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Moses Showing the Ten Commandments, an engraving by Gustave Dore.
Last update - 23:15 04/03/2008
Hebrew University researcher: Moses was tripping at Mount Sinai
By Ofri Ilani, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Moses, Drugs, Israel, Bible

"And all the people perceived the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voice of the horn, and the mountain smoking." Thus the book of Exodus describes the impressive moment of the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.

The "perceiving of the voices" has been interpreted endlessly since these words were first written. When Professor Benny Shanon, professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, reads the verse, he recalls a powerful hallucinatory experience he had when he visited the Amazon and drank a potion made from a plant called ayahuasca.

"One of the things that happens when you drink the potion is a visual experience created via sounds," he says.
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Shanon presents a provocative theory in an article published this week in the philosophy journal Time and Mind. The religious ceremonies of the Israelites included the use of psychotropic materials that can found in the Negev and Sinai, he says.

"I have no direct proof of this interpretation," and such proof cannot be expected, he says. However, "it seems logical that something was altered in people's consciousness. There are other stories in the Bible that mention the use of plants: for example, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden."

Shanon, former head of the Hebrew University psychology department, said his first experience with ayahuasca was in 1991 when he was invited to a religious ceremony in the northern Amazon in 1991 in Brazil.

"I experienced visions that had spiritual-religious connotations," he says.

Since that time, he has used it hundreds of times, and has published a book about the plant.

"Hypotheses have been around for 20 years connecting the beginning of religions with psychoactive materials," Shanon says. He believes the Israelites used two plants in Sinai and the Negev: one of them is wild rue, a hallucinogen used by the Bedoin to this day. However this plant is not identified with any plant mentioned in the Bible.

The acacia tree also has psychedelic properties, Shanon says, which the Israelites could have used. The acacia is mentioned frequently in the Bible, and was the type of wood of which the Ark of the Covenant was made. According to Shanon, he drank a potion prepared from a species of acacia while he was in South America, which caused similar experiences to those produced by the ayahuasca.

Shanon also sees signs of a hallucinogenic vision in the story of the burning bush. "Moses 'looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed,'" Shanon quotes from Exodus 3:2. Time passes differently when under the influence of the plant, he notes. "That's why Moses thought the bush was not consumed. It should have been burned in the time he thought had passed. And in that time, he heard God speaking to him."

"But not everyone who uses a plant like this brings the Torah," Shanon concedes. "For that, you have to be Moses."



