By Josep M ª Fericgla, PhD in anthropology, published in Catalan in "Revista de Catalunya d'Ethnology," No.. 15 November 1999, pp. 120-127 - by the Department of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona.
is difficult to write something about the universal Carlos Cesar Arana Castaneda, without it being a mere invention, a personal interpretation of the writer and without any criticism or mystification, which obscured any reality. We will try, therefore, to make a small tour of his recent biography so far verified the facts permit. From there, every one to his free interpretations of what is present. Some of the following data are taken from the research that Edith Stanley, Patrick Kerkstra and Scott Glover, researchers at the U.S. Los Angeles Times newspaper have done on the recent death of Castaneda.
His life
The universal author known under the name of Carlos Castaneda, witch autodenomindo follower of shamanic traditions of the Yaqui Indians, Americans, died on April 27, 1999 in Westwood, USA, as reported his attorney Deborah Drooz, which is presented as a friend of the writer and executor of his will.
Despite the thick fog and mystery, scattered volunteer-involving the life of Carlos Castaneda, we know that he emigrated to the U.S. in 1951, and said that he was born on Christmas Day 1925 in Sao Paulo (Brazil) or in Cajamarca (Peru), depending on the autobiographical accounts that want to believe. It is very probable that this was the son of a South American family who emigrated to the U.S. to study. In this sense, some voices, in my opinion quite authoritative, say their families had Catalan origin and that his real name was Castaneda, a name quite widespread in some Catalan regions which would mean "forest of chestnut trees, but they migrated from South America to the U.S., and in the absence of sound and spelling" ñ "in English, lost his family Castañeda for his new Castaneda .
Meanwhile, our author was a liar and a cheat without limits and never regretted it, hence the scientific community has never paid it serious attention, although many times it said and reiterated that told was true and that there was no fantasy in it. However, despite being given credit for his stories, the truth is that the details of his biography-so far-fetched by researchers mythomaniacs detractors as fans, are a sum of pure hypothesis darkened with meticulously. Nothing is clear, beginning with the date of your birth date or the place where it happened. Even there are serious doubts about the veracity of its official name. One might think that this is precisely the strategy of the witch, that he had so often repeated in his books, to escape enquilosamiento of a past that is forming a crust on top of each and every time he keeps rather live like a warrior. You can also think that a person like Castaneda shown elusive to the press and helps to shape their own myth by removing his fingerprints from the past even the smallest details pero que en algún nivel de su intimidad aparece un Carlos desenmascarado, pero resulta que no, que incluso alguien tan próximo a nuestro autor como el psicólogo Richard Yensen me comentó, cuando estuvimos juntos hace unas semanas, que Castaneda era un mentiroso permanente, que uno nunca podía fiarse de lo que decía. "Gran parte de la mística castanediana se basa en el hecho de que, ni tan sólo sus más íntimos amigos están seguros de quien es", escribió su ex-esposa Margaret Runyan Castaneda, en un memorial que se publicó en el año 1997 a pesar de que el propio Castaneda trató de impedir que se editara. Así pues, nadie puede esperar que la academia de científicos, preocupados por la objective truth, show the least willingness to believe or to check something from the pen of a supreme liar the only verifiable aspects of their lives.
Regardless of who was this man, his name and date and place of birth, the truth is that our author managed to galvanize and catalyze global attention thirty years ago. It is widely known that as the final work for a Ph.D. in anthropology at UCLA, Castaneda did what many students of anthropology at the end of the race, chose a theme, place and ethnicity on which to perform the research to the Academy, but what came out was recalling the Arizona desert trip in Mexico. His original intention, if we are to believe us his story focused on searching and studying the effects of certain medicinal plants traditionally used among the peoples who inhabit this arid corner of the world wide. But fate never forgive: he stood in a town bordering the desert of Arizona and there on the same bus stop for Greyhound, the most popular in the U.S., began a change that would transform as person, he and much of Western youth. Once located and not knowing what the fate that lay in the bus terminal met an old Yaqui Indian ethnicity, supposedly named Juan Matus, Don Juan, who said to come from Sonora, Mexico. If we continue to believe the story told by Castaneda, the old man turned out to be a shaman who consumed entheogenic plants and those used to initiate his pupil and into a hidden world that survived for more than 2 000 years.
Under the heavy, strong and wise tutelage of beloved Don Juan, which lasted over several years, our author experienced the effects of peyote, of various entheogenic seeds and fungi probably psilocybian, learning experiences and moments of supreme ecstasy but also painful and dark inferno of panic. All this in an attempt to know and live what he called non-ordinary states of reality. Wandering through the desert with his guide and teacher psychological and ethnobotanist (just in the cataloging of plants, the only thing that can be seen from outside, is where Castaneda fails more), the anthropologist said he saw giant insects, having learned to fly with new peak, having transformed into a crow and finally triumphed in order to achieve a higher and more refined level of consciousness, a man of knowledge as was Don Juan.
