Agence France-Presse – one of the world’s largest news wire services, is reporting on a new study out of Jerusalem that says Moses was on psychadelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments.
He was probably on a similar high when he saw the burning bush, the research says.
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.
“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
It takes psychadelic drugs to buy into most of that God stuff anyway… so ther u go, trip for god! woo hoo
— stefano 03/06/2008 10:57 AM #
I see God every time I do psychedelics. He tells me to listen to myself and not some book
— me 03/06/2008 11:15 AM #
More of the modern attempt to ignore supernatural reality (God’s laws, given for our well-being and His justly deserved glory) in favor of kooky “natural” explanations. We despise God, ignore and malign Him at every turn, and then expect Him to prove Himself to us and help us in the extraordinary ways He did for believers past. How presumptuous! It takes more “faith” to believe the nonsense of moderns (we are all just the result of random chance, our ways that lead to misery are working for us, etc.) than it does to believe in God. May God cure our society of its malicious blindness! We are our own worst enemies, as well as His!
— Kristen J 03/07/2008 12:45 PM #
If this is true, and it sounds plausible, Then I have seen and talked to god on numerous occasions in my youger days. Dam, I’m one holier than though person.
— Randy L 03/08/2008 11:14 AM #
— stefano 03/06/2008 10:57 AM #
— me 03/06/2008 11:15 AM #
— Kristen J 03/07/2008 12:45 PM #
— Randy L 03/08/2008 11:14 AM #