Das Rad Der Zeit. Das Vermächtnis Des Don Juan

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Das Rad Der Zeit. Das Vermächtnis Des Don Juan

3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 · rating details · 14,499 ratings · 488 reviews

Over 40 years ago University of California Press published an unusual ms by an anthropology student named Carlos Castaneda. The Teachings of Don Juan initiated a generation of seekers dissatisfied with limitations of the Western worldview. This classic book remains controversial for the alternative way of seeing that it presents & the revolution in cognition it demands...more

Paperback, 288 pages

Published May 1st 2001 by Fischer (Tb.), Frankfurt (first published 1968)

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Sep 15, 2007 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Pagans

Shelves: witchynonfiction

I am going to give the same review to all the Carlos Castaneda books I read in that series, simply because they are all outstanding. I was lucky to come across Castaneda very early on my magickal path. My spells and rituals have always relied on the power of intent, and I have found no better education on how to focus your intent than in this series of books. Back then (1994) they were classifed as nonfiction. Lately, they say they are fiction. All I know is much of what is in these books works....more

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Jul 16, 2009 Miguel Mayher rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

You may find this book has a lot of chaff on how they prepare peyote and other drugs, mundane descriptions in diary... yet when you less expect it, they hit you with a boulder of wisdom that leaves you freezed.

There is ONE core idea in the book that makes the price tag disappear. You cannot pay for it. It goes like this:

"Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any...more You may find this book has a lot of chaff on how they prepare peyote and other drugs, mundane descriptions in diary... yet when you less expect it, they hit you with a boulder of wisdom that leaves you freezed.

There is ONE core idea in the book that makes the price tag disappear. You cannot pay for it. It goes like this:

"Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions. To have such clarity you must lead a disciplined life. Only then will you know that any path is only a path and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you to do. But your decision to keep on the path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. I warn you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary.

This question is one that only a very old man asks. Does this path have a heart? All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. They are paths going through the bush, or into the bush. In my own life I could say I have traversed long long paths, but I am not anywhere. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn't. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you.

Before you embark on any path ask the question: Does this path have a heart? If the answer is no, you will know it, and then you must choose another path. The trouble is nobody asks the question; and when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart, the path is ready to kill him. At that point very few men can stop to deliberate, and leave the path. A path without a heart is never enjoyable. You have to work hard even to take it. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy; it does not make you work at liking it."

Ever since I read the book I have followed that advice. Life blossoms with a feeling of realness.(less)

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Nov 04, 2008 gokce rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fall-2008

The discussions on whether this book is fiction or non-fiction are rather futile, and prevent the reader from engaging with it more closely. I think a smarter move would be to suspend judgment on the matter, and look into what one can learn from this account.

The Teachings of Don Juan may be read as a bildungsroman where the narrator/anthropologist Carlos Castaneda engages with an alternative reality, under the strict guidance of Don Juan, on the path to becoming “a man of knowledge”. As a means...more The discussions on whether this book is fiction or non-fiction are rather futile, and prevent the reader from engaging with it more closely. I think a smarter move would be to suspend judgment on the matter, and look into what one can learn from this account.

The Teachings of Don Juan may be read as a bildungsroman where the narrator/anthropologist Carlos Castaneda engages with an alternative reality, under the strict guidance of Don Juan, on the path to becoming “a man of knowledge”. As a means to become a man of knowledge, he experiments with peyote, jimson weed and magic mushrooms. The book constitutes of Castaneda’s hallucinogen experiences and long discussions with his mentor, followed by a dull ‘structural analysis’. His vivid and lengthy descriptions of an alternate reality (which may remind one of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha) challenge the bubble of perception that the narrator has been enclosed in. At the same time, detailed dialogues between the master and his student (perhaps the most significant ethnographic tool in the book) reveal the incommensurable, yet fruitful, understandings/misunderstandings that are inherent to this learning experience (see page 101 for a good example). Unfortunately, the final structural analysis does not tell us anything new, but reveals how anthropological knowledge may be constrained by attempts at academic interpretation.

