For some people, yes, but various cultures throughout time gave people, that we'd diagnose with some form of schizophrenia-related conditions today, somewhat revered or respected positions as prophets, medicine men, etc for the very real mental experiences they had. That is to say that some people may have been in it for power, but there are some that were earnest in their experiences, having really experienced something spiritual, even if it was just in their heads.

I think this is too cynical. This was all religious practice for the time, and the Oracle probably believed she was actually receiving visions from Apollo just as many modern churchgoers believe in visions and prophecies from God.

The role must have been filled by dozens of different individuals over the centuries, it seems reasonable to assume that there was some kind of induction process for new recruits.

It is plausible, we only have to look to social media and politicians to see what they do to people.

Take prophecy its much like crystal ball gazing, where the crystal ball reader gives a vague report which is open to interpretation for people who are looking for hope can get something to cling onto. A good example is left handed people have historically been seen as wrong 'uns in the bible so right handed people can be prejudiced in much the same way as the rich look down at the poor or white Americans generally view non whites as inferior.

When looking at "spiritual" experiences sometimes the experience can give a clue to what sort of drug may be involved.

For example DMT aka Dimethyltryptamine often generates fractal machine elves hallucinations. https://tripsitter.com/dmt/machine-elves/

Calea zacatechichi however you pronounce it gives you vivid dreams https://tripsitter.com/calea-zacatechichi/

LSD is reportedly fuzzy visuals if Timothy Leary's book is anything to go by.

Hallucinogens suggest to me the parts of the brain they affect.

So when looking at religious texts like some listed here https://www.openbible.info/topics/prophecy_visions_and_dream... how much of the bible is really just accounts of people who have knowingly or otherwise ingested some drugs? They didnt have science like we have it today so like we see with some scientific studies, we see a level of explanation projected onto the results that sometimes causes the tail to wag the dog, aka becoming a self fulfilling prophecy.

Whats scary is that even today the sky fairies aka god(s) still control much of this planets population through govt, religions or just generally superstitious people. Like alcohol, its a way for people to blame anyone but themselves for their actions, whilst also offering a form of very cheap psychological therapy.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7969-gamblers-are-a-s...

I think people generally recognise that AI is good at spotting what humans can not as this article suggests. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61609689 ""AI can sniff out areas of significances. Humans do a very bad job at layering data, whereas AI can do it in seconds," says Mr O'Shannessy."

Its quite likely AI will probably end up killing religion, prophecy, superstition and erratic behaviour in general, unless drug taking increases through the relaxation of cannabis and other drugs.