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December 25, 1925 - April 27, 1998) was a US writer of Peruvian origin, primarily known for his Don Juan book series (12 books and many shorter works).
He claimed to have been born in São Paulo, Brazil on Christmas Day in 1931, but immigration records show that he was born 6 years earlier in Cajamarca, Peru. He anglicized his name by changing "ñ" (Castañeda) into "n". He was educated at the University of California, Los Angeles (B.A. 1962; Ph.D. 1970).
In 1960, he met the Yaqui shaman Don Juan Matus, and learning from him, Castaneda wrote the partly autobiographical works for which he is known. He inherited from Don Juan Matus the position of Nagual, or leader of a party of seers.
Notable works include:
Although they started out with the premise of anthropology, his works became a mixture of story, religion and philosophy.
Castaneda's works contain descriptions of paranormal experiences, several psychological techniques, Toltec magic rituals, shamanism and experiences with psychoactive drugs (e.g. peyote).
Many critics doubt the existence of Don Juan, citing inconsistencies in Don Juan's personality across the books and in the sequence of events in the books. Many Castaneda supporters claim in turn that the very fact of handling awareness and perception accounts for this; and that the actual existence per se of Don Juan is irrelevant, since the important matter is the themes that Don Juan presents.
As Castaneda was very elusive, and because his works were taken up by young people at a time when mystical and shamanic traditions were in fashion, many professionals cast doubt on the authenticity of contents of his works. When he followed up The Teachings of Don Juan with a series of equally popular books, including A Separate Reality (1971) and Tales of Power (1975), even more questions were raised as to how much of his work was true anthropology and how much was his own creation.
Another way to read the books is as a sort of game, almost like a detective novel. Depending upon one's approach, they could be either accepted at face-value in their entirety, or discarded. Some of the material could be considered true, some fictional; and some of the events described probably appeared to be real at the time, but could be interpreted as hallucinations. It is up to the reader to decide.
His books can be read as a philosophical/pragmatical text that express a world view by which a person can live one's life. There is a growing movement world-wide of practitioners of this philosophy.
One major premise of Castaneda's proposed world view is that Dreaming can be cultivated as a way to refine one's "awareness" to a point where extraordinary feats of perception can be achieved. Similarly, breaking routines and acting in new ways is recommended as a way to understand one's true relationship to the perceivable world. The combination of dreaming cultivation and controlled behavior is said by Carlos to eventually give someone the ability to transform themselves into a higher state of perception (perhaps analogous to Eastern philosophical states such as satori in Zen Buddhism).
As a physical support to these practices, a series of meditative stretching and posing techniques are practiced. This is called "Tensegrity" (a term borrowed from architecture) and has individual and group practitioners around the world.
Two other authors, Taisha Abelar and Florinda Donner-Grau have also written books claiming to be from the same tradition, in fact the same "team" of Don Juan Matus' disciples, as Carlos Castaneda. Both Abelar and Donner-Grau were endorsed by Castaneda as being legitimate students of Don Juan Matus; whereas many other authors who also claim to have studied under Don Juan Matus have been dismissed by Castaneda.
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
Generation Of Practitioners Preceding Castaneda
Generation of Practitioners Preceding Juan Matus
Generation of Practitioners Preceding Julián Osorio
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