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search    Divination is dismissed by the scientific community
and skeptics as being superstition. In the 2nd century, Lucian
devoted a witty essay to the career of a charlatan, "Alexander
the false prophet," trained by "one of those who advertise
enchantments, miraculous incantations, charms for your love-
affairs, visitations for your enemies, disclosures of buried
treasure, and successions to estates",[5] even though most
Romans believed in prophetic dreams and charms.   Russian
peasant girls using chickens for divination; 19th century lubok.
Psychologist Julian Jaynes categorized divination into the
following four types:[citation needed]    1. Omens and omen
texts. Chinese history offers scrupulously documented
occurrences of strange births, the tracking of natural
phenomena, and other data. Chinese governmental planning relied
on this method of forecasting for long-range strategies. It is
not unreasonable to assume that modern scientific inquiry b