Are The Carlos Castaneda Books Real Or Fiction?

11 years ago

Originally Posted by bravo75

I read some of his stuff years ago. I just recently started reading The Art Of Dreaming.
Did this stuff really happen, or did he make it up? Is Don Juan a real character?

Totally made up. What Carlos Castaneda wrote was fiction, though it fooled a lot of people. Don Juan was fantasy. Carlos Castaneda was a fraud.

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bravo75 11 years ago

Originally Posted by thunderbird

Totally made up. What Carlos Castaneda wrote was fiction, though it fooled a lot of people. Don Juan was fantasy. Carlos Castaneda was a fraud.

Really? Do you have any links for this?
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- Alexa Smith Banned 11 years ago
  
  As far as I'm aware, even his remaining supporters and defenders don't actually claim that the books are true?! They may be valid and valuable and perceptive and interesting and all the rest of it, and I'm not trying to denigrate them in any way, but I think even the anthropologists who originally fell for them admitted later that "they'd been had"? I don't think there's still any suggestion that they're actually literal, or authentic, is there?? (Mind you, I say that, but Shane hasn't posted here yet).
  
  http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1021-09.htm
  
  http://integral-options.blogspot.co....castaneda.html
  
  http://reason.com/blog/2007/04/20/ca...-a-yaqui-way-o
  
  http://www.excludedmiddle.com/castaneda.htm
  
  http://www.paganspace.net/profiles/b...eda-one-of-the
  
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HeySal

11 years ago

Oh crap. This is all I needed was something else to go explore. Got my nose open though so my curiosity is gonna itch until I find out what you are all discussing. Seems like this guy has alluded me til now.

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thunderbird

11 years ago

Originally Posted by HeySal

Oh crap. This is all I needed was something else to go explore. Got my nose open though so my curiosity is gonna itch until I find out what you are all discussing. Seems like this guy has alluded me til now.

You missed a series of fairy tales for adults, many of whom took it too seriously. I met commune residents in South America who raised their kids in accordance to the concepts in the derivative gibberish of Carlos Castaneda's tales. It struck me as ridiculous then and strikes me as comically absurd now. Carlos Castaneda, L. Ron Hubbard, Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm etc. sure were masters at spinning tall tales and getting people's goats.

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LarryC

11 years ago

Actually, the question of whether the books or real or fiction may not be so straightforward -at least if you know anything about shamanism. Since the world of shamans and sorcerers largely concerns non-physical realities, it's questionable how important it is whether the character of Don Juan is real or a composite of native wisdom from a certain tradition.

Even if the facts of the books are not literally true, they could still contain a great deal of useful information. The same, of course, can be said of many religious and mystical texts from all over the world.

I read one of the Castaneda books some years ago and it didn't really grab me the way it did some people, so I have no particular reason to defend them. However, I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss something just because it isn't "true." It's been said that fiction often contains more truth than nonfiction. That's doubly the case when dealing with this type of subject.

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thunderbird 11 years ago

Originally Posted by LarryC

Actually, the question of whether the books or real or fiction may not be so straightforward -at least if you know anything about shamanism.<snip>

This is getting interesting. What kind of shamanism did you get into, Dennis?
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- LarryC 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by thunderbird
  
  This is getting interesting. What kind of shamanism did you get into, Dennis?
  
  Dennis? Anyway, I'm interested in shamanism but I wouldn't say I'm deeply involved in it. In some ways it's the precursor to all religions. The word shaman comes from Central Asia, but it's now used to describe a variety of spiritual practices of indigenous peoples.
  
  Shamans access the spirit world by going into a trance, sometimes with the help of plant medicines (i.e. hallucinogens). It's easy enough to say that their experiences are entirely subjective, but that's a complex topic. In any event, when discussing shamanism or mysticism, you're dealing with a different type of truth than the everyday kind.
  
  Shamanism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
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  thunderbird 11 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by LarryC
  
  Dennis?<snip>
  
  Whoops, sorry. That is a weird mystical blur of some sort right there. I was actually perceiving it to be Dennis who wrote that. And I have got to stop calling Dennis, "Larry".
  
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HeySal

11 years ago

Okay - I never read Don Juan. Not interested, but am intrigued that people wonder if he was real or not. I never heard that book was based on reality. Anywhere. As far as his other books - I'll have to take a look at them I guess. You are all making me feel uneducated. Drool.

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tagiscom

11 years ago

Sounds like this is similar to the Celestine Prophesy series, couldn't figure out whether he was talking about things that happened or spinning the truth.

In the end after reading the lot, probably 80% truth, 20% speculation.

Shane

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Paul Myers

11 years ago

Larry,

Ever read anything by John Lame Deer? Much more compelling stuff than Castaneda, for me. He was a Sioux medicine man. He was also a "bad boy."

Something about the legends of the Sioux and the Hopi that always struck more of a nerve with me than the overtly "mystical" stuff.

Paul

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LarryC

11 years ago

Originally Posted by Paul Myers

Larry,

Ever read anything by John Lame Deer? Much more compelling stuff than Castaneda, for me. He was a Sioux medicine man. He was also a "bad boy."

Something about the legends of the Sioux and the Hopi that always struck more of a nerve with me than the overtly "mystical" stuff.

Paul

No, I haven't heard of John Lame Deer but he sounds like someone worth looking into.

Also on my reading list are the Tracker books by Tom Brown, Jr. There is some controversy over those as well, as Brown claims to have been taught by a medicine man named Stalking Wolf whose existence hasn't been confirmed. Brown, however, does run a tracking school and has a reputation for being very knowledgeable.

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travlinguy

11 years ago

Truth is where you find it. You could take 10 people who "know" prayer works and 10 more who "know" prayer doesn't work and all 20 would be right. It's all in your perspective.

There are a couple of books that will expand anyone's perspective on Castaneda's books and other esoteric matters providing they're willing to at least listen.

These are The Crack In the Cosmic Egg and Exploring The Crack In The Cosmic Egg by Joseph Chilton Pearce. They weren't specifically written about Castaneda's work but these excellent books explain in plain language much of what Castaneda and other's who have been dubbed mystics taught and wrote about.

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KimW

11 years ago

It is totally true.
He told me so in a dream after I had some buttons

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Are The Carlos Castaneda Books Real Or Fiction?

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