Product Description

Thirty years ago the University of California Press published an unusual manuscript by an anthropology student named Carlos Castaneda. The Teachings of Don Juan initiated a generation of seekers dissatisfied with the limitations of the Western worldview. Castaneda's now classic book remains controversial for the alternative way of seeing that it presents and the revolution in cognition it demands.
In a series of fascinating dialogues, Castaneda sets forth his partial initiation with don Juan Matus, a Yaqui Indian shaman from the state of Sonora, Mexico. He describes don Juan's perception and mastery of the "non-ordinary reality" and how peyote along with other plants sacred to the Mexican Indians were used as gateways to the mysteries of "dread," "clarity," and "power." The Teachings of Don Juan is the story of a remarkable journey that has left an indelible impression on the life of more than a million readers around the world.
"For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length. And there I travel, looking, looking breathlessly."--Don Juan
"Carlos Castaneda, under the tutelage of don Juan, takes us through the moment of twilight, through the crack in the universe between daylight and dark into a world not merely other than our own, but of an entirely different order of reality."--Walter Goldschmidt, from the Foreword

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #155664 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-08
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 215 pages

From Library Journal
Original publisher University of California Press here offers a 30th-anniversary edition of Castenada's Teachings. Along with the original text, this sports a new introduction by the author, who, it was revealed recently, died earlier this year. Though this is reasonably priced for a hardcover, libraries needing multiples copies may opt for the paperback.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Roger Jellinek, The New York Times
"We are incredibly fortunate to have Carlos Castaneda's books. . . . One can't exaggerate the significance of what he has done."

Life
"Castaneda's sanity lends to even the most lurid experiences the force of data. It compels us to believe that don Juan is one of the most extraordinary figures in anthropological literature, a neolithic sage. It helps us to accept, from the continent we stole, a mysterious gift of wisdom."

Customer Reviews

personal fav
These books are just classics! Takes you on a journey of your own I first starting reading the series when I was 16...now 34 but I often get the urge to pick them back up I get something new out of it every time. Inspires me to see things in a new light.

Merely A First Step Towards Being a Man of Knowledge
I first read this book a few months ago before reading the rest of the series, and it was a mind-blowing read.

"Teachings of Don Juan" is the first of many books by anthropologist Carlos Castaneda to which he revealed his teacher-student relationship and experiences with Yaqui Sorcerer by the name of Don Juan. The dialogues and experiences lay within this book are rather insightful read.

This book is merely a starting point where readers begin to understand the warrior's way and how one would understand one's perceptions of the world and how they can be deceiving. The plants or substances discussed in this book is not the means nor the ends, but merely just a tool, rarely used, in order to shock the author to see what lies beyond and around himself. Merely a step towards being a "man of knowledge."

Remarkably, as I read through the series, I cannot help but wonder who Don Juan really was and where the sources came from. I recently found the answers to these questions in William Patterson's The Life & Teachings of Carlos Castaneda, which is a new profound perspective of the life of Castaneda and his work.

Great reading, but Castaneda is not what he claimed to be!
Great reading, no doubt. I read the first 4 of his books and loved them all. However, this is 20 years ago and i have studied many more paths of mysticism in the meantime. I can only warn anybody thinking in following the footsteps described in the book, as without a true spiritual master you will only succeed in screwing up your brain using hallucinogenics. There is also serious doubt that he ever actually experienced some/much of what he claims to have done.

Furthermore, Carlos turned out to be NOT the guru he claimed to be in his later years. In spite of his statements that he would not die a normal death and leave the earth as a unit of energy and take his disciples with him he died a very ordinary death due to liver failure.

A very interested BBC report on his life can be viewed on Youtube. The link is [...] for the first part.