blog seven

In these chapters, we follow Castaneda through his new experiences: seeing and flying. I think it's interesting--though extremely "human"--that he still confuses what he experiences with what he thinks or "knows." It seems that while he is under the influence of the plant, he sees certain things or experiences things (like flying) and believes them to be absolute reality, but once he returns to "ordinary consciousness," he doubts what happened. For example, in chapter 6, Castaneda questions don Juan as to whether or not he flew while he was under the influence of the devil's weed (this was the instance in which he had rubbed the paste on his body and the odor invaded his nostrils), and don Juan sort of belittles him by telling him that he (Castaneda) is the one who said he flew; so he did. This happens again in chapter 7 when Castaneda experiences humito. He feels he's had an out-of-body experience and questions don Juan as to whether or not he'd had a body (in the sense that one feels they have one "normally") and don Juan asks him to figure that out for himself. It seems that don Juan sees things in a less concrete manner than Castaneda. The latter understands experience tangibly or otherworldly. Don Juan sees all things as existing at once and thinks Castaneda is being simple or difficult when he questions him on this. I think don Juan sums it up (albeit confusingly) at the end of chapter 8 when he explains Castaneda's conundrum to him. Don Juan suggests that Castaneda is looking at things all wrong: the latter believes that there are two (or possibly multiple) worlds, while don Juan knows that there is only one. He says there is no difference between the world in which Castaneda understands himself to be (the "real world") and the world he experiences under the influence of the various hallucinogens (Castaneda's second "world"). It is all, apparently, in the knowledge with which one approaches the world as to how one sees it. "It," however, is singular.

In reference to the film we watched on Monday, I noted some similar ideas in the Castaneda book. For example, even though Castaneda is keeping track of his experiences by dates in a journal and references to light and dark (in the sense of sunrise and sunset; beginnings and endings of days), his experiences with the hallucinogens do not follow a linear chronological pattern (in the film, it was stated that time and space don't exist to the shamans). Another example was when Castaneda was relating his final experience with Mescalito, in which the old men, and Castaneda himself, were singing. This reminded me that someone in the film had pointed out the importance of rhythm (or constant noise, like chanting, if I'm not mistaken) during a trance. The songs seemed to influence Castaneda's feelings while taking Mescalito (114-118).