Works by
Carlos Castaneda
(Writer)
[1925 approx. - 1998)

Awareness

• The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge (1968)
  The teachings of don Juan is the story of a remarkable journey: the first awesome steps on the road to becoming a "man of knowledge".

• A Separate Reality: further Conversations with Don Juan (1971)
  In 1961 a young anthropologist subjected himself to an extraordinary apprenticeship to bring back a fascinating glimpse of a Yaqui Indian's world of "non-ordinary reality" and the difficult and dangerous road a man must travel to become "a man of knowledge." Yet on the bring of that world, challenging to all that we believe, he drew back.
  
  Then in 1968, Carlos Castaneda returned to Mexico, to don Juan and his hallucinogenic drugs, and to a world of experience no man from our Western civilization had ever entered before.

• Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan (1972)
  This volume shows the reader the means by which a "man of power" sees, as opposed to merely looking, and how by his concentrated "seeing" he can, indeed must, "stop the world." In it, Carlos Castaneda describes the lessons, the omens, the exercises of the will and body, the arduous trials and tests, the simple yet mysterious demonstrations, the extraordinary visions and experiences by which don Juan, his mentor and friend, prepares him for the task of perceiving things as they are, instead of describing them by the words, conventions and standards of conventional, a priori ideas and language. Here, in the high mountains and in the bright arid desert, Castaneda reaches for power in a series of startling encounters with the unknown--a confrontation with death and the past in the form of an albino falcon, with the twilight wind, with a flesh-and-blood mountain lion, with a mountain fog--and learns the techniques, the concentration, the compassion of the hunter, the man who is "without routines, free, fluid."

• Magical Passes: The Practical Wisdom of the Shamans of Ancient Mexico (1998)
  For us to perceive any of the worlds that exist beside our own, not only do we have to covet them but we need to have sufficient energy to seize them. In this revolutionary book, Carlos Castaneda offers readers the key to this energetic conditioning for the first time, revealing a series of body positions and physical movements that enabled various sorcerers, and their apprentices, to navigate their own sorceric journeys. By sharing this centuries-old wisdom, Carlos Castaneda makes it possible for readers to travel to some of these other realms, which are as real, unique, absolute, and engulfing as our own world. Castaneda offers both a philosophical history of magical passes and an innovative, easy-to-understand instructional format, complete with more than 450 computer-generated illustrations. Written with humor, clarity, and authority, Magical Passes further illuminates the true meaning of sorcery and magic.

• Tales of Power (1975)
  Don Juan concludes the instruction of Castaneda with his most powerful and mysterious lesson in the sorcerer's art -- a dazzling series of visions that are at once an initiation and a deeply moving farewell.

• The Second Ring of Power (1977)
  Back from the abyss, Castaneda encounter his greatest test on the journey towards impeccability and freedom: to outwit and overpower the sorcery of Doña Soledad, herself transformed from a defeated and meaningless life to a warrior, a hunter and a "stalker of power."
  
  Now the combat will begin. Now the journey will continue. Till the last danger is faced...the final paradox embraced.

• The Eagle's Gift (1981)
  Carlos Castaneda takes the reader into the very heart of sorcery, challenging both imagination and reason, shaking the very foundations of our belief in what is "natural" and "logical." His landscape is full of terrors and mysterious forces, as sharply etched as a flash of lightning on the deserts and mountains where don Juan takes him to pursue the sorcerer's knowledge--the knowledge that it is the Eagle that gives us, at our births, a spark of awareness, that it expects to reclaim at the end of our lives and which the sorcerer, through his discipline, fights to retain. Castaneda describes how don Juan and his party, left this world--"the warriors of don Juan's party had caught me for an eternal instant, before they vanished into the total light, before the Eagle let them go through"--and how he, himself, upon witnessing such a sight, jumped into the abyss.

