His PhD was heavily criticised and some anthropologists called for it to be revoked, but UCLA did not strip him of the degree and continues to treat him as a regular PhD graduate.
Carlos Castaneda [Carlos César Salvador Arana Castañeda] started his career as a famous anthropologist and the author of various bestselling non-fiction books.
The first of them, The Teachings of Don Juan (download pdf) took the 1960s by storm, generating both the highest scholarly praise and the admiration of the general public.
About a decade later, Castaneda was exposed as a fraud and his research was put in doubt, generating major disillusion and bitterness both in anthropology and neighboring disciplines.
However, by that time, the genre of his books was already switching from academic to popular/spiritual, creating an unswerving following among alternative spirituality enthusiasts of the late 20th century.
In other words, while the social sciences were still loudly criticizing Castaneda’s counterfeit research in the 1980s-1990s, the man himself had already abandoned academia to become a spiritual teacher and the charismatic leader of a new religious movement.
It is therefore surprising that while there is a great amount of literature on Castaneda-Anthropologist and Castaneda-Fraud, very little has been written about Castaneda-Guru.
Specifically the late works remain essentially untouched by scholarly interest.
However, as the concept of Toltec spirituality attests, Castaneda’s importance reaches far beyond the confines of his 1990s group of followers.
In this sense, I believe a large re-contextualization is needed – both of Castaneda’s life and writings.
Zuzana Marie Kostićová, Castaneda’s Mesoamerican inspiration: the Tonal/Nagual, the cardinal points and the birth of contemporary Toltec spirituality (pdf)
Castaneda’s most valuable teachings for the Now-to-New wayfarer
Believing without believing
Intent
The tonal and the nagual
Impeccability
Believing without believing
Believing without believing means proceeding as if you believe something is worthwhile, possible or true, doing so with total commitment yet without ideological investment, and being prepared to abandon the belief if it has become redundant.
The Now-to-New wayfarer talks about faith in much the same way as don Juan Matus talks about believing without believing.Sorcerers call the ability to manipulate their mental attachments ‘believing without believing’. They have perfected that art to the point where they can identify sincerely with any idea. They live it, love it, and discard it without remorse if it comes to that.
Carlos Castaneda, cited in Further Conversations with the Nagual (pdf; 117 pages), by Armando Torres
In its secular form, faith is “a critical but curious mind’s readiness to adopt a reality model (even if provisionally) for which there is less than absolute, empirical proof” (Jay B. Gaskill, The Dialogic Imperative).
Faith of this kind is a prerequisite for those wishing to adopt the Now-to-New wayfarer’s way of thinking, doing and being.
Without it, access to primal world and natural imagining will be limited.
Read more: The imperative of faith and believing without believing
Intent
Based on the teachings of don Juan Matus as documented by Carlos Castaneda, intent is defined as an invisible, immeasurable force in the universe that bridges the tonal (everyday awareness) and the nagual (nonordinary awareness), enabling a warrior 1 to navigate from the known world of the tonal into the unknown, boundless world of the nagual.
1. When reading Castaneda’s books it can be hard to distinguish between the terms sorcerer, warrior, seer and nagual, and trying to do so may not be worth the effort.
Jump ahead and read more about the tonal and the nagualIntent is the force that compels human beings to perceive. It is not a personal desire or intention, but rather a cosmic, impersonal energy that exists in the universe and gives sorcerers (and Now-to-New wayfarers) the power needed to accomplish their goals.
Don Juan describes intent as “the force that creates and animates the universe”.
Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich! talks about Infinite Intelligence.
Some call it spirit.
Design luminary and author Edward Matchett adopted various terms including media, Creative Action (order a copy of his book bearing this title) and primal power of the cosmos.
In the pages of this website I mostly use the term intent, sometimes referring to it as the G-field (generative field).
But tt doesn’t really matter what we call it. It’s a phenomenon of primal world where names, descriptions and definitions have no existence. There is no ‘it’ in primal world, neither is there an ‘is’.
The tonal and the nagual
The tonal (pronounced toh-na’hl) is a default reality where we spend much of our waking lives. It is the realm of the known, the organiser of the world, everything that meets the eye, the world of solid objects. It is a world of descriptions. If something can be named, described and explained, it is part of the tonal. Here, we experience only a representation of reality, a video we mistake for the live performance.The tonal is brought forth by the left hemisphere of the brain and is associated with the right side of the body. My term for it is mundane world.
The nagual (pronounced na’hwal) is the realm of the unknown, the unstructured world of energy, an indescribable place of pure perception. This world cannot be explained or proved to exist; it can only be experienced. Situated here, we experience reality in the raw – visceral, untamed, unfiltered, uncodified and unconceptualised. It is where we are able to activate and deploy natural imagining. The nagual is brought forth by the right hemisphere of the brain and is associated with the left side of the body. I refer to it as primal world.
