Carlos Castaneda Biography

Carlos Castaneda was an American author who penned the famous nonfiction book, ‘The Teachings of Don Juan’. Deemed by Times magazine as the ‘Godfather of the New Age’, Castaneda through his best-selling nonfiction books, brought forth to readers the mystical teachings of Don Juan Matus, a Yaqui Indian shaman from Mexico. Castaneda’s first acquaintance with Don Juan dates back to his years in University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he studied as a graduate student. It was for one of the assignments wherein he had to interview an Indian that Castaneda first chanced upon Don Juan. His internship under the tutelage of the latter led his exploits into the non-ordinary reality. He started to believe that he was ‘the chosen one’ picked to receive the training for becoming a full-fledged sorcerer. Castaneda wrote down about his training under Don Juan in the book, ‘The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge’. In his lifetime, he penned 12 books, two of which were published posthumously. Interestingly his books received much critical acclaim to make him a world–renowned author. It was only later that critics doubted the authenticity of his work and labelled them under fiction