In my second chapter I mentioned some ways of dissolving the categories
that make up our shared world, and spoke disparagingly of any great truths
to be gained thereby. An extraordinary and beautiful little volume has
recently (1968) been published that at first glance calls my assumption
to question. On close examination, however, the volume, entitled
The
Teachings of don Juan
, verities my contention. The author, a young
anthropologist named Carlos Castaneda, is probably one of the bravest
and most intelligent persons I have ever read about, and I plainly loved
don Juan, the Yaqui Indian Sorcerer, of whom Carlos wrote with rightful
respect, reverence, and awe. I envied Castaneda his experience, frightful
and hazardous as it was, with that vigorous and powerful old magician who,
at seventy, still saw life as a great adventure opening ever before him.
For the first year of his growing friendship with don Juan, Carlos
tried unsuccessfully to get information about "mescalito," the peyote
cactus that is hallucinogenic. He knew that an elaborate ritual and
tradition surround the Indian practice, and that the plant itself was
of small value. Finally don Juan agreed, not just to tell Carlos about
"mescalito," but, surprisingly, to initiate him into the actual "path
of knowledge itself," the entire practice of Yaqui magic. Don Juan had
seen in Carlos a possible heir of the ancient way itself.
First, though, Carlos must be sure of his own heart. Unbending intent
was the prime requisite. Clarity of mind, singleness of devotion, and
other qualities must be carefully built up if one were to survive the
deadly dangers of the path, perils that could so easily kill a man or
rob him of his soul.
Hallucinogens were the gateway, but hardly the path. Ingested by the
uneducated and unguided, the plants destroy or produce only horror. A
long, detailed instruction and a hard, self-disciplined life were
necessary preliminaries and constant requisites. Fear was a major
stumbling block and had to be faced, acknowledged, accepted, and gone
beyond. Power when it came, and it would come, was a temptation to be
spurned if further progress was to be realized. The practice would lead
into the right way to live, though there was no goal other than the
way itself. Death was the final victor and one's impermanence had to
be accepted.
The hallucinogens themselves were used sparingly, and then only after
the proper instruction and elaborate, intricate preparations. A full year
of acquaintance passed before even the first, introductory hallucinogen
was tried. This initiatory move was hardly made by an unprepared mind,
although no specific talks about it had taken place. Associative learning
is no small force, even if unconscious, and Carlos' background of inquiry
into the Southwest Indians, his scientific detachment coupled with an
adventurous, inquiring mind, his growing respect for don Juan, his avid
desire to learn of the Indian world view, all entered as factors making
this a deeply serious undertaking. Carlos was aware of the dangers of
his undertaking, and his whole set of mind made him susceptible to many
cues that an untrained or uncommitted observer, looking only for personal
titillation, would never have brought into the relationship. Thus there
was an indeterminable amount of serious, unconscious exchange between
the two men.
Two full years of instruction passed before don Juan thought Carlos ready
for the really serious business of "introduction to an
ally
." This
ally was a "spirit" that would give assistance in moving in non-ordinary
reality, if they were successful in
taming
the ally, which apparently
meant successfully bringing about the necessary state for introduction,
surviving the rigors of the hallucinogen used, and coming to grips with
the peculiarities of the resulting state. Through the ally the apprentice
could gain that unlimited power which could transport a man beyond the
"boundaries of himself," and open to the really great fields beyond,
traveling freely through different reality states. Each specific drug
experience was followed by long periods of evaluation and digestion of the
events that had transpired during the experience. Don Juan's techniques of
evaluation skilfully guided the course of future
expectancies
. Certain
occurrences were dismissed as unimportant by don Juan, though Carlos could
not distinguish the reason for the value of others which were seized upon
and heavily emphasized and approved by don Juan. This, note, was the
equivalent of those childhood experiences that are dismissed and those
that are complimented and rewarded by superiors though the child sees no
difference in value himself. Negative and positive reward-reactions are
strong, suggestive triggers toward future acceptances and rejections,
and we see the way in which Carlos made a transference to don Juan,
and underwent a reshaping of conceptual framework.