We meet Castaneda on a bus stop, and this bus stop is the first and the last secular space that we encounter in the book. After Castaneda begins developing a relationship with Don Juan, his sense of space and time is challenged by the alternative reality that he becomes inundated within. He is still attached to the calendar, and notes the date for each of his diary entries; yet, his sleep patterns transform, his capacity to judge durations is hindered, and the reader does not care for the dates of his entries anymore. His movements in space cannot be coherently traced either: even though he seems to be spending most of his time on Don Juan’s porch, he may as well be flying away. After the first few pages, his everyday accounts become disengaged from UCLA graduate student life, and except for a few moments (such as when he thinks about Georg Simmel), the reader does not glimpse any trace of his prior history. In this sense, Don Juan, like Carlos Castaneda, is constructed as an a-historical character, and the reader does not learn much about the mentor other than his experiences with his benefactor. Rather, the reader develops an understanding of both characters in relation to their mutual learning process.

In this learning process, the narrator portrays himself as a curious young man, and suspends any judgment on the Yaqui way of knowledge. Even though it is not difficult to notice his New Age admiration towards his master, the starkness of his descriptions eliminates any sense of exoticism, and rather evokes an attempt at cultural relativism. Yet, it is important to keep in mind that there are only two characters in the book: the narrator mentions the presence of others in various instances, but does not pay much attention to such conversations. The ethnographic account becomes, therefore, an account of explorations within a particular alternative learning session where the anthropologist is present with all his senses, rather than an exploration of Yaqui culture, and it is this particular focus that makes this book so strong. The absence of any conclusion, or judgment, regarding the Yaqui way of knowledge directs the reader to read this book as ‘a path with a heart’ rather than a conclusive argument on shamanism, and perhaps brings the author to a different understanding of anthropology.
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Nov 14, 2007 Rich rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, spiritual, religion, mexico

I found this book in my friend's house in Spring Lake, New Jersey about 20 years ago. Flipped through it, started reading, and couldn't put it down. Since then I've read all of Carlos Casteneda's books, but this is by far the best. Sadly, the power of this work is often diminished by readers who mistakenly, and obtusely, attribute his experiences solely to tripping through the use of psychotropic plants in Mexico. "That's a book about tripping," people have told me. But no, it really has nothing...more

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Mar 07, 2007 Adam rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A young anthropologist goes into the desert, meets an old shaman and does a bunch of peyote, DMT/salvia, and shrooms. This book is his account from one trip to another with bits of hippy-wisdom thrown in, like the oft-quoted "ask yourself if this path has a heart" passage. Beyond the tripping, the author doesn't seem to understand the spiritual aspects of what Don Juan is trying to tell him. Like when he smoked the "little smoke" and thought himself to become a bird, he asks Don Juan afterwards...more

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Jan 14, 2008 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Whoa. This one was a real trip and half. UCLA grad student in botany goes down to southern Arizona to learn about plants in the 1960s. Winds up studying under the tutelage of a local Yaqui shaman and explores the nether-regions of human perception, induced through a variety of 'power plants' as well as peyote (its own special deity). The is the first of a whole series of books and a large following that were largely inspired by the author, Carlos Castaneda. I haven't read the others, but I like...more

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May 15, 2013 Tom Lombardo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Carlos Castenada is one of the great legendary heroes of the counter-culture revolution of the 1960s and 70s. He dedicated the first part of his life to anthropology and ethnography, and from the outset he seems to have set before himself the task of being mysterious and unknowable. He usually told people he was six years younger than he really was. He often said he was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil but was actually born in Cajamarca, Peru.

He attended the University of California at Los Angeles, whe...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Laura rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book sat by my bed for months, and everyday, I guiltily thought, "I should finish that." Finally, I called it quits.

I probably should have read this book when I was 15 and in the process of being confirmed in the Catholic church (not really my choice -- my parents forced me) and simultaneously reading about Wicca and Sufi poetry... and basically being a teenager looking for the meaning of life and some higher purpose than the claustrophobia of high school.

In short, I understand why my tee...more This book sat by my bed for months, and everyday, I guiltily thought, "I should finish that." Finally, I called it quits.

I probably should have read this book when I was 15 and in the process of being confirmed in the Catholic church (not really my choice -- my parents forced me) and simultaneously reading about Wicca and Sufi poetry... and basically being a teenager looking for the meaning of life and some higher purpose than the claustrophobia of high school.

In short, I understand why my teenaged high school students rave about this book -- they're in the time of magical thinking. They're also in the time when they believe in conspiracy theories, and they can't tell fact from fiction very well.

But now? I'm in my 30s, and I'm more preoccupied with when my bills are due, when my next paycheck is coming, and what I'm teaching next week. In many senses, my mind is so much more global than it was as a teenager, but in other ways, I'm much interested in the wonder of day to day life. And I have no use for drugs as a) they're expensive, b) who has the time to trip?, and c) life has clearly proved to far wilder than any hallucination.

