Castaneda, Carlos (1925-1998)
Little consensus has been reached about Carlos Castaneda, whose books detailing his apprenticeship to the Yaqui Indian shaman Don Juan Matus have sold over eight millio...
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Critical Essay by Dudley Young
The fundamental issue which ["The Teachings of Don Juan"] confronts is as old as civilization, and of the utmost importance. Throughout his history man has...
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Critical Essay by Ronald Sukenick
One of the first things I talked about with Castaneda when we met was the novelistic quality of his books. I told him frankly that as a novelist the first thing that ...
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Critical Essay by Elsa First
Carlos Castaneda has [placed us inside the shaman's consciousness] and this is why his work is original and important….
In order to show us a world in which ...
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Critical Essay by William Kennedy
[Castaneda], who once thought he was a student and wrote his first book as a doctoral thesis, is unquestionably a teacher. His books are as didactic as Plato's...
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Critical Essay by H. S. Mcallister
The fourth and final book of the don Juan series, Tales of Power, answers some of the questions the books have raised, leaves many other questions unanswered, and en...
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Critical Essay by Douglas Mcferran
In my college course in the philosophy of the occult it would be impossible to ignore Castaneda, and I would hardly want to. His books are dramatic presentations of ...
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Critical Essay by Sam Keen
Does Don Juan exist? Yes or no? The skeptical mind insists on the facts. Strip the legendary hero of the adornment of miracle and find the core of historical truth. Placed u...
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Critical Essay by Robert Bly
Whether there is a don Juan or not, Castaneda's five books embody a myth. The myth, broken into statements, says: You can gain power by picking the brains of men in...
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Critical Essay by Thomas Leclair
Reading [The Second Ring of Power] I felt like the man going to St. Ives. Don Juan has gone by, leaving a band of apprentice sorceresses and their magical cats and kit...
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Critical Essay by Richard De Mille
[Castaneda's first] three volumes of field reports sold millions of copies coast to coast and around the world. That's unusual.
Don Juan, the mystical ...
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Critical Essay by Edward H. Spicer
[The Teachings of Don Juan] achieves three things: (1) it presents a description of personal experience with peyote, datura, and hallucinogenic mushrooms; (2) it des...
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Critical Essay by Edmund Leach
[The reader of The Teachings of Don Juan] can ignore the fact that at all relevant times the author was a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology at the Unive...
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Critical Essay by Joseph Grange
The full significance of drugs as an alternative metaphysics of existence awaits something more than the pseudo-apocalyptic prose of Leary or its neo-Zen endorsement by...
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Critical Essay by Richard Gott
[The Teachings of Don Juan dealt with Castaneda's] own reaction to the experiences he submitted himself to, but it was also an attempt to see into a non-Western s...
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Critical Essay by Paul Riesman
Taken together—and they should be read in the order they were written—[Carlos Castaneda's books] form a work which is among the best that the scienc...
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Critical Essay by Joseph Kanon
Castaneda's third, and presumably final, account [A Separate Reality] does not deal at all with hallucinogenic drugs …, but it is no less interestingȁ...
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Critical Essay by Joyce Carol Oates
Paul Riesman's review of Carlos Castaneda's three books ("The Teachings of Don Juan," "A Separate Reality," and "Jo...
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Critical Essay by Weston Labarre
Having made out with a good thing in "The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge," Carlos Castaneda now writes a kind of "Don Juan Revisi...
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[In the following essay based on an interview with Castaneda, Epstein discusses Castaneda's teachings and views on religion.]
One of the most elusive figures of modern times, Castaneda recently...
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[In the following obituary, Moehringer emphasizes the deceptive and enigmatic aspects of Castaneda's life.]
Carlos Castaneda, the self-proclaimed "sorcerer" and best-selling autho...
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[In the following obituary, Thompson, an author, discusses the trickster role Castaneda played.]
When I heard that the coroner's certificate listed his occupation as Beverly Hills schoolteacher...
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[In the following obituary, Applebome discusses the legal conflicts resulting from Castaneda's unpublicized death.]
Once he began publishing his best-selling accounts of his purported adventure...
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[In the following essay, Riesman, an anthropology professor at Carleton College, discusses what Casianeda's books reveal about the short-comings of anthropology.]
Anthropology is, for many of i...
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[In the following essay, Murray, an American Studies Lecturer at Nottingham University in England, argues that through the structuring of his accounts, which blend realism and the supernatural, Castan...
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[In the following review of Journey to Ixtlan, Howes, an English professor at Northeastern University, states that the least satisfying part of this account is Castaneda's description of psyche...
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[In the following review, Gilder praises Castaneda's attention to the irrational world of magic.]
The Eagle's Gift is phase six in Castaneda's continuing adventures in search of t...
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[In the following review of The Fire From Within, Peters, a poet and critic teaching at University of California at Irvine, finds Castaneda's writing and ideas dated.]
In the mid-'70s, C...
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[In the following review of The Fire From Within, Lesser objects to Castaneda's seemingly blind acceptance of Don Juan's authority and cruelty.]
Carlos Castaneda has doggedly gone on wri...
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[In the following review of The Power of Silence, Chickering, executive editor for the Institute for Contemporary Studies in San Francisco, makes a connection between Castaneda's search for a n...
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[In the following review of The Power of Silence, Adler argues that Castaneda's language and his presentation of ideas is too complicated.]
[The Power of Silence,] (t)his eighth book in a serie...
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[In the following review of Practical Wisdom of the Shamans of Ancient Mexico, the reviewer explains Castaneda's "tensegrity," a combination of tension and integrity, to describe ...
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Castaneda, Carlos (1925-1998)
