The movie we watched the other day really seemed to illustrate what we have been reading about. From the brightly colored graphics, it is much easier for me to envision what Castaneda saw when he was "tripping". There was a lot of singing/chanting in the movie that was not touched upon in don Juan. This difference reminded me of something don Juan repeated several times to Castaneda--basically, to each his own. While don Juan was referring to the different effects that the devils weed has on individuals, it also relates to different cultures using different ways to reach altered states.
Like many have already said, I found the torture of the lizards horrible. It might have been done for sorcery purposes but don Juan seems very in tune with nature. If he respects nature so much, I cannot figure out why he feels justified in torturing these lizards. However, the sewn mouth and eyelids reminded me of the "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" saying. I wonder if this has something to do with it.
This entire book is a journey for Castaneda. But within this larger journey are many smaller ones. This section starts off with don Juan teaching Castaneda about the second part of the devil's weed root. This, he says, is the beginning of learning even though Castaneda has already been on this journey for many months. The second part of the root is used for seeing and enables the user to fly. It seems like don Juan believes the actual process of flying occurs. This is not true--the user feels the sensations of flying, at most. This made me wonder if the whole idea of shamanism--at least in the drug-induced sense--is just a load of BS. Maybe shamans see things on these trips that they somehow bend and form in order to apply them to everyday life. Maybe some do this intentionally and others don't.
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