That's my disclaimer.

That said, I'm very interested in alternative world views, but that interest isn't enough to propel me through a book of dry, lackluster writing. I suspect that Castaneda kept it dry on purpose to stick to his intention of making an anthropological study. Maybe it's not the dryness that bothered me, but the seeming lack of depth of Castaneda.

Castaneda trains under the tutelage of a Yaqui "brujo" - Don Juan - who blows Castaneda's mind open with his way of seeing the world and connecting with it. What I liked was Don Juan's profound respect for the power of the natural elements from plants to smoke to peyote. Nothing - not even the lizards whose eyes and mouths were sewn shut (... yep, that's the part when it hit home that this wasn't some New Agey "let's-connect-with-nature" book but witchcraft, pure and simple, no Hogwart's needed) - is gratuitous or taken for granted. Don Juan truly walks the walk and has clearly acquired more wisdom than he could ever hope to bestow upon Castaneda.

I also really liked Castaneda's descriptions of his experiences with peyote. Like I said before, I'm more interested in my monthly budget right now than having any psychedelic experiences, but it was, nonetheless, intriguing to read about in such precise detail.

What drove me crazy were Castaneda's banal questions to Don Juan which seemed to keep him stuck in a state of disbelief rather than pushing him to a deeper understanding of Don Juan's teachings... but maybe that comes in a later book?

I probably won't ever know.(less)

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Oct 31, 2012 Alan Furth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book recounts the author's alleged experiences as apprentice of Juan Matus, a Yaqui native American shaman he met while conducting research on medicinal plants as an anthropology student at the University of California, Los Angeles, during the summer of 1960.

Castaneda's apprenticeship was based on the ceremonial ingestion of the psychedelic cactus peyote, whose principal agent is mescaline, the same substance that Aldous Huxley used for writing his book "The Doors of Perception."

Like Huxley'...more

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Oct 12, 2012 Sunny Rodriguez rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love Carlos Castenada books. This book is not my favorite, but it was the start of something great. This book got a lot of recognition and encouraged Casteneda to continue writing. There is a great deal of disagreement that revolves around if this is a acurate depiction of a sorcerer in training or a mere colaboration to reach for fame in a creative manner. I enjoyed the books and it does seem plausible for a anthropology student to meet a person like Don Juan. Every culture through out time h...more

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Apr 07, 2012 Eleanor rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Spiritual learning and hallucinations in the desert. Enjoyable to read and also full of interesting and inspiring knowledge; I gained a lot of ideas about self-awareness, personal improvement and approaching life with a more respectful and open attitude. Be the warrior!

“All paths are the same: they lead nowhere. A path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you ... Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as ma...more

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Sep 12, 2011 Desmatron rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ricerca, saggio, sciamanismo

il modo in cui è scritto il libro è a metà tra una relazione e un romanzo, a volte tedioso nelle descrizioni

vero o inventato che fosse l'apprendimento dell'autore non ne sminuisce di certo lo spessore del contenuto

contenuto che prende corpo soprattutto se consideriamo il suo significato accanto ad altre scienze dell'"oltre"

la via sciamanica è qui descritta in modo dettagliato, soprattutto per quanto riguarda le impressioni vissute dal protagonista che ci racconta i modi di sentire lungo il suo v...more

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Aug 11, 2011 Hyun-mi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-forever

The Best Advice that anyone has ever given me is all in this book. This book is my spiritual guidance.
"A warrior acknowledges his pain but he doesn't indulge in it.
The mood of the warrior who enters into the unknown is not one of
sadness; on the contrary, he's joyful because he feels humbled by
his great fortune, confident that his spirit is impeccable, and
above all, fully aware of his efficiency. A warrior's joyfulness
comes from having accepted his fate, and from having truthfully
assessed...more

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Jun 18, 2011 CD rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: religion, psychology, philosophy

June 2011

Another box of books has been reopened for cleaning, sorting, and reevaluation and lo and behold, many of the collected works of Carlos Castaneda are part of the contents.

