Carlos Castañeda

[[File:Carlos Castaneda 1962.JPG|thumb|right|165px|Castañeda in 1962]]
{{newage}}
'''Carlos César Salvador Arana Castañeda''' {{lived|1925|1998}} was a popular author and [[hoax]]er influential in the [[psychedelic drug]] culture of the 1960s and 1970s. He wrote a series of books, starting with ''The Teachings of Don Juan'', in which he purports to describe the teachings of "Don Juan Matus", a {{wpl|Yaqui}} [[Native American]] from [[Mexico]] and a traditional {{wpl|nagual|''nagual''|,}} a shape-shifting magician. Don Juan allegedly initiated Castañeda into a Yaqui tradition of drug-fueled mysticism. ''Time'' magazine has called him the "Godfather of the [[New Age]]".  

On the strength of these revelations, Castañeda was awarded a doctorate in [[anthropology]] by UCLA. Unusually, his doctorate was awarded based on the first three books (''A Separate Reality'', ''Journey to Ixtlan'' and ''Tales of Power'') that he had published while he was a student, rather than based on defending a thesis as most doctoral candidates would do.<ref name="Marshall"/> Anthropologists demanded that the university revoke his degree; they refused.<ref>[[Martin Gardner]], ''Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?: Debunking Pseudoscience'' (2001: Norton; ISBN 0393245039), p. 164.</ref>  His entire body of work, including his thesis, is now generally considered to be a hoax. Apologists these days put his works forward as "fiction", which they weren't sold as at the time.

==''The Teachings of Don Juan''==
A number of psychoactive substances were the key to Don Juan's supposed teachings.  [[Peyote]], a cactus (''Lophophora williamsii'') was the principal drug that he ingested; it is a {{wpl|hallucinogen}} whose active ingredient is {{wpl|mescaline||,}} although ingesting it in cactus form also induces strong vomiting.  He also vaporized a smoking mixture called ''humito'' or "little smoke" which contained [[magic mushrooms]] ({{wpl|Psilocybe mexicana|''Psilocybe mexicana''}}).  Another drug used by Castañeda was {{wpl|Datura|''Datura''|,}} commonly known as jimsonweed, a much more dangerous {{wpl|deliriant||.}} The books narrated that Don Juan and Castañeda, under the influence of these drugs, were able to [[out-of-body experience|travel great distances]], [[telekinesis|move objects]] with their minds, and [[lycanthropy|transform themselves into animals]].  This tradition of [[magic]] was said to derive from lore handed down from the {{wpl|Toltec|Toltecs||}}, an ancient Mexican people who preceded the Aztecs and whose culture died out around 1000 CE.  

Under the influence of these drugs, Castañeda learned a number of platitudes, which have gone on to great currency in the [[New Age]] movement and [[Deepity|probably seem quite profound if you're high]]:

{{cquote|For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length — and there I travel looking, looking breathlessly.|||''The Teachings of Don Juan'' (1968)}}

{{cquote|We are men and our lot in life is to learn and to be hurled into inconceivable new worlds.|||''A Separate Reality'' (1971)}}

{{cquote|Nobody knows who I am or what I do. Not even I.|||Don Juan Matus, quoted in ''Journey to Ixtlan'' (1972)}}

These and many similar and quotable [[Deepity|sayings]] in Castañeda's books, especially these first three, were widely quoted as inspirational material among early New Agers and drug culture aficionados of the 1970s.

==Debunking==
Castañeda's accounts began to be widely doubted during his career. The author Joyce Carol Oates wrote to ''[[The New York Times]]'', expressing bewilderment that a reviewer had accepted Castañeda's narrative as fact.  {{wpl|Weston LaBarre||,}} a genuine authority on peyote cultures, dismissed Castañeda's account immediately and forcefully,<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1978/01/22/archives/carlos-castaneda-meets-madame-solitude-the-second-ring-of-power.html "Carlos Castañeda Meets Madame Solitude"] by Robert Bly (January 22, 1978) ''[[The New York Times]]''.</ref> {{wpl|Richard de Mille||,}} a former [[Scientology|Scientologist]] and [[psychologist]], published ''Castañeda's Journey: The Power and the Allegory''<ref>Capra, 1976; ISBN 0884960676.</ref> A further debunking appears in Jay Courtney Fikes' ''Carlos Castañeda: Academic Opportunism and the Psychedelic Sixties''.<ref>Millenia, 1993; ISBN 0969696000</ref>