His thesis, published in 1968 by the University of California, soon became a literary success international. It touched adequate fiber and at the right time of the crest of the wave of young American culture of the years 1960, consuming psychedelics and romantically in love with her pure and native sages. The style of the original works of Castaneda, a style that will never leave her, was a curious and suggestive blend of universal allegories, anthropology, parapsychology, alchemy and Buddhist philosophy, and-probably-a good dose of fiction. In my opinion there is also a good dose of the lessons of a century earlier disseminate G. Gurdjieff and his own outstanding disciple Ouspensky. That was how his first book, The Teachings of Don Juan. One way yaki towards knowledge, made the old character of Don Juan in a name rather than revered among young people and Castaneda in an authentic cultural symbol.
In one of the few articles written about him and cooperated Castaneda, published by Time magazine in 1973, said: "For the tens of thousands of readers (Castaneda), young and old, the first meeting Castaneda with Juan Matus (...) is best known literary fact that the meeting between Dante and Beatrice on the banks of the Arno "... Indeed, it is. After such an impressive literary debut, our author continued to produce best-sellers such as A Separate Reality, Travel to itxlan and Tales of Power. As a result, given the childish and impetuous character between that characterizes our neighbors across the Atlantic, crowds of young and not so young was rushed to New Mexico students hoping to become the wise cast feet of Don Juan, journalists began to investigate the life of the sorcerer and his now famous disciple ... yaki but the old Indian did not appear anywhere, "unlike what had happened to the shaman Maria Sabina .. This gave rise to speculations about the reality of what is narrated in the books of Castaneda, some people accused him of being the author of a witty and well-crafted hoax that does not correspond to reality Traditional ethnic and announcing. Skeptical criticism was a good representative in Joyce Carol Oates, a famous author who turned to the arguments of veracity, in 1972 asking "Is there any possibility that these non-fiction books? Everyone accepts them as anthropological studies but I seem to some remarkable works of art, Hesse style when writing about the initiation of the young in another kind of reality. They are beautifully constructed, the dialogue is impeccable, the character of Don Juan is unforgettable and all enjoy a great rhythm novelistic. " It can not be true. For its part, the renowned anthropologist C. Geertz, also said that "for Now his books without any presence in the field of anthropology "in the sense that, despite the popularity obtained any university professor of anthropology seriously recommend these texts to their students. However, no trend Castaneda for lying or the most questionable real existence of Don Juan have decreased at any time the enthusiasm of their fans. In this sense, Joshua Gilder, editor of the Saturday Review, said it is not necessary to believe and have faith to feel drawn by Castaneda's narrative, it is the reprocessing of universal myths, act weird and wonderful effect that is beyond the realm of belief. It something only a genius can produce.
Despite much criticism, or just because she said in the last days of his life, Castaneda insisted strongly that the facts he had recounted in his books were not only real but were meticulously documented. Also repeated to the 400 people who attended a seminar given by him in Anaheim, in 1995: there said and reiterated that he had not invented anything, it was crazy.
In my opinion, and after my years dedicated to research of entheogens, their effects and importance in every human culture, I am not mistaken in asserting that these fields of human endeavor is very, very safe to say that something is real or not. The effects that psychoactive substances have many shades of gray. In this sense, I felt for years, and over time has been saying to myself, "that the great trap of Castaneda, his big lie, is what tells it how it relates, when plants autoexperimenta entheogenic, one sees ordinary worlds, but it is also true that I know no one in their right mind would claim that such worlds are really out of the subject. Are inner worlds though, very often have some sort of reverb or empathy with the environment. Thus, to refer to these psychological dimensions of our universe, it is necessary and essential to use linguistic metaphors. Not for nothing absolutely all, religions advertise their truths and discoveries in a metaphorical way: the Tao of Buddhists is nameless, like the One of the Christians, and to refer to these stocks transcendent no choice but to use images metaphorical. Believe that Castaneda was cheating when he put the metaphor in the words of Don Juan ineffable but announced that the way to explain their experiences was also a metaphor. Often, in my experiences with ayahuasca, san pedro or other entheogenic use the same forms of expression (I've flown by ... I've seen ... I felt the vastness ... I died ... my body is transformed ...) and do not announce that it is the effect of entheogens on my own mind, it is likely that some take me for a madman and other by a prophet, like Castaneda.
His death
Despite all this, our author deserves to be applied to all the highest honors English genius and figure ... since his mysterious sorcerer life is also reflected in his death.