Many years have gone but I remember this author and his works vividly. [Now don't get any ideas as to an allusion I may or may not be making] At some point I stopped purchasing more in the series and put them away. There's a 'blur' factor as I recall that happens with these stories of the metaphysical and magical journ...more

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Apr 19, 2011 Bistra Ivanova rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: abandoned, fiction

Добре зная, че книгите, претендиращи да бъдат "духовни", но същевременно предрешени като романчета, за да станат "общодостъпни", обикновено са точно толкова плитки, колкото изглеждат, но тук направо щях да се задавя с био чая си от удивление! Твърде много години бях слушала за Кастанеда и Дон Хуан от хора, в чието думи най-малкото се вслушвам, за да имам основание да очаквам поне нещичко. Нещо различно от смешни разговори, недомлъвки, много страшни _тайни_, още повече наркотици и никаква идея за...more Добре зная, че книгите, претендиращи да бъдат "духовни", но същевременно предрешени като романчета, за да станат "общодостъпни", обикновено са точно толкова плитки, колкото изглеждат, но тук направо щях да се задавя с био чая си от удивление! Твърде много години бях слушала за Кастанеда и Дон Хуан от хора, в чието думи най-малкото се вслушвам, за да имам основание да очаквам поне нещичко. Нещо различно от смешни разговори, недомлъвки, много страшни _тайни_, още повече наркотици и никаква идея за целостта на нещата.

Ако поредицата за Дон Хуан е роман, то той е адски скучен и изсмукан от пръстите, ако пък е самото знание от заглавието, което ще направи човека по пътя (пак от заглавието) _знаещ_, както Дон Хуан го нарича, ще се задавя и с био бисквитката си.

Познатата схема за западния ученик, който не знае какво търси, но среща източния учител, който му дава всичко и много повече, за съжаление не (ми) носи нищо полезно, затова изключих четеца си, платих и пожелах на мацката от Био Кафенето приятна вечер.

edit: Всъщност реших да почета за Дон Хуан, защото бе споменат на дискусията "Смърт, безсмъртие, Възкресение" и сега съм още по-объркана защо им трябваше на отците бедни да го включват в изложението си :-)
http://www.redhouse-sofia.org/Event.a...(less)

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Jan 05, 2011 Ninja rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This obscure writer has a huge cult following who believe that Castaneda's semi-fictious stories about Don Juan and the indigenous peoples of Mexico hold the keys to power and enlightenment. Ninja is a skeptic. She doesn’t believe in any of that rot – but they are best books being peddled as non-fiction that I have ever read.

Years ago, I caught an edition of “Imprint” on our local public television station TVO. The host, Daniel Richler, was leading a panel discussion about native spirituality an...more This obscure writer has a huge cult following who believe that Castaneda's semi-fictious stories about Don Juan and the indigenous peoples of Mexico hold the keys to power and enlightenment. Ninja is a skeptic. She doesn’t believe in any of that rot – but they are best books being peddled as non-fiction that I have ever read.

Years ago, I caught an edition of “Imprint” on our local public television station TVO. The host, Daniel Richler, was leading a panel discussion about native spirituality and its literature. At one point during the discussion Richler held up a copy of Carlos Castaneda’s first book The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. He said with great confidence and certainty that Castaneda’s works about the Yaqui Indians of Mexico represented the greatest hoax since the Piltdown Man. With that, he seemed to dismiss the book out of hand. I had already, if truth be known, dismissed Castaneda as a new age phony long ago so I too moved right along with Richler to the next item of discussion. I was surprised then when one of the panel members, Medicine Grizzly Bear Adams, brought the discussion back to Castaneda. He said that Castaneda must have really been trained under a traditional man of knowledge, (as Castaneda referred to don Juan). Otherwise,Adams insisted, he must be “one of the greatest philosophers or genius’ of your time…” to be able to synthesize the information he presents in his books from his sources, whatever they may be.

That made me revisit the body of work Castaneda wrote, and since then I have read all the books about his so called tutelage under the nagual, Don Juan. They are most entertaining and thought provoking and many quotes from the book have come down to us into the popular culture. The most well-known of these is has come down as something in the form of following a path with heart.

“…a warrior must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if he feels that he should not follow it, he must not stay with it under any conditions. His decision to keep on that path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. He must look at every path closely and deliberately. There is a question that a warrior has to ask: ‘Does this path have a heart?’”

There are many more gems like this in the books. He was a spiritual genius. Whether or not he made it up, he weaved the work into a self-contained reality in its own right.(less)

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Feb 15, 2011 MB Taylor rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Finished reading The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge (1968) by Carlos Castaneda on the bus to work this morning. A book of its time The Teachings of Don Juan is the story of a young man (the narrator) & his explorations of ‘nonordinary reality’ aided by don Juan (a man of knowledge, a sorcerer) and a trio of hallucinogenic plants (Jimson weed, peyote and mushrooms).

