The Don Juan Papers: Further Castaneda Controversies

If you are a truly dedicated student of the concepts in Castaneda's material- one of those who has found real-world, concrete and "objectively verifiable" benefit in things gleaned from Castaneda's writings, AND if you are doing your level best to reconstruct a "self-initiation" or other truly comprehensive learning course to develop as full and robust of a working knowledge, bodily and consciously, as you can, DeMille's book is an excellent cross-reference of similar and in some cases nearly identical teachings and procedures that can help you fulfill your learning goals. Techniques for learning to shut off the internal dialog- from many traditions; for working with your own behavior(s), stalking; for developing facility with dreaming; for learning to "see"- every aspect of the CC books have a counterpart which can be studied. One of the traditions of Nagualism never expressly noted, but inferred, is that part of the tradition involved each member of a "Nagual's Party" bringing their knowledge to the table and teaching it to the other members. Remember Silvio (or Vicente) taught ALL the members of the party about the use of herbs. DeMille's book is a whole host of traditional voices offering themselves in service to your own "inner Nagual's Party". If you are a solitary practitioner, or part of a group, DeMille's books can help you find much worthy of study. I highly recommend his books- and suspect that very few dedicated students give a damn about the "did he or didn't he" question in light of the very real changes that have come about from enacting even a few of his principles. Remember that he said it himself: "The Rule is a myth" - but the myth is also a map; the map is not the territory, but the territory is real.

The author argues, and convincingly demonstrates, that with his series of bestselling books Castaneda perpetrated "the greatest anthropological hoax since the Piltdown Man." This is a very well written book and among the funniest I have ever read. Perhaps a little more credit should have been given Castaneda as an author of imaginative fiction. His "Journey to Ixtlan" is a masterpiece.

Anyone seriously interested in Carlos Castaneda's books needs to read this one too. Don't be afraid of reality!

In this excellently written, occasionally very funny book, DeMille exposes what he calls "the greatest anthropological hoax since the Piltdown Man." While reading Castaneda's early books, I sometimes wondered why his Yaqui sorcerer sounded at times like a Taoist and at others like Martin Heidegger. Now I understand.

"The Don Juan Papers" is Richard Demille's scholarly and fascinating debunking of Carlos Castaneda's popular series of cult bestsellers about his apprenticeship to Yaqui sorcerer, Don Juan Matus. Demille makes convincing argument that these books are in fact "fiction", rather than anthropological "non-fiction".