I recognize in Juan a possibly initiated person in the Regla de Ocha, or Afro-Cuban orisha worship. Though he claims to know things that are secret, and thus things that we cannot know ourselves, I can see Juan does not show evidence of basic training in the Regla de Ocha. Now, he is not unique in this.
Many initiates are untrained, for a variety of reasons.
But most initiates will know, and are proud to say, who initiated them, who initiated their initiators, and have others who were present at the time to affirm their claims. We do not hear of this in the film. I have to question if Juan represents a personal-idiosyncratic variant, or a pastiche of notions about spiritual praxis that is common amongst the untrained. Also common amongst them is a claim to be a medium. John Amira is a great player and the sound track, in part, features authentic Havana-style bata, but it does not relate to the action in the film in any ritual way.