{"id":317852,"date":"2026-07-06T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T11:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=317852"},"modified":"2026-06-30T13:35:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T12:35:22","slug":"carlos-castaneda-the-shamanic-messiah-of-the-1970s-was-also-a-con-man-plagiarist-and-manipulative-cult-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/07\/carlos-castaneda-the-shamanic-messiah-of-the-1970s-was-also-a-con-man-plagiarist-and-manipulative-cult-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Castaneda, the Shamanic Messiah of the 1970s, Was also a Con Man, Plagiarist and Manipulative Cult Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

22 Jun 2026\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0Back in the early 1970s, when I was an undergrad at UC Berkeley, it was hard to find a bookshelf that didn\u2019t have a beat-up copy of the \u201cTeachings of Don Juan\u201d tucked between the cinder blocks.<\/p>\n

Carlos Castaneda, an anthropology student at UCLA, had an incredible story to tell about his peyote-fueled adventures with an old Indian sorcerer he met at a bus depot on the Mexican border.<\/p>\n

He first wrote this story up as \u201cfield notes\u201d and turned it in as his master\u2019s thesis. His magical mystery tour through the \u201cYaqui Way of Knowledge\u201d was published in 1968, and by the early \u201870s Castaneda was a best-selling author and worldwide spiritual celebrity.<\/p>\n

On his way to shamanic enlightenment, Castaneda learned how to fly, talked to a bilingual coyote and encountered amazing columns of singing light. It was magical. It was inspiring. But was it true?<\/p>\n

Was it fiction? Was it symbolic? Or was it a hallucinogenic fantasy?<\/p>\n

Did Don Juan really exist?<\/p>\n

It almost didn\u2019t matter. Like many of my college cohorts in Berkeley, I had taken a few too many mind-blowing acid trips. Reality itself was pretty slippery. Fact? Fiction? Who cares?<\/p>\n

Looking back, it does<\/em> matter, and we should care.<\/p>\n

Carlos Castaneda pulled off one of the great literary hoaxes of the 20th century. In the two decades before his death in 1998, this alleged anthropologist, plagiarist and messianic narcissist went on to lead a secretive cult that destroyed the lives of a group of women who became his lovers and unquestioning disciples.<\/p>\n

Ru Marshall,<\/a> a non-binary writer and visual artist, has just put out the most exhaustive biography and expos\u00e9 to date of this charismatic con man. It\u2019s titled American Trickster \u2014 The Hidden Lives of Carlos Castaneda<\/a> a<\/em>nd it clocks in at 682 pages.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the trimmed down version, and therein lies the backstory of this work\u2019s rocky road to publication.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Marshall had originally contracted with the University of California Press, which had the dubious distinction of having put out Castaneda\u2019s first book \u2014 by far the biggest best-seller the UC Regents have ever published. The book has been a goldmine, and a perennial embarrassment, for this otherwise respected academic publishing house.<\/p>\n

The Teachings of Don Juan<\/em> has long been exposed as a complete hoax. Castaneda lied about everything from his birthplace to his age to his real name. Not only did he invent his infamous shamanic sorcerer, we now know that Carlos did not even sample the sacred plant medicines that supposedly fueled his \u201cseparate reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

To this day, UC Press continues to fudge the fact\/fiction dispute on its website. \u201cWhether read as ethnographic fact or creative fiction, it is the story of a remarkable journey that has left an indelible impression on the life of more than a million readers around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marshall and I shared an editor at UC Press, who asked me to be part of the academic review process for Ru\u2019s book. This was some years after the publishing house put out one of my books, titled Distilled Spirits \u2014 Getting High, then Sober, with a Famous Writer, a Forgotten Philosopher and a Hopeless Drunk<\/a><\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

Academic publishers generally have a higher standard for fact-checking and detailed citations. I had a wonderful experience with UC Press. I was surprised when they took my original proposal \u2014 a group biography of Aldous Huxley, Gerald Heard and Bill Wilson \u2014 and suggested that I insert myself as a fourth character, adding the then-popular \u201crecovery memoir\u201d genre to the mix. I reluctantly went along with the idea, and in the end was glad I did.<\/p>\n

Ru also puts themselves into their genre-defying book, which is fine. I gave the manuscript a mostly positive review, although I thought that it was too long and went off on too many tangents. Marshall cut it back and resubmitted, but by that time our editor had left UC Press and another one was assigned to shepherd the book into print.<\/p>\n

UC Press and Ru wound up parting ways, and Marshall eventually found an alternative publisher, OR Books, to take on a project that took more than two decades to complete.<\/p>\n

In Ru\u2019s telling, the main problem with UC Press was a sociologist of religion on his review board. That reviewer did not like Marshall\u2019s conclusion that Castaneda went on to lead a manipulative \u201ccult\u201d that exerted an unhealthy degree of control over the minds and bodies of his devotees.<\/p>\n

Marshall and his book had become casualties of the ongoing \u201ccult wars,\u201d the polarized dispute over how we should view \u201cnew religious movements.\u201d To oversimplify, there are two camps in this battle. On one side are the \u201capologists,\u201d including some sociologists of religion, who think the dangers these groups pose are greatly exaggerated. A \u201ccult\u201d is simply someone else\u2019s religion. Then there are the \u201calarmists,\u201d who see brain-washing monsters lurking inside every Eastern ashram, Pentecostal church and New Age workshop.<\/p>\n

