Sense of live

Carlos Castaneda

Enigma of a Sorcerer – R. Torjan was a member of Carlos Castaneda’s movement; he knew Castaneda personally and attended countless classes and seminars. In this documentary he offers his personal insights about the man and the movement, and interviews other sorcerer’s apprentices about their decades of involvement in the group. Time has not been kind to many of these ladies (and most of them are women – apparently building a harem was part of Carlos Castaneda’s M.O.), and their hazy recollections positively shriek of drug-blasted minds. What follows is 91 minutes of talking heads, as Torjan reflects in voice-over about Carlos Castaneda and various others babble endlessly about the tenets of the movement. The problem is that after an hour and a half of this, I still can’t figure out if Torjan is against Carlos Castaneda or for him. Much of the film is simple narration of facts, explaining in detail what the Don Juan books were all about (one woman quotes and paraphrases large passages, punctuated with bulging-eyed whoas). Unfortunately, “No one really knows” makes for a really shitty conclusion to a documentary. Journalistic independence is one thing, but Torjan is an insider and had the opportunity to tell us what he learned from his years in the salt mines of Castaneda’s world. Far worse than this, however, is Torjan’s technique. The entire film is talking heads, as mentioned, but against the backdrop of computer-generated swirls, dancing icons, split-screen motion blurs, and other LSD-friendly imagery. Suffice it to say this gets tiresome before the opening credits even roll, lending an air of a cable access show to the movie. I screened the film on video and can’t imagine what kind of psychosis it would cause on the big screen.

Books of Carlos Castaneda

Carlos Castaneda