The chronology of Castañeda's alleged adventures in Sonora with Don Juan was internally inconsistent. They contain no reference to the usual dangers, discomforts, and precautions needed for people wandering the Sonoran desert. No reference to actual contemporary Yaqui beliefs and culture appear in Castañeda's accounts: neither their deep [[Roman Catholicism|Roman Catholic]] piety, nor their extensive use of flowers, nor their traditional suspicion of the Mexican government. Don Juan does not resemble a Yaqui or inhabit a Yaqui culture in any identifiable way.{{efn|The Yaqui of history had an excellent relationship with the [[Jesuit]]s. They lived on the outer boundaries of the Spanish empire, on land that had neither gold nor silver, nor was suitable for intensive ''hacienda'' agriculture, and as such were spared the worst excesses of Spanish colonial rule. They became devout Catholics, deeply conservative, and preserved much of their traditional culture and language. This conservatism served them poorly when the republican Mexicans overthrew the [[French]]-imposed emperor Maximilian, and the Yaqui fought on the losing side, leading to a long-lasting conflict with the regime of dictator Porfirio Diaz. These people were quite simply unlikely candidates for an [[occult]] tradition of drug-fueled [[witchcraft]].}} Castañeda apparently went through his training in [[shaman]]ism without learning any Yaqui words for animals or plants he allegedly encountered.  Don Juan's philosophical platitudes were cribbed from a number of identifiable sources, including [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] and [[C.S. Lewis]], the quantity of such [[Plagiarism|plagiaristic]] elements is so large as to make the originality of "Don Juan" quite implausible. Richard De Mille's book, ''The Don Juan Papers: Further Castaneda Controversies'', has a 47-page "Alleglossary" describing them.<ref>''The Don Juan Papers: Further Castaneda Controversies'' by Richard De Mille (1980) Ross-Erikson Publishers. ISBN 0915520249.</ref>{{rp|390-436}}

The Yaquis traditionally don't use peyote, although some have taken up peyote religions. Another native tribe of Mexico, the {{wpl|Huichol|Huichols|,}} do. Castañeda's books persuaded American stoners to visit Mexico. First, they invaded the Yaqui, whose sober culture disappointed them.  Then they turned to the peyote-using Huichol, where they caused substantial disruption, and a tribal elder was murdered by a stoned gringo.<ref name="Marshall">Marshall, Robert. (Apr. 12, 2007). [http://www.salon.com/2007/04/12/castaneda/ The dark legacy of Carlos Castañeda], Salon.</ref>

Castañeda is no longer regarded as anything other than a fraud by contemporary anthropologists. Dr. William W. Kelley, chair of Yale's anthropology department, has said,<ref name="Marshall"/>
{{cquote|I doubt you'll find an anthropologist of my generation who regards Castañeda as anything but a clever [[Charlatan|con man]]. It was a hoax, and surely Don Juan never existed as anything like the figure of his books.}}
Castañeda disappeared from the public eye in 1973, but continued to publish books containing the alleged teachings of Don Juan until his death. He promoted a philosophy called "Tensegrity",{{efn|Tensegrity was apparently ripped off from [[Buckminster Fuller]]'s geometrical/architectural concept of the same name.}} supposedly based on Don Juan's teachings, and established a foundation called "Cleargreen" to promote it.

==Cult Leader==
After falling out of the public eye, Castañeda started a secretive group, ordering initiates to abandon their families and giving them new names. Several vanished after his death, one turned up dead, and they are suspected of having committed [[suicide]].<ref name="Marshall"/>

==See also==
*[[Ayahuasca tourism]]
*[[Fakelore]]
*[[Terence McKenna]]
*[[Out-of-body experience]]
*[[Plastic shaman]]
*[[Reality shifting]] — [[Harry Potter]] instead of Don Juan, and without the drugs

==External links==
*[http://skepdic.com/castaneda.html Carlos Castañeda], The Skeptic's Dictionary
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20001018000013/http://www.sustainedaction.org/Chronologies/Castaneda_early_years.htm Prelude to don Juan: Castañeda's Early Years], [http://sustainedaction.org/ Sustained Action]
*Dean Chavers, [https://web.archive.org/web/20160403195037/http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2011/03/24/fake-carlos-castaneda-24168 The Fake Carlos Castañeda], Indian Country
*Jay Courtney Fikes, [https://web.archive.org/web/20141016152524/http://jayfikes.com/uploads/CastanedabyFikes.pdf Carlos Castañeda (1925-1998), reading between his lines, a summary judgment].  
*Robert Marshall, [http://www.salon.com/2007/04/12/castaneda/ The dark legacy of Carlos Castañeda], ''Salon''
*Stephen C. Thomas, [http://realitysandwich.com/418/shamans_and_charlatans_assessing_castanedas_legacy/ Shamans and Charlatans: Assessing Castañeda's Legacy], Reality Sandwich
*Wallace Sampson, [http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/an-original-richard-de-mille-carlos-castaneda-literary-quackery/ An Original: Richard de Mille, Carlos Castañeda, Literary Quackery], Science Based Medicine

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castañeda, Carlos}}
[[Category:Anthropology]]
[[Category:Authors]]
[[Category:Cult leaders]]
[[Category:Cultural appropriation]]
[[Category:Drugs]]
[[Category:Folklore]]
[[Category:Hoaxes]]
[[Category:Native American woo]]
[[Category:New Age]]
[[Category:Plagiarists]]
[[Category:Pseudomythology]]

Categories: Anthropology, Authors, Cult leaders, Cultural appropriation, Drugs, Folklore, Hoaxes, Native American woo, New Age, Plagiarists, Pseudomythology