Editing Carlos Castaneda (section)

==Existence of Don Juan Matus==
Scholars have also debated "whether Castaneda actually served as an apprentice to the alleged Yaqui sorcerer don Juan Matus or if he invented the whole odyssey."<ref name=Baron>{{cite journal |last=Baron |first=Larry |date=Spring 1983 |title=Slipping inside the Crack between the Worlds: Carlos Castaneda, Alfred Schutz, and the Theory of Multiple Realities |journal=Journal of Humanistic Psychology |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=52–69 |doi=10.1177/0022167883232007 |s2cid=143993277}}</ref> Castaneda's books are classified as non-fiction by their publisher, although there is consensus among critics that they are largely, if not completely, fictional.<ref name=Clements>{{cite journal |last=Clements |first=William M. |year=1985 |title=Carlos Castaneda's the Teachings of Don Juan: A Novel of Initiation |journal=Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction |volume=26 |issue=3 |pages=122–130 |doi=10.1080/00111619.1985.9934668}}</ref><ref name=Rosenthal>{{cite book |last1=Rosenthal |first1=Caroline |last2=Schafer |first2=Stefanie |title=Fake Identity?: The Impostor Narrative in North American Culture |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H5wCBQAAQBAJ&q=%22Juan+Matus%22+Richard+DeMille&pg=PA81 |year=2014 |publisher=Campus Verlag GmbH |isbn=978-3-593-50101-7 |pages=81–96 |chapter=Lochle, Stefan: "The Imposter as Trickster as innovator: A Rereading of Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan-cycle"}}</ref><ref name="salon_2007"/>

Castaneda critic [[Richard de Mille]] published two books—''Castaneda's Journey: The Power and the Allegory'' and ''The Don Juan Papers''—in which he argued that don Juan was imaginary,<ref name=Siegel>{{cite journal |last=Siegel |first=Ronald K. |year=1982 |title=Book Review: The Don Juan Papers: Further Castaneda Controversies |journal=Journal of Psychoactive Drugs |volume=14 |issue=3 |pages=253–254 |doi=10.1080/02791072.1982.10471937 }}</ref><ref name="de Mille76">{{harvnb|De Mille|1976|p={{page needed|date=January 2023}}}}</ref> based on a number of arguments, including that Castaneda did not report on the Yaqui name of a single plant he learned about, and that he and don Juan "go quite unmolested by pests that normally torment desert hikers."<ref name="salon_2007"/> ''Castaneda's Journey'' also includes 47 pages of quotes Castaneda attributed to don Juan which were actually from a variety of other sources, including anthropological journal articles and even well known writers like [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] and [[C. S. Lewis]].<ref name="salon_2007"/> In response, Castaneda was defended in a [[letter to the editor]] by inventor of [[Core Shamanism]], [[Michael Harner]].{{sfn|Kootte|1984}}<ref name = "Harner">{{cite news |last=Harner |first=Michael |date=1978-05-07 |title=To the Editor |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/07/archives/letters-castaneda-lost-words.html |access-date=January 12, 2023 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> Walter Shelburne contends that "the Don Juan chronicle cannot be a literally true account."<ref name = "Shelburne">{{cite journal |last=Shelburne |first=Walter A. |date=Spring 1987 |title=Carlos Castaneda: If It Didn't Happen, What Does It Matter? |journal=Journal of Humanistic Psychology |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=217–227 |doi=10.1177/0022167887272007 |s2cid=143666251}}</ref>

According to Jeroen Boekhoven, Castaneda spent some time with Ramón Medina Silva,{{sfn|Boekhoven|2011|pp=210–217}} a [[Huichol]] ''mara'akame'' (shaman) and artist who may have inspired the don Juan character. Silva was murdered during a brawl in 1971.{{sfn|Schaefer|Furst|1996|p=184}}