February 3, 1969
N. C. ESSAY
Page 4
CALENDAR
February 4-2 p.m. Organ . Master
(Tues.) Class with David Craig
head. Salem College
Fine Arts Center. Open
to the public, free.
- 8:15 p.m. Winston-Salem
Symphony Concert. Miss
Marjorie Mitchell, so
loist. Reynolds Audi
torium.
February 5 - 11:00 a.m. Student Gov-
(Wed.) ernment Meeting (Offi
cers and alternates in
Room 321, Main Building
11:30 a. m. Student
Activities Committee
Meeting - third floor.
Main Building.
8:15 p.m. Organ Recital
David Craighead. Salem
College Fine Afts Cen
ter. Admission free.
8:00 p.m. - Swimming at
YWCA
February 8 - 1:00 p.m.
(Sat.) Riding
Horseback
February 9 - 1:00 p.m. - Bowling
(Sun.)
BOOK EEVIEW
THt TrPCi-nnGSOF DOH JUflH
GflLL€W OF UlSUflL
fIFiTS OP€DS
Spczrger
through the the-
by Tony
If you walk
atre lobby, you will see sketches
and models done by the design stu
dents now on display. This exhibi
tion of student projects is a part
of the newly established Gallery of
the Visual Performing Arts.
"The purpose of this gallery is
to gii)e students in the performing
arts an opportunity to observe the
efforts of professionals at work.
Throughout the year various visual
artists will be presented^ displays
relating to the performing arts will
be mounted production design works
shown and student efforts in the
visual performing arts showcased,"
With this message, Michael Ho-
topp and the Production and Design
Department invite you to observe ...
to become involved in the work, the
talent, the reality of the profess
ional challenge. The Gallery will
not be limited to design as it re
lates to the drama but will encom
pass all the arts: design material
and photographs of ballets, operas,
etc. The Gallery is intended to
provide constant exposure to pro
fessionals at work. This exposure
and subsequent discipline being a
vital part of the learning process.
Display changes should occur
Bill Robinson lives in Greensboro
and worked for the Greensboro Record
and is a former student at Antioch.
Currently he is working for Guilford
College so that he can fulfill his
CO requirements.
Carlos Castandea's book The
Teachings of Don Juan may hold an
answer, a direction for newly-made
modem mystics.
"A man of knowledge is one who
has followed truthfully the hard
ships of learning," he said. "A man
who has, without rushing or without
faltering, gone as far as he can in
unraveling the secrets of power and
knowledge."
Brujo is a Spanish word trans
lated medicine man, curer, witch,
sorcerer. A brujo is "unhung," and
realizes the implications of his
state of mind, lives for thousands
of years in the Mexican deserts,
live peacefully (though not passive
ly) with Nature, lives in a culture
into the collective unconscious
(Jung), unburdened by the myth of
the ego, the myth of reality, two
great Western dead-end illusions,
then you qualigy for brujo status.
Don Juan, an aged, bearded In
dian is a product of this culture,
a brujo, one of its high priests.
Carlos Castaneda happened upon him
on a field trip while an anthropol
ogy student at UCLA. His book is a
simple and pragmatic account of
their 4-year relationship.
He tells of the plants he in
gested under Don Juan's direction:
da tura (jimson weed), himito (psil-
ocybe mexicana-mushrooms smoked ),
peyote. He tells of the places they
took him, weird out-of-his-mind-
places.
But Don Juan uses dope not sim
ply to blow Castaneda’s mind, but to
teach. The turn-on is often confus
ing, as Leary and many novice trlp-
pers-now- speed freaks have found;
you need a good guide, some format
( religion ). Don Juan provides,
at least, these.
The teacher, after much hesit
ation takes the pupil, then slowly
begins to impart his wisdom, his
systematic ritualistic life-style.
Theirs is the classic Zennmaster-
pupil relationship. Don Juan uses
koans as well as drugs as tools for
liberation.
every 2 to 3 weeks. Fred Volpel,
known in North Carolina for his work
as designer of The Lost Colony^ was
the featured opening artist of the
Gallery in December. Other artists
to be represented this semester In
clude: Donald Jenson, Theonie Al-
di^ige, Wolfgang Roth, a display of
the production materials of Mother
Courage^ the American Designers Ex
hibit, Jules Fisher, the United
Scenic Artists Examination, Ning Cho
Lee and others.
by Bill Robinson
Don Juan drives Castaneda Into
the inner-most parts of his head, in
search of " power ," in search of
"knowledge," in search of a "true
path."
"For me there is only the trav
eling on paths that have heart, on
any path that may have heart. There
I travel, and the only worthwhile
challenge is to transverse its full
length. And there I travel looking
— looking breathlessly."
Explore your mind, Don Juan
says, explore different ways of see
ing things, live a life truthfully,
"with deliberateness, a good, strong
life." Use the sacred magic plants,
to tell the future, to devine, to
fly; but don't let them mess you up.
" ...anyone can partake of Mes-
calito." (peyote)
"But why then does he just
hurt some people?"
"Not everyone likes Mescalito;
yet they all see him with the idea
of profiting without doing any work.
Naturally their encounter with him
is always horrifying."
Not to give the plot away, Cas
taneda couldn't hack being a sorcer
er. When he realizes that Don Juan
is ultimately showing him that re
ality and fantasy (trips) are the
same, it is just too much for his
head. He splits for UCLA where less
meaningful and powerful wisdom is
taught, to write his book.
Don Juan waits in the desert
for his pupil to return.
"Few books today are forgive-
able," English psychoanalyst R. D.
Laing writes in The Politics of Ex
perience (a worthwhile verbal trip).
"Black on the canvas, silence on
the screen, an empty white sheet of
paper, are perhaps feasible. There
is little conjunction of truth and
social reality. Around us are pseu
do-events, to which we adjust with a
false consciousness adapted to see
these events as true and real, even
as beautiful..."
High Priest and The Teachings
of Don Juan join the few, the very
few "forgiveable" books around con
cerning psychedelic drugs and their
potential place in our society.
(Much negative literature is amass
ing creating paranoid bad vibrations
—prime example of a good liberal
bummer is The Beyond Within by West
Coast nowhereman Sidney Cohen; al
most everything from the poisoned
pens of the mass media qualifies.)
Castaneda's witch-confessions
and Leary's ego-obituary rank with
the writings of Aldous Huxley (The
Doors of Perception) and Alan Watts
(The Joyous Cosmology). With a few
positive technical works (e.g. The
Varieties
by R. E.
and Hoffer
of Psychedelic Experience
L. Masters and Jean Houston
and Osmond's The Hallu-
cinogens,)thev enlarge a pathetical
ly small library concerning a real
event: Man's attempt to reach be
yond himself.