizes that due to the nature of his energy structure, he cannot be their leader. The magicians' paths diverge, but La Gorda remains with him. They leave for Los Angeles, where they practice dream travel together and, in a state of heightened awareness, try to remember their years of apprenticeship, practicing magical principles. In Fire from Within (1984), Castaneda recalls his encounters with don Juan - his concept of petty tyrants, viewing any negative situation as a means of learning. Continuing to work on himself, he gets rid of the feeling of self-importance and gains integrity. An explanation is given of the new terms of don Juan's teachings - “assemblage point”, “position of the assemblage point”, “stalking”, “intention” and “dream position”, “overcoming the barrier of perception”.
In The Power of Silence (1987), reflecting on his meetings with don Juan, his student talks about the structure of the world and the world of the magician, about the modality of time and the mastery of intention. He is convinced that magic is needed so that we know: the power is at our fingertips, we just need to realize our power, which everyone really possesses. New terms appear - “manifestation”, “push”, “trick”, “descent of the spirit”, “demand” and “intention control”. The Art of Dreaming (1994) builds on Don Juan's concept of controlled dreaming. Dreams are the only access to the world of the nagual available in the tonal, recorded by the mind in mystical images. Unlike Freudians, who are engaged in the symbolic interpretation of dreams, the Indian magician proposes to penetrate into it and perceive it as some other reality that can be controlled.
The Active Side of Infinity focuses on living and working from home in Los Angeles. Castaneda tries to correlate the problems of his friends and colleagues with the teachings of don Juan. We are talking about the practice of inner silence - a way to “stop the world”, the opportunity to see the flow of energy in the universe and subjugate the vibrating force that holds us as a whole in the form of a conglomerate of energy fields.
Human eyes are designed to perform two functions: one of them is to see the energy flows of the Universe, and the other is to “look at things in this world.” Neither is better or more important than the other, but training the eyes only to see is a shameful and pointless waste.
("Separate Reality")
Castaneda Carlos
In addition to the fascinating presentation of the teachings of don Juan, Castaneda’s 10-volume epic clearly traces the plot of spiritual apprenticeship - the vicissitudes of the relationship between student and Teacher. The stages of apprenticeship, the figure of the teacher and his power arouse keen interest among readers, as they contribute to the transformation of an “ordinary” person into a creative person.
In 1993–1995, Castaneda’s associates developed a modern version of the “magic passes” “discovered” by the shamans of ancient Mexico. From these, a set of psychoenergetic training exercises was compiled, called tensegrity (from the English tension - tension, stretching; and integrity - integrity). The goal of tensegrity is training in the redistribution of energy; in Castaneda’s books, don Juan teaches it to his closest students: Taisha Abelar, Florinda Donner-Grau, Carol Tiggs and Carlos Castaneda. With a foreword by Castaneda, books on tensegrity, videotapes are published, and seminars are held in which Castaneda’s associates, who first appeared in his writings as female magicians in the 1970s, take an active part. Taisha Abelar and Florinda Donner are writing books - the “female” version of Castaneda, telling about their own destinies and experiences of apprenticeship with don Juan. All of them take an active part in promoting Castaneda’s “mystical product” in the form of books, videotapes and tensegrity seminars. The teachings of don Juan, like the name of Castaneda, are increasingly commercialized and turned into a well-promoted brand and trademark. Castaneda founds Cleargreen and establishes the Eagle Foundation, which owns the rights to his legacy.
Castaneda's commercial projects in the 1990s somewhat reduced the "degree of spirituality" associated with his writings. At the same time, the implied, but not declared connection of Castaneda with the New Age movement - New Century, or New era– became obvious. New Age represents a popular social movement, which has its own philosophy and aesthetics - a bizarre mixture of religious, cosmic, environmental theories, seasoned with psychotherapy and traditional, mainly Eastern, psychotechnics.
The warrior must first of all know that his actions are useless, but he must perform them as if he did not know it. This is what shamans call controlled stupidity.
