MISTICISM AND RATIONALITY: WORKS OF CARLOS CASTANEDA AS REFLECTION OF A CONFLICT OF WORLD OUTLOOKS

Abstract

This article is aimed at considering the teaching of a shaman of the Indian tribe Yaqui don Juan Matus as described by Carlos Castaneda, with a view to his interaction with the world outlook of the modern civilization, and the research tasks are set. For exact determination of the methods, the research objects are revealed. There are primary sources, which are the works of Carlos Castaneda, and which state the teaching of don Juan. In view of this, the methods, which were used in the research, are mentioned and briefly characterized: historical and logical methods, the method of studying primary sources, an axiological method. It is noted that don Juan’s world outlook, in terms of traditional philosophic concepts, cannot be named as the “system” notion. Attention is paid to a substantial difference between approaches to the world perception, which were accepted within the modern philosophy and the teaching in question. Proceeding from the primary sources, the notions were sorted out, which are forming the basis of the world view, as don Juan saw it: unusual reality, strength, a man of knowledge, nagval, tonal and others. Obstacles are shown, which prevent man from perceiving the “special reality”. Changes were reflected in the mode of life of the man of knowledge, who started to perceive the unusual reality, peculiarities of functioning of consciousness of an individual, who learns the teaching in question. It is stated that the teaching of don Juan, which is set out by Carlos Castaneda and which is considered in terms of the world view of the Western culture, reveals a conflict of world outlooks, essence of which consists in a confrontation of fundamentally different foundations, which form the personality in different cultures of the authority of a tradition in the European culture and the “sum of personal strength” in the culture of the tribe Yakui. There is noted a contradictory attitude to Carlos Castaneda’s works within the scientific and philosophical approach. There is given an author interpretation of the meaning of creative legacy of a thinker, who tried, via a contact with another world view in the modern world, to lay the groundwork for perceiving other cultures and civilizations, building the dialogue with them.