Moses was stoned when he set Ten Commandments, researcher claims

[Mind's High Mailinglist]

We all know that Moses was high on Mount Sinai when God spoke to him,
but were the Ten Commandments a result of divine inspiration alone?

from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/05/religion.israelandthepalestinians
by: Elizabeth Stewart, Wednesday March 5 2008

An Israeli researcher is claiming in a study published this week the
prophet may have been stoned when he set the Ten Commandments in
stone.

According to Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, psychedelic drugs formed an integral
part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times.

Writing in the Time and Mind journal of philosophy, he says
concoctions based on the bark of the acacia tree, frequently mentioned
in the Old Testament, contain the same molecules as those found in
plants from which the powerful Amazonian hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca
is prepared.

"The thunder, lightning and blaring of a trumpet which the Book of
Exodus says emanated from Mount Sinai could just have been the
imaginings of a people in an altered state of awareness," writes
Shanon. "In advanced forms of ayahuasca inebriation, the seeing of
light is accompanied by profound religious and spiritual feelings."

References in the Bible where people "see" sounds, is another "classic
phenomenon", he said, citing the example of religious ceremonies in
the Amazon in which drugs are used that induce people to "see" music.

Speaking about his article on Israeli public radio, he added: "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 effect of narcotics."

Moses was probably also on mind-altering drugs when he saw the
"burning bush", suggested Shanon, who admitted to dabbling with such
substances.

Speaking of his own experience of ayahuasca during a religious
ceremony in Brazil's Amazon forest in 1991, he said: "I experienced
visions that had spiritual-religious connotations."