Iatromantis
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Iatromantis (from iatreia "healing, care" and manteia "divination, oracle") is a Greek word whose literal meaning is most simply rendered "physician-seer." Perhaps the most famous iatromantis was the Greek presocratic philosopher Parmenides, best known as the founder of western logic. Iatromantis, a from of Greek shamanism, is related to other semimythical figures such as Abaris, Aristeas, Epimenides, and Hermotimus.[1]
According to Dr. Peter Kingsley, iatromantis figures belonged to a wider Greek and Asian shamanic tradition with origins in Central Asia.[2] A main ecstatic, meditative practice of these healer-prophets was incubation (enkoimesis). More than just a medical technique, incubation reportedly allowed a human being to experience a fourth state of consciousness different from sleeping, dreaming, or ordinary waking: a state that Kingsley describes as “consciousness itself” and likens to the turiya or samadhi of the Indian yogic traditions.
[edit] References
- ^ Luck, Georg (2006). Arcana Mundi: Magic and the Occult in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Collection of Ancient Texts. The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 500. ISBN 0801883466.
- ^ Kingsley, Peter (1999). In the Dark Places of Wisdom. The Golden Sufi Center, pp. 255. ISBN 1-890350-01-X.