("Separate Reality")
Castaneda Carlos
On June 18, 1998, reports appeared that on April 27, 1998, at his home in Westwood (California), USA, Carlos Castaneda died of liver cancer. There was no funeral, the body was cremated the same day, and the remains were transported to Mexico. Castaneda managed to convey to a wide range of readers in an accessible and fascinating form ideas that initially circulated in a rather closed circle of university intellectuals. The pathos and infectious power of don Juan’s teachings lie not in the promise of happiness at the end of the path or in another dimension, but in the understanding of the need to find one’s true destiny and find a path in this world.
Jungian analyst Donald Lee Williams notes another aspect of don Juan's teachings. Jung believed that the Indians in the American unconscious are the bearers and symbols of heroic actions, spiritual visions, eros and a deep sense of kinship in all manifestations of life. Castaneda, having become a translator of the magical philosophy of the red man, made one of the most serious attempts in the 20th century. to bring to white Americans the wisdom born of this land.
A strict analyst can discover in Castaneda many inconsistencies and collisions of textual and behavioral contexts, which gave reason to call him a great hoaxer. But isn’t this the peculiarity of his creative method? Inconsistencies and play of sometimes contradictory concepts, ideas and images (spirituality and commerce, seriousness and practical jokes, scientific facts and fiction etc.) give a powerful creative impulse. “Only by pitting two ideas against each other can you, weaving between them, end up in real world", wrote Castaneda.
The average person is too concerned with loving people and being loved. A warrior loves, that's all. He likes everyone he likes and everything he likes, but he uses his controlled stupidity to not care about it. Which is completely the opposite of what the average person does. Loving people or being loved by them is not all that is available to a person.
("Separate Reality")
Castaneda Carlos
Don Juan's teachings have generated a lot of followers and fans who often quite seriously try to master the methods and instructions of the Indian brujo. In the Soviet Union, Castaneda's works first appeared in samizdat in the 1980s and enjoyed enormous popularity. Since 1992, the Kiev publishing house “Sofia” began systematically publishing his legacy. In Russia and Ukraine, Castaneda's works have been published 72 times since 1992.
As in other countries, in Russia Castaneda’s followers gather in societies, hold sessions, and go to seminars of the “great Nagual” in America. Interest in Castaneda's legacy as a master of world significance continues. Castaneda created works that represented a fusion characteristic of the 1960s and 1970s literary fiction with scientific research. The crisis of society, driving its members into the framework of a consumer and programmed existence, disappointment in scientific and technological progress initiated the search for a new, genuine meaning of existence.
To realize the reality familiar to another, you first need to free yourself from your own reality; but it is not at all easy for a person to get rid of his usual picture of the world; this habit must be broken by force.
The presence of a teacher or guide is not superfluous, but it is not absolutely necessary. What is really needed is daily effort to accumulate silence.
About official life Very little is known about Carlos Cesar Arana Salvador Castaneda. But even what is known is intertwined with ambiguity and mystification, the emergence of which he himself often contributed. Even the exact date and place of his birth are unknown. According to one version - entries in immigration documents - he was born on December 25, 1925 in the Peruvian city of Cajamarca, according to another - on December 25, 1931 in Sao Paulo (Brazil). Only after reading his books, which tell about a certain Don Juan, can we get some idea of Castaneda the man. It is known that in 1951 Castaneda emigrated to the United States from Peru, and before that his family lived in Brazil, from where they fled to escape another dictator. It is unknown what he did before coming to the United States. In the USA, judging by the “transcript” of his dialogues with Don Juan, he worked as a taxi driver, wrote poetry, studied painting, and sold alcohol in a store. It is also known about his desire to penetrate the Hollywood environment.
It is known that he attended San Francisco Community College, taking courses in creative writing and journalism, then entered the University of California at Los Angeles in 1955 and seven years later received a bachelor's degree in anthropology. He taught at the university, was a teacher in Beverly Hills. In one episode, he describes how he went to prestigious cinemas in Los Angeles with a special card from his girlfriend, the daughter of a Hollywood boss.
