Just another name for seeing auras, the etheric plane, astral projection, astral vision, etc. Just about every spiritual tradition has it in some sense or another. Its just another label for the Sixth sense (and seventh, eighth, etc., but they normally don't divide them up).
Initiation more than likely involved hallucinogens, virtually every 'tribal' spiritual tradition does. Plants, mushrooms, near death experiences - they don't all involve ingesting things, but it's the same principle. Forcing an altered state of consciousness in the guidance of the initiator(s), in order to recover some form of spiritual power from that place. Then they are trained to use that spiritual power in different ways, unless they died or were unable to hold on to it, which in many cultures meant either death or just expulsion from the 'order' of whatever form it took.
Knowing it by a more general name will allow you to find other information. There's some here, and some all over the internet/libraries/bookstores/etc. Good luck!
peace
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The world is complicated - that which makes it up is elegantly simplistic, but infinitely versatile.
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