"The Teachings of Don Juan" by Carlos Castaneda and his other books

It is about 15 years since I first read "The Teachings of Don Juan" by Carlos Castaneda, when I was sophomore in High School. It was given to me by an uncle once removed, as something that might interest me, but he's suspicious of. I was, needless to say, totally blown away by the book. It had everything a daydreaming, new-agy high school sophomore could wish for: hallucinogenic plants, sorcery, powerful teacher, promise of power and immortality, exotic locations (for an European), spirits, supernatural forces, etc. etc.

I found it difficult at that time to find the rest of Castaneda's books (there were only 10 at the time), but after I went to college (at an american university)I found several more of his books and was immersed in the fascinating story and mythology. However, by this time the Internet was becoming a force to be reckoned with, and there was much more information available there than in any single library or other media. On the Internet I found that things were not as straight forward as 'Carlito' was describing them in his books.

I found out that Castaneda probably never met anyone like Don Juan, but he's amalgamate of his researches and his wishful thinking. I found that there are multiple contradictions and conflicting timelines in his books, like during the time he says he was at a peyote ritual in Sonora, Mexico, he was actually borrowing and reading books about other people's peyote ritual experiences in the library at UCLA. Most disturbingly though, I've found out that he has built a cult following around him, mostly of female students, with whom he had regular sexual intercourse under the pretense of spiritual instruction and whom he abused, lied to and treated in despicable manner in general. He was a kind of misguided, complexed and definitely less funny modern-day Gurdjieff.

At that time I abandoned his books in revolt, and his 'Cleargreen' company teaching supposed 'Magical Passes' for money (of which there are several claims that the passes were actually modified Chinese techniques taught to Castaneda in Mexico City) did not help at all. Lately, I've found audio versions of several of the Castaneda's books, including my favorite 'The Teachings of Don Juan'. After I read them I decided to do more research and make an informed decision. What I discovered startled and disgusted me.

I knew that Castaneda died in 1998 (of liver cancer), and that his death was kept secret for two months by his cronies 'Cleargreen', but I didn't know that his sex-slaves (or should I say students?) disappeared immediately after his death, never to be heard of again, until the body of one of them was positively identified in 2006 in the California Death Valley, dead of presumed suicide, which fate is presumed for the rest 4 women who disappeared. What kind of sick wacko forms a cult in which he has sex with every female that enters and makes them believe things that make them kill themselves after his death? What is the difference between him and the host of mentally ill cult leaders who make their followers take poison? I mean people have jumped off cliffs because Castaneda had written that shamans will burn their bodies from within with inner fire and will never reach the bottom of the cliff. Needless to say, none of those who jumped burned at all, but their corpses were perfectly whole at the bottom of the cliff.

One of the 'students', who had the good sense to leave while there was time, wrote a memoir of her apprenticeship with Carlos, most of which consisted of having sex with him at a time when she was 19 and he about 60. From the Time magazine article in 1973 and his own references scattered throughout his books, it can be seen that Castaneda had many unresolved issues with his parents and family, especially his father. His cousins and friends in Peru (where he was born and raised) remembered him as a "cheerful person, a big gambler, a big lier and obssesed with immigrating to the US".

I am deeply disappointed by the true nature and deeds of Carlos Castaneda, and I feel cheated and fooled into believing what I thought was a magical world in my teens. His books are a hodge-podge of bits and pieces Castaneda gathered from different sources, and the only wisdom in them is the one he borrowed from various great philosophers. I might still read his books as entertaining fiction, but I have lost all respect for the work and the man he claimed to be.