Tales of Power (Carlos Castaneda)

I bought a couple of the early books and read part of each. I generally was unable to finish them. I thought they were twaddle and evidently later criticism holds the entire Don Juan saga to be fictional. I guess I don't care.

I read one of Castaneda's books as a teenager and was fascinated. I wanted to travel out to the hinterlands with Castaneda, meet Don Juan, take "natural" drugs (as opposed to "unnatural"), and open my mind and spirit to heretefore unknown and unimagined dimensions of enlightenment, spiritual perception, and...hopefully (if I proved an adept pupil)...euphoric revelations about myself and the universe. A few decades later, reading the 4th of Castaneda's "Don Juan" books, I still wanted to imbibe those "magic" mushrooms, but only to escape the stultifying boredom of this reading experience. Somehow I finished the book, but it was a paralyzing experience. I no longer want to travel to the hinterlands...with or without Castaneda...to meet "Don Juan" or his equivalent. I'm happy enough to stay in NJ, enjoy a shot and a beer once in awhile...resorting occasionally to "happy pills" (I'm past the heavier stuff, thankfully)...and remain unenlightened and benighted. When you come right down to ... Read more

Boring crapola. A badly written pastiche of peyote and quarter-baked philosophy aimed at an audience of pretentious half-wits.