Throughout his apprenticeship, Castaneda employed logic and the scientific method to try to invalidate Don Juan’s views and methods. He also picked on Castaneda for being boring, despite Castaneda’s assurances that he was more interesting than most scientists. Castaneda argues that Don Juan’s concepts and methods oppose those of established science, the latter which he calls “normality.” These practices seem bizarre to anyone unacquainted with shamanism for example, Don Juan made Castaneda converse with plants. As a result, he both feared and gravitated toward his shamanic mentor, eventually forging a true friendship. Castaneda was unable to rationalize Don Juan’s insight into his own mind and behavior. Castaneda alleges that Don Juan was able to read his mind, which constantly sent him into a state of awe. While still skeptical, he agreed to apprentice with him, if only to understand the ins and outs of his pseudoscience. Castaneda recounts that he first began to take Don Juan seriously when he gave him a penetrating gaze that exuded great wisdom. With shamanic training, one can establish a more permanent connection to the same realms that one accesses through psychotropics like peyote. Castaneda explains that Don Juan’s view, and eventually his own view, was that psychotropics merely offer windows into alternate realities. Don Juan quickly diverted Castaneda from his carefully formulated research plans, instead, declaring that Castaneda should become his apprentice in order to see from his own experience how psychotropics are used. Journey to Ixtlan begins with Castaneda’s endeavor to find Don Juan to learn more about the Yaqui Indians’ usage of plants for their psychotropic effects.

In this book, he attempts to convince readers that alternative realities do exist, validating the methods of knowledge-making utilized by the shamanic cultures with which he has been in contact.

Initially reluctant to have Don Juan as his mentor, Castaneda came to adopt and espouse many of the sorcerer’s views. Don Juan also tried to help Castaneda access what he believed to be a parallel reality using a Yaqui psychotropic hallucinogen known as peyote. Castaneda remained Don Juan’s apprentice from 1960 to 1971, an interval during which the shaman tried to enlighten Castaneda to his shamanic tradition and perspectives. The book explores the teachings of Yaqui Indian shaman Don Juan Matus, with whom Castaneda began an intense, philosophical apprenticeship while on assignment for an anthropological study. Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan is a memoir by American author and shamanic intellectual Carlos Castaneda.

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