• The Active Side of Infinity (1999)
  "Ordinarily, events that change our path are impersonal affairs, and yet extremely personal. My teacher, don Juan Matsus, said this is guiding me as his apprentice to collect what I considered to be the memorable events of my life…. Don Juan described the total goal of the shamanistic knowledge that he handled as the preparation for facing the definitive journey: the journey that every human being has to take at the end of his life. He said that what modern man referred to vaguely as life after death was, for those shamans, a concrete region filled to capacity with practical affairs of a different order than the practical affairs of daily life, yet bearing a similar functional practicality. Don Juan considered that to collect the memorable in their lives was, for shamans, the preparation for their entrance into that concrete region, which they called the active side of infinity."
  
  In this book written immediately before his death, anthropologist and shaman Carlos Castaneda gives us his most autobiographical and intimately revealing work ever, the fruit of a lifetime of experience and perhaps the most moving volume in his oeuvre.

• Fire from Within (1984)
  Each of Carlos Castaneda's books is a brilliant and tantalizing burst of illumination into the depths of our deepest mysteries, like a sudden flash of light, like a burst of lightning over the desert at night, which shows us a world that is both alien and totally familiar -- the landscape of our dreams.
  
  Fire from Within is the author's most brilliant thought-provoking and unusual book, one in which Castaneda, under the tutelage of don Juan and his "disciples," at last constructs, from the teachings of don Juan and his own experiences, a stunning portrait of the "sorcerer's world" that is crystal-clear and dizzying in its implications.

• The Power of Silence: Further Lessons of Don Juan (1987)
  Millions of readers worldwide have treasured the visionary brilliance of Carlos Castaneda, who first explore the world of the Yaqui Indian sorcerer in The Teachings of don Juan. Now, at last, don Juan returns in The Power of Silence -- wise, infuriating, capable or working miracles and playing practical jokes, but always seeking the wisdom of the warrior.
  
  The Power of Silence is Castaneda's most astonishing book to date -- a brilliant flash of knowledge that illuminates the far reaches of the human mind. Through don Juan's mesmerizing stories, the true meaning of sorcery and magic is finally revealed. Honed in the desert of Sonora, the visions of don Juan give us the vital secrets of belief and self-realization that are transcendental and valid for us all. It is Castaneda's unique genius to show us that all wisdom, strength, and power lie within ourselves -- unleashed with marvelous energy and imaginative force in the teachings of don Juan -- and in the writings of his famous pupil, Carlos Castaneda

• The Art of Dreaming (1993)
  Bestselling author Carlos Castaneda introduces readers to the worlds that exist within their dreams.

• The Wheel Of Time: The Shamans Of Mexico Their Thoughts About Life Death And The Universe (2000)
  Near the end of his life, Carlos Castaneda gathered together and reviewed his seminal works on his training as a shaman initiate, recorded in a literary career that spans over thirty years. The result is this groundbreaking collection of quotations -- the essence of Carlos Castaneda, drawn from his landmark volumes including The Teachings of Don Juan, Journey to Ixtlan, A Separate Reality, and Tales of Power. Enhanced with an introduction and original commentary by the author, this powerful work illuminates the shaman's life as never before. Castaneda's words explore how the ancient shamans could literally touch and direct the wheel of time -- a profound yet pragmatic tradition that can be felt even in our day.

See also:

• Self Improvement: The Top 101 Experts Who Help Us Improve Our Lives (2004) by David Riklan
  The amount of resources available to help you improve your life is vast. Yet the self-help process does not have to be intimidating. Described as the "Encyclopedia" of Self Improvement, this useful reference guide narrows down the top experts in the field and sorts through their great supply of products and information.
  
  Includes information on Anthony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Carlos Castaneda, Dalai Lama, Dale Carnegie, Dave Pelzer, Eckhart Tolle, Iyanla Vanzant, John Gray, John Maxwell, Kahlil Gibran, Ken Blanchard, L. Ron Hubbard, Laura Schlessinger, Les Brown, Louise Hay, Marianne Williamson, Mitch Albom, Napoleon Hill, Norman Vincent Peale, Og Mandino, Paulo Coelho, Phillip C. McGraw (Dr. Phil), Rick Warren, Robert Allen, Robert Kiyosaki, Stephen Covey, Sylvia Browne, Wayne Dyer, Zig Ziglar plus 70 more.