Castaneda, Carlos

Castaneda, Carlos 1925-1998

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Born in Cajamarca, Peru, in 1925, Carlos Castaneda moved to Los Angeles in 1955. He completed creative writing classes before enrolling at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in 1959. Castaneda’s third book was approved as his UCLA doctoral dissertation in anthropology in 1973, after he changed its title and added a dissertation abstract (Fikes 1993, pp. 46, 101). His ten books (now twelve) had sold some eight million copies in seventeen languages when he died in 1998.

From 1968 to 1976, Castaneda was America’s most celebrated anthropologist. His fame was subsequently eclipsed as scholarly critiques exposed fraudulent elements in his ethnography. Debunking, however, has done little to diminish Castaneda’s standing as a New Age icon. Within that distinctly antirational audience, he inspired shamanic tourism and a religious cult.

Most anthropologists assumed that Castaneda’s first three or four books were ethnographically factual. The most compelling evidence of fraud in Castaneda’s books is textual inconsistency, especially two mutually incompatible assertions made by him, or his fictional (composite) mentor, don Juan Matus, whom Castaneda called a “Yaqui Indian sorcerer.” The ingestion of three species of sacred plants was, Castaneda claimed, integral to his apprenticeship with don Juan, who “related the use of Datura stramonium (jimsonweed) and Psilocybe mexicana (sacred mushrooms) to the acquisition of power he called an ‘ally.’ He related the use of Lophophora williamsii (peyote) to acquisition of wisdom, or knowledge of the right way to live” (Castaneda 1969, p. 9). In Castaneda’s third book, don Juan revoked the value originally ascribed to acquiring allies, via jimsonweed and mushrooms, and learning righteousness with peyote, proclaiming instead that administration of those plants was merely a strategy to shatter Castaneda’s “dogmatic certainty” about his worldview. By removing that obstacle, don Juan could implant his perspective on sorcery (Castaneda 1974, pp. xii-xiii; Fikes 1996, p. 140). Don Juan’s new emphasis on his teaching of sorcery annuls the tutelary function he originally attributed to the spirits contained in peyote and the other plant allies.

Self-contradictory statements resulted when Castaneda addressed skeptics without reconciling those responses with his original statements. In 1968, shortly after Castaneda’s first book appeared, R. Gordon Wasson (1898–1986), a renowned specialist on sacred mushrooms, wrote to Castaneda. Replying to Wasson, Castaneda, without justification, removed jimsonweed (Datura ) from the category of plants possessing allies, as originally defined by don Juan (Castaneda 1969, p. 9). Castaneda’s letter to Wasson asserted that, “unlike peyote and Jimson weed, the mushrooms contained don Juan’s ally.” Richard de Mille recognized another textual inconsistency in Castaneda’s letter. Don Juan allegedly imposed a rule of “total secrecy” about revealing how he collected those mushrooms (de Mille 1980, p. 323). Castaneda violated that rule by divulging details: “Don Juan always picked the mushrooms with his left hand, transferred them to his right, and then put them through the neck of the gourd” (1980, p. 324). Another textual inconsistency documented by de Mille (1980, pp. 322–329) concerns Castaneda’s “field notes,” which put him in Sonora, Mexico, on September 6, 1968, the same day he dated his letter from Los Angeles to Wasson.

Disparities between Castaneda’s claims and the reports of independent researchers also attest to fabrication. Castaneda’s method of achieving ecstasy by smoking a mixture of plants—including psilocybin mushrooms—has never been corroborated by any other ethnographer. Actual verification is impossible because most of the plants in that mixture were never identified. His claim of becoming a crow after smoking those mushrooms, and being hypnotized by don Juan, is singular (Fikes 1996, p. 141).

Castaneda’s textual inconsistencies and the numerous discrepancies between his books and at least one thousand reports of independent researchers render his portrait of peyotism an inane parody. Similarly, Weston La Barre (1911–1996), a specialist in peyote rituals performed in the Native American Church (NAC), condemned Castaneda’s first two books as pseudo-ethnography (La Barre 1989, p. 272). Paradigmatic here is don Juan’s momentous decision to accept Castaneda as his apprentice, because “Mescalito” (an erroneous name for the peyote spirit) had, in the form of a dog, caroused with Castaneda (1969, pp. 33–41). That assertion is aberrant (Fikes 1993, pp. 61–62) and was contradicted when don Juan usurped the tutelary function originally ascribed to peyote.

Castaneda failed to distinguish the most elementary aspects of peyote meetings, including the purpose of such meetings and the leader’s identity (Fikes 1996, pp. 138–139; Fikes 2004). Don Juan declared that a light hovering above Castaneda in a peyote ritual was an omen. Castaneda never saw that light, and don Juan never clarified its meaning (Fikes 1996, p. 139). This unexplained “omen” contrasts with momentous experiences comprehended by recipients and validated by others, as illustrated by the light that led NAC leader Albert Hensley to read the biblical passage describing Jesus’ baptism. Hensley’s revelation set a precedent for baptism in the NAC (Fikes 1996, p. 139).

Castaneda’s followers have sought shamans comparable to don Juan among the Yaqui (who do not venerate peyote) and Huichol (whose peyote pilgrimages are legendary). Recognizing peyote as the cornerstone of Castaneda’s alleged apprenticeship, American tour operators have guided sightseers into the sacred land where Huichols venerate the peyote spirit. A steadily rising tide of tourists has stimulated Mexican authorities to incarcerate Huichol peyote hunters and has incited traditional Huichols to prohibit outsiders from entering their home-land without permits (Fikes 1999; Fikes and Weigand 2004). Castaneda’s legacy survives in the Tensegrity cult based on his teachings.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Castaneda, Carlos. [1968] 1969. The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. New York: Ballantine.

Castaneda, Carlos. [1972] 1974. Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan. New York: Pocket Books.

de Mille, Richard, ed. 1980. The Don Juan Papers: Further Castaneda Controversies. Santa Barbara, CA: Ross-Erickson.

Fikes, Jay C. 1993. Carlos Castaneda, Academic Opportunism, and the Psychedelic Sixties. Victoria, BC: Millenia.

Fikes, Jay C. 1996. Carlos Castaneda and don Juan. In The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal, ed. Gordon Stein, 135–143. Amherst, NY: Prometheus.

Fikes, Jay C. 1999. Examining Ethics, Benefits, and Perils of Tours to Mexico. In International Conference on Heritage, Multicultural Attractions, and Tourism, Vol. 1, ed. Meral Korzay, 407–421. Istanbul, Turkey: Bosphorus University.

Fikes, Jay C. 2004. Peyote Ritual Use. In Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture, eds. Mariko N. Walter and Eva J. N. Fridman, 336–339. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

Fikes, Jay C., and Phil C. Weigand. 2004. Sensacionalismo y etnografia: El caso de los Huicholes de Jalisco. Relaciones 25 (98): 50–68.

La Barre, Weston. 1989. The Peyote Cult. 5th ed. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

Jay Courtney Fikes