Posted on 03/04/2008 6:46:14 AM PST by crusty old prospector
High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, an Israeli researcher claimed in a study published this week. Such mind-altering substances formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times, Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote in the Time and Mind journal of philosophy.
"As far Moses on Mount Sinai is concerned, it was either a supernatural cosmic event, which I don't believe, or a legend, which I don't believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an event that joined Moses and the people of Israel under the effect of narcotics," Shanon told Israeli public radio on Tuesday.
Moses was probably also on drugs when he saw the "burning bush," suggested Shanon, who said he himself has dabbled with such substances.
"The Bible says people see sounds, and that is a classic phenomenon," he said citing the example of religious ceremonies in the Amazon in which drugs are used that induce people to "see music."
He mentioned his own experience when he used ayahuasca, a powerful psychotropic plant, during a religious ceremony in Brazil's Amazon forest in 1991. "I experienced visions that had spiritual-religious connotations," Shanon said.
He said the psychedelic effects of ayahuasca were comparable to those produced by concoctions based on bark of the acacia tree, that is frequently mentioned in the Bible.
“Dude, pass some more of the crazy toadstools.”
He’s lucky Pharaoh’s SWAT team didn’t break into his tent and shoot his dog.
I thought it was originally 15, 15 ( CRASH )...
10, 10 commandments...
Oh, thats right, never mind.
Yeah, I was pulling up the scene with Mel Brooks in my head when originally typing that post.... ;-)
That wasnt Moses it was global warming
Well I would not feel so all alone
EVERYBODY MUST GET STONED!
(cue off-key harmonica...)
“Carved in stone? That is a fairy tale. Maybe later, but not at the time they were declared.”
Why is it a fairy tale? Obviously you do not beleive that God gave them to Moses. Carving in a stone would not be too hard for God.
Why not? It’s a pretty stupid article.
And the people did partake of the forbidden toadstools, which caused them to turn on one another and see visions of sight and sound that resonated within their innermost being, calling out to them in unison - VOTE FOR OBAMA!!"
“There’s no zot here.”
What makes you say that? You must know something the rest of us don’t know.
Just because the guy is new and he posts something about moonbats, doesn’t mean it’s some insidious, nefarious liberal posting.
There is no evidence that acacia was used as a drug anywhere around the Mediterranean Sea. Some acacias contain dimethyltriptamine, but merely drinking a concoction of DMT is not psychoactive, they’d need to add in an MAOI like syrian rue.
There were psychoactives in use then, and they show up in literature and records, but to assume that Moses was high on an ayahuasca analog when he recieved the commandments is pretty outside.
Benny Shanon, “Who are you going to believe? Me or your own Mind?”
Now I’m not saying I believe what this guy is saying, but in direct response to your question, wheat, the primary source of nutrition for all of the Middle East at that time is susceptible to a fungus called ergot which produces and alkaloid very closely related to lysergic acid. So if this was occurring, then mass hallucination is not beyond the realm of possibility.
God’s gonna get you for that, Benny!.........
The shore....
Well, looks like Shanon has it all figured out...except the part about how the "narcotics" caused the commandments of God to be written on the stone tablets.
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