The majority of the book recounts the narrator’s experiences and interactions with don Juan as his apprentice. T...more Finished reading The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge (1968) by Carlos Castaneda on the bus to work this morning. A book of its time The Teachings of Don Juan is the story of a young man (the narrator) & his explorations of ‘nonordinary reality’ aided by don Juan (a man of knowledge, a sorcerer) and a trio of hallucinogenic plants (Jimson weed, peyote and mushrooms).

The majority of the book recounts the narrator’s experiences and interactions with don Juan as his apprentice. The remainder is Castaneda’s scholarly analysis of don Juan’s teachings.

When first published in 1968 The Teachings of Don Juan was accepted as non-fiction. In fact UCLA awarded Castaneda a doctorate Anthropology for the work that underlies his first three books (starting with The Teachings of Don Juan). When I first read it sometime in the mid-seventies its authenticity was beginning to be questioned, a controversy that continues to the present.

I have the first eight of Castaneda’s books but, as is frequently the case with me, I’ve read only first three or four. I’ve always meant to read the rest, but as time has passed the content of the earlier works faded from memory. I decided if I was ever going to read the later books I would need to start at the beginning.

And so I have.

What should I say about The Teachings of Don Juan? I enjoyed it, at least the story part. The analysis part seemed pretty weak to me, strong on generalizations from not many data points. I’d like to compare my impressions from today with those from 35 years ago, but it apparently didn’t make that strong of an impression on me. That it made a positive impression at all is evidenced by the fact that I bought the successive books, most at a time when I didn’t have a lot of disposable income.

I enjoy stories about quests, especially quests for the truth or enlightenment. I think The Teachings of Don Juan can certainly be read as that. It doesn’t really even matter to me if the book is fiction or non-fiction. The main character is on a quest either way. And much of the philosophy of don Juan feels authentic.

Is don Juan’s path a path would have liked to follow? Not really, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate it.

Bottom line: I’m not sure I’d recommend this book to anyone, but it was a mostly fun read for me; if nothing else just for the nostalgia.
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Mar 15, 2010 Pamela Wells rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Every Seeker has at some point experienced an unexplainable moment. These are great opportunities to expand your perceptions to begin to believe in something greater then yourself that cannot be explained by your culture, current beliefs or family. Any of Carlos Castanada's books will give you the opportunity to discover another perspective about what reality really is. For those who call themselves Seekers - looking for the meaning of life - this is a foundational book. This was the first book...more

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May 24, 2011 Jetska Kahanek rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved this book but once I researched the author a little more, I found his cult like theories to be weird and creepy. I have 3 of his books and wouldn't mind parting with them. These books are primarily about student anthropologists who studies Native American usage of peyote, Dimethyltryptamine(DMT), saliva, and mushrooms. He meets a shaman who teaches him the method in which to use peyote and discovers the powers of shamanism. The first half of this book goes into the efforts of trust and s...more

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Dec 23, 2008 Nicholas rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I came across this book, strangely enough, reading an old (70's era) interview with Joni Mitchell. She had mentioned it in a rather oblique way, but there was enough info to search it out. I was totally amazed by it and looked more into who this Castaneda guy was. I wish I hadn't because what I originally took for an honest first hand experience was turned into a (possibly) fantastical fictional story, or at least Ol' Carlos had some skeptics that pleaded a good case against him.

Nevertheless, t...more

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May 17, 2012 Nick H rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

To read this book as it is would leave a person very intrigued and convinced of the existence of powers and sorcery within the old "yaqui way." That being said, I have read much upon completing this book that calls into question the experiences that Castaneda recounts within. It is disappointing, as a study of this type, conducted in a valid way, would be of great interest.

If I were to assume that Castaneda's experiences were real (and he not some kind of huckster, which seems possible), this b...more

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Jun 23, 2011 Dawn rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I was very excited to finally find a copy of this book and thought it would be an amazing classic. Only a few pages in and I knew I was sorely mistaken.

The beginning was the hardest to get through. The same questions just rephrased being asked over and over again made me want to put the book down for good on several occasions. If I were Don Juan I would have left this guy in the desert. Castaneda's recollections of his altered states were summarized at best. It was hard to capture any of his exp...more

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Mar 04, 2009 Celessstino rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Great book with a lot of hallucinating passages. This makes me realize on the different perception of the world that each person conceives, about the life, the power, the knowledge and death.

