Carlos Castaneda

Castenada's first book.


Profile

Birthdate: December 25, 1925 - April 27, 1998

Carlos Castenada was an anthropology student at the University of California when he encountered Don Juan Matus, a Yaqui holy man in Northern Mexico. He began an apprenticeship into shamanism with Don Juan and documented the experience to gain a BA and PhD in anthropology.

Organizations and Projects


You Tube Video

Carlos Castenada: Enigma of a Sorcer - A documentary.


You Tube Video

Carlos Castenada - Don Juan Matus Teachings


Books


The Active Side of Infinity - Carlos Castaneda 1999

Amazon Synopsis: "Ordinarily, events that change our path are impersonal affairs, and yet extremely personal. My teacher, Don Juan Matsus, said this is guiding me as his apprentice to collect what I considered to be the memorable events of my life…. Don Juan described the total goal of the shamanistic knowledge that he handled as the preparation for facing the definitive journey: the journey that every human being has to take at the end of his life. He said that what modern man referred to vaguely as life after death was, for those shamans, a concrete region filled to capacity with practical affairs of a different order than the practical affairs of daily life, yet bearing a similar functional practicality. Don Juan considered that to collect the memorable in their lives was, for shamans, the preparation for their entrance into that concrete region, which they called the active side of infinity."

In this book written immediately before his death, anthropologist and shaman Carlos Castaneda gives us his most autobiographical and intimately revealing work ever, the fruit of a lifetime of experience and perhaps the most moving volume in his oeuvre.


The Art of Dreaming - Carlos Castaneda 1993

Amazon Synopsis: Bestselling author Carlos Castaneda introduces readers to the worlds that exist within their dreams.


Eagle's Gift - Carlos Castaneda 1991

Amazon Synopsis: Carlos Castaneda takes the reader into the very heart of sorcery, challenging both imagination and reason, shaking the very foundations of our belief in what is "natural" and "logical." His landscape is full of terrors and mysterious forces, as sharply etched as a flash of lightning on the deserts and mountains where don Juan takes him to pursue the sorcerer's knowledge--the knowledge that it is the Eagle that gives us, at our births, a spark of awareness, that it expects to reclaim at the end of our lives and which the sorcerer, through his discipline, fights to retain. Castaneda describes how don Juan and his party, left this world--"the warriors of don Juan's party had caught me for an eternal instant, before they vanished into the total light, before the Eagle let them go through"--and how he, himself, upon witnessing such a sight, jumped into the abyss.


Fire from Within - Carlos Castaneda 1984

Amazon Synopsis: Each of Carlos Castaneda's books is a brilliant and tantalizing burst of illumination into the depths of our deepest mysteries, like a sudden flash of light, like a burst of lightning over the desert at night, which shows us a world that is both alien and totally familiar -- the landscape of our dreams.

Fire from Within is the author's most brilliant thought-provoking and unusual book, one in which Castaneda, under the tutelage of don Juan and his "disciples," at last constructs, from the teachings of don Juan and his own experiences, a stunning portrait of the "sorcerer's world" that is crystal-clear and dizzying in its implications.


Journey to Ixtlan - Carlos Castaneda 1972

Amazon Synopsis: In "Journey to Ixtlan," Carlos Castaneda brings to a new height his account of the teachings of Don Juan. Third book in the series.


Magical Passes: The Practical Wisdom of the Shamans of Ancient Mexico - Carlos Castaneda 1998

Amazon Synopsis: For us to perceive any of the worlds that exist beside our own, not only do we have to covet them but we need to have sufficient energy to seize them. In this revolutionary book, Carlos Castaneda offers readers the key to this energetic conditioning for the first time, revealing a series of body positions and physical movements that enabled various sorcerers, and their apprentices, to navigate their own sorceric journeys.

By sharing this centuries-old wisdom, Carlos Castaneda makes it possible for readers to travel to some of these other realms, which are as real, unique, absolute, and engulfing as our own world. Castaneda offers both a philosophical history of magical passes and an innovative, easy-to-understand instructional format, complete with more than 450 computer-generated illustrations. Written with humor, clarity, and authority, Magical Passes further illuminates the true meaning of sorcery and magic.



Power of Silence - Carlos Castaneda 1987

Amazon Synopsis: Millions of readers worldwide have treasured the visionary brilliance of Carlos Castaneda, who first explore the world of the Yaqui Indian sorcerer in The Teachings of don Juan. Now, at last, don Juan returns in The Power of Silence -- wise, infuriating, capable or working miracles and playing practical jokes, but always seeking the wisdom of the warrior.

The Power of Silence is Castaneda's most astonishing book to date -- a brilliant flash of knowledge that illuminates the far reaches of the human mind. Through don Juan's mesmerizing stories, the true meaning of sorcery and magic is finally revealed. Honed in the desert of Sonora, the visions of don Juan give us the vital secrets of belief and self-realization that are transcendental and valid for us all. It is Castaneda's unique genius to show us that all wisdom, strength, and power lie within ourselves -- unleashed with marvelous energy and imaginative force in the teachings of don Juan -- and in the writings of his famous pupil, Carlos Castaneda.


Second Ring of Power - Carlos Castaneda 1977

Amazon Synopsis: Back from the abyss, Castaneda encounter his greatest test on the journey towards impeccability and freedom: to outwit and overpower the sorcery of Doña Soledad, herself transformed from a defeated and meaningless life to a warrior, a hunter and a "stalker of power."

Now the combat will begin. Now the journey will continue. Till the last danger is faced...the final paradox embraced.


Separate Reality - Carlos Castaneda 1971

Amazon Synopsis: "A man of knowledge is free...he has no honor, no dignity, no family, no home, no country, but only life to be lived." --don Juan

In 1961 a young anthropologist subjected himself to an extraordinary apprenticeship to bring back a fascinating glimpse of a Yaqui Indian's world of "non-ordinary reality" and the difficult and dangerous road a man must travel to become "a man of knowledge." Yet on the bring of that world, challenging to all that we believe, he drew back.

Then in 1968, Carlos Castaneda returned to Mexico, to Don Juan and his hallucinogenic drugs, and to a world of experience no man from our Western civilization had ever entered before.


Tales of Power - Carlos Castaneda 1974

Amazon Synopsis: Don Juan concludes the instruction of Castaneda with his most powerful and mysterious lesson in the sorcerer's art -- a dazzling series of visions that are at once an initiation and a deeply moving farewell.


The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge - Carlos Castaneda 1968

Amazon Synopsis: A YAQUI WAY OF KNOWLEDGE

The teachings of Don Juan is the story of a remarkable journey: the first awesome steps on the road to becoming a "man of knowledge" -- the road that continues with A Separate Reality and Journey to Ixtlan.

"For me there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length. And there I travel, looking, looking, breathlessly." -- Don Juan


The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe - Carlos Castaneda 2001

Amazon Synopsis: Near the end of his life, Carlos Castaneda gathered together and reviewed his seminal works on his training as a shaman initiate, recorded in a literary career that spans over thirty years. The result is this groundbreaking collection of quotations -- the essence of Carlos Castaneda, drawn from his landmark volumes including The Teachings of Don Juan, Journey to Ixtlan, A Separate Reality, and Tales of Power. Enhanced with an introduction and original commentary by the author, this powerful work illuminates the shaman's life as never before. Castaneda's words explore how the ancient shamans could literally touch and direct the wheel of time -- a profound yet pragmatic tradition that can be felt even in our day.



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