Seems to me like a cross between meditation and speaking in tongues: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latihan
In the 70’s in Australia, I was part of a group attempting to describe, while engaged under the control of a psychiatrist, the visions reported by some people under hypnosis or the influence of illicit drugs.
Apparently, there’s very little difference. Myself and other members of the group experienced some profoundly ‘spiritual’ visions, no doubt the result of our learning about religion from childhood.
The general practice of this type of deep meditation was popularly named as ‘transcendental meditation’ and/or ‘out of body experiences...also ‘astral travel’.
I personally ‘visited’ several foreign places and some of these ‘visits’ were during ancient times. It really is amazing what the mind is capable of. We never left our cozy places on the couch or the floor where we were lying, but described in vivid detail where we were, what we saw, who we spoke to, what they replied...as if we were part of the scene as if in a film.
I’ve ‘met’ a number of historical figures, and was able to carry on a conversation with them...it’s really more like lucid dreaming, but magnified.
Now there certainly would have been a number of ‘gurus’ who took advantage of this phenomenon, and Subuh, a sufi muslim from Indonesia would have been laughing up his sleeve. The Beatles made transcendental meditation a household word.
Where-as our efforts were part of an attempt to understand the influence of drugs on the brain, as the psychiatrist was working with a drug rehabilitation team, the motive of your average ‘guru’ is the usual - money and fame.
They never lack for followers. The more things appear to change, the more they stay the same. And btw, I’ve never taken anything more than asprin in my life.