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

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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.