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      1.   Halluciations 01:28  |  David 04/03/08
      2.   "For that, you have to be Moses." 01:52  |  Jon 04/03/08
      3.   To everything there is a logical explanation 01:53  |  AliciaYasmeen 04/03/08
      4.   The Torah 01:54  |  Shalom 04/03/08
      5.   Now if this guy is friends with Peres et al, it explains a lot! 02:01  |  Robert 04/03/08
      6.   Only professors "theory" resulted from using psychotropic plants! 02:16  |  Dr. L. Brnd 04/03/08
      7.   Prof. used psychotropic drug hundreds of times?!! 02:27  |  Polybios 04/03/08
      8.   crazy 02:30  |  Oren 04/03/08
      9.   Drug induced Torah? 02:33  |  Rav Harley 04/03/08
      10.   That is not news 02:38  |  Paul Wood 04/03/08
      11.   Not necessarily 02:40  |  Mark Lincoln 04/03/08
      12.   Wait, I had a dream explaining matan torah 02:53  |  Jon 04/03/08
      13.   The good doctor from San Diego 03:06  |  Dror 04/03/08
      14.   PLEASE SOME ONE FIND HIM A MENTAL HOSPITAL 03:07  |  reuven 04/03/08
      15.   Recall his students diplomas 03:20  |  Concerned Citizen 04/03/08
      16.   Ha`aretz missed the REAL story here 03:32  |  JPost Reporter 04/03/08
      17.   Hey I thought the exodus never happened 03:37  |  True Academic 04/03/08
      18.   dopey thinks moses (pbuh) was a dopey too! 03:56  |  Assad-u-LLAH 04/03/08
      19.   Whaaaat? 04:00  |  Professor of Truth 04/03/08
      20.   I wonder... 04:11  |  Michael 04/03/08
      21.   So Moshe was the first hippie? 04:18  |  @_@ : o o_0 04/03/08
      22.   Witness Protection Program 05:02  |  Jeff 04/03/08
      23.   Fear and Loathing in the Sinai! 05:16  |  Simon 04/03/08
      24.   Perspective 05:18  |  Baz Mann 04/03/08
      25.   The most lowest quality news from Haaretz 05:36  |  Tom 04/03/08
      26.   The professor may be "seeing things"?? 05:50  |  EGW 04/03/08
      27.   Professor on Drugs 06:09  |  Jay 04/03/08
      28.   I think youve dropped a few too many 06:15  |  Guid 04/03/08
      29.   I wonder what the good Prof is smoking ;-) 06:25  |  Jeff 04/03/08
      30.   Psychotropic drugs and Moses 06:26  |  Ed Frank 04/03/08
      31.   Psychotropic plants 06:29  |  Yesh 04/03/08
      32.   Moses on drugs ! 06:33  |  Yonatan 04/03/08
      33.   Go to synagogue, get stoned. 06:42  |  Itzik 04/03/08
      34.   Who Wrote This - Cheech & Chong? 06:42  |  Seth 04/03/08
      35.   "Religion - the opiate of the people." 06:56  |  Maureen Ann 04/03/08
      36.   Nothing Wrong With The Theory _ Religious Fanatics Often Have 06:57  |  Eli 04/03/08
      37.   Send him back... 06:57  |  Lotus 04/03/08
      38.   Torah 07:02  |  David 04/03/08
      39.   Moses illusions on Mnt Sinai 07:07  |  Rachel 04/03/08
      40.   Dr. L Brnd # 5 _ After Quickly Considering Your Post 07:40  |  Eli 04/03/08
      41.   Administration of HaAaretz! Resign!!!Lie down and die!!! 07:41  |  Mike 04/03/08
      42.   Me thinks the prof has has a touch too much potion this morning! 07:41  |  zznhl 04/03/08
      43.   More of what passes for "scholarship" at Hebrew U 07:46  |  Raymond from DC 04/03/08
      44.   Administration of HaAaretz! Resign!!!Lie down and die!!! 07:52  |  Mike 04/03/08
      45.   Since that time, he has used it hundreds of times, and has publis 08:11  |  Bartley Kulp 04/03/08
      46.   Did the Jews hallucinate themselves across the Red Sea? 08:16  |  Bartley Kulp 04/03/08
      47.   .... 08:23  |  Colin Wright 04/03/08
      48.   At Last -Haaretz pro religeous 08:27  |  Len 04/03/08
      49.   to Mark Lincoln #10 `Not Necessarily` 08:31  |  Colin Wright 04/03/08
      50.   Well... it could explain... 08:41  |  Michael 04/03/08
      51.   yeh baby yeh 08:57  |  SJ 04/03/08
      52.   Is shanon on drugs? 09:14  |  sam 04/03/08
      53.   professor shanon 09:37  |  dan 04/03/08
      54.   That explains no egyption accounts 09:54  |  billy jack 04/03/08
      55.   was he high when he came up with this theory 10:08  |  Potash Katiftof 04/03/08
      56.   HaAretz Administration!!RESIGN!! 10:12  |  MIKE 04/03/08
      57.   Fear and Loathing in the Sinai 10:16  |  Simon 04/03/08
      58.   not a word on Sinai Henbane (`Shikaron Sinai`) 10:19  |  Ron 04/03/08
      59.   HaAretz Administration!!RESIGN!! 10:19  |  MIKE 04/03/08
      60.   Where is our education going???? 10:26  |  sptz 04/03/08
      61.   Moses didn`t exist 10:27  |  Al 04/03/08
      62.   MOSES AND DRUGS 10:33  |  HM 04/03/08
      63.   And what are you smoking! 11:00  |  Wise Saba 04/03/08
      64.   Your tax shekels at work 11:11  |  ace 04/03/08
      65.   Just because he is dopy... 11:23  |  Ehud 04/03/08
      66.   is he giving asupply to olmert and co 11:29  |  v hardman 04/03/08
      67.   Drugs? And whats new? Every religion has used them 11:40  |  Kris 04/03/08
      68.   Hallucinations 11:42  |  Said 04/03/08
      69.   Haaretz exposes academic fraud in H.U. 11:52  |  Dror 04/03/08
      70.   Academia: Publish or Perish 11:56  |  17 04/03/08
      71.   What a lot of responses! 12:11  |  Journo