In 1968, Castaneda gained fame. He was 37 or 43. Having integrated into the environment of the free-thinking intelligentsia, he was full of strength and ambitious aspirations. His ambitions were channeled by a grant from the University of California for his anthropological research. Under the terms of this grant, he went to central Mexico, where for several years he was engaged in “field work”, which, however, did not end scientific discovery, but a completely unusual novel for that time, “The Teachings of Don Juan: The Way of Knowledge of the Yaqui Indians.” Castaneda's literary and scientific pursuits were appreciated, and in 1973, C. Castaneda received a Ph.D. degree and became a professor at the University of California, defending a dissertation on anthropology there, almost identical to his third book, Journey to Ixtlan (1972). The appearance of the first books, “The Teaching of Don Juan” (1968) and “A Separate Reality” (1971), made the author a celebrity, and “Tales of Power” (1974) and “The Second circle of power" (The Second Ring of Power, 1977) also became bestsellers. The sixth of the books in this series, The Eagle's Gift, was published in 1981. The books were published in millions of copies and were translated into 17 languages, including Russian.
The texts of Castaneda’s works themselves claim to be a detailed presentation of the impressions and experiences of the author (under the name “Carlos”), received while studying with an old Indian from the Yaqui tribe Don Juan Matus, who allegedly knew some higher revelation, and his assistant Don Genaro. Carlos, as a fact-finding graduate student, undergoes a bizarre course of study that is designed to change the way he perceives the world so that he can see, think and live completely differently than before. The training consists of performing a sequence of ritually assigned actions while taking narcotic herbal remedies, which don Juan gives and recommends. In addition to the natural hallucinogens that Carlos initially takes for his transformation, the old sorcerer emphasizes the importance of certain physical exercise, such as squinting the eyes for altered vision or "walking the force" to move safely through the desert at night. The result of the training was a complete transformation of the hero’s personality and his entire perception of reality (which is quite natural for a person who has turned into a drug addict). Criticism has always doubted the real existence of Don Juan, and not without reason. Castaneda did not show the world a single proof of the existence of his Don Juan and in 1973 he “sent” him along with a group of characters on a magical journey from which they never returned. However, Castaneda's students and admirers believe that the question of the authenticity of his stories has nothing to do with the problem of the truth of the “path of knowledge” proposed by don Juan.
It is known about the personal life of Carlos Castaneda that he was married. He divorced six months later, although he finally separated from his wife in 1973. There is a man who calls himself his son, Adrian Vachon (C. J. Castaneda), but whether this is really so is unclear. Castaneda died in Westwood (California, USA) from liver cancer on April 27, 1998. In the last period he led " healthy image life": not only did he not drink alcohol and drugs, to the glorification of which he devoted his work, not only did he not smoke, but he did not even drink tea or coffee. The best-selling producers exploited his “mysterious passing” for some time, claiming that he was “burnt up from the inside,” even though he was routinely cremated and his remains were transported to Mexico. Castaneda was supposed to remain a mystery. After all, based on the teachings of the unmercenary Don Juan, its author left behind a perfectly functioning industry with a multimillion-dollar income. His estate after his death was valued at $1 million (quite modest for an author whose books sold a total of about 8 million in 17 languages). All of it was donated to the Eagle Foundation, established shortly before his death. The estimated total capital of the fund was 20 million.
Carlos Castaneda can safely be considered one of the the greatest mysteries XX century. All that is known for certain about him is that he is the author of ten best-selling books and the founder of the company Cleargreen, which now owns the rights to Castaneda’s creative heritage. Everything else is nothing more than assumptions, if not speculation. Castaneda carefully maintained his “secret identity”, practically did not give interviews and categorically refused to be photographed (however, by coincidence, several photographs of Castaneda still exist). He even denied that he had ever been married, although Margaret Runyan, the author of a book of memoirs about this man, claims that Castaneda was her husband. In other words, the true biography of Carlos Castaneda was known only to himself; the lot of everyone else is to try to reconstruct it.
Carlos Cesar Arana Castaneda (presumably that's his name) full name) was born on December 25, 1925 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. In 1951, he emigrated to the USA, and in 1960 an event occurred that radically changed the life of Carlos Castaneda himself and thousands of his followers - Castaneda, then a student at the University of California, came to Mexico for “field materials” for his thesis, met don Juan Matus, a Yaqui Indian. Don Juan became Castaneda's spiritual teacher and for twelve years passed on to his ward secret knowledge of your tribe.
