Carlos castaneda bio

American anthropologist (–)

For the historian, see Carlos Castañeda (historian). For the Guatemalan footballer, see Carlos Castañeda (footballer).

Carlos Castaneda (December 25, – April 27, ) was an American anthropologist and writer. Starting in , Castaneda published a series of books that describe a training in shamanism that he received under the tutelage of a Yaqui "Man of Knowledge" named don Juan Matus. While Castaneda's work was accepted as factual by many when the books were first published, the training he described is now generally considered to be fictional.

The first three books—The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, A Separate Reality, and Journey to Ixtlan—were written while he was an anthropology student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Castaneda was awarded his bachelor's and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles based on the work he described in these books.

At the time of his death in , Castaneda's books had sold more than eight million copies and had been published in 17 languages.

Early life and education

According to his birth record, Carlos Castañeda was born Carlos César Salvador Arana, on December 25, , in Cajamarca, Peru, son of César Arana and Susana Castañeda. Immigration records confirm the birth record's date and place of birth. Castaneda moved to the United States in and became a naturalized citizen on June 21, Castaneda studied anthropology and was awarded his bachelor's and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles^&

With reference to the bio, Carlos Castaneda (born December 25, , Cajamarca, Peru—died April 27, , Los Angeles) was a Peruvian-born anthropologist and writer who was considered a father of the New Age movement for his series of books based on the mystical secrets of a Yaqui Indian shaman. Though many critics came to believe that the works were more fiction than fact, they became international best-sellers, translated into some 17 languages.

An enigmatic figure who refused to be photographed or recorded, Castaneda offered conflicting autobiographical information, and much of his early life was unclear. Though he claimed to have been born in São Paulo, Brazil, U.S. immigration records listed his birthplace as Cajamarca. It was known that in he moved to the United States, where he studied anthropology at UCLA (Ph.D., ). According to Castaneda’s writings, during a trip to Arizona in the early s, he met Don Juan Matus, a Yaqui who allegedly could manipulate time and space. Castaneda became his apprentice, and the two men embarked on a series of hallucinogen-fueled adventures. In Castaneda returned to Los Angeles and began writing about his experiences.

The Teaching of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge was published in and quickly became a best-seller. With its descriptions of &#;non-ordinary reality,&#; it proved particularly popular with American youth disillusioned with the Vietnam War. A series of books followed, including A Separate Reality: Further Conversations with Don Juan () and Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan (). As his fame grew, however, scholars began casting a more critical eye on Castaneda’s writings, and a consensus arose that his works, though still viewed by many as meritorious, were fiction. Castaneda insisted that what he wrote was true, and he receded from the public eye. In his later life he gathered women around him in a cult-like community. His death in was not publicly revealed for nearly two months.

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After sating themselves on pie, they lay around on pillows on the floor for the rest of the night, reveling in the synchronous pleasure of getting high and satisfying one’s munchies simultaneously, mesmerized by the glowing light from a paper Japanese lantern that seemed to be receiving them all into the universe.

The next afternoon, still pretty wasted, the crew was sitting around the dining room table, drinking coffee and smoking joints, when someone began reading aloud from a review of The Teachings of Don Juan.

A powerful book, simply written yet deeply affecting to some, The Teachings was the first of what would grow into a series of twelve—a groovy trip into the heady netherworld of psychedelic drugs and alternative realities; think Kerouac does psychotropics.

Classified as nonfiction anthropology, the book was issued first by UCLA’s University Press. Shortly thereafter, it was purchased and reissued by Simon & Schuster. Though the book professed to be nonfiction, it read more like a novel, a combination of Hemingway’s bland staccato and García Márquez’s magical realism.

Regardless of its genre—about which there would eventually be much debate—the book was perfectly suited to its times, an era of sex and drugs and flower power, of back-to-the-land innocence and marvelous cosmic yearnings. Offered in the form of journal entries, the story is set in a hard scrabble desert landscape of organ pipe cacti and glittering massifs. The story centers around the strange, difficult, and sometimes antic apprenticeship of a skeptical, slightly annoying young academic to a wily old Yaqui Indian sorcerer named Don Juan Matus, whom Castaneda said he met through a friend in the waiting room of a Greyhound bus station, on the Arizona side of the Mexican border, approximately six months a!er his marriage to Margaret Runyan.

Peopled with indigenous Indians, anthrop

Biography

Carlos Castaneda (December 25, – April 27, ) was an American anthropologist and writer. Starting in , Castaneda published a series of books that describe a training in shamanism that he received under the tutelage of a Yaqui &#;Man of Knowledge&#; named don Juan Matus. While Castaneda&#;s work was accepted as factual by many when the books were first published, the training he described is now generally considered to be fictional.

The first three books—The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, A Separate Reality, and Journey to Ixtlan—were written while he was an anthropology student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Castaneda was awarded his bachelor&#;s and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles based on the work he described in these books.

At the time of his death in , Castaneda&#;s books had sold more than eight million copies and had been published in 17 languages.

Early life and education

According to his birth record, Carlos Castañeda was born Carlos César Salvador Arana, on December 25, , in Cajamarca, Peru, son of César Arana and Susana Castañeda. Immigration records confirm the birth record&#;s date and place of birth. Castaneda moved to the United States in and became a naturalized citizen on June 21, Castaneda studied anthropology and was awarded his bachelor&#;s and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles

Career

Castaneda&#;s first three books—The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, A Separate Reality, and Journey to Ixtlan—were written while he was an anthropology student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He wrote that these books were ethnographic accounts describing his apprenticeship with a traditional &#;Man of Knowledge&#; identified as don Juan Matus, an Indigenous Yaqui from northern Mexico. The veracity of these books was doubted fr