The Sorcerer's Apprentice: My Life with Carlos Castaneda (ISBN 1583940766)

No substance:
Amy Wallace's 400+ page book is quite a disappointment to wade through. Her writing becomes increasingly self indulgent and tedious as she drones on about her theories of hormone imbalance, depression, romance and cults. All of this would be quite forgivable, if she gave some insight into Carlos Castaneda. But because of her mental instability and "political incorrectness" she was unable to penetrate the inner circle of Castaneda and his followers and was reduced to the role of mistress (one of many, apparently). Did Don Juan exist? Did Castaneda and the witches perform magic? Really, I have no clue after reading this. She wasn't there behind closed doors (other than when Castaneda took her to a hotel room!). There is no insight here, but plenty of self pity and misguided soul searching. Don't waste your time reading this.

reality check:
Allow me to put my two cents in on this. When I was younger, I read several of Castaneda's books, and they made a big impression on me. They were, and remain, terrific books. Beautiful and poetic. Having said that, when I read Amy Wallace's tell-all about CC and his groupies/followers, it was not a flattering portrait of a supposedly enlightened man. I've read the other reviews of this book smearing Ms. Wallace as "psychotic" and otherwise. This is typical character assassination of someone who had the courage to blow the whistle on a cult that was horribly cruel towards its members with Castaneda in the background, manipulating people and encouraging their antisocial behavior. As for the book itself, it's compulsively readable, but I also found the mind games and nonstop abuse to be very depressing.

Intention:
I just finished Amy's book and, among the many question marks that have been asked by other reviewers, I wonder the most about what Amy was actually looking for? Yes, joining a path like this contains heavy deconstruction - never nice! The little ego having a hard time to die. But then this is why people follow this path, no? So why clinging onto that little ego so badly instead of using the chance and deconstruct? Along the same lines I'm also wondering if there has been any sort of structure-building, besides Tensegrity, i.t.o. subtle body . energy development. Or, not having practised Tensegrity myself, what is the purpose of all these hours of training? What was their world about in the end? What was the intention, the purpose of all that suffering? Its very hard to believe that it all just happened on the horizontal layer of the perceptions and interpretations of the ordinary mind?

The final nail in the coffin of the Castaneda legacy:
Wallace's memoir of her years inside Castaneda's inner circle is a fascinating and terrifying portrait of the attraction of charismatic leaders and cults, and their ability to ensnare anyone in their mind games. This book provides a fitting postscript to the first Castaneda critique published in 1976, Richard de Mille's Castaneda's Journey: The Power and the Allegory. Those who took Castaneda and Don Juan at face value will experience extreme cognitive dissonance reading this book. Intentionally or not, Wallace demolishes the myth of Castaneda as the 'impeccable Nagual sorcerer', provoking doubt as to whether Don Juan even existed or was just the product of Castenada's imagination and some inspired writing. Instead, she reveals a paranoid, manipulative old man surrounded by a secretive cult of true believers who actively aided in his deception. Three decades after The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge was published, it's clear that Castaneda's writings should be lumped with fabulists like Lobsang Rampa and L Ron Hubbard rather than treated as any sort of metaphysical or anthropological revelation. Since this book was published in 2003, Wallace's speculation about the suicides of the five witches after Castenada's death in 1998 has been confirmed. The remains of Patricia Partin (aka The Blue Scout) found in Death Valley were identified by DNA analysis in 2006, elevating Castenada from mystic phony to the ranks of the Heaven's Gate UFO cult and Jim Jones People's Temple. Some Castaneda believers remain in denial, clinging to his writings and the absurd Tensegrity system promoted by Cleargreen, ignoring the reality of his ordinary death and the suicides of his inner circle. In the final analysis, Castaneda's engaging mystical nonsense proved to be more toxic and lethal than anyone could have imagined.

The fall of a hero:
In the workaday week of ordinary society, heroes are hard to come by, & I thought that I'd found one in Carlos Castaneda. But after his teacher don Juan left the scene, Castaneda, left to himself, created a cruel cult around himself, with himself as infallible hero. His success at writing several books about Native American sorcery seemed to go to his head. Amy Wallace, of "The Book of Lists" fame, was one of his "apprentices." She knew the inner workings of Castaneda's cult inside-out, & how it eventually fell into ruin, leaving many none the better. Her story is both tragic & triumphant, a sign of these times.