Was Carlos Castaneda — the U.C.L.A. anthropologist whose 1968 book, "The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge," became one of the founding texts of the New Age movement — a great spiritual leader or a cynical con man? The documentary "Carlos Castaneda: Enigma of a Sorcerer," which opens today at the Two Boots Pioneer Theater in the East Village, struggles with that question but ultimately declines to answer it.
Directed by Ralph Torjan, once a member of Castaneda's inner circle of students, this digital video documentary piles up plenty of evidence that Don Juan, the Yaqui shaman from Mexico who supposedly trained Castaneda in the ancient Indian ways of accessing alternative realties, was a complete invention on Castaneda's part.
Many of Don Juan's "teachings," the film suggests, were drawn from previously published academic articles, and little in Castaneda's account of his fabled apprenticeship to the master checks out when compared to the available facts.
Castaneda, who died in 1998, used the celebrity his best-selling book earned him to establish his own personality cult. He surrounded himself with servile followers and made a habit of seducing female recruits.
One of his former lovers bluntly characterizes the group around him as "Carlos's private harem."
But as painfully aware of Castaneda's shortcomings as he is, Mr. Torjan makes no secret of having been deeply affected by his time with him. He tries to reclaim what he can from his former guru, offering testimony from several ex-members of the Castaneda cult about the profound, positive effect Castaneda's teachings had on their lives.
Unfortunately the explanations get very fuzzy at this point, and it becomes hard to tell just what Castaneda was advocating, apart from the liberal use of psychedelic drugs.
Trying to recreate that experience, Mr. Torjan has framed his talking-head interviews against an annoyingly persistent psychedelic background, generated by the popular music visualization program G-Force. It's not easy to concentrate on what's being said when pulsating colors and geometric patterns are radiating from the speakers' heads. But maybe that's what Castaneda himself was counting on, as he rode the vague ramblings of a probably fictional teacher to what was, and remains, an international reputation as a modern prophet.
CARLOS CASTANEDA
Enigma of a Sorcerer
Written, directed and edited by Ralph Torjan; music by Mr. Torjan and Robert J. Feldman; produced by Mr. Torjan and Pamela Weir-Quiton; released by Indican Pictures. At the Two Boots Pioneer Theater, 155 East Third Street, at Avenue A, East Village. Running time: 91 minutes. This film is not rated