blog six

Castaneda writes very honestly about his experiences with don Juan, which I think really supports the notion that this business of experimenting with altered states of consciousness is harder than it seems. The author explains how he initially became interested in don Juan because he was looking at the anthropological aspects of the culture and wanted more information about peyote (and, it seemed, the diableros). Through his endeavors, he formed a relationship with don Juan that led him to experiments and experiences with ASCs. He ate the "peyote buttons" and had that trippy experience with the dog. What I thought was very interesting about that particular experience was that he wasn't completely off the wall: his friends told him later that he had, in fact, chased/played with the dog, they drank water together, there was the presence of a warm yellow something (ew), etc. But what made his personal experience different from that of his observers was that it all meant something completely different to him.

Later, when Castaneda and don Juan get into discussions about knowledge, Castaneda reveals his vulnerability (much like when he was searching for his "spot" earlier in the story). He--through the nature of his quest--continually questions the old man which, in a way, illustrates that he still has a lot to learn, but ultimately his questions lead him closer to knowledge. Castaneda sees this knowledge in the tangible form of volumes of recorded information, while don Juan sees it as something more intangible: a mastery of the self. Evident by their conversation about the four enemies of man, Castaneda is still very far away from don Juan's type of knowledge.

Although we haven't gotten there yet, I understood the introduction to suggest that Castaneda never succeeds in don Juan's brand of knowledge (as he says he willingly resigns from the training). I find this unfortunate because don Juan entrusted him with the practices for gaining knowledge and, I believe, would have passed his pipe and humito on to him. I think it actually undermines the story a little (knowing he doesn't achieve an ultimate peak of understanding through his experiments with ASCs), but I do think that he did "learn" a lot on the way and I look forward to more of what he discovered through don Juan's portal to an altered reality.