Throughout the entirety of history, people have attempted to induce visions of the future in either themselves or others. Without weather satellites to provide predictions for the upcoming hours, days or weeks, visions were used to help ships navigate, tell farmers when to plant crops or even foretell how the life of a newborn child would pan out.
Although most people may think of ancient tribal shamans, witchdoctors or prophets, possibly digesting all manner of stranger herbs and mushrooms whilst dancing around fires, when talking about ancient peoples attempting to receive visions of the future, they may be surprised to find that followers of Pythagoras were trained to receive visions, and through methods which didn’t require bizarre natural or alchemical combinations. By trekking to the furthest recesses of caves, they would sit in the darkness and wait. Eventually, when the blackness around them became absolute and meaningless, they would begin to experience bursts of colours and shapes that they could interpret and form into a prediction. This sort of sensory deprivation has been going on throughout history, and is still used today by many psychics. (more…)