Although he did take drugs during the early stages of his apprenticeship, Carlos began to realize that don Juan was trying to teach him more than just knowledge about plants. The Indian was known to be an expert in the area of hallucinogenic plants, especially peyote, and Carlos intended to collect information for his dissertation.

In the summer of 1960 Carlos, an anthropology doctoral candidate at UCLA, went to Arizona to meet don Juan and discuss with him questions concerning medicinal plants. Therefore, I abandoned my original categories of sound and began to consider don Juan's lessons as studies in sonic awareness. 8 Upon examining these categories it soon became evident to me that don Juan's attention to sonic details revealed him as a master of sonic awareness and power and that many of his teachings were directly applicable to musicians. Murray Schafer calls 'acoustic reading.' 7 I carefully examined all five texts of Castaneda for references to sound and then catalogued these notations in areas of natural sounds, human sounds, warrior sounds, musical sounds, and sounds experienced in non-ordinary states of reality.

This triggered me to study Castaneda's works by using a research technique that R. I can identify both with don Juan as a teacher of aural skills and with Carlos as a student in quest of knowledge. Many of my interests are discernible in the way don Juan worked with Carlos. Interest in the sonic qualities of world myths and the use of sound for religious purposes strengthens my viewpoint that sound is sacred and powerful. 5 Environmental sound heard in a musical context, city soundscapes as sonic drones, attention to the myriad sonic subtleties of nature, and a concern about the devastating and ubiquitous presence of the sixty-cycle hum have encouraged me to seek new sonic potentials. My own hearing sense has been influenced by the work of Pauline Oliveros 4 and R. 2 Musicians spend many years training themselves to obtain the type of clairaudience or clean hearing that Carlos finally exhibited. In fact, tracing the changes in his response and sensitivity to sound seems to indicate for me that Castaneda's work is not fiction but a direct reporting of facts. 1 During the time of Carlos' tutelage his ordinary perceptual skills were sharpened and transformed to such an extent that he was able to realize 'the sorcerer's description,' a dichotic perception of the world which placed great emphasis upon sonic awareness, the ability to notice both environmental and musical sound.Īs a musician I have been impressed by Carlos' developing acoustical sense. Carlos Castaneda reports many astonishing events he experienced while studying with don Juan, a Yaqui Indian sorcerer.

The lessons of don juan