Introduction Summary and Analysis

Carlos Castaneda (December 25, 1925 - April 27, 1998) recounts how he had met don Juan in 1961, ten years before the writing of this book. Don Juan is a Yaqui Native American from northwestern Mexico who is also a shaman or sorcerer, as Castaneda describes him, and also a very old man who is in excellent physical shape.

Don Juan begins to teach Castaneda how to see reality from a very different perspective through the use of psychoactive drugs, specifically peyote, jimson weed, and psilocybin mushrooms. Castaneda stops his apprenticeship with don Juan after a frightening experience that makes the apprentice think that he is losing his contact with reality. After writing a book about this time, Castaneda presents don Juan with an early copy before release and thereby reestablishes his connection with the sorcerer. "'The reason you got scared and quit is because you...