Parmenides’ poem On Nature seems to use the technique of repetitive incantation. This is reminiscent of Sri Ramana Maharshi’s transformational experience of lying still on the floor experiencing a “death” of sorts. Healing of the practitioner and/or others would be facilitated upon returning to waking consciousness. In this state, the practitioner “received wisdom, knowledge, laws, in general, answers to questions and problems.” Incubation was a commonly used practice in which a practitioner entered a divine state of consciousness via sensory deprivation and utter stillness. His techniques and practices draw striking parallels to well-known shamanistic practices from other cultures. Parmenides is thought to have been influenced by esoteric Greek oracles, served as a priest to the god Apollo, and was as an iatromantis, a prophet-healer. Shamans from indigenous cultures similarly claim to “project their souls into the sky where they acquire superhuman knowledge.” In A History of Greek Philosophy: Volume 2, The Pre-Socratic Tradition from Parmenides to Democritus, William Keith Chambers Guthrie writes that, “there was a ‘shamanistic’ strain in early Greek thought,” and that legendary figures in early Greece went on magical journeys, left their bodies, and visited the underworld.
That’s certainly something I’d never heard of when learning about Greek philosophers in school. He, and other notable figures of his time, were mystical shaman-like figures.
In his excellent book In the Dark Places of Wisdom, author Peter Kingsley explains that Parmenides, the early Greek philosopher credited with establishing Western logic, was more than just a boring rationalistic thinker.
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