Some elements of Taoism may be traced to prehistoric folk religions in China that later coalesced into a Taoist tradition. In particular, many Taoist practices drew from the Warring-States-era phenomena of the "wu" (connected to the shamanic culture of northern China) and the "fangshi" (which probably derived from the "archivist-soothsayers of antiquity, one of whom supposedly was Lao Tzu himself"), even though later Taoists insisted that this was not the case. Both terms were used to designate individuals dedicated to "... magic, medicine, divination... methods of longevity and to ecstatic wanderings" as well as exorcism; in the case of the "wu", "shamans" or "sorcerers" is often used as a translation. The "fangshi" were philosophically close to the School of Naturalists, and relied much on astrological and calendrical speculations in their divinatory activities.