The dark legacy of Carlos Castaneda

Yes, The Teachings of Don Juan and other Carlos Castaneda books were a hoax.

De Mille also uncovered numerous instances of plagiarism. "When don Juan opens his mouth," he wrote, "the words of particular writers come out." His 1980 compilation, "The Don Juan Papers," includes a 47-page glossary of quotations from don Juan and their sources, ranging from Wittgenstein and C.S. Lewis to papers in obscure anthropology journals.

Or maybe Don Juan was such a great seer that he simply grabbed the best bits from around the world for his own teachings. Doubtful. But it doesn't really matter. It was a beautiful hoax. I have great disdain for individuals who buy into the literal idea that some guy who spent too much time around sheep spoke with a flaming tree and could impress a king by turning a stiff rod into a wiggly snake. If some guy stinking of wine came up and told you that story, most people would run away, not make him the sole religious authority. I don't feel that way about Castaneda's hoax. His was a hoax in the same vein as Robert Heinlein or Hunter S. Thompson. Kernels of truth hidden in mesmerizing prose that transcend the medium to take you into the perspective of another individual. All Jedi had was a bunch of Muppets.

Jennings believes Castaneda knew they were planning to kill themselves. "He used to talk about suicide all the time, even for minor things," Jennings told me. He added that Partin was once sent to identify abandoned mines in the desert, which could be used as potential suicide sites. (There's an abandoned mine not far from where her remains were found.) "He regularly told us he was our only hope," Jennings said. "We were all supposed to go together, 'make the leap,' whatever that meant." What did Jennings think it meant? "I didn't know fully," he said. "He'd describe it in different ways. So would the witches. It seemed to be what they were living for, something we were being promised."

And it's a good thing when a cult leader dies that the rest of the cult kills themselves. It saves the rest of us the task of keeping the zealots from trying to baptize us, shave our beards, not shave our beards, give up beef, rubs the lotion on its skin, etc.