Iatromantis

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Iatromantis^[1] is a Greek word whose literal meaning is most simply rendered "physician-seer," or "medicine-man". The iatromantis, a form of Greek shaman, is related to other semimythical figures such as Abaris, Aristeas, Epimenides, and Hermotimus.^[2] In the classical period, Aeschylus uses the word to refer to Apollo^[3] and to Asclepius, Apollo's son.^[4]

According to Peter Kingsley, iatromantis figures belonged to a wider Greek and Asian shamanic tradition with origins in Central Asia.^[5] 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. Kingsley identifies the Greek pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides as an iatromantis. This identification has been described by Oxford academic Mitchell Miller as "fascinating" but also as "very difficult to assess as a truth claim".^[6]

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