With don Juan's permission, Castaneda began to write down his words; This is how the first of Carlos Castaneda’s world-famous books was born - “The Teachings of Don Juan. The Way of the Yaqui Indians,” published in 1968. This book instantly became a bestseller, as did the nine that followed. All of them are recordings of don Juan's conversations with Castaneda, and the chain of events in them ends in 1973, when don Juan mysteriously disappeared - “melted like fog.” Legend has it that Castaneda himself left our world in a similar way - as if he had disappeared into thin air. A less poetic version of the obituary reports that he died on April 27, 1998 from liver cancer and that after cremation, Castaneda's ashes were sent to Mexico, according to his will.
(19267-199 8) - Spanish anthropologist, thinker of esoteric orientation, author of a number of books devoted to the presentation of the worldview of the Mexican Yaqui Indian Don Juan Matus, one of (according to K.) Teachers of humanity. The meeting between K. and don Juan took place in 1960. Works by K.: “Conversations with Don Juan” (1968), “A Separate Reality” (1971), “Journey to Ixtlan” (1972), “The Tale of Power” (1974), "The Second Ring of Power" (1977), "The Eagle's Gift" (1981), "The Fire Within" (1984), "The Power of Silence" (1987), "The Art of Dreaming" (1994), "The Active Side of Infinity" (1995), “Tensegrity: The Magical Passes of the Magicians of Ancient Mexico” (1996), “The Wheel of Time” (1998), etc. K.’s work clearly demonstrates the almost complete mutual exclusion of the approaches to the worldview of the mystic and esotericist Don Juan, on the one hand, and the worldview of the Western intellectual of the 20th century . About the latter, Don Juan says: “The life you lead is not life at all. You don't know the happiness that comes from doing things mindfully." After the first separation and reunion of the Teacher and the student (i.e. K.), Don Juan postulates the need for a unique and unconventional view of the world in order to comprehend it: “You got scared and ran away because you feel so damn important. A sense of importance makes a person heavy, clumsy and complacent. And to become a man of knowledge, you need to be light and fluid.” K.'s experiments on himself with psychotropic plants (taking hallucinogens - peyote, Datura inoxia, a mushroom from the Psylocybe family - was mistakenly accepted by K. as the main method of understanding the world among the Yaqui Indians), as well as joint attempts to comprehend the basics of witchcraft played a role (in the context Don Juan’s implicit understanding of the situation) are only means for liberation from the inert ideological, categorical-conceptual, logistic, two-dimensional spatio-temporal and other vices known world. (“You consider yourself too real,” Don Juan said to K.) The reality of K. himself and Don Juan is wisdom, a specific value and a special psychotechnical attitude, presupposing and setting a significant number of conceivable, very conditional interpretations. Undoubtedly more important were, in particular, the techniques of vision and “stopping the world,” which, according to K., Don Juan possessed. Don Juan's vision is not analogous to the traditionalist view. The latter presupposes interpretation; it is a thinking process, within the boundaries of which thoughts about an object are more significant than its true vision. In the process of looking, the individual “I” is replaced, supplanted by the visible object. Freedom is gained from the yoke of any predetermined assessments, comments, etc. The world we look at, according to Don Juan, is only one of its possible descriptions. (At the beginning of the second volume, K. wrote: “...At that time, don Juan’s teachings began to pose a serious threat to my “idea of peace.” I began to lose the confidence that we all have in that reality Everyday life is something that we can take for granted and taken for granted.”) Seeing It (an object in its own boundless clarity that surpasses any designation of itself) means comprehending its hidden beingness. Vision is intended to replace “thinking” - a discrete stream of thoughts of an individual, initiated about anything. Comparisons, according to K., in such a context are meaningless - all things are equally important and unimportant: “... a person who has entered the path of magic gradually begins to realize that ordinary life is forever left behind, that knowledge in reality is a scarecrow, that means the ordinary world will no longer be a means for him and that he must adapt to a new way of life if he is going to survive... By the time knowledge becomes a frightening matter, man also begins to realize that death is an irreplaceable partner who sits next to him on one mat. Every drop of knowledge that becomes power has death as its central force. Death makes the finishing touch, and everything touched by death does become power... But focusing on death will cause any of us to focus on ourselves, and that is a decline. So the next thing that is needed... is detachment. The thought of imminent death, instead of becoming