Customer Reviews

The Sorcerer's Apprentice: My Life with Carlos Castaneda

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

This is a strange personal account of an enduring relationship between one of the world's most mysterious and famous shamans in the last two centuries, and a young and sensitive woman, the daughter of a popular author, Irving Wallace, and her attempt to honestly relate the insanity, trauma and psychological abuse that those who've had the misfortune of belonging to a genuine cult, will understand all too well.

The texts of Carlos Castaneda have influenced and continue to affect millions of reader's across the world. Regardless if these books are pure fabrication or the literal truth is somewhat irrelevant: the philosophy of the Way of the Warrior, opening awareness to things and events in the world, that we normally do not see, the notion that there is a path to "true" knowledge, and a prescribed method to "total freedom", is an alluring proposal.

Most of us living our mundane day-to-day lives, getting up every day to just make a living, the idea that there is "magic" in the world, and that it can be tapped and used for self betterment is compelling, and touched the 60's generation at exactly the right time. As most readers of Castaneda well know, his philosophy is anti-authority, breaking from the chains of our incessant social conditioning, (smashing the ego to bits) and becoming the beings we were meant to be - warriors of impeccability. Nonetheless, the proof is in our actions, our fruits, which begs the question, has anyone, including Castaneda, achieved the warrior's goal, and leaped into the abyss of infinity with her/his eyes wide open? After reading Amy Wallace's book, a nagging doubt remains.

It is without question that Castaneda was a highly charismatic and enormously persuasive individual. Those who actually met the man, celebrities, politicians and writers all agree on this point. Amy Wallace, though, fell in love with the man, in the romantic sense, became his constant companion, and contributed to the creation of his organization. She became a member of his inner circle of witches, kicked out and let back in again far too many times. She had to experience untold psychological abuse, and the appalling insanities of Castaneda's endless sexual exploits with a platoon of women that would make the most highly promiscuous wince in disbelief. The politics and backstabbing between his inner circle of witches reminded me of the petty games of adolescent girls, with their jealousies and drama, all vying for the father's attention. As the central method to impeccability of a sorcerer is the abolishment of the ego, ridding the personality of "self importance", these so-called witches failed on every count.

Amy Wallace managed to survive her experience in this cult, though had to undergo most of the psychological pain of separating from it, and the death of her lover: post-traumatic syndrome, grief, longing and thoughts of suicide, finally in the end, it seems, achieving her psychological separation, as she proposes, through the writing of this book. Amy is a good writer, as one can feel her pain as she examines the lies, betrayal, and endless abuse from Castaneda and his closest cohorts. Because the most dramatic and real love affairs in one's life remain with you, Wallace continues to respect and feel affection for the man despite their long and tumultuous past.

Personally, this story does not dissuade me from Castaneda's teachings. His books are highly influential and changed my views of the world in positive ways, too numerous to mention. A recommended read for those needing to know some of the workings of the inside of his strange and unorthodox world.

Amy Wallace's book is about Carlos Castaneda, the man, and those around him - the "inner circle". Having been close to them, she does a superb job of describing the way Carlos and the group lived, and apparently they behaved just like any other cult. She has written an invaluable book for any Castaneda fan. Not for the narrow-minded, though.

I believe Don Juan's teachings as described by Castaneda are great, no matter where they came from. That doesn't mean Castaneda could not be just another human being like any of us. In fact that is how he is pictured in most of his books: Don Juan keeps saying Carlos is stupid and slow to learn. Amy Wallace shows us Carlos, the man - full of human feelings and emotions, not necessarily positive.

This is a book about the singer, not the song. If Castaneda's work means anything to you, you may be curious about the way Carlos actually lived, how he died, and what happened to those who remained. If you are, then this book is definitely for you. Amy Wallace is a known writer and I hope you will find her work as exciting (and surprising) as I did.

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About the reviewer - I started reading Castaneda's books in the 80's and read each of them at least 3 times, including Florinda's and Taisha's. Like many others, I tried to follow Don Juan's teachings for some years - can't say that I succeeded. I never met Castaneda, any of his inner circle followers or, for that matter, Amy Wallace. I am not associated with Amy, her editor, publisher, etc. I wrote this review after seeing many anonymous reviews here that are absolutely unfair to Amy's work. To one who is familiar with Castaneda's teachings and has read Amy's book, those reviews look like a specific task that was given to Castaneda's remaining closest followers, with the intent of keeping hidden the "secrets" Amy brings to light.

Amy Wallace is out of the box and is telling us a frightening account of her life as an apprentice in the very private world of Castaneda. Years ago, Carlos Castaneda's books set my world on fire and set me on a path of self discovery, a path that fortunately got grounded by other works and life in general (apparently a far better way to approach the Sorcerer's world according to the author,.., made me feel better anyway). "Sorcerer's Apprentice" gives you a solid taste of the reality of what it means to seek freedom through the eyes of another. I could not put the book down. It is a must read for those who dare use their critical mind. The book ends with a very thoughtful epilogue evaluating Castaneda's impact.

