http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4392361&page=1

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"Moses Was High on Drugs, Israeli Researcher Says Psychedelic Cocktail May Explain Vision of the Burning Bush, Professor Says Moses and the Israelites were on drugs, says Benny Shanon, an Israeli professor of cognitive philosophy. Writing in the British Journal Time and Mind, he claims Moses was probably on psychedelic drugs when he received the Ten Commandments from God. The assertions give a whole new meaning to Moses being "high" on Mount Sinai. According to Shanon, a professor at Hebrew University, two naturally existing plants in the Sinai Peninsula have the same psychoactive components as ones found in the Amazon jungle and are well-known for their mind-altering capabilities. The drugs are usually combined in a drink called ayahuasca. "As far as 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 effects of narcotics," he told Israel Radio in an interview Tuesday. The description in The Book of Exodus of thunder, lightening and a blaring trumpet, according to Shanon, are the classic imaginings of people under the influence of drugs. As for the vision of the burning bush, well obviously that too was a drug-fueled hallucination, according to Shanon. "In advanced forms of ayahuasca inebriation," he wrote, "the seeing of light is accompanied by profound religious and spiritual feelings." Shanon admits he took some of these drugs while in the Amazon in 1991. "I experienced visions that had spiritual-religious connotations," he said. The initial reaction to this controversial theory from Israel's religiously orthodox community and the powerful rabbis who lead it was less than enthusiastic. Orthodox rabbi Yuval Sherlow, quoted by Reuters speaking on Israel radio, said: "The Bible is trying to convey a very profound event. We have to fear not for the fate of the biblical Moses, but for the fate of science.""

Love the Leary/Moses pic.

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"Turn on. Tune in. Amen."

3/6/2008 4:55:08 PM

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"The description in The Book of Exodus of thunder, lightening and a blaring trumpet, according to Shanon, are the classic imaginings of people under the influence of drugs."

haha. a blaring trumpet is a classic hallucination while on drugs??

3/6/2008 5:01:42 PM

i guess if you don't believe in ANY higher power, then this makes total sense

to the VAST majority of the rest of the world, this is just plain stupid

3/6/2008 5:06:40 PM

lets get stoned and listen to Dizzy" Gillespie

3/6/2008 5:09:05 PM

the vast majority of the world is stupid anyway so thats not exactly a strong selling point for your opinion

3/6/2008 5:19:17 PM

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"i guess if you don't believe in ANY higher power, then this makes total sense"

Besides the metric fuckton of South American and Australian natives and the early Jews mentioned in the article, the United States government frankly disagrees...

http://www.wisbar.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=52302

3/6/2008 5:20:45 PM

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"haha. a blaring trumpet is a classic hallucination while on drugs??"

high doses of drugs in the tryptamine family can have some pretty strange effects. Some of them will cause you to hear a constant tone that could be mistaken for a trumpet off in the background. Whereas a person in today's society might relate it to a TV or radio on in the background, back then a person would have related the sound to being a trumpet or an animal - something more common to the times.

3/6/2008 9:24:16 PM