One of the most prominent personalities of the second half of the twentieth century is the American anthropologist C. Castaneda, who wrote a series of books about his teacher - the Indian magician don Juan Matus and the teachings of the magicians of Ancient Mexico. Of course, there is still debate about who Carlos Castaneda really was and how much truth is intertwined with fiction in his books. However, people with not "brainwashed" do not doubt the fact that the provisions of the teachings set forth by him have a real basis in the ancient magical tradition, as well as the fact that the collective image of "don Juan" was based on the personalities of real magicians of Mexico, from which Carlos received the basics of this knowledge.
It is no accident that the Russian writer Viktor Pelevin wrote on this occasion: “Few writers evoked such delight and such irritation. This enthusiasm is understandable - many of us remember what it was like to read a samizdat photocopy of Castaneda in Moscow, hung with portraits of black magicians from the Politburo, or to buy wholesale lots of the decorative cactus Lophophora Williamsi from crazy catus breeders from the Bird Market under the suspicious and bewildered gaze of the patroller.
It is understandable and irritation - the world is full of notorious losers who approach his books with their own yardstick. They themselves are this yardstick, so they will always argue about Castaneda. But I doubt that anyone would argue about these debaters. Castaneda is the greatest poet and mystic of the 20th century. Millions of people owe him moments of insight and happiness, and even if later it turned out that these insights did not lead anywhere, it was not his fault.
Indeed, the main danger of his books consisted not in mindless critics who were unable to comprehend what he was writing about, but in fanatical "Castanedians" who imagined themselves after reading his first three books by "experts" in the field of ancient knowledge and thoughtlessly rushed into the dangerous the world of magic, indulging on the image of a "warrior of strength". And, nevertheless, a closer reading of all of Castaneda allows you to see from a completely different angle the events that he described in the early period of his education, when his teachers used various tricks and testing tests for the neophyte to prepare his mind for the perception of genuine knowledge.
At their core, both detractors and fanatical admirers of Castaneda suffer from the same disease - not competence. Among the first there are even those who have never held his books in their hands, and even if they tried to read one book, they tried to refute its content with a predetermined critical attitude, looking for signs of “fraud”, “charlatanism” and “pseudoscientific”. Do I need to remind you that at least some of these detractors and critics did this not out of their own thoughtlessness and narrow-mindedness, but fulfilling the order of quite certain forces, which could not but disturb the "awakening" consciousness from the imposed thousand-year "confusion" impulse books.
Many of Castaneda's admirers also do not mind to read all of his books to one, before making hasty conclusions and outlining to rush in pursuit of "strength", especially since his main teacher, don Juan Matus, repeatedly told his student about the "path of the heart" ", Which went unnoticed by fanatical" power hunters ".
Of course, one should not perceive everything that Carlos wrote about in his books as "the ultimate truth", because he was still a man, and any person is not immune from mistakes and individual interpretations of the knowledge he received. But, nevertheless, his books undoubtedly made an invaluable contribution to the awakening of the consciousness of many people and made it possible, on the basis of previously "forbidden" knowledge, to take a fresh look at the reality of the surrounding world and stereotypes of behavior accepted in society, as well as blind faith in many absolutely not proven "truths".
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