For me, this is shamanistic philosophy, you know. I don’t know whether or not it makes sense to say whether it’s “fiction” or “non-fiction”, right. What about Plato’s Republic? Is that “fiction” or “non-fiction”? What about the last chapter or book in Plato’s Republic? For some people, it’s primitive garbage, but for me, it was the most rewarding part of the book, the WHY of philosophy.

And, you know, I’m going to try not to whine and spit like a kid in the chess club who gets bullied by the basketball team and makes it worse—I don’t mean that like as how you guys are, (basketball, bullying), but just about me (‘the importance of being earnest’, although I haven’t read that book)—it’s…. I don’t know, it’s funny. Apparently a LOT of people thought that shamanistic philosophy and non-ordinary reality was going to have the same standards of thinking as vote-counting, obviously the exclusive pinnacle of human existence, right. I mean, it’s like, if you watched C-SPAN for four hours (was a pirate making you keep going?) and then at the end complained that it was boring, that it was ultimately trivial and ordinary or whatever, that it was petty and material, it’s like—well, you knew that it was C-SPAN, right? Surely you knew that that was one way of looking at C-SPAN? And yet you were…. Surprised, I guess?

For myself, I found that there’s a lot less dividing shamanistic philosophy from Jewish or Christian philosophy, I think, than it’s easy to assume, you know. (“He’s a witch! He’s a witch! Torture him, torture him! *crying* In the Name of Jesus, torture him! *collapses in emotion*). I mean, ultimately even a good “primitive” teacher, I think, certainly many Native teachers, will tell you that the most important thing is not the “devil’s weed”, sex and power, and greed, you know, (as difficult as that can be to fend off when you’re young, or even just when you’re having a bad day, and I’ve come to appreciate that the histrionics of moralism and basically reacting and rejecting don’t really help you to live a more pure life), but that it’s better to work with “the smoke”, a purer sort of knowledge that isn’t about power, sex, control.

Of course, both of these things are, in their literal forms, actually plants or drugs that are probably illegal to use in the United States for most people, which is kinda instructive, in the sense that while it’s certainly not illegal for a Native person to convert to Christianity or for a non-Native person to stigmatize Carlos or whoever as being primitive and sad, it is illegal to use these substances, and stigmatizable for someone to try to understand a way of looking at the world that is neither German philosophy or C-SPAN, you know, nor our medicine; it’s, neither anti-body (even Soren made fun of Hegel), or 100% materialistic.

Probably the best part of the main part of the book, and that has become the title to another book, is the “path with heart” part. In the end, the thing is to follow a path with heart. It doesn’t lead anywhere, in particular—that is the great misunderstanding of the ordinary person, I think, like, one day they’ll wake up with ten million dollars in the bank, and now they’ll really be…. Somewhere! And after that, somewhere else!…. But I mean, you follow the path with heart, at least you’re really living, you’re really alive, you know. It’s not about “ending up” somewhere where you’re Rich and you’ve “arrived”.

It’s not about being the most macho warrior in all of Homer, you know.

…. Walter Cronkite: Thank you, Carlos. Well, that concludes today’s edition of the CBS Evening News with Normie. Tune in next week for the Midcentury Schoolboy’s Structural Analysis of the Teachings of the Man of Knowledge—the midcentury schoolboy, making the simple stilted and the profound weird, for a holistic simple and profound into stilted and weird experience. Well, this is the Most Trusted Man of the Midcentury, signing off. Until next time, stay safe—stay normal.

Unlike many others I found nothing of value in this book. For a long time, I felt as if I missed something, since so many people enjoy it. However, after critical consideration I can't help but concluding that this book may offer some reflections on life, but not a system that is capable of finding truth. Don Juan' s system is not open for criticism, judging fRom his incapability to answer some justified answers. It is not a system which is in constant reflection about its core assumptions and methods. It is a system that is only to be understood, when accepted and when played by its rules, and therefore of no objective value when looking for tRuth. The same could be said for science, but the difference is that science should by definition be open to change and inclarity and unreasonable assumptions are not tolerated. Don Juan has a system, there is some sort of logic in it, but it is a flawed system because it is based on myths without explaining how these myths work, and without systematically testing if there are other explanations for the experienced special phenomenona. This is the main prolem with Don Juan, not so much with the writer (who seems to be able to remain some sense of objectivity), but because this book is about Don Juans system it is also a problem of the topic of the book. In the end I was just frustrated and annoyed with his person and I was happy when I finished reading. This book might be inspiring for some, but not for me. ( )

"Como Lázaro vuelto de la tumba" (dijo algún crítico), un antropólogo narra la primera etapa del aprendizaje que lo convertirá en "hombre de conocimiento" bajo la guía de un brujo yaqui. Por diversos medios, don Juan sumerge a su discípulo en una "realidad no ordinaria", tan objetiva como la cotidiana pero totalmente distinta, inexplicable para nuestros esquemas de pensamiento pero no para la sabiduría antigua que el maestro transmite con impecable coherencia lógica y poética.

I read this 40 years ago as non-fiction, and it struck me as genuine foo-foo. And I was young and impressionable. I think that there is general agreement now that it is complete fiction.* That makes it worse: fake foo-foo.

The philosophy resembles nebulous reflections that might be of use to astrologers. Castaneda got rich off his Don Juan books, checked out of normal society when critics began to catch up to him, and started his own cult of mostly young, beautiful, smart, vulnerable women and got high on his own supply of fantasy.**

The second star is freely given for the writing, which is persuasive in style if not in substance and is fully serviceable in a purely technical sense. Any interest I had was initiated by the book's popularity and reduced in the reading to mere curiosity about a curious book.

* https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/225444.Richard_de_Mille

** https://www.salon.com/2007/04/12/castaneda/
( )

Un antropólogo narra la primera etapa del aprendizaje que lo convertirá en "hombre de conocimiento" bajo la guía de un brujo de la tribu "yaqui".Libro Primero