The actual state of non-ordinary reality, or the state of "special
consensus," varied. Often the materials of Carlos' surroundings became
the basis of the new state, but increasingly the non-ordinary materials
of his previous experiences became the materials for further synthesis
in new experiences, as shaped by don Juan's evaluation techniques. At
times Carlos' perceptions themselves underwent change in relation to his
ordinary reality. Objects glowed with their own light and Carlos could
see quite clearly in the darkest night, across the hills, close up,
and so on. At times solid objects lost their solidity and Carlos passed
through them -- one of his most frightful ordeals.
Each of the hallucinogen families had its special techniques for approach,
its particular purpose, and its unique non-ordinary reality reward. Each
hallucinogen group was consistent in the kinds of state created, though,
of course, each required its own unique period of instruction, preparation,
and sets of mind.
The states of special consensus had three common characteristics. They
were stable. Carlos could not distinguish any difference between the
non-ordinary reality components, the things, materials, physical objects,
of his special states. The materials of those states remained stationary
for minute and repeated examination. They could be returned to as ordinary
reality objects. They did not shift and flow as in a dream sequence,
Secondly, they possessed singularity. Every detail of the components
was a single, individual item, existing of itself, isolated from other
details. The non-ordinary reality was composed of solid, stable objects,
as in ordinary reality. The experiences contained an inner coherency,
the overall reality was cohesive and indistinguishable from any ordinary
state. There was no flux of detail, no blurring of the guidelines, as in
LSD or mescalin experiences, for instance. Carlos was aware of being in a
special state; the occurrences followed unusual sequences and cause-effect
patterns, but there was no dream quality to distinguish the special
reality from the ordinary. Except, that is, the third characteristic:
lack of ordinary consensus. The perceptions of the non-ordinary states
were in complete solitude.
Consider, now, that the guide in this long procedure was an intelligent,
pragmatic Mexican Indian with many centuries of tradition behind him. He
taught Carlos "exactly as his own benefactor had taught him." The complex
system had been handed down by just such relationships since time immemorial.
The capacity for unconscious exchange between hypnotist and subject has
been mentioned before. Cohen spoke, you recall, of a Freudian analyst's
patient immediately reflecting Freudian symbolism when under LSD,
verifying the assumptions of the analyst, (the same holding, of course,
for Jungians). The effects of unconscious exchange can be safely assumed
for the Australian aboriginal initiation rites. P. W. Martin mentioned in
his
Experiment in Depth
that one's unconscious immediately reflected
and responded to all the attention given it, greatly increasing the flow
of unconscious material. (I found this to be very much the case.)
Anthropologists keep finding more and more evidence of great
civilizations in the early Americas. Those civilizations are now seen
to extend many thousands of years further into the past than previously
suspected. Evidence indicates that the Indians of our continent were
remnants of very advanced and complex civilizations. The achievements
of the mound-builders in our own Midwest put to shame our original
notions of our innate superiority, and the "Concept of the primitive"
is undergoing profound, if belated, change.
Not to be discounted, then, is the full extent of the "archetypal"
heritage don Juan possessed. And Carlos, a true anthropologist (that is,
free of that obnoxious chauvinism that destroys), opened to and entered
into don Juan's frame of reference to
learn
. He was susceptible,
by cast of personality and profession, to the drama, rich historical
atmosphere, and emotional investments of a once-powerful race.
All this entered into those long months of instructions from don Juan,
as he and Carlos would sit on the dirt porch, in their particular
"places of strength," where one did not tire but was renewed from the
earth. Twilight, don Juan told Carlos, was the crack between the two
worlds. Little by little don Juan prepared Carlos to find that crack. When
the crack appeared, Carlos did not enter ignorant or empty-handed.
