Carlos Castañeda wrote the book
series entitled The Teachings of Don Juan. The books were written in the first
person, where he described the traditional Mesoamerican shamanism.
Castañeda was born on December 25,
1925 in Cajamarca, Peru. He became a naturalized US citizen in
1957. He was an alumnus of the University
of California in Los Angeles where he earned his Bachelor of
Arts degree and Ph.D. in anthropology.
He was an apprentice to a
traditional shaman or “Man of Knowledge” named Don Juan Matus while in UCLA. This experience gave
him focus to his first books entitled The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of
Knowledge, A Separate Reality and Journey to Ixtlan.
He published the Tales of Power in
1974. This book gave Castañeda a large following who believed in his
philosophies and books. Aside from promoting the idea of shamans, he also
endorsed alternate states of perception and reality through books and
pamphlets.
Castañeda died of hepatocellular cancer in 1998. He continued to
write up until his death.
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