Lucky Number 7

It seems to me that all the chapters seem to be pretty consistant in telling us the rituals of these different drugs and what vision's Castaneda has with them. I also noticed how Don Juan is always pressing Castaneda about the drugs, (plants, whatever you want to call it) accepting him. The Mescalito and Devil's Weed are ones that accept you or reject you. What happens if the drugs rejected him? Could Don Juan not carry out his teachings anymore? I think you're original, conscious mindset has something to do with your altered state of consciousness. I think the original goal of his teachings, is to have you at inner peace. If you have negative thoughts in your mind before you enter an altered state of consciousness I believe you're going to have whats called a "bad trip". You're negative thoughts will carry over to you're altered state and cause something like Mescalito to not "accept" you. So if you are at inner peace with yourself, you're going to have a succesful altered state, and therefor be accepted because thats what I think the main goal of Don Juan's teachings are.

I did notice this in the movie. It seemed as if everyone was at peace. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure if some type of ritual was disgraced the Shamans would be very upset and seek punishment towards that person. But I just noticed how they can sit out in nature, and just sing and respect their natural surroundings and show their gratitude towards that. How many of us would do that today? Our life is so stress filled that we probably don't even think about respecting our natural habitat and the mysteries and gifts it gives to us. Our culture tends to look for proof and we are kind of obssessed with man made things that we tend to overlook the power that nature can really hold. The movie said these people have survived for years... and how did they do it? Being at inner peace, and being one with the Earth.

I also like danny's insight of how Indians saw lizards as dream messangers. The indians dont think of it to be torture, they just simply think they are something of a spiritual content. Maybe we just don't understand Don Juan's ways and consider it to be barbaric because that's how we were raised. It makes me wonder who figured out that lizards would be dream messanger's. But it also points out that hallucinating and dreams are perhaps connected? Don Juan must of known about these lizards, but why did he use them for a drug type ritual.