A term used in many books by the author, Carlos Castaneda. In Castaneda's books, he talks about an Indian named Don Juan who was trying to explain to him the art of "seeing". Don Juan explained that seeing was the ability of a person to understand the "true make up" of the world around us. It was Don Juan's belief that everyone and everything is made of energy, and that the everyday world around us is not really the way we percieve it. Someone who is instructed in the art of seeing is able to "see" the world for what it really is, and to alter the energy that it consists of. In order to first teach Carlos about what seeing is, Don Juan made use of Psychotropic plants. He felt that the condition that one is in while under their influence will help a person to understand that the world is not what we normally perceive.