April 5, 1991.

Dear Carlos,

  Although I have had the chance to talk with you and Florinda in some of your visits to Mexico, it is very possible that you don't remember me. Nevertheless, the suggestions that you have given to me about how to take advantage from your books, keeps very present in my memory.

  I am a person who has been working for more than twelve years, in the practical applications of the proposals contained in your books. I have apply them both, for my own growth, and for the work I do with the groups I have created. In those groups we have been focused in working practically, avoiding mental speculation or just talking. We have rejected the use of drugs and made other kind of practices instead, like entering in boxes of wood to recapitulate extensively. We have buried ourselves. We have created energy expenditures lists, practiced not doings of the personal self, in order to erase our personal history, to erase our old way of living. These are just a few examples of the kind of work we have been doing. The result is that we could discover that is possible to achieve many of the experiences that you have talked about in your books, with only the continual practice and the uncompromising choosing of the path with heart.

  We have been doing our practices not just in the city, but in the mountains, jungle and desert as well. The encounter with nature in which have immerse ourselves, has given us the chance to access to stronger, happier and fulfilling ways of living, which represents a truly "separate reality" in the middle of the complex times in which we live. The warrior's way is a daily invitation which demands big efforts from us, but which at the same time, give us precious gifts.

  At the other hand, as a non-traditional anthropologist, with a strong influence coming from your books, I have had the chance to penetrate in the indigenous world in which I have found many similarities with the contents of your work. Although I have had the chance to share experiences with Huichols, and Mazatecs among others, my main field experiences with indigenous people have taken place among the Nahuas of the North Sierra of Puebla. This experiences among the indigenous people have been, together with your work, the main roots of my work both with my personal quest, and with groups of personal growth.

  Before this letter, I never tried to look for or contacting you. Such attitude comes from my view of the freedom and knowledge as a matter of personal responsibility. Nevertheless, I have written now a book with the title "The Teachings of Don Carlos. Practical applications of the works of Carlos Castaneda" in which I am not trying to say the last word about your work, but jus offering a testimony of the way we have apply it and the result we have got in doing so. The main idea is to present creative ways of applying many of the elements of the teachings of don Juan in the context of the modern people's everyday life.

  It is an elemental step for me to put this effort under your consideration.

  I want also to take the chance to express my thanks as a reader and as a man enamored of freedom, because of that minimal chance to access into a more meaningful reality, that so many people have had through reading your books.  

  As you will be able to see when you read " The Teachings of don Carlos" we are not a group of fanatics trying to escape from everyday reality. On the contrary, we are continuously learning to deal with that reality of everyday in healthier ways. 

  Being very curios about your opinion on this work which in a way or another is also one of the results of your work as a writer, I want to tell you that we have just tried to put in practice what you have proposed to your readers.

  If we have applied what you wrote in the way you were expecting when give your books for publishing that's something I can't know. But the thing that I can clearly assess is that in taking this work into practice, we have found for us and for the people that comes to our work a more strong and fulfilling way or living. Just because of that, the effort, which has not been easy, have worth the trouble.

  Whit the daring that results from the fact that I have been deeply influenced by your work in many of the more valuable experiences of my life, I respectfully ask you to write a prologue for my book, if you found that my testimony of work could be useful for others and deserves to be published. This would support the publication of the book, and would be helpful to respond one of the most common questions of your readers: how can I apply the works of Castaneda in my own life?.

  I will highly appreciate any feedback of suggestion about how to deal with the publishers world which is an unknown field for me. The book has been currently published in only a small edition made by my own.

  With independence of your response, my feelings about you and your work will be always of respect and thankfulness. I want you to know that you have in me a friend and a companion of battles.

  With a hug,

  Victor Sanchez

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