Pythagoreans, such as Apollonius, taught that the diviner, the mantic, faculty in man was more open to higher influences when emancipated from the body in sleep, and that it could be set free in waking hours by abstinence and ascetic discipline.
"Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius"
Samuel Dill
Hearken the rest, And marvel further, what more arts and means I did invent, this greatest: if a man Fell sick there was no cure, nor esculent, Nor chrism, nor liquid, but for lack of drugs Men pined and wasted, till I showed them all Those mixtures of emollient remedies, Whereby they might be rescued from disease, I fixed the various rules of mantic art, Discerned the vision from the common dream, Instructed them in vocal auguries, Hard to interpret, and defined as plain The wayside omens-flights of crook-clawed birds- Showed which are, by their nature, fortunate, And which not so, and what the food of each, And what the hates, affections, social needs, Of all to one another,-taught what sign Of visceral lightness, colored to a shade, May charm the genial gods, and what fair spots Commend the lung and liver.
"Story of Orestes A Condensation of the Trilogy"
Richard G. Moulton
Test my mantic gifts at any other point and I doubt not I can satisfy you.
"The Pleasures of Ignorance"
Robert Lynd