Философская книга.

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letter  from Gordon  Wasson, the  founder of  the science of
ethnomycology,  the study  of  human  uses of  mushrooms and
other fungi. Gordon and  Valentina Wasson had discovered the
existence  of still-active  shamanic mushroom  cults in  the
mountains  near  Oaxaca,  Mexico.  Dr.  Wasson  asked  me to
clarify certain  aspects of don  Juan's use of  psychotropic
mushrooms. I  gladly sent him  several pages of  field notes
relevant to  his area of  interest, and met  with him twice.
Subsequently  he referred  to me  as an  "honest and serious
young man," or words to that effect.

Even  so, some  critics proceeded  to assert  that any field
notes produced by Castaneda must  be assumed to be forgeries
created after the  fact. At that point I  realized there was
no  way I  could satisfy   people whose  minds were  made up
without recourse to whatever  documentation I might provide.
Actually,  it was  liberating to  abandon the  enterprise of
public relations  -- intrinsically a violation  of my nature
-- and return to my fieldwork with don Juan.

You  must be  familiar with   the claim  that your  work has
fostered   the   trivialization   of   indigenous  spiritual
traditions. The argument goes  like this: A despicable cadre
of   non-Indian   wannabees,   commercial   profiteers,  and
self-styled  shamans  has  read  your  books  and found them
inspiring. How do you plead?

I didn't  set   out  to  write  an   exhaustive  account  of
indigenous spirituality, so it's a  fallacy to judge my work
by  that  criterion.  My  books  are  instead a chronicle of
specific  experiences  and   observations  in  a  particular
context, reported to the best of  my ability. But I do plead
guilty to knowingly committing  willful acts of ethnography,
which  is none  other than  translating cultural  experience

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