Customer Reviews:
 personal fav May 16, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
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 April 29, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
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! April 27, 2008
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.
 An excuse for a drug trip April 2, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Carlos Castaneda creates an interesting scenario and has appealing characters in this, his first book, yet the title is deceptive. Castaneda meets Don Juan, a Yaqui sorceror, and is in some mysterious way drawn to him. Don Juan agrees to allow Castaneda to be his apprentice, and learn the ancient ways to become "A Man of Knowledge." Oddly, the way that Don Juan sees the path to becoming "a man of Knowledge" is through hallucinogenic drugs including Peyote, Datura and Mushrooms. Castaneda uses these drugs in order to "gain knowledge", and through these experiences, according to Don Juan, they assist him on this path. As the book progresses the author has more and more drug experiences but it is difficult to observe that he has gained knowledge about anything other than the effects of these drugs. No special insight into human nature is revealed by Castaneda or Don Juan, who reveals himself to be a devious misogynist. It is well known among shamanic cultures that plant drugs can induce visions and insight, but unfortunately, nothing of the sort is revealed in this book.
What is Defined as Fact or Fiction? March 6, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
My intent here is not to add to the many reviews that have been already written. I've read most of them, and every opinion, has been subjectively given.
I will simply say, that having studied these books, back when I was in college, literally transfixed me, as they did to many other thousands of readers!
Countless books, throughout history, have been cloaked in the form of fiction, for the author's own reasons, either to do with their safety, or attempting to avoid controversy!
A perfect example, in our own time, is Dan Brown's, "THE DA VINCI CODE".
He wrote it in fiction form, only to be attacked for even discussing what he knew would be attacked, if written as non-fiction. It didn't seem to matter, as we have seen!
We find Carlos Castaneda in a similar situation, in reverse! Someone will always find justification, to attack what doesn't fit our culture's definition of our own world view, especially if it can't be proven.
A way will be found, as it's always been, to discredit anything beyond their grasp!
Yes, maybe Carlos has played a trick, on all of us, but some have gotten it!
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