The bible is packed with drug-fuelled visions of miracles and according to a leading academic when Moses met God to receive the Ten Commandments he was on a hallucinogen-induced high.The theory, published this week in international philosophy journal Time and Mind, claims that key events of the Old Testament are actually records of visions by ancient Israelites high on hallucinogenic drugs.
Benny Shannon, a professor at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, where he was head of the psychology department, believes that a popular plant concoction could hold the key to some unexplained “miracles”.
“In the southern regions of the Holy Land and in the Sinai Peninsula there grow two plants containing the molecules that together constitute the key ingredients of one of the most powerful psychedelic substances in existence,” he wrote.
The substance is a drink called Ayahuasca, and is today still used by Amazonians in Brazil for their religious rituals.
The professor came up with the theory when reading the Bible and deciding the events described were similar to visions he had after trying this drink 15 years ago.
Professor Shannon undertook further “research” and textual analysis.
He claims that five accounts of Moses’ life were induced by hallucinogens.
One was the vision of the Burning Bush, which was on fire but not consumed, a miracle explained by the drug-induced sense of time slowing.
Another was Moses’ encounter with God on Mount Sinai, when he received the Ten Commandments and the Bible.
Other Biblical stories are “suggestive that the ancient Israelites regarded psychoactive plants in high esteem.”
These include the story of the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden and accounts of “incense” offerings in the Jerusalem Temple.
1 Comment
March 7, 2008 at 6:17 pm
HAH! I knew it! This is why you should join pastafarianism! Let the flying spaghetti monster’s noodly appendage reach out and touch you all!
Ramen