This is a tough book to review, so I'll highlight the good and bad from my perspective. Ms. Wallace tells a story that needs to be told, but sometimes the impact of the story was lost in the quagmire of details.

Good
* I respect the author's courage for writing this book. It must have been very painful to write.
* It's important that more people speak out on the psychological damage that participating in a cult does to people

Bad
* The book needs a sharper editor. The backstabbing goes on for about 50 pages too long (either the author has a photographic memory or took excellent notes through the duration of her participation with this group, or she (like Castenada) must have made up a tremendous amount of dialog.

* The author's pop psychology analysis of the process grew weary at times.

* The author cited the excellent book, "The Guru Papers", several times, but, based on other things she wrote in the book, seemed to miss the wisdom and insights of much that "The Guru Papers" offered.

I am amazed at people who can read this book and still claim that "the jury is still out" as to whether or not Castenada told the truth. What, the guy was completely honest about meeting and training under don juan, and then turns into a sociopathic leader who lied almost constantly? (...ain't gonna happen...). This book was very similiar to "Enlightenment Blues" - another book written by someone who was hurt by a spiritual teacher. The process and "feel" of hurtful cults seem to be quite similar.

Finally, I would encourage the "how-could-she-be-so-stupid" reviewers to be a touch more gentle. Speaking as someone who has been involved with a hurtful, narcissistic teacher - the process evolves slowly, becomes quite hurtful, and it is only in retrospect that I could even question why I put up with the teacher for so long. There but for the grace of God....

This alternately beautiful, terrifying, wondrous, disturbing and profoundly human memoir of the author's 30-year spanning friendship-turned-relationship with the legendary Carlos Castaneda is compulsive, memorable reading. Ms. Wallace (a bestselling fiction and nonfiction writer, as well as the daughter of the best-selling novelist Irving Wallace) - a true seeker who is as brilliant as she is spiritual - shows us the best and the worst of Castaneda the man and his group (more accurately, his CULT), taking the reader on an unforgettable journey into both the light and the dark. Must reading for anyone fascinated with the Castaneda mythos; make no mistake, however - this is far more than a provocative New Age study...it's also a devastatingly incisive, ferociously literate, shatteringly tragic and ultimately triumphant story of an incredible and heroic woman's most extraordinary life.

Allow me to put my two cents in on this. When I was younger, I read several of Castaneda's books, and they made a big impression on me. They were, and remain, terrific books. Beautiful and poetic. Having said that, when I read Amy Wallace's tell-all about CC and his groupies/followers, it was not a flattering portrait of a supposedly enlightened man. I've read the other reviews of this book smearing Ms. Wallace as "psychotic" and otherwise. This is typical character assassination of someone who had the courage to blow the whistle on a cult that was horribly cruel towards its members with Castaneda in the background, manipulating people and encouraging their antisocial behavior. As for the book itself, it's compulsively readable, but I also found the mind games and nonstop abuse to be very depressing.

There were a few things Carlos forgot to ask for on that hilltop before leaving his detested Caxamalca: he asked for money, fortune, fame, beautiful chickas and power. What he forgot to ask for were love, humility, peace and God. Amy Wallace shows us in this book that this was a terrible bargain to make.

She shows us a Castaneda who was authoritarian, manipulative, paranoid and infantile; the pudgy little man exhibited the worst traits of an insecure macho, including posturing, jealousy, racism and lechery. It was perhaps a terrible inevitability that made the 65 year old cabron pick Amy, the daughter of a well-known writer (and a talented writer in her own right) for one of his victims. Amy shows us how C kept a harem of women cajoled and intimidated into providing sexual favors in the worst tradition of guru-xploitation. The way he got them into his bed was pathetic. [ "Amy", he whispered (to the 25 year-old Amy Wallace). Suddenly, he was more solemn than I'd ever seen him. "You have to give your poto to the nagual. For magical purposes we must have a "close encounter." It's the only way left to us. The hole between a woman's legs is magic and when the nagual leaves his juice inside it goes directly to her brain...it's the fastest way." (p. 81)]. For all the obsession Castaneda had with sex one does not have an impression Castaneda actually ENJOYED intimacy. Intimacy, love, caring were, well, all too human ("ape-like").

What made me sad and profoundly angry was reading about C's efforts to deprive his "disciples" and "lovers" of their essence, of who they truly were; only then would he feel comfortable, in control. The man made them break all contact with their families and friends -even destroy the photographs depicting their "previous" selves; Amy was ordered to get rid of her beloved cats. When he had his women isolated, he started with emotional abuse and sexual melodrama.

