It is not difficult to guess from the title today it will be about him, so scandalous at the same time the famous writer, magician, hoaxer of all time – Carlos Castaneda. All the people in relation to the literary works of Carlos Castaneda can be divided into three groups.

The first group – people who have never heard (or heard vaguely) about Castaneda and did not read his books. The second group – the people who heard about it and even tried to read some of his books, but on the fiftieth page of some sort say – ‘All I’ve had enough, the psyche does not stand up, my brain melt out of the ears is a smoke. ” The third group – the people who are big fans of Comrade Castaneda works, re-read from cover to cover all his books and even try to do in their everyday life is what he wrote. It happens sometimes that the second group. (Which is read and drove), an aggressive response to the third group (who drove, but it is too) So the representatives of the second group of representatives of the third sometimes throwing something like: “What are you smoking? How can it be read? “Indeed, the ratio of Castaneda is very controversial, some consider him a great spiritual teacher, guru, the bearer of rare wisdom, and for whom he is simply a swindler, who has raised a lot of money on his books. I think the truth is somewhere in the middle, as always.

In our computer time on the waves of the ocean of information online Castaneda is very popular: there are a whole bunch of sites devoted to his biography, creativity, and you can easily download the book. (Castaneda wrote a total of as many as 11 books), but for those who do not know to tell a little about this man.

It all started on a long 1960-th year. Even then the young Carlos Castaneda was a student and studied at the University of California in Los Angeles at the Department of Anthropology. And as usual a normal student, went on a couple, taking exams, writing essays, term papers, studying in one word. Anthropology science itself is very interesting, the subject of study is man, his origins, development, human existence in a variety of natural and cultural environments. And one of the courses Castaneda had to write a term paper on the topic – the use medicinal plants tribes of American Indians. Writing course was aimed at the practical, field work, ie Carlos was supposed to ride on Indian reservations (which to our time, there are many in the western U.S.) and the local Indians to poll on what medicinal plants they use, how they use them, etc. . Since Carlos was a diligent student, he takes the car, his friend Bill (who knew the location of Indian reservations and acted as a conductor), a notepad and hit the road.

After touring a few reservations, Carlos did not find anything which the wise Indian who could talk intelligently about medicinal plants. And one hot summer day, Carlos stopped to rest at a bus station somewhere in Arizona. And then there was an event that changed his life: on the bench adjacent to him, sat waiting for a bus, a very interesting and not like the other, an old Indian. His friend Bill pushed him in the ribs and said that maybe this Indian can tell a lot about medicinal plants. And so it was a landmark dating between Carlos Castaneda and the Indian who called himself Don Juan Matus. From the beginning, dating Don Juan Carlos made a very large and very impressive. As it turned out, Don Juan was not only a great connoisseur of medicinal plants, and the bearer of the great Native American wisdom, rooted in the ancient Toltec civilization. His teachings, don Juan called “way of warrior”. In other words, this Don Juan was a real Indian shaman, although he himself never called that word. And Carlos went on to become his apprentice, and had written 11 books about his apprenticeship under the guidance of a wise Indian Don Juan. Don Juan himself lived in the northern Mexico state of Sonora, and Castaneda was often went to visit him.

His first book, which was called “The Teachings of Don Juan,” Castaneda wrote and published in 1968, ie 8 years after his first meeting with Don Juan. Ever since its release it has become a great success, although I believe his first book, one of the most unfortunate. The fact that Don Juan is very well versed not only in medicinal plants and drugs, and that are sometimes used to teach Carlos. Namely, let him try hallucinogenic peyote cactus, from this poor Carlos buggy not for children, but on the other hand, it gave an opportunity to expand his consciousness to understand what don Juan was trying to din into him. In the first book Castaneda main focus is just made to the description of his experience the use of peyote cactus, and then to his sausage. This led to the fact that most people who start reading Castaneda’s first book are receive a totally false impression of who this Castaneda and Don Juan at all, considering them to be some kind of drug addicts, at best – spiritual addicts. These impressions are easily dispelled if you read the later books of Castaneda. In one of it appeared that Don Juan besides Castaneda had other students in the study of many of them don Juan did not use narcotic cactus at all. When Castaneda asked Don Juan why such an injustice, he gave the cactus to him, while others did not, Juan replied: “Because you’re just stupid. Dumb as that in its normal state is not able to understand what I’m trying to teach you “

So, if you choose to read books of Carlos Castaneda, then in any case should not start reading the first book. Better start reading immediately his third book called “Journey to Istklan” In my opinion this is his best book, which contains a very good, wise and instructive knowledge.

A relative of the Carlos Castaneda, I think this: he has a great literary talent, but at the same time, he is a big liar and inventors, inventions in his books very much, but yet 30 percent of the information (where he did not invent, and really conveys the words of Don Juan ) is very valuable and useful information. It is for these gems, and worth reading books of Carlos Castaneda. Some skeptics even claim that there was no Don Juan at all, and he is not actually exist, and this is all nonsense of the Castaneda. Do not agree, I think a wise Indian Don Juan existed, and the great merit of Castaneda that he gave his teachings (which is really very interesting) to the masses.

In the next article I will explain the basic ideas of the teachings of Don Juan and his warrior’s way.