The story starts off in a typical fashion: a cult leader gains notoriety and wealth, purchases a compound, and fills it with disciples, primarily young women, who serve as his sexual subordinates. But in reporter Geoffrey Gray's twisty examination in Alta of Carlos Castaneda and his sect of devoted chacmools, female followers named after pre-Columbian Mexican sculptures, the story takes a different turn. His six head "witches" disappeared after Casteneda passed away from liver cancer in 1998. One was found dead in the desert, leading many to believe the group had carried out a suicide pact to follow him into another realm. But as Gray digs deeper into Castaneda's estate, he begins to question who was in control at the time of the spiritual leader's end.
Castaneda's fame begins with his 1969 anthropology thesis about the teachings of a Yaqui shaman named Don Juan, who Castaneda claimed to have met at a bus station in Arizona. With no field notes or photography, UCLA's anthropology department nearly didn't approve it, but after it finally did so, Simon & Schuster bought the rights. The Teachings of Don Juan was an international bestseller, becoming a cornerstone in the hippy spiritualist movement and inspiring artists like Jim Morrison and John Lennon. Castaneda left academia and went on to publish 12 works that attracted followers, including six women who became his head chacmools.
These disciples cut their hair short, took on new names, and stopped speaking to their families, but Castaneda's son says they were no victims: "They sunk their fangs into him and didn't let go." The women inherited the bulk of Castaneda's estate after his will changed four days before he died, and vanished without a trace—until Gray knocks on one of their doors in California. Read the full story at Alta. (Read other Longform reacaps.)
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