Moses was high on drugs: Israeli researcher (AFP)

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Moses was high on drugs: Israeli researcher

JERUSALEM (AFP) - 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.

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Wow, what a laughable attempt at attacking the Bible!! !

DMT is quickly metabolized by the body, there's no internal evidence to suggest that was the case, and for six million people to all have enough to overcome the metabolic rate at which the body consumes it all so they can hear the same voice? That's stupid. Plus the Egyptians would have quite an easy time conquering and regaining their slaves if they were all doped out. If the miracles were all delusions, the Egyptians might look at them funny, but they wouldn't be scared and certainly wouldn't pay them to leave. Shanon's "hypothesis" barely makes it to "conjecture" level in my book.

Last edited by iamnotaparakeet on 08 Mar 2008, 5:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I was just reading the ten commandments today actually, and you don't have to be high on drugs to express these sort of ideas. ( Science is guilty of similar pronouncements, with equal conviction. One god, only god, no other gods, not take name of science in vain, i have brought you out of the pre-industrial age, now stop using cars, stop coveting all those consumer goods, or you will be scattered all over, reduced in numbers etc).

However seriously i think it is perfectly possible that Moses had been "listening" to god.

I don't think drugs could have allowed Moses to deliver his people from the Egyptians nor would drugs explain the miracles performed to Pharoah.

ROFL, I hate when people take on that whole stuffy tone and start calling it all 'narcotics' - makes me so glad I'm not certain people or living their lives....and yes, that I have tried 'narcotics'.

That said though, I find it quite possible that Moses was tripping, still enough things about the Seven Plagues and the parting of the Red Sea remain, while all having very explainable natural causes, things that unless Moses was the first supergenious of a geophysicist he - more than likely - had contact with some very real outside force.

Could just be that God wanted to give him a visual aid for what he wanted him to see, probably because making that literally 'real' would have been too traumatic and wouldn't have had Moses in the right sort of emotional frame for it, and as 'god' if he/it exists really prefers not to disrupt natural order I don't find it all that surprising.

Doesn't invalidate the book of Exodus IMO but it really makes me realize just how ignorant and closed-minded our society has been when it comes to psychedelics.

If this is to be believed, then the entirety of the Israelites would have to be tripping as well, as it was a NATIONAL revelation (Exodus 20:14).

Heh there, how come there are no traces of any plagues in the archeological record in Egypt then? How come biblical researchers put the time of the exodus in the middle time of great wealth in egypt? The plagues would probably, maybe reduced this?

The Egyptians followed "the present is the key to the past" and erased anything from their records that would be a blemish on their history, particularly as it relates to their "gods" being useless and Pharaoh, descendant of Ra, not being able to hold on to their slaves.

everyone in the bible was either on drugs or mentally ill

Free thinking... more like irrational thinking.



If it were two oppositional categories, such as "All people in the Bible are either God's children or not God's children" it would be closer to a correct statement. Instead your statement was close to, "All people in the Bible could not properly perceive events correctly." Which is more than likely false because it is a universal statement.

that too

You laugh at yourself?

uh no? i'm laughing at all the free thinking and irrational aspects of the bible dude

Thou hast no comprehension of grammar in thy manner.

I apologize, I shouldn't make fun of you. Your grammar and spelling are atrocious though, which lends itself to ridicule. I'll not make fun of you, but it would be nice if you improved these items and made less universal statements.

Rocky Mt Sinai-High topic

How did I almost miss this one!

Moses, Moses is this the only way to see the Almighty when still alive?

No wonder he had that look in his eye! Excuse me, while I touch the sky!

Thanks, MrMark. This is priceless. For everything else you spend money!