Moses was high on drugs: Israeli researcher

androoo

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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 clasic 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

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080304120710.ad7gm7i6&show_article=1
 
Old news :)

I've got a book called "Manna Magic Mushrooms of Moses", which is fairly interesting along these lines. There are some inaccuracies, but on the whole I think its pretty plausible...

Benny Shanon has also published a book on ayahuasca and has taken it countless times so he isn't just another dry academic, he's "walked the walk"...
 
squirrel_master said:
damn i was hoping for some bible passages or a lil more "evidence".


Go here:

http://www.island.net/~winepress/

There's a brief overview of some of the biblical verses that some people interpret of supporting the case for entheogen use in the Bible, specifically that Manna is a psilocybin mushroom, and that the "new wine" is mushroom tea.
 
Umm, this seems ignorant. One does not have to be on psychedelics to get classic psychedelic affects.

Sensory depreviation, dehydration, mental illness.........all can mimic psychedelics.

Funny nonetheless . . . .
 
I hope I live to see the day when they discover that the entire bible was written by 1st century stoners and hippies.
 
Fried Man said:
Umm, this seems ignorant. One does not have to be on psychedelics to get classic psychedelic affects.

Sensory depreviation, dehydration, mental illness.........all can mimic psychedelics.

Funny nonetheless . . . .

I'm not even religious and I agree with that.

Who actually takes academic ramblings about psychedelics/religion seriously?
 
haha me and my friends would always joke about this....what kind of person see's a burning bush and isn't on some crazy stuff
 
I've heard by word of mouth that Jack Herer is working on a book about how all of the world's religions, focusing mainly on Christianity I'm willing to bet, are inspired by people on mushrooms, or other psychedelics. Apparently it's all very plausible, and I know that after taking my share of psyches I'd definitely believe it.
 
2c-buoyant said:
"Moses, sounds like you've been burning some bush."


Smoked some good shit...that's why, when we use these powerful psychedelic plants now, we realize, most of the revelations and shit were some major OBE events. Hehe. And it makes lots of us see the farce behind most organized religions...
 
I've always said that I think the only thing Moses found on the top of Mt Sinai was a batch of mushies :p
 
So whats going to happen to all the religius people now.
Knowing that their faith was all on people trippin a couple thousand years ago HAHA.
When are all the churches going to close.
I knew it was all a farce. Mosses and Jesus trippin and Cathlic Priests playing with little boys.8o
The truth is finally coming out, and I love it%)
Thats why I've always been an Atheist.
I believe in a higher power, but if I want God, I just eat some Mushrooms or drink some tea..=D
 
^^^ What makes a mystical experience any less profound and real when it's drug-induced than when it's not? I reckon most of the world's religions were founded on someone's experience of a profound non-ordinary state of perception, and what (s)he brought back from it.

I certainly don't see Judaism, the religion in question, having any problem integrating such a fact, if it were proven true. Judaism has a rich mystical and esoteric tradition that induces altered states and direct experience of God without drugs (Kabbalah), and still vestigially retains one ceremonial entheogen in its practice (wine). So I really don't see what the hoopla is all about.

Mods, I have a thread about this exact same thing in P&S. Would you be open to the idea of merging the two?
 
i wonder what drug it would of been, cos from memory the bible only mentions wine.

thats if it was a drug at all
 
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