Carlos Castaneda

"... Carlos Castaneda was an undergraduate student at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, majoring in ethnography. He was collecting material for his dissertation paper, so he went to Mexico in order to study the experience of Indians of that area in using medicinal plants. Upon arrival to Mexico with his car he started searching for people competent in this issue. He was introduced to an Indian, whose name was Juan Matus and who agreed to provide Castaneda with the data he needed free of charge.

So, they got acquainted and their joint work began. In due course Castaneda found out that don Juan possesses not only knowledge about qualities of plants, but also the ancient art of the Toltec Indians� sorcery. Moreover, don Juan turned out to be a sorcerer himself. For the first time in his life, Castaneda came across the things that were absolutely beyond the bounds of his usual secular and religious notions. So, lizards appeared able of speaking in human voices, people could fly with their bodies, extract various things "out of nowhere", and so on. Castaneda found himself captivated by all this and also increasingly interested as a scientist in this new, for him, area of knowledge."