In this case, the perception of reality that old tribe Yaqui perceives. It is really shocked how an occident's mind (Castaneda) is captured by old yaqui way of thinking.

This is not a book about hard delirious caused by do drugs, but it is a book where the power of the plants take a very important place in...more

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Dec 07, 2012 Jean-marc Depreux rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone with an opened mind

The first time I read "The Teachings of Don Juan" was quite a while ago and I hadn't gone to Mexico yet and when I finally did go there I found myself relating to this book in particular. Not so much because of it's mystical nature but more for the compelling simplicity that runs through it. As i right this I'm remembering a lot of friends and later relatives as I ended up marrying a girl from a large family in Ixtepec. That thing that made me so at ease with them all was the way they accepted l...more

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Dec 07, 2010 Venus added it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

اولین کتاب کاستاندا که در واقع یک پایان نامه دانشگاهی است گزارش مستند یک دانشجوی مردمشناس غربی از اعمال حیرت آور یک جادوگر پیر سرخپوست است . این کتاب که در زمان انتشار غوغایـــی بپا کــرد ، نتیجـه یادداشـت برداریهــای کاستاندا در شمال مکزیک بین سالهــای 1960 - 1965 است و بر مبنای این اعتقـاد نویسنده شکل گرفته که رویدادهائی از این دست ، شگفت انگیـزتر از آن اســت که در دنیای واقعی روی دهد و مسلما در ذهن او و تحت تاثیر گیاهان روانگردانی بوقوع پیوسته که همـواره قبل از هــر تجربه ، وادار به مصرف آنها...more

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Sep 20, 2011 Steven rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Although the authenticity of this text has been questioned over the years, and it has been disowned as an anthropological case study (for obvious reasons), this text remains a beautiful and thought-provoking piece of historical fiction. Castaneda no doubt spent a great deal of time in the Mexican Southwest and in this novel he recounts his first years under the tutelage of Don Juan, a Yaqui "brujo" or sorcerer. He describes his fascination with psychotropic cacti, mushrooms and jimson weed, and...more

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Jul 05, 2009 Samantha rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I liked the first half of the book, but then it just seemed to be more of the same, so I stopped about 3/4 of the way through. Maybe I'm just impatient, or maybe the story was going nowhere. I understand why don Juan was annoyed with the narrator, he got on my nerves at times, too.

There were good parts, though, I liked where they were out in the desert ingesting peyote, and he wandered off talking to the embodiment of peyote, or "Mescalito", who told him to eat some more, but he didn't have a kn...more

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Sep 16, 2010 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was recommended to me a few years ago by a professor of mine. I was deep into graduate school by then, attempting to earn my MFA while not losing my mind. My work as well and my mental state were suffering.

My professor told me I needed to learn how to see. And this book would show me how.

And it did. It helped tremendously. I did not approach the book as an anthropologist. Nor did I approach it as a study of any kind. I had no prior knowledge of Castaneda or any of the controversy his b...more

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Jun 07, 2011 BiblioBabes.ca rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sigh. Carlos Castaneda. Where have you been all my life? Seriously. Powerful books about an anthropologist named Carlos Castaneda and a very cool, old, mysterious Yaqui Indian named Don Juan. Carlos tries to understand what Don Juan calls the "separate reality" of the sorcerer's world. He does this by taking certain drugs, hiking the desert and many many other potentially life threatening trials. Carlos claims his books are TRUE anthropological accounts, detailed and unembellished. One could onl...more

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Nov 24, 2012 chris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am not really sure what I think of this book. Castaneda, in his quest to learn about drugs and their effects seems at times juvenile, like any college kid who is going out of his way to "expand his mind". When he begins working with don Juan, he is taken on as an apprentice, but I don't get the impression he believed in the sorcery of the diableros who he is studying. His repeated questioning of don Juan on the nature of his physical for shows a distinct lack of spiritual depth in his use of w...more

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About Carlos Castaneda

Carlos Castaneda (December 25, 1925 – April 27, 1998) was a Peruvian-born American author. Immigration records for Carlos Cesar Arana Castaneda indicate that he was born on December 25, 1925 in Cajamarca, Perú. Records show that his surname was given by his mother Susana Castañeda Navoa. His father was Cesar Arana Burungaray. His surname appears with the ñ in many Hispanic dictionaries, even thoug...more

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“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.” — 65 people liked it

“A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war: wide-awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes it might never live to regret it” — 41 people liked it

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