an obstacle, becomes indifference." A “man of action,” according to Don Juan, lives by action, and not by thoughts of action. Such a person is least concerned about what he will “think” when the action stops. According to don Juan, " man walking to knowledge just as he goes to war, fully awake, with fear, with respect and with absolute confidence. Going towards knowledge or going to war in any other way is a mistake, and the one who makes it will live to regret the steps taken...” A person who is ripe for “carrying out actions without thinking” is a person of knowledge, capable of performing an action and disappearing, without burdening himself with thoughts about the results. “To become a man of knowledge,” noted Don Juan, “you need to be a warrior. You have to fight and not give up, without complaining or retreating until you can see only in order to understand that nothing matters... The art of a warrior is to find a balance between the horror of being human and the admiration of that you are human." Main meaning Such assessments are that, in addition to the world of our perceptions, it is legitimate to posit other possible worlds, to recognize the pluralism of existing existence. In an effort to refute in the third volume of the work traditional values individual of the West (integrity and uniqueness of personality - the presence of a history in the “I”, self-esteem, the position of the urgent reality as the only possible one, etc.), Don Juan postulates that since our personal history is the work of others, we must get rid of “the enveloping thoughts of others of people". Don Juan in K. introduces the concepts of “tonal” and “nagual” to depict the architectonics of the universe. “Tonal” is the “recorder” of the world; everything that a person is able to describe (any thing for which a person has a word is referred to as “tonal”), the world given in language, culture, looking, doing. “Nagal” (eternal, unchanging and calm) is the actual and potentially indescribable, the true creator of the universe (and not its witness), accessible to discovery only in a state of elimination of one’s own mental beliefs. All “fragments” of a person’s future “I” (bodily sensations, feelings and thoughts) before the birth of the individual are located in nagual-shaped “shuttles”, subsequently they are connected together by the “spark of life”. Having been born, a person immediately loses the feeling of the nagual and plunges into the hypostases of the tonal. Unlike the Hindu “It,” which lies outside the existence of people, the nagual Don Juan can be used by a sorcerer for his own purposes, giving a person immeasurable possibilities. The meaning of this teaching is, most likely, not reduced to descriptions of the incredible abilities of “initiated” people. (When K., in 1968, tried to present Don Juan with the first volume of a book about Don Juan, he refused the gift, remarking: “You know what we do with paper in Mexico.”) K.’s Don Juan sees that people are deceiving themselves, giving names to the world, while expecting it to correspond to their designations, schemes and models; people are mistaken in believing that human actions constitute the world, and that they are the world. “The world is a mystery... The world is incomprehensible, and... we constantly strive to discover its secrets. You have to accept him for what he is - mysterious! The esoteric world (for K. is quite “valent” to the ordinary individual) dictates its own rules of the game to the neophyte who is joining: according to Don Juan, “accepting responsibility for one’s decisions means that a person is ready to die for them.” A European, hiding behind the sacred authority of cultural traditions and thinking of himself as potentially immortal, is thereby able to evade responsibility: according to don Juan, “the decisions of an immortal person can be changed, they can be regretted or questioned.” The expectation of public recognition of merit, self-respect as special maxims - in the space of esotericism lose all meaning: according to don Juan, “you are so damn important that you can afford to leave if things don’t turn out the way you would like. .. A person is only the sum of personal strength. This amount determines how he lives and dies." K.’s desire not only to present his personal experience of contact with representatives of esoteric reality, but also to define a possible universal language for its description, along with promising models for its theoretical reconstructions, gives a particularly significant heuristic status to his writings.
Carlos Castaneda
Carlos Castaneda(eng. Carlos Castaneda)
Many people say “Castaneda is a writer!” Suppose we agree with this and let everything that he wrote is neither mysticism nor occultism. Let everyone be his strong books, let’s say the first five, should be considered as the works of a writer: allegorical, artistic image some problems in an ethnically colored form.If you call Castaneda a writer, you must understand that a writer is a person who reflects artistic form the problematics of his era, the problem of the subject in his era.
