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Carlos Castaneda

If It Didn't Happen, What Does It Matter?

5248 Claremont Avenue #32, Oakland, CA 94618.

The significance of Castaneda's account of reported experiences with Don Juan Matus is explored for transpersonal psychology. It is argued that the Don Juan chronicle cannot be a literally true account. Yet, I contend that Castaneda tries to discuss seriolus issues allegorically. On the content level, the message is said to consist of several of Don Juan's teachings. I argue that the manner of presentation of the books as a whole also constitutes a kind of process message in which Castaneda is contending that the issue of whether it literally happened or not makes no fundamental difference to the truth of the account. The metaphorical value of Castaneda's work is held to be ultimately dependent on its link to literal realities and hence the process statement embodied in Castaneda's work is rejected. It is concluded that the Castaneda books yield no reliable knowledge about the nature of trans-personal experience.

Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 27, No. 2, 217-227 (1987)
DOI: 10.1177/0022167887272007


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