Page:Para leer a Carlos Castaneda.djvu/14

I. THE TEACHINGS OF DON JUAN

(A YAQUI WAY OF KNOWEDGE)

First edition in English, 1968
First spanish edition, 1974
1968 The Regents of the University of California, U.S.A.

In this book Carlos Castaneda recounts his early experiences with Don Juan and plants of power. The author meets Don Juan at the end of 1960 and began his apprenticeship in June 1961, to finalize it, in what we might call its first stage, in October 1965. The book was published in 1968. In those first four years the author confronts his "reality" as a man formed in the Western culture, anthropologist and researcher, with that of an old Yaqui witch, with a reputation of knowing the secret of hallucinogenic plants.

During this time the author is subjected to a "sensibilization" process through the ingestion of plants of power and relates these states, which needless to say are fascinating, but have little value in terms of knowledge supply. In his second book Castaneda recounts that he proudly shows his first book to Don Juan and he gives little importance. We conclude that Don Juan knew that true knowledge was deposited on the left side of Castaneda and that he would only remember if he managed to become an impeccable warrior.

This book is shallow, as Castaneda acknowledged in A separate reality, when he re-examines the field notes, which he did not use for the book The teachings of don Juan, he realized that had ruled out a large amount of valuable data due to his emphasis on "non-ordinary reality states". Don Juan was trying with plants of power, to "shake" Castaneda and uncover his perception levels. Don Juan tells Castaneda that he did not need smoking any longer because "Humito" was his ally and he could call him anytime, anyplace. In his fourth book, Tales of power, the author mentions that after making a detailed examination of what has been learned, he began to question the role of the plants of power within his learning. When Castaneda questions if plants ingestion of plants is required to be able to reach knowledge, Don Juan replies that in his cases it had been necessary because he lacked sensitivity, but that others did not require it, and gave the example of "Eligio", another of his apprentices, who only had a single meeting with "Mezcalito" during his learning and apparently had advanced more than Castaneda on the path to knowledge.

This first book attracted much attention in the United States because at that time many young Americans had taken the path of drugs. Encouraged by the Castaneda stories, many thought that drugs were the only way to the knowledge of another fantastic reality in our world; but Don Juan pointed out that the cost of taking these drugs is very high for the body; that the path of knowledge may be walked avoiding paying such a high and dangerous cost.

At the beginning of his apprenticeship, recounted in the teachings of don Juan, the young