The Don Juan Papers: Further Castaneda Controversies (The Wadsworth modern anthropology library) [Paperback]

Richard De Mille (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1989 | Series: The Wadsworth modern anthropology library

This book should be of interest to undergraduate courses in anthropology.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Fascinating and delightful reading." -- American Anthropologist --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Richard de Mille, received a Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Southern California. He has published in the Psychological Bulletin,American Anthropologist, and numerous other scientific and scholarly journals and popular periodicals. His other books include Castaneda's Journey, Put Your Mother on the Ceiling: Childrens Imagination Games, and My Secret Mother: Lorna Moon (about his famous family). --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Wadsworth Pub Co (December 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0534121500
• ISBN-13: 978-0534121501
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,248,954 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A valuable book on a controversial subject, May 11, 1999

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rampageous_cuss (Under Billy Penn's Hat) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Don Juan Papers: Further Castaneda Controversies (The Wadsworth modern anthropology library) (Paperback)

This is a collection of essays critiquing the claims of Carlos Castaneda, whose series of books about the Yaqui 'brujo', Don Juan Matus, have been spiritual bestsellers.

In a series of books beginning with 'The Teachings of Don Juan, A Yaqui Way of Knowledge' Castaneda presents what he claims are factual interviews with a Yaqui shaman in northern Mexico. The first book recounts Castaneda's inculcation into Yaqui shamanism through a peyote ceremony. The later books downplay the hallucinogenic aspect and present a sort of fantastic mystic existentialism.

de Mille and his contributors assert that the accounts are fabulations. Other accounts of Yaqui shamanism are quite different. Environmental conditions and animal behaviour described are inconsistent with existing conditions in the Sonoran desert. Yaqui use of hallucinogens is asserted to differ from that described by Castaneda. Finally, some critics suggest that the author is a poor stylist.

de Mille discusses Castaneda's academic milieu and possible influences upon the spiritual ideas he presents. While it is plain that de Mille (and most of his contributors) have their minds made up much of the material presented should be of interest even to Castaneda's many fans.