Blog 6

I'm not sure if it's just me or what.. but when we start reading a new book, I find it hard to actually get 'into' it. Once the chapters started getting more in depth with experiences, I actually became really intrigued by the book. I liked how persistant Castaneda was with wanting to learn about peyote. He wasn't going to take no for an answer, and finally don Juan could see that this was something he really wanted to know more about and wanted to pursue through his teachings. I found it interesting that when Castaneda showed up to meet with don Juan, how he (Juan) couldn't give him any mescalitos himself, but by one of his friends. It's crazy how you don't even know someone but yet they can 'throw you out' because they decide that you aren't worthy of what they are about to give you, even though you haven't done a thing wrong to them.

The chapters refer to drugs a lot which fits hand-in-hand with our class, altered states of consciousness. But, don Juan has a different take on the drugs. He talks a lot about the Devil's weed in chapter 3 and how it deals with allies in refer to the drug. It amazes at me at how much protection there is on most of the stuff throughout the first couple chapters. A lot of this stuff is sacred and I get the vibe that they don't like when 'outsiders' come in and try to learn from their teachings. In a way, I feel for Castaneda because you can tell that he is really trying and wants to understand the teachings, but he tends to struggle a lot in the beginning, however, he doesn't lose hope. He keeps pushing through, wanting to know more and more about the teachings of peyote.

I'm very interested to read more chapters and see where they lead me. There is a lot of information given and at times my head was spinning but it's new knowledge to me so that helped push me along. I wanted to read on past chapter 4 but I was tired and fell asleep :) Like Josh said, I almost wonder how the whole drugs thing is going to play out. There is a lot of information about hallucinations and what not.