Many years ago, while in high school, I had read a bunch of books by Carlos Castaneda about the Yaqui shaman don Juan. Later on in the US, I learnt that Castaneda’s claim that don Juan was a real person was questioned and most likely he made up the shaman. In short, his books were not an anthropological study but fiction. In any case, what the books presented was an alternate reality which was accessible through magic and psychoactive drugs. I am wary of all claims of magic. I do …