What did the “writer Castaneda” write about? He tried to solve the same problems that<послевоенные 50-80 года>were the problems of the era: the problem of freedom, the problem of further human evolution, the problem of social confusion and uncertainty of prospects. He reflected the aspirations and hopes of that time in social, psychological, anthropological terms.
Where did these people who call Castaneda a writer show the essence of what exactly he is a writer? By the word “writer” they mean the word “dreamer”. They say Castaneda is a visionary about mysticism and they say they understand this more than some “upstart” Castaneda.
In fact, even as a writer, Castaneda is a lump. He proposed a detailed attempt to describe methods and options (models) for solving the problems of society and man for his time. Castaneda, on the one hand, wanted to get rid of isolation on a personal level - this is ala Freudianism, the separation of a person in his impulsive instinctive attempts to achieve something, which he himself does not know, but constantly rationalizes in the form of a fairy tale. He raised the issue of robotization, which is offered by society, and here Hubbard, Gurdjieff, and others are immediately involved in the issue of behaviorism.
And when some fool says "he's just a writer," he doesn't understand that he's entering a field where he has nothing to rely on at all.<для аргументации своей позиции>. If drug addicts can still be offended by the fact that, after taking dope, the miracles described by Castaneda do not happen and pose questions to him as a mystic, then people who discard mysticism and say “Castaneda is a writer” is an absolutely counterproductive statement because , that, as a writer, Castaneda raised such layers and problems that these people have no idea about.
People who consider Castaneda a writer cannot present anything to him because they do not have the slightest idea about the hermeneutic approach - that is, that which always requires interpretation in accordance with certain logical structures and databases with an understanding of what scheme to build a counter-position to Castaneda. You still need to enter the teachings expounded by Castaneda, cross the hermeneutic circle and become an insider, that is, understand this matter.
And all these people stand outside the hermeneutic circle. They see something gurgling in Castaneda’s mouth and interpret it in their own psychological or philosophical way. They begin to compose their own version, that is, to rationalize, in the image and likeness of Castaneda, their inner desires and aspirations. In psychoanalysis this is called “rationalization” - secret desires, clothed in a certain shell for self-justification. These people are engaged in self-justification, that is, indulgence.
Thus, these people pass off their indulgence as what Castaneda wrote about.
If someone wants to talk to you about Castaneda, ask the question - in what perspective will we talk? Historical, where is Castaneda a writer, publicist and social anthropologist of his era? Occultist? Revolutionary? Marginal? And if someone says that everything is in one, then this cannot be done, there must be an emphasis<и соответствующая база данных>.
And here all these people, filled with the eyes of wisdom and considering Castaneda a writer, turn out to be dummies. They have nothing to oppose except their rationalization, their indulgence.
If we consider the body of two books (Fire from Within, The Power of Silence), then in them Castaneda indirectly establishes belonging to Western philosophical tradition.Thus Castaneda shows belonging to the Western philosophical tradition, and, as you know, she stole and adapted Eastern philosophy throughout her history.
What does this mean? Castaneda needs to be read in a certain context. If you know him, then Castaneda's terminological gibberish begins. Castaneda introduces terminology not to isolate himself from tradition, but to build it into a structure with its own useful features. He, like a structuralist anthropologist, tells you the geometry or mathematics of the occult. This material is not for fools.
For Castaneda, each term is a multi-passport. Stalking, dreaming, a sense of self-importance, personal history - these are many semantic concepts that are interpreted both within the structure of the teaching set forth by Castaneda and at the level of parallel databases. In order to somehow advance in practice, you need to be able to calculate and connect these values.<...>Have you ever associated the view, path and fruit from Buddhism with Castaneda? The art of awareness is the view, dreaming (moving the assemblage point) is the path, and stalking (fixing the assemblage point) is the fruit.
