In Harlan's model, having made the holy vow to burn herself, the woman becomes a "sativrata", a transitional stage between the living and the dead, before ascending the funeral pyre. Once a woman had committed herself to becoming a "sati", popular belief thought her endowed with many supernatural powers. Lourens P. Van Den Bosch enumerates some of them: prophecy and clairvoyance, and the ability to bless with sons women who had not borne sons before. The gifts from a "sati" were venerated as valuable relics, and in her journey to the pyre, people would seek to touch her garments to benefit from her powers.