Carlos Castaneda: Academic Opportunism and the Psychedelic Sixties

by Jay Courtney Fikes

He slayeth Carlos Castaneda, wrote one critic about this serious study by an American anthropologist which reveals how Castaneda's account of his apprenticeship to Don Juan advanced the psychedelic drug movement of the 60s and 70s. Fikes also makes a strong case for legalizing peyote, the hallucinogenic drug so vital in ancient ceremonies still practiced by more than a quarter of a million Native Americans. A penetrating expose of anthropology gone...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0969696000
• ISBN13: 9780969696001
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Millenia Press
• Length: 283 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Thank you for your efforts

A lot of con artists are brilliant. A lot of professional Magicians are gifted con artists. After all, a con artist is striving to persuade you to suspend your disbelief, so that they may profit by it. But what do YOU get out of it? A con artist like Carlos Castaneda is the lowest of the low. He harnasses the energy of real spiritual curiosity and sends it down a worthless, blind, dead end road. If you buy into a fraction of his nonsense, you will have ever so much more difficulty climbing your way back out and regaining your discriminitive perception. Castaneda was a dangerous liar and fraud. Read his works as cautionary tales--but they offer no spiritual insights of any validity. There are other true, real, and authentic spiritual traditions that you may study if you are a serious student of Wisdom. Of course, there is simply no denying anything to people who want to believe. For your own sake--become sceptical. Don't be a victim. Why would you seek POWER in the first place. Most spiritual traditions teach self knowledge, divine reality, compassion, wisdom, personal transformation and spiritual fulfillment. Are those goals not infinitley more worthy than POWER? Power to do: what, exactly? Fly? Move between dimensions? Turn into an animal. Amaze your family and fool your friends? These things are more meaningful than loving, caring relationships with other people--and peace with yourself? Was Castenada a loving, caring person? Ask those associates that were closest to him. I am trying to be a good shepherd here, for all you little lambs that have wandered into the valley of the shadow of Death. Believe me when I tell you: there are wolves who want to devour you.

Critics Critique Themselves

Firstly, since Castenada's first book was an academic thesis (not a private, commercial publication), and given that academic degrees are not usually (in the field of the social sciences) awarded for works of fiction, it must be relevant to ask whether "Don Juan..." was a genuine anthropological study or complete invention. It follows, then, that this book fulfils a useful purpose - academically speaking.Its second, less obvious but far more profound value lies in its ability to show whether the reader (if they have read Castenada's work at all) has understood the essential message that Castenada brought back from Don Juan, Don Genaro et al.The simple fact is that books like Castenada's, if they have any worthwhile effect at all, do not "teach" in the sense of pouring information into our empty heads. Rather they draw out the ideas, wisdom and understanding that we already possess. Mr Fikes, in writing this book, provides an excellent example of a tool to separate the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the chaff. Those fans of Castenada's work who can read this book with equanimity have indeed understood an important part of what they were reading. Those who find it necessary to revile Mr Fikes and his work are clearly still caught up in illusory hero worship. How wonderful that they can still look forward to meet the true Man of Knowledge.

Well thought out attack on Castaneda's honesty

Yes, Castaneda's mystical system works for many people. However, I think it is important for people to realize the inconsistencies in his system and what actual Native American shamanic systems are. I do not believe this book was meant to denounce people who follow Castenada's mystical system, instead it was meant to denounce his unprofessional academic behaviour. It is important for scientists to report the truth about their research, and this book goes into how Castaneda was dishonest with the academic community. The people giving this book one star remind me of the fundamentalist types who denounce anyone who says that the history in the bible isn't 100% accurate.

Carlos Castaneda has exploited Native people

Anthropologist Jay Fikes adds his voice to those exposing the deceptions of Carlos Castaneda, such as Richard deMille.Castaneda has played a big role in the packaging of the shaman and selling him to those New Agers who seek exotic experience.Any real insights of "Don Juan" have been taken from esoteric and occult tradition.Only the neophyte would find Don Juan to be original or profound.Castaneda, among others, is in the business of turning shamanic experience into a consumer product to be sold in the market place.The true shaman works for the benefit of his people.He does not seek kicks or strange experiences for their own sake, as do would-be Anglo "shamans".Fikes is concerned that people like Castaneda who distort Native cultures cause harm to those cultures.In their misguided attempts to experience Native ways, some New Agers have disrupted Native people and put in jeopardy their traditional values and way of life.Fikes calls for New Agers to respect Native people.Unlike Castaneda, Fikes has done genuine fieldwork among the Huichol people in Mexico, and he presents some of his findings, particularly in relation to the peyote hunt.The lesson of Castaneda is that you can't base truth on half truths and deception, no matter how appealing it is on a superficial level.