The stated cause of his silent and anonymous death was liver cancer. At least outwardly, died as a result of his life in recent decades and the content of his teachings, away from the madding crowd, without advertising or chambers, in the most scrupulous, free and perfect anonymity. In his photographs are not less than forty years old or recordings of any kind, and caring very much that in his very few public appearances, no one recorded his voice or photograph the image: hence the striking photo that appeared newspapers in late June to announce his death, portrait taken in 1951 which is a round-faced man, postwar styling all in one tiny technical quality. A sorcerer, Castaneda said, he never looks at his past and these systems to freeze the image of a slow evolution of the warrior inside.
Nor, it seems
-funeral took place at all. His body was cremated in the U.S. and then scattered his ashes in Mexico, according to records contained in the morgue of the American city of Culver. However, these data are not reliable because no or only his official death certificate is free of ambiguity and lack of information. In it, and according to the Los Angeles Times, said that his occupation was teaching at the school district of Beverly Hills (Beverly Hills School District), but no school in this district has recorded or any file that Castaneda taught there. It is also said that our author had no family, but the death certificate shows the name of a niece, Talia Bey, who turns out to be the president of the company Cleargreen Inc., the company organizing seminars Castaneda on "tensegrity," a modern and somewhat frayed version of the supposed shamanistic practices for energy, which clearly comes from a part of yoga, another martial arts and even ergonomic exercises elsewhere. However, it has not been possible to locate T. Bey to add more information on the subject.
In this sense, it is surprising that the official record of death, according to the Los Angeles Times, Castaneda appears recorded as Nev. Married, "never married" when, in contrast, is known of his marriage to Margaret Runyan Castaneda, from Charleston (W.Va.), which lasted between 1960 and 1973, and a son that is not recognized by Castaneda, not under oath before a court. This assumption son is now 36 years old and lives in Atlanta. He keeps claiming to be the descendant of the famous author and it claims to have a birth certificate as the father figure as Carlos Castaneda. However, none of this is really clear, despite investigations by E. Stanley, P. Kerkstra and S. Glover. The cloud closed around him.
When few weeks ago information was requested on Castaneda's death his ex-wife alleged, M. Runyan, 76, she replied that nobody had informed him that he knew nothing, but he was already worried about his death for years, said it would be the best experience of his life. In 1995, while teaching the seminar in Anaheim, our author's stated publicly that: "... we are all facing the infinite, whether we like it or not Why do not we do it while we are weak, when we are with health broken or when we are dying and why not when we feel strong? Why not now? " Instead, in contrast to these explicit statements of the last three years is its position when he was interviewed for Time magazine in 1973, then was much more succinct when discussing end of life of the journalist's attention diverted to a graffiti that was on a wall in Los Angeles which stated: "Death is the rush strongest of all. Therefore we reserve it for the end."
Our illustrious author has left a will that must be read and validated during the month of July in Los Angeles, and a questionable certificate: perfect end to a life impeccably hazy. The few people who could legally leave benefit of its rich and juicy copyright was advised of the Castaneda's death by his attorney Deborah Drooz, but nobody told the press or any other media until 18 June (died April 27.) For its part, the doctor who attended their last breaths Castaneda, Angelica Duenas, not known to have spoken with anyone quite referring to this as patient confidentiality. Even those who, apparently, had our author as one of his close friends knew nothing about his death and later when they were reported not spent even a moment to publicize the death of your friend to anybody . This was his tribute to Castaneda and his contempt for the public, respect and dispensing dimension of reality to be the author.
Michael Korda, author and editor who published a book of Castaneda from the publisher Simon & Schuster said that he had been adopted as standard practice in his life ever challenging or anyone related to the industry media about Castaneda, let alone about his death. Neither Tracy Kramer, Castaneda's literary agent in Los Angeles, has returned even one of the calls received or asked to comment on the subject. Instead, it has merely cite the same texts Castaneda, "according to the tradition of the shamans of his lineage, Carlos Castaneda left this world in full consciousness."
As short summary of his life because, dare I add only that Castaneda was the author of ten books translated into seventeen languages, books that have caused a revolution in Western thought in the second half of the twentieth century. One American observer said it was the first and chief ideologue of the so-called New Age, but in my opinion, who has carefully read his books will probably agree that in them is the possibility of deception, twisted fantasies extremely well and other virtues and qualities, or otherwise, but, at least from the old and weathered and Europe-is difficult to see in the spirited and a champion male Castaneda of the somewhat flabby New Bober. I do not think he would accept.
In any case, the issue is not whether it is true or not, in a physical sense, the content of their stories, but in extremely suggestive of his books, as readers and act on the mythical space involved in the current situation anyone would wonder if there was a flesh and blood Oedipus to corroborate the veracity of the myth or metaphor used to explain our psychological maternal dependency? You would not ...?.
Source: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dimension/9522/entrevista9.html
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