The man is described as a classical psychopath. "I confessed", wrote Castaneda in one of his books, "that I have never respected or liked anybody, not even myself, and that I had always felt I was inherently evil." As de Mille said: "Carlos cannot open his gap and let his passion flow into another person. He cannot commit himself to anything but the separate reality, first in his mind, then on paper....Telling stories excites him but only displays his power to fill up the social world with cobwebs." Wallace shows us the profile of an old child, a congenital liar, who felt helpless and deeply afraid of women and female power, just as he was afraid of life and love. Not surprisingly, the man's fears of women, sex and love creep up in his books. Castaneda had grown callous to pain and sadness and incapable of seeing anyone else's right to freedom but his own.

Amy's book also begs the question about whether the stuff Carlos wrote about was real or not. One of Castaneda's prime talents was to find, select, transform, marshall, and present other people's ideas as his own without letting the sources show. The experiences of "Carlos" may then well be true. As is this book. Wallace's journey is a Tale of true Power: power to survive vile spiritual assaults with grace and with love. She shows us how dehumanizing the control of one human being over another can be for everyone involved and how this has destroyed the creator of Don Juan. There can be no compromise when it comes to freedom and truth. gracias, Amy.

Wallace's memoir of her years inside Castaneda's inner circle is a fascinating and terrifying portrait of the attraction of charismatic leaders and cults, and their ability to ensnare anyone in their mind games. This book provides a fitting postscript to the first Castaneda critique published in 1976, Richard de Mille's Castaneda's Journey: The Power and the Allegory.

Those who took Castaneda and Don Juan at face value will experience extreme cognitive dissonance reading this book. Intentionally or not, Wallace demolishes the myth of Castaneda as the 'impeccable Nagual sorcerer', provoking doubt as to whether Don Juan even existed or was just the product of Castenada's imagination and some inspired writing. Instead, she reveals a paranoid, manipulative old man surrounded by a secretive cult of true believers who actively aided in his deception. Three decades after The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge was published, it's clear that Castaneda's writings should be lumped with fabulists like Lobsang Rampa and L Ron Hubbard rather than treated as any sort of metaphysical or anthropological revelation.

Since this book was published in 2003, Wallace's speculation about the suicides of the five witches after Castenada's death in 1998 has been confirmed. The remains of Patricia Partin (aka The Blue Scout) found in Death Valley were identified by DNA analysis in 2006, elevating Castenada from mystic phony to the ranks of the Heaven's Gate UFO cult and Jim Jones People's Temple.

Some Castaneda believers remain in denial, clinging to his writings and the absurd Tensegrity system promoted by Cleargreen, ignoring the reality of his ordinary death and the suicides of his inner circle. In the final analysis, Castaneda's engaging mystical nonsense proved to be more toxic and lethal than anyone could have imagined.

I am assuming Amy Wallace is honest on her descriptions of her relatioship with the cult Castaneda. If so, she is very brave to have written this book. She tells personal details about herself and Castaneda, and how her emotional vulnerability lead her to "submit" to the cult.
Castaneda had an incredible influence on people taking
drugs all over the world. It did serious damage to people's life. Little did I know this was not the whole story.
That is why I think that although the book is not a "literary" masterpiece, it is a very important book about vulnerability versus power of influence.
Better be an anchor to your children (trust and protect them), and teach them how to think for themselves, chances are, there is a pest around the corner to manipulate them.
I read Castaneda when I was 14 years old, and first was strongly influenced by him. He had some interesting insights about facing life difficulties as challenges, not as a source of despair (the warrior path). But then his books turned me off completely. Wallace mentions in her book the very idea that turned me off:"Having children makes a hole in your energy field". Believe it or not, Castaneda even states to get your power back you have to kill your children. Is it possible to get crazier than that?
Castaneda's books are labelled as NON-Fiction, and some people take it seriously.

I hope Wallace's book will make people think for themselves before submitting to "cult leaders", because as with many others, Castaneda used his "pretense knowledge" for power, sex and money. So human and so sad at the same time.

I'd never heard of Carlos Castaneda until someone recommended this book to me, so I guess I'm an unbiased reviewer (no preconceived opinions to defend). Of course, that also means I'm in no position to judge how accurately it portrays CC and his inner circle. All I can give is my subjective reaction: it rings true. The characters, as bizarre and are, seem real, and it appears that Ms. Wallace has portrayed them in a balanced, evenhanded way -- no black-and-white good guys and bad guys.

The almost unimaginably bizarre goings-on in CC's cult have an unexpected ring of familiarity to them -- because they're the same petty intrigues and politics we experience in everyday normal life, only on steroids. The temptation to point and laugh at the cultist wackos is kept in check by the persistent awareness that you've acted in some of the same ways yourself, on a smaller scale. It makes the story both touching and deeply disturbing.