Castaneda, often referred to as a father of the New Age movement, was an anthropology student at UCLA who passed his work off as serious scholarship, earning a doctorate based on it and megafame and wealth. He was later found to have lied about nearly everything, from the existence of Don Juan to where he was born, and he even had his doctorate rescinded. One commentator called the episode "the largest literary and academic fraud in history."

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Castaneda, often referred to as a father of the New Age movement, was an anthropology student at UCLA who passed his work off as serious scholarship, earning a doctorate based on it and megafame and wealth. He was later found to have lied about nearly everything, from the existence of Don Juan to where he was born, and he even had his doctorate rescinded. One commentator called the episode "the largest literary and academic fraud in history."" in the context of "Dina Gilio-Whitaker As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock (2019)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.