Castaneda\u2019s martial arts-oriented cult was Tensegrity, also known as Cleargreen, Inc. At the inner circle of this spiritual movement were a group of young female devotees Castaneda called his \u201cwitches\u201d or \u201cchacmools.\u201d A half-dozen of them disappeared following Castaneda\u2019s death, including one whose remains were later found in a remote corner of Death Valley.<\/p>\n

In addition to his book, Ru has written a long essay about the cult wars in the Evergreen Review<\/a>. \u201cCastaneda had said he wouldn\u2019t die,\u201d Marshall writes. \u201cBut he was dying. The chosen one, however, <\/span>can\u2019t<\/em> be normal. Carlos couldn\u2019t depart in anything other than a fantastic manner. And thus the women had to go too. So they could \u201cnavigate infinity\u201d together. They had to keep the story going. The cult leader will do <\/span>anything<\/em> to keep the story going. They <\/span>cannot<\/em> be normal, mortal human beings.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ru dramatically begins American Trickster <\/em>with his account of the 2003 discovery of bones of Patricia Partin (aka Nuri Alexander) by two backpackers near the Panamint Dunes in Death Valley. Those hikers, Kevin Barth and Blaine Cowick, joined the author as surprise guests at a book reading last week in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ru Marshall, left, appeared last week at Bookshop West Portal in San Francisco with two surprise guests.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

Another compelling account <\/a>of the Castaneda saga and the mysterious disappearance of his witches was published a couple years ago in Alta magazine.<\/p>\n

Did the missing women engage in a ritualized suicide, like the devotees of Jonestown and Heaven\u2019s Gate? Or did the witches just run off the money? Like so much of Castaneda\u2019s story, that piece of the puzzle remains a mystery.<\/p>\n

For Castaneda, mystery was always better than reality. Few envisioned this articulate author and \u201cimpeccable warrior\u201d for what he was — a short, pudgy Peruvian. His ex-wife once said he looked like a Cuban bellhop.<\/p>\n

But he had charm and charisma and loved to appear at celebrity parties in Southern California back in the 1970s. And that\u2019s where Castaneda met the writer Irving Wallace and his 17-year-old daughter, Amy, in 1973.<\/p>\n

Thirty years later, Amy Wallace wrote an intimate, engaging memoir of her life and love affair with the mystery man.<\/p>\n

Sorcerer\u2019s Apprentice — My Life With Carlos Castaneda<\/em> is the story of a spiritual seeker, troubled daughter, spurned lover, and, as Wallace describes herself, a \u201ctypical educated California hippie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her sexual affair with the sorcerer did not begin until the 1990s, when Castaneda resurfaced to lead pricey workshops for a small circle of devotees. Among the spiritual techniques taught in the sessions were \u201cmagical passes,\u201d an esoteric series of body movements supposedly passed down through Don Juan and 27 earlier generations of secret masters.<\/p>\n

\u201cCarlos was not a shifty huckster but a misguided philosopher whose experience of power was corrupting,\u201d she writes. \u201cThus he damaged many lives, at the same time exalting many others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wallace\u2019s portrayal of Castaneda as a manipulative, deceptive and often cruel lover echoes the 1997 portrait painted by his ex-wife, Margaret Runyan Castaneda, in her memoir A Magical Journey With Carlos Castaneda<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

My copy of the paperback, purchased in Berkeley in 1973, five years after its 1968 hardcover release<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

Two other critical looks at Castaneda\u2019s career were published — Castaneda\u2019s Journey: The Power and the Allegory <\/em>by Richard DeMille; and Carlos Castaneda: Academic Opportunism and the Psychedelic Sixties<\/em> by Jay Courtney Fikes.<\/p>\n

Toward the end of Ru Marshall\u2019s new tome, the author of this latest work concludes that Castaneda, in his slippery fashion, both was and wasn\u2019t a trickster.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a particularly American <\/em>trickster \u2014 a trickster of the Americas,\u201d Ru writes. \u201cA simulacrum, a trickster for consumer society. For trickster stories serve a social and ritual function. They\u2019re employed in healing rituals. However much they disrupt society, they have a role in it. And, when the tricking is done, the charming perp disappears.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this regard, Carlos Castaneda is a bit like Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince 2016, there\u2019s been much commentary on the ways the Republican Party, under Trump, has become cult-like,\u201d Marshall observes. \u201cA disturbingly large proportion of the population seems to live in an alternate reality, ready to believe whatever their leader tells them.\u201d<\/p>\n

__________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Don Lattin is an almost-retired journalist and author of seven books, including the best-selling “<\/em>Harvard Psychedelic Club.” Learn more at www.donlattin.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original – donlattin.substack.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

22 Jun 2026 – From the early 1970s, \u201cTeachings of Don Juan:” Carlos Castaneda, an anthropology student at UCLA, had an incredible story to tell about his peyote-fueled adventures with an old Indian sorcerer he met at a bus depot on the Mexican border.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":317856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[242],"tags":[4074,4075,1212,1113],"class_list":["post-317852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exposures","tag-carlos-castaneda","tag-don-juan","tag-fraud","tag-hoax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317852"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317859,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317852\/revisions\/317859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}