The term "Toltec" is used in the works of writer Carlos Castaneda to denote a person who was recruited into a band of sorcerors with a tradition that had its origin in the Native American culture of that name.

The nagual Juan described the Toltecs to Castaneda as a guild of sorcerors that began in Southern Mexico 10,000 years ago, originally based on harnessing the changes of perception and perspective brought about by working with power plants. [The Fire From Within – The New Seers] The primary purpose of the Toltec sorcerors is to prevent the disintegration of the self, which normally happens at death. To achieve that purpose, they evolved a set of techniques and developed a body of knowledge that enables the sorceror to transform into a high-speed inorganic being with an endless lifespan (not unlike the spiritual notion of Ascending the body, but without the baggage).

Castaneda makes it clear that his use of the term Toltec is specialized, so that it is not directly equivalent to the Toltec people or culture referred to in the ethnohistory and mythology of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. The ongoing Toltec tradition had its beginning in the Toltec culture, but now those who are recruited are chosen for their suitability, rather than on ethnic or cultural lines.

Castaneda recounts that he was recruited in 1960, and paints a word-picture of the methods and concepts in the guise of conversations with his teacher, who he calls Don Juan in the series of 14 books he wrote on the subject. The books are written in a narrative style, in which Castaneda frequently ridicules himself for his inept and inappropriate reactions to disclosures and the associated perceptions induced in his apprenticeship.

Castaneda’s accounts are largely dismissed as being fiction, largely because the Toltec reality map is an uncompromising contradiction of conventional spiritual and secular beliefs.

Anthropologists and other researchers , along with other less-qualified individuals, have made various indignant claims of fraud. Interestingly, none of the ferocious detractors review the techniques and their effectiveness, but instead concentrate on whether Castaneda has been entirely truthful, despite his open admission in the opening pages of the first book that he lied shamelessly to the nagual Juan.

Secrecy and strategic misdirection of potential threats is a necessary theme in Toltec education. The Spanish Inquisition hunted to near-extinction the lineages that had managed to survive being overrun by the Aztecs, and the church remains eternally hostile to non-compliance with dubious doctrine. So it should surprise nobody that Castaneda's sources proved elusive. Castaneda's unprecedented success with published recollections of his training implicitly confirms that Mescalito (who sponsored him as an apprentice to the nagual Juan, as recounted in "The Teachings of Don Juan") wants the knowledge propagated worldwide, the seeding of mankind with concepts necessary to the evolution of our species.

The Toltec civilisation is based in an entirely different perspective and sense of purpose from the scientific materialism that has ridden to ideological world dominance on the tide of evolving technology.

The main focus of the Toltec is the mastery of awareness, through working on tasks that cannot be done using the conventional mindset. This requires a high level of skill in both reason and personal discipline.

Other first-hand accounts of Toltec training and culture have been published by Taisha Abelar and Florinda Donna. These complement the disclosures made by Castaneda, and contain information that is specific to the women’s perspective and training.