Carlos Castaneda was born in 1943, in Yautepec, Sinaloa, Mexico. As a student at the University of Mexico (1964–67), he began to study anthropology and philosophy under the guidance of his professor Jorge Gahona. During this time, he also wrote his first book, The Teachings of Don Juan. In 1968 he began to teach philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley, where he met his future wife
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He became increasingly interested in the work of Carlos Castaneda and spent the next six years researching and writing The Teachings of Don Juan, which was published in 1971 by Simon & Schuster. A year later, he left teaching to devote himself fully to the writing of his second book, The Fire from Within. He became well known for the success of these two books and for having demonstrated firsthand "the power that comes from following one's path."