Iatromantis

Iatromantis is a Greek word whose literal meaning is most simply rendered "physician-seer." Perhaps the most famous iatromantis was the Greek pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides, best known as the founder of Western logic. The iatromantis, a form of Greek shaman, is related to other semimythical figures such as Abaris, Aristeas, Epimenides, and Hermotimus. In the classical period, Aeschylus uses the word to refer to Apollo and to Asclepius, Apollo's son.

According to Peter Kingsley, iatromantis figures belonged to a wider Greek and Asian shamanic tradition with origins in Central Asia. A main ecstatic, meditative practice of these healer-prophets was incubation (ἐγκοίμησις, 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 samādhi of the Indian yogic traditions.