"Carlos Castaneda was one of the most profound and influential
thinkers of this century. His insights paved the way for the future
evolution of human consciousness. We are all deeply indebted to him." --
Deepak Chopra
In this book written immediately before his death, anthropologist and
shaman Carlos Castaneda gives us his most autobiographical and
intimately revealing work ever, the fruit of a lifetime of experience
and perhaps the most moving volume in his oeuvre.
"Ordinarily, events that change our path are impersonal affairs, and yet
extremely personal. My teacher, don Juan Matsus, said this in guiding me
as his apprentice to collect what I considered to be the memorable
events of my life.... Don Juan described the total goal of the
shamanistic knowledge that he handled as the preparation for facing the
definitive journey: the journey that every human being has to take at
the end of his life. He said that what modern man referred to vaguely as
life after death was, for those shamans, a concrete region filled to
capacity with practical affairs of a different order than the practical
affairs of daily life, yet bearing a similar functional practicality.
Don Juan considered that to collect the memorable events in their lives
was, for shamans, the preparation for their entrance into that concrete
region, which they called the active side of infinity."