The two worlds or realities exist in parallel and the Now-to-New wayfarer walks with one foot in the tonal, the other in the nagual.
The Totality of Oneself: the tonal and the nagual (essential reading for the aspiring Now-to-New wayfarer so download it now) is an extended excerpt from Castaneda’s fourth book, Tales of Power. Don Juan, with his inimitable wit and playfulness, explains that when you’re situated in the nagual, the moment you try to define or describe it you instantly find yourself back in the tonal.
As it says in the Tao Te Ching, “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.” | View the entire verse
Read more
The Now-to-New wayfarer’s mind
Pure perception – what it is, why it matters and how to attain it
Impeccability
Warriors know that seers who travel into the unknown to see the unknowable must be in an impeccable state of being; to be in an impeccable state of being is to be free from rational assumptions and rational fears.
Tomas, Creative Victory
“A warrior cannot be helpless,” he said. “Or bewildered or frightened, not under any circumstances. For a warrior there is time only for his impeccability; everything else drains his power, impeccability replenishes it.”
Don Juan Matus as documented by Carlos Castaneda in Tales of Power | Sourced from Toltec School, 60: Impeccability
Some other aspects of impeccability
- Acting freely and to the very best of your ability on whatever knowledge happens to be available to you at any given moment.
- Living life knowing that, every moment, every act matters, and taking full responsibility for your actions.
- Not blaming others or circumstances, and finding the gifts of power brought by circumstances.
- Being wide awake and living on the edge at all times.
- Pushing beyond limits.
- Not seeking approval.
- Displaying humility.
- Having no doubts, no recriminations, no regrets, no introspection, no self-pity, no self-importance.
Books
Academics have dismissed Castaneda’s books as works of fiction – but so what? They contain much wisdom and provide many insights.
The books are listed below in chronological order (1968–1999). Select a link to download the book in its entirety.
- The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge
- A Separate Reality
- Journey to Ixtlan
- Tales of Power
- Second Ring of Power
- The Eagle’s Gift
- The Fire from Within
- Power of Silence
- The Art of Dreaming
- Magical Passes: The Practical Wisdom of the Shamans of Ancient Mexico
- The Wheel of Time: The Shamans of Mexico — Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe
- The Active Side of Infinity
Recordings
Carlos Castaneda Interview with Theodore Roszak — 1969
Audio only; running time 36:53
Some of the others in Castaneda’s circle
The witches
Carol Tiggs – aka Kathleen Pohlman, Elizabeth Austin, Carol Aranha, Muni Alexander.
Florinda Donner-Grau – aka Florinda Donner. Born Regine “Gina” Thal. Author of Being-in-Dreaming, Shabono, and The Witch’s Dream.
Taisha Abelar – aka Annamarie / Anna-Marie Carte. Born MaryAnn Simko. Co-author, with Carlos Castaneda, of The Sorcerers’ Crossing.
Amy Wallace (1955–2013)
Author of Sorcerer’s Apprentice: My life with Carlos Castaneda (download pdf of third person commentary).
Castaneda World Who’s Who
Pseudonyms matched to birth names
Read more
External sources
American Trickster: The Hidden Lives of Carlos Castaneda (OR Books, 2026) by Ru Marshall
Review by Richard Jennings, who studied with Castaneda from 1995 to 1998
Carlos Castaneda by Graeme Wilson, The Will Project
Carlos Castañeda — RationalWiki
Carlos Castaneda | EBSCO Knowledge Advantage | Provides biographical details
Castaneda’s Mesoamerican inspiration: the Tonal/Nagual, the cardinal points and the birth of contemporary Toltec spirituality (pdf) by Zuzana Marie Kostićová
Cleargreen, Inc. — The business founded by Carlos Castaneda
Read about Cleargreen on Sustained Action website
The Cult Disappearances Still Haunting California | The Case of the Missing Chacmools by Geoffrey Gray
Don Miguel Ruiz, author of The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Totec Wisdom Book)
Encounters with the Nagual (pdf) by Armando Torres
Navigating Into the Unknown: An Interview with Carlos Castaneda by Daniel Trujillo Rivas
Sustained Action by Richard Jennings
“The information provided on this site is based on the experiences of Richard Jennings and Amy Wallace, both students of Castaneda and members of his cult in the years before his death. It is also based on extensive research into court and other records, and numerous interviews with other cult members, and former cult members, which is thoroughly documented here (e.g., Chronologies). This site is the only comprehensive source of this information.”
This website
Creative Victory | Reflections on the Collected Works of Carlos Castaneda
Pure perception — what it is, why it matters and how to attain it
Songwriters, authors etc. talk about a mysterious force that assists them
The totality of oneself: the tonal and the nagual
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