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Moses was high on drugs: Israeli researcher


Mufumonk

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This should be interesting.........I've long believed this to be the case with John during his exile as well.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080304120710.ad7gm7i6&show_article=1

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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"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.

This part I think is the most important of what you quoted. So basically, its mostly IMHO.
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Personally I believe that God can only be experienced within our own spirits, because the human spirit is the closest thing to God, not some bush or some clouds. Hallucinogenics like shrooms increase your internal awareness to such a degree that its very possible to have personal religious experiences while doing hallucinogenics. I know I experienced God when I was on shrooms. I can imagine that someone who spends a lot of their time thinking about God would probably have a much bigger magnitude religious experience.

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I've done some minor research into this topic. I was curious as to whether some of the "visions," or hallucinations that have been mentioned in the Bible and from other religious types weren't the result of drug use. It turns out, people have been getting stoned for years. There are also many other physical reasons that people might hallucinate besides drug use. Obviously, there is no way to say that Moses, or Jesus, or anyone else was doing drugs, but I'd like to think so. It would raise their respect in my eyes, like, twenty notches, man. I bet they were into Dylan.

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Here's another article on the subject.

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."

So he's guessing, he has no proof, and doesn't expect that he could even find proof to support his theory if he wanted to. I guess that makes rational debate regarding his hypothesis somewhat difficult. :)

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Personally I believe that God can only be experienced within our own spirits, because the human spirit is the closest thing to God, not some bush or some clouds. Hallucinogenics like shrooms increase your internal awareness to such a degree that its very possible to have personal religious experiences while doing hallucinogenics. I know I experienced God when I was on shrooms. I can imagine that someone who spends a lot of their time thinking about God would probably have a much bigger magnitude religious experience.

I have had deeply spiritual experiences on hallucinogens. But I have also had very alien experiences as well. Just saying. It's a common effect under some of the more intense natural substances.

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I've done some minor research into this topic. I was curious as to whether some of the "visions," or hallucinations that have been mentioned in the Bible and from other religious types weren't the result of drug use. It turns out, people have been getting stoned for years.

It's very likely that this is how John's "revelations" came to be. Psychotropic mushrooms were extremely abundant in the area of his exile.

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Seeing sounds? Hearing God deliver the Ten Commandments? Anyone who believes the cause was anything besides the use of hallucinogenic drugs is a bit lost.

Man, and to think, the course of this whole world changed by a drug. I guess it's true what they say, its power can't be overestimated.

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Look - I'm not exactly a religious guy, and I believe about 90% of the bible stories are symbolic, exaggerated, or false...

However -This is the worst argument ever.

Basically - She says "Well, the only way to explain the story is either it's 100% true and God Spoke to him, or it's 100% made up, or he was on Drugs. Since I don't personally believe the first or the second reason, it must be drugs...."

2nd - Who is top say that EVEN if he was on Drugs, that still wasn't God that spoke to him. If God is all powerful, perhaps that was how he was able to get Moses to listen to him without screaming "Holly ****, I'm hearing voices!"

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2nd - Who is top say that EVEN if he was on Drugs, that still wasn't God that spoke to him. If God is all powerful, perhaps that was how he was able to get Moses to listen to him without screaming "Holly ****, I'm hearing voices!"
That made me :laugh:
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Seeing sounds? Hearing God deliver the Ten Commandments? Anyone who believes the cause was anything besides the use of hallucinogenic drugs is a bit dense.

Yeah, well there's a little problem with this conclusion. Fact: People have deeply spiritual experiences including visions, voices, and the like, every day, and many of them are teetotalers. Just walk into a Charismatic church some time.

You don't even need God to explain this, necessarily. There's also mental illness, mass hysteria, self-hypnosis, and a variety of other phenomena that can explain such things, apart from drugs.

And, of course, God is still a perfectly valid explanation as well.

And so, without any proof, it's just a guess, and to be honest, it's not even a particularly good one.

Sorry. :)

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