Carlos Castaneda
Carlos Castaneda 1962
Born	Carlos César Salvador Arana Castañeda December 25, 1925 Cajamarca , Perú
Died	April 27, 1998 (aged 72) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Author
Nationality	American
Period	20th-century
Subjects	Shamanism

Carlos Arana Castaneda ^{[ 1 ]} (December 25, 1925 – April 27, 1998) was a Peruvian-American author and student of anthropology .

Starting with The Teachings of Don Juan in 1968, Castaneda wrote a series of books that describe his alleged training in shamanism . The books, narrated in the first person , relate his supposed experiences under the tutelage of a Yaqui "Man of Knowledge" named Don Juan Matus . His 11 books have sold more than 28 million copies in 17 languages. Critics have suggested that they are works of fiction; supporters claim the books are either true or at least valuable works of philosophy and descriptions of practices which enable an increased awareness.

Castaneda withdrew from public view in 1973 to work further on his inner development, living in a large house with three women ("Fellow Travellers of Awareness") who were ready to cut their ties to family and changed their names. He founded Cleargreen, an organization that promoted tensegrity , purportedly a traditional Toltec regimen of spiritually powerful exercises.^{[ 2 ]}

Castaneda's first three books – The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge ; A Separate Reality ; and Journey to Ixtlan – were written while he was an anthropology student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He wrote these books as his research log describing his apprenticeship with a traditional "Man of Knowledge" identified as don Juan Matus , a Yaqui Indian from northern Mexico. Castaneda was awarded his bachelor's and doctoral degrees based on the work described in these books.

In 1974 his fourth book, Tales of Power , was published. This book ended with Castaneda leaping from a cliff into an abyss, and signaled the end of his apprenticeship under the tutelage of Matus. Castañeda continued to be popular with the reading public with subsequent publications.

In his books, Castaneda narrates in first person the events leading to and following after his meeting Matus, a half-Yaqui "Man of Knowledge", in 1960. Castaneda's experiences with Matus inspired the works for which he is known. He also says the sorcerer bequeathed him the position of nagual , or leader of a party of seers. He also used the term " nagual " to signify that part of perception which is in the realm of the unknown yet still reachable by man, implying that, for his party of seers, Don Juan was a connection in some way to that unknown. Castañeda often referred to this unknown realm as nonordinary reality.

The term " nagual " has been used by anthropologists to mean a shaman or sorcerer who claims to be able to change into an animal form, or to metaphorically "shift" into another form through magic rituals, shamanism and experiences with psychoactive drugs (e.g., peyote and jimson weed - Datura stramonium ).^{[ 3 ]}