Talk:Carlos Castaneda

Wait, we went over seven years without a Castaneda article? Can the Tibetan plumber be next? Sophie Wilder  18:28, 24 November 2014 (UTC)
 * I admit I was somewhat surprised when I found his name was a red link. - Smerdis of Tlön, for the defense. 19:59, 24 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Who are the clowns writing these articles? "The Yaquis actually don't use peyote" The hoax is on this page. &mdash; Unsigned, by: 85.30.145.180 / talk / contribs 00:39, 17 April 2015

As a body of fiction
I found Castaneda's work thoroughly engaging. Poetic license notwithstanding, as a body of fiction it makes for an interesting read. Acei9 08:34, 29 November 2014 (UTC)


 * The key to Don Juan’s teachings were not psychoactive substances. If one reads beyond the first book, Castaneda goes on to explain that some warriors, including himself eventually, do not fair  well under the use of such subtances. In other words, there are plenty of supposed warriors past/current that do not use psychoactive substances.  Also, supposedly a few other authors (Florinda Donner-Grau, Taisha Abelar, and Merilyn Tunneshende) knew Castaneda, Don Juan, and practiced the same teachings. Are they all lying too? &mdash; Unsigned, by: 73.16.230.121 / talk

Some notes on the fiction, for whoever else is interested and if someone wants to expand. The style of Castaneda's books change throughout the series. Wikipedia gives a more detailed starting point for looking into fabrication and its uncovering. Basically, the first book tried by far the hardest to appeal to academia, and Castaneda started out in part as plagiarist. The third book was the last before Castaneda was fully exposed. After that, he seems to have stopped trying to make it look credible to skeptical readers, and instead focused on what he was best at, letting his imagination flow freely. Books four to six elaborate Castaneda's unique fiction, moving away from the starting point. After that, he uses his fictional plot device of recovering a hidden track of memories to tie it all back to the old times with Don Juan, beginning in book seven. --ApooftGnegiol (talk) 15:47, 13 April 2021 (UTC)