I had no interest in education or knowledge. I couldn't think. I couldn't speak before I came to<мир магов>. I was one of those people who grew up learning that you shouldn't talk unless you're being talked to ("children are to be seen, not listened to"). There was no way to truly express myself. No conceptualization idea could be taken. Abstract thought was foreign to me because I was only interested in the pragmatic things of everyday life, meeting people, finding love, everything that interests women at that age.
I wasn't anything unusual. So they gave me orders to go to university and get an education as part of my magical training. And the reason for this was not only to change society's expectations of women<...>
Getting an education had two aspects. The first one was that it kind of undermined my own expectations of my capabilities, my abilities, or other people's expectations of me. Secondly, it gave me the opportunity to think analytically, to comprehend (conceptualize), understand (understand), what is magic. Because although they taught us techniques, certain practices, procedures, they also gave us very abstract ideas (concepts) about what magic is. Be interested in how magicians perceive (perceive) the world as they see it (see) reality - it requires a very keen intellect to understand the essence of what they are saying. Otherwise, you're at a certain level and you're looking at magic the way that, say, anthropologists look at it, just from the outside and just seeing the surface. And you think that magic includes singing, healing, dancing, wearing masks, performing strange ritual actions. These are our ideas from the point of view of our society about what magic is and what magicians do.
At that time I knew nothing about magic and didn’t even know what I was taught, but it came little by little. I had to understand more than just the surface gloss (superficial gloss) of what magic is, but what it actually entails, and for this you must have a very keen intellect and a deep education to be able to understand these concepts.
we don’t need rituals, “cleansings”, “protections”, “amulets”, “talismans” etc. The best possible defense and offer to spirit that you can make is to get rid of your “importance” and follow the flawless path “the path with the heart”.
Castaneda did not write about magic
“We have to find another word for magician,” he says. "It's too dark. We associate it with medieval absurdities: ritual, the devil. I like 'warrior' or 'navigator'. That's what magicians do - navigation."He wrote that the working definition of the word magician is “to comprehend energy directly.”
Average person, being unable to find the energy to perceive beyond one's daily routine, calls the area of extraordinary perception magic
Calling them magicians is not my whim. "Brujo" or "bruja", meaning sorcerer or witch, are Spanish words used to describe a man or woman who practices witchcraft. I always resented the special additional connotation of these words. But the magicians themselves reassured me by explaining once and for all that “magic” means something completely abstract: an ability that some people have developed to expand the limits of ordinary perception. In this case, the abstract characterization of magic automatically excludes any positive or negative connotations of the names used to designate people involved in the practice of magic.
Castaneda did not write about bridges and ghosts
Silvio Manuel decided to use the bridge (conceived the idea of using the bridge - conceived idea bridge use) How symbol (symbol) real intersection.
ally can only be perceived as a quality of feeling (quality of the senses). That is, since the ally is formless, its presence can only be noticed by its effect on the magician. Don Juan classified some of these effects as having anthropomorphic qualities.
Castaneda did not write about recluse and withdrawal from society
“Now you must renounce,” he said.- To renounce what?
- Detach yourself from everything.
- But this is impossible. I don't intend to become a hermit.
“The Teachings of Don Juan” tells about the unexpected acquaintance of the author, an anthropology student, with don Juan. Castaneda shows interest in medicinal plants and does not yet suspect that this meeting will change his destiny forever. After some time, don Juan decides to teach Carlos the secret knowledge that he possessed.
Castaneda managed to collect extensive material from don Juan's stories, but he understands that the only way to real knowledge is to experience everything himself. Only this will lead him to gaining Power...
Separate Reality (1971)
The reality of Indian sorcerers and their allies is so dangerous for the ordinary system of perception that Castaneda, having created his first book, tries to forget about it forever. But the Force orders otherwise - after 2 years he returns to begin new stage his training with magicians. “A Separate Reality” is the author’s story about an experience that he is not yet fully aware of and understands. It’s not for nothing that many esotericists advise leaving reading this book until last, and first familiarize yourself with the basic provisions of Don Juan’s teachings...
Journey to Ixtlan (1972)
After many years of training with the Indian magician Don Juan and a thorough, in-depth knowledge of the essence of his teachings, the fate of the hero of the book changed. Now his vision and attitude towards the world is completely different. Don Juan long and persistently led his student to this moment, gradually forming in his mind an image of a new reality that differs from the usual and traditional picture of the world. Having learned about all this, Carlos has to take the last step - to leave the world...
