Article Link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080304/od_afp/israelreligionoffbeat_080304120240

Moses was high on drugs: Israeli researcher
Tue Mar 4, 7:02 AM ET

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.

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