Castaneda's tale is a key piece of personal enhancement mystical writing. The reader is invited back to an era when mental expansion/exploration was a significant and genuine part of U.S. culture, when Castaneda explores the notion of other culture's having more power and substance than that of materialism. Important reading for anyone interested in orienting themselves within the tumultuous 20th century and beyond.

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I believe this could be a good tool for those first starting out on their journey of inner knowledge. In fact, I know several people who adore this and other books by Castaneda. I just couldn't get into his writing. While the author attempts to shroud the lessons in mystery, I felt I could clearly see through it. I think if I had encountered this book before reading so many others on journeying, I would have enjoyed it, but since it wasn't, I felt it was rather poor.

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Although I am more skeptical than when I first read this series 35 years ago, I still find it magical.

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Carlos Casteneda tells the following story about himself: in 1960, as a student of anthropology at UCLA, he made trips to the Southwest in search of information about the ways American Indians used medicinal plants; there he made the acquaintance of Juan Matus, an elderly Indian shaman who, within a year, made Casteneda the first-ever non-native apprentice in the ways of the Yaqui "man of knowledge," a brujo, a sorcerer. In the form of anthropological narrative, Casteneda told the story of his apprenticeship to Matus in a book called The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge. It became an international bestseller, and many other books followed, including A Separate Reality, Journey to Ixtlan, Tales of Power, and The Power of Silence. The first several books are vivid and entertaining, whimsical and inspiring. Their two central characters, Carlos and don Juan-a sort of hallucinogen-ingesting Boswell and Johnson-are charming companions and antagonists on a series of mystical adventures.

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if you in a thirst for knowledge this a good book to start. There are many realms to this place and here the Yaqui Indians shamans will give it to you. great book

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