Tales of Power (1974)
"Tales of Power" is the most incredible and... fantastic book Castaneda.
Readers will learn that the picture of the world we are familiar with is only a small island in the endless world of magic - the nagual. In this book, Castaneda completes the story of his training with Don Juan. To achieve the full cycle, all that remains is an incomprehensible leap into the abyss. Carlos and two other students need to jump from the top of a mountain. On the same day, the Teacher and Benefactor leave this world forever...
Second Ring of Power (1977)
He threw himself off a cliff into an abyss and survived. Castaneda decides to return to Mexico to find out if this fantastic jump was real. On the road, he meets several female magicians, students of don Juan, and it is at this moment that he discovers in himself incredible ability leave your body, turning into a powerful double. He understands that all the attacks on him were made by don Juan himself, so that he could discover his abilities and realize himself in a different guise. As a result, Carlos is ready to take responsibility for the new party of the Nagual...
Gift of the Eagle (1981)
"The Eagle's Gift" tells the story of how the author decides to become the leader of a new squad of magicians. But at first everything goes extremely badly. The students, one after another, experience strange memories of events that did not and could not happen in the world of familiar perception. Because of this, quarrels begin between Castaneda and his charges. La Gorda comes to his aid, thanks to whom the Nagual remembers that due to the specific structure of his energy body, he is not capable of being their leader. As a result, his students leave him, and he and La Gorda head to Los Angeles...
Fire from Within (1984)
“Fire from Within” talks about the new stage that Castaneda is going through. This time there is a complete revolution in the perception of don Juan's teachings. Thanks to these experiences, the author will finally be able to find his integrity. Don Juan also appears in the book again, and the interesting concept of "petty tyrants" is described, which calls for looking at any negative life event as a means of learning and getting rid of self-importance...
The Power of Silence (1987)
In his new work, “The Power of Silence,” the author continues to tell readers about the teachings of the famous don Juan. He will present unique knowledge, which was a glimpse that illuminated the deepest parts of the human mind. Magic is presented as the main need of the individual. After all, only non-standard methods and superpowers make it possible to understand oneself and our world with its mysteries and secrets. Castaneda presents a system that will allow a person to develop himself and realize himself in society...
The Art of Dreaming (1994)
After six years of silence, Castaneda presents his new job"The Art of Dreaming" This book again becomes a real revelation for readers. She reveals techniques by which dreams can be used to discover the world of the Spirit, and also turn them into lucid dreams.
After studying this book, readers will be able to find out why the path to other realities lies through lucid dreams and how great shamans and magicians have been actively using this for a long time...
Active Side of Infinity (1995)
"The Active Side of Infinity" - the tenth book famous writer 20th century.
This book includes not only memories of conversations with don Juan and magical practices, but also completely unique information - about the life and work of the author in Los Angeles - in completely non-magical conditions...
In addition, the author will give an explanation as to why we are not capable of being the true, powerful beings we are? Why did this happen? And can this be fixed?...
Wheel of Time (1998)
“The Wheel of Time” is a book by the immortal Carlos Castaneda, which differs significantly from his previous works in that it is a collection of the most striking quotes and sayings. The book contains all the magical wisdom of the shamans of Ancient Mexico, which was studied through the magician Don Juan. Thanks to Castaneda’s books, millions of people were able to change their ideas not only about the world, but also about their destiny...
“The Wheel of Time” is a wonderful collection of quotes that carries a strong charge of something otherworldly that goes beyond human consciousness...
Magic passes (1998)
“Magical Passes” is the final book of the series by Carlos Castaneda, which was published in 1998. In his work, Carlos Castaneda describes the “tensegrity” system of energy exercises that he learned from Don Juan Matus. These magical passes and exercises are performed to achieve a state of physical and mental well-being.
The book is divided into 3 parts. In the first part, the author talks about the origin and purpose of magical passes. The second talks about the tensegrity exercise system. The third, most informative, part includes a detailed description of the technique for performing 6 series of tensegrity.