01-23-2007, 12:00 AM
In ancient greece people when asking for therapy or a vision would go to a temple, perform some ceremonies and then sleep over and wait for the god of the temple to show them in dreaming what must be done. Certain temples apart from their other purposes also served as healing places in a more "official" way, in the sense that there were priests there who guided the person asking for healing and plus they had rooms specially for those purposes..
They were then also called "Enkimitiria", which means "places where you sleep". Always in those temples there was a source of water which was essential for the healing.
We have no remains of what exactly was happening inside the most secret places of the temples, but what we know is that the healed were thousands. Sometimes they would be healed before even the sleep, most of the times they would stay there, made preparations or just stay in the temples, then sleep. The priests then would intrprpet their dreams and give them healing plants that only they knew.
In some occasions they "patients" went into rooms and through ceremonies which are secret and we have no clues for what they were about.
In Epidavros f.ex. they also went through a spiral corridor, in another place they would go into a room by passing a gate-formed opening and they would come out healed but with no memories).
They were then also called "Enkimitiria", which means "places where you sleep". Always in those temples there was a source of water which was essential for the healing.
We have no remains of what exactly was happening inside the most secret places of the temples, but what we know is that the healed were thousands. Sometimes they would be healed before even the sleep, most of the times they would stay there, made preparations or just stay in the temples, then sleep. The priests then would intrprpet their dreams and give them healing plants that only they knew.
In some occasions they "patients" went into rooms and through ceremonies which are secret and we have no clues for what they were about.
In Epidavros f.ex. they also went through a spiral corridor, in another place they would go into a room by passing a gate-formed opening and they would come out healed but with no memories).