Carlos Castaneda: Conquering The Four Enemies
Does controversial Carlos Castaneda offer deep insight into the human condition? Or is he a fraud? There is no reason the answer can’t be both. Casteneda was once a famous anthropologist with a Doctorate from UCLA and a series of best-selling books. His documentation of his unbelievable experiences with his Yaqui Indian Shaman teacher Don Juan gripped the imagination and awakened the souls of millions of readers.
But they were quite literally unbelievable. Not long after he got his doctorate, his academic peers showed that his “fieldwork” was actually fiction. For this, we’ll give Castaneda a very stern shake of the finger; cultural appropriation, misrepresentation, and academic fraud are bad! But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. This misguided charlatan synthesized something quite profound from esoteric occult traditions and created a rich and complex philosophy worthy of consideration.
A Digression: Myth and Madness
As naughty as it was, one almost has to admire the audacity of his madness — legitimizing his own invented new age philosophy by submitting a fictionalized account of where it came from for a Ph.D. thesis. When confronted with holes in his story by his wife and others, he would calmly explain his magical double body was involved in the mix-up.
Madness? In show business, they say “commit to the bit.” We suspect he knew what he was doing. In our previous article, we’ve talked about Joseph Campbell’s idea that a person who lives on a mythic scale and rejects their Maslowian needs (which see). Castaneda seems to exhibit a bit of this, sort of kicking the capstone of ethical behavior off his “acceptance of peers” layer, leaving his pyramid incomplete, repurposing it into a stepstool from which to slam dunk his philosophy. In the process, he lost the respect of his peers and got a divorce — knocking the community respect and personal relationships layers over too, leaving his Maslow’s pyramid in shambles. This isn’t Tabloid News so we won’t get into the cult, drugs, sex, and suicide, but let’s just say mythic life is not mostly about happiness.
So… as the saying goes “don’t try this at home, folks.” But the wisdom of his personal choices aside, Castaneda’s philosophy offers a powerful perspective for those seeking an engaged, meaningful and happy life. Let’s take a look at some of the nuanced guidelines for living an examined and full life created by this ambitious and brilliant charlatan.
The Four Enemies of the Man of Knowledge
Castaneda introduces the concept of the “man of knowledge” — a person who lives an examined life and progresses through stages of awareness, connection, and ego dissolution. His teacher, Don Juan, explains that the man of knowledge must overcome four sequential challenges.
The First Enemy — Fear
Learning and personal progress are central to Castaneda’s philosophy. Fear is a natural response to real learning. Significant learning challenges our existing beliefs and understanding. Meaningful learning changes our knowledge of our self and our objectives. Imagine realizing you are not who you thought you are and you don’t want what you thought you wanted! What now?
When you define it that way, learning something important is existentially terrifying, by which we mean to say: It threatens the very existence of “you” as you conceive yourself. Yikes, huh? Conquering your first enemy is a simple, one-step process. Don’t be afraid to learn and grow. That’s good advice whether or not you get it from a shaman who gives you mushrooms and turns into a crow.
The Second Enemy — Clarity
Now that you are not afraid, you’ve got clarity, and that’s a good thing…that holds you back. Clarity can make you rash and overconfident. You may feel like your fearlessness has guided you to full self-development and you may be sure you are learning the right thing, but perhaps you are on a dead-end path when you should be exploring. To avoid this pitfall Castaneda explains “He must.. wait patiently and measure carefully before taking new steps; he must think, above all, that his clarity is almost a mistake. “ So, don’t get cocky. How many of us could have used this advice around the middle of our careers?
The Third Enemy — Power
If one can overcome fear and see through the (quite ironic) fog of clarity to stay on the path of learning, they will achieve power. A person who learns the secrets of power knows when to take risks and knows how to make rules. Their invincibility can make them cruel and capricious, a slave to their own power which insists it must grow. Castaneda reports that Don Juan told him how to surmount this obstacle to completing the journey of a man of knowledge.
“He has to defy it, deliberately. He has to come to realize the power he has seemingly conquered is in reality never his. He must keep himself in line at all times, handling carefully and faithfully all that he has learned. If he can see that clarity and power, without his control over himself, are worse than mistakes, he will reach a point where everything is held in check. He will know then when and how to use his power. And thus he will have defeated his third enemy.”
The Fourth Enemy — Old Age
In the end, we must all face old age, the final and cruelest enemy, the one over whom we cannot ultimately triumph, says Castaneda. Our one hope for glory, our chance to manifest completeness in the journey of the man of knowledge, is to push on through old age and resist the temptation to rest. Having fought through fear, seen through clarity, and learned how to wield power, we may feel we have achieved everything and choose merely to rest and retreat. Here it is most important when we are most self-actualized to continue to remain passionately engaged with life. As Buddhists say, “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”
This, for Carlos Castaneda, is the crowning achievement and the moment of peace and fulfillment in the life of a man of knowledge. And it’s also pretty much what we know about happiness and longevity from studying places where lots of people live to be over 100 years old. You might want to check out our related article on what the Harvard Study and the blue zones reveal about key factors for living a long and happy life.
Join Us As We Explore The Good Life
We’ve got lots more articles exploring the concept of the good life. Standing on the shoulders of giants, we’ll survey the map of human meaning and fulfillment created by our greatest poets, philosophers, and scientists, from the abstract to the practical.
For instance, moving from abstract to practical, Carlos Castaneda attributed this idea to his character Don Juan: “You must stop talking to yourself. We …choose our paths as we talk to ourselves. Thus we repeat the same choices over and over until the day we die.” If you are interested in exploring the pragmatic power of not thinking and the clarity and creative freedom you can reach by learning to not think, we’ve got an article on what meditation can do for you and another on the scientifically proven benefits of yoga.
We explore the inspiring concept of the value of struggle in The Hero’s Journey here — and then get into its actionable implications in terms of defining a life project and becoming the active hero of your own story. The theme of nuanced and thoughtful examination of the idea of Eudaimonia, the good life, runs through our culture, from ancient Greeks to modern psychologists and economists. Leaving no stone unturned, we’ll yield the philosopher’s podium to famed economist John Maynard Keynes and let him take a crack at showing us the way to a meaningful life.
Please join us as we continue on our conceptual journey to the heart of the art of the good life. You can follow our articles here on Medium if you have an account, or simply bookmark our Medium page with the complete article list or follow us on Facebook.
