Published in 1968 when Carlos Castaneda was still a graduate student in anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles, The Teachings of Don Juan experienced extraordinary success and generated intense controversy. Read by over a million readers worldwide, the book introduced many to shamanic traditions and the use of hallucinogenic drugs. The authenticity of the text was questioned by scholars when Castaneda refused to reveal the identity of his teacher, Don Juan Matus. Whether read as ethnographic fact or creative fiction, The Teachings of Don Juan remains an important document in late-twentieth-century American culture.

The Teachings of Don Juan initiated a generation of seekers dissatisfied with the limitations of the Western worldview. Castaneda’s now classic book remains controversial for the alternative way of seeing that it presents and the revolution in cognition it demands.