A Magical Journey With Carlos Castaneda (Paperback)

by Margaret Runyan Castaneda (Author)
Key Phrases: magical journey, legendary shaman, Don Juan, Carlos Castaneda, Los Angeles (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Carlos Castaneda burst onto the academic and cultural scene in 1968 when he published the first of four books detailing his supposed apprenticeship with a Yaqui Indian sorcerer named Don Juan. While academic critics contend Castaneda invented Don Juan, believers say the fog surrounding his existence express the very ideals that Castaneda attributed to his apprenticeship.

Little is known of the Peruvian claiming to be Don Juan's apprentice, but in addition to leading a generation into a mystical otherworld, Carlos Castaneda was also a man. Married to him for thirteen years was Margaret Runyan Castaneda.

A Magical Journey with Carlos Castaneda reads partly like a love story, partly like a tell-all account of a celebrity writer. Margaret Castaneda concentrates on the years leading up to her marriage in 1960. It was then Margaret and Carlos explored many of the ideas from controlling dreams to using hallucinogenic mushrooms that he claims to have arned from Don Juan.

Nevertheless, Margaret Castenada believes her husband was indeed a sorcerer, and she still loves him. She insists Castaneda's academic critics miss the point. "I'm willing to accept Don Juan as a spiritual teacher, and it really doesn't matter if he's not real." But the role she claims in developing the ideas Carlos purports to be Don Juan's ought to be recognized, she says, so she wrote this book.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author
Margaret Castaneda lives in Charleston, West Virginia. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 204 pages
• Publisher: Millenia Press; 1st edition (November 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0969696019
• ISBN-13: 978-0969696018
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,565,796 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An insightful and touching read., July 21, 1998

By	Jan Bailey "bibliotherapist" (Boone, NC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

While the book suffers from poor editing, I found it an interesting and insightful read. Perhaps I had expected to find a bitter former companion of Carlos Castaneda in Margaret, but instead I found an intelligent and caring person. Some of the situations do indeed show Carlos in a negative light, but he, like the rest of us, was a human being. I have been a Castaneda devotee for over 20 years, from the days when his books were regularly used in college courses as fact. As I've grown older I realize that we commonly don't want to see the truth, when one of our heroes turns out to be human. By these denials, we deprive that person of their wholeness, their humanity, with our dreams and expectations being the weapon. My view of Carlos has changed over the years, but maybe I'm seeing him with a bit more wisdom than I did all those years ago. Margaret's book included touching scenarios that revealed more about the man and the source of his philosophy and tales...like! Margaret pointed out to Carlos, the lessons of don Juan were the lessons Carlos was teaching himself. Carlos Castaneda is one of the greatest philosophers of all time in my eyes and will always be so...his struggles laid out before us, akin to Jesus' parables. These are lessons that can be used each day in our lives. Carlos' art turned out to be his life and our world is richer for his existence. Thank you Margaret, for writing the book. I think it is a fine companion for Carlos' works, one that helps complete the picture.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A huge disappointment!, October 18, 1998

By A Customer

When I bought this book, I couldn't wait to get home to read it. However, it was a huge disappointment. This is a book about the author's feelings and reactions to Castaneda, rather than about the man himself.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating biography, September 15, 2003

By	A. "inspire134" (San Francisco, CA (USA)) - See all my reviews

Margaret Runyan's book is a fascinating biography of a mystery man. I have read and loved almost all of Castaneda's work, but knew little in the way of factual events that led to his success as one of twentieth century's greatest writers. This is an interesting viewpoint; we can see what his fequent abscenses did to his family.
In it we see the portrait of a talented and ambitious man in search of truth and in search of a way to distinguish himself from the mediocrity of academic life.
We see the love he had for his adopted son "Chocho", and his wistful and sad realization that he did not have the time to be a good father to him. There were other things: i.e.going to the desert to see his "informant". At the beginning, it might have been an ambitious move calculated to distinquish his career, but as time went on it became an obsession to know the truth.

The reason I rated this book 2 stars is because of the amazing number of typographical and grammatical errors in it. It makes one think, didn't she have an editor, and what kind of publisher would let all these mistakes get in??!!

However, the book is an easy read and hard to put down if you are a Castaneda fan.It sheds light on many details unknown before.It should also be a good thing for detractors of Castaneda to read, because it shows the man's integrity in so many ways, in spite of his unwillingness to stand by certain facts (i.e. his lies about his birthplace/time etc.) He really did want to 'erase his personal history' much before he met Don Juan. She tells us about his early influences (including herself)and the events and people that led him to his famous path. Although there are some inconsistencies in her interpretation of who he was,she generally has a down-to-earth viewpoint, and presents him in all his contradictions yet as a good human being who cared but was unable to perform his family duties, in other words was a flaky husband and father.
I can recommend it.
A.