So we find that what Carlos experienced under "mescalito," the peyote
cactus, the sacred mushroom, or the Jimson weed, was vastly different
from that which the marginally-adjusted sensation-seeker could possibly
discover. Recall Jesus' admonition to the man gathering grain on the
Sabbath: "If you know what you are doing, you are blest. If you know
not what you are doing, you are accurst and a transgressor of the Law."
Don Juan left very little to chance, or not-knowing. The system was
thorough; centuries had gone into its perfection, and it produced exactly
according to its precepts and intent.
Ingesting or smoking the hallucinatory plants dissolved the ordinary
categories of reality for Carlos, just as the initiation shocks of the
aborigine dissolved the natural world view of the young man, and just as
the person under hypnosis voluntarily leaves his structured world to play
at fantasy. Dr. Meares carried over into his actual operation a certain
set of assumptions which altered the reality of that procedure so that
blood, pain and aftereffects did not enter as parts of that reality. The
Ceylonese Hindu fire-walker also comes to mind.
In the same way, Carlos carried into his non-ordinary states the long
instruction period's products. Don Juan had so thoroughly traversed the
paths for certain portions of the system, he himself no longer needed
the threshold-lowering hallucinogens. He stepped from one world to the
other at will, and led his protégé carefully and well. It was, in fact,
the onslaught of this phenomenon of spontaneous threshold dissolution
that horrified Carlos and terminated his apprenticeship, after six years.
Critics have complained that Castaneda's dry analyses in the back of his
book were in effect a "sellout" to the mechanistic gods of the time. This
is unfair and misses the point. Had don Juan been completely successful,
no one would ever have known. That Carlos did sustain his sharp, trained
intellect throughout these traumatic, often dreadful experiences, and
retain his analytical perspective, is in itself a remarkable display
of strength of mind. His analysis is not only logical, it is far more
awesome than some cultic enthusiasm might have produced.
Surely Castaneda in no way disbelieved that other world. Perhaps it
was its all-too-frightful reality from which he had to retreat finally
in order to hope to stay in this one. In no way does Carlos denigrate
or diminish the authenticity of the states of mind so created. In no
way does he call into question the possibility that those states might
exist, somehow, within their own right, as self-sufficient possibilities
of organization within the discipline. The creative element was clearly
recognizable to him as was the archetypal potential. He recognized the
two-way interaction between the drugs, the relation with don Juan which
shaped the expectancies, and the necessity of unquestioned following
of instructions. In spite of his remarkable objectivity and his final
analysis, Carlos never retreated to scientific dodge or psychological
cliché. He accepted his experiences for what they were: non-ordinary
reality states created by a complex interplay of carefully-controlled
events, a definition which might fit ordinary reality except for the
element of control itself.
In his Foreword to "don Juan," Walter Goldschmidt clearly points up
the real importance of anthropology to "this entering into other worlds
than our own." This leads us, he writes, to realize that our own world
is "also a cultural construct." This has been the whole thrust of this
first part of my own book, to claim that no other world could ever
be
for us except through the very creative technique found underlying these
dramatically differing pursuits; that this process has happened to us,
but can be consciously controlled.
Goldschmidt realizes the intriguing riddle to lie in don Juan's 'twilight'
-- that crack between the worlds. Goldschmidt concludes, however, that
through this crack we can then see, fleetingly, what the "real world,
the one between our own cultural constructs and those other worlds, must
in fact be like." Here, I do believe, we have an example of the perpetual
error at one remove. The "crack between the worlds" is neither a "real
world" nor an opening into such -- for there is no such thing as a "real
world" other than that one from which one makes such a statement. The
crack is only a capacity, an ontological function, a possibility for
processing an infinite number of worlds -- none of which is absolute. To
leave one you can only structure another one or face dissolution.
I was particularly struck with the frustrations Carlos and don Juan faced
in trying to reach a consensus of what was actually achieved during the
non-ordinary states. Carlos tried to elicit from don Juan a description of
what he, Carlos, looked like to don Juan when he, Carlos, was to himself
a crow, flying in beautiful skies with other beautiful crows. Don Juan
insisted he