Researcher: Moses was tripping at Mount Sinai
By Ofri Ilani, Haaretz Correspondent
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/960403.html
"And all the people perceived the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voice of the horn, and the mountain smoking." Thus the book of Exodus describes the impressive moment of the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.
The "perceiving of the voices" has been interpreted endlessly since these words were first written. When Professor Benny Shanon, professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, reads the verse, he recalls a powerful hallucinatory experience he had when he visited the Amazon and drank a potion made from a plant called ayahuasca.
"One of the things that happens when you drink the potion is a visual experience created via sounds," he says.
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."
...
He believes the Israelites used two plants in Sinai and the Negev: one of them is wild rue, a hallucinogen used by the Bedoin to this day. However this plant is not identified with any plant mentioned in the Bible.
The acacia tree also has psychedelic properties, Shanon says, which the Israelites could have used. The acacia is mentioned frequently in the Bible, and was the type of wood of which the Ark of the Covenant was made.
...
Full Version: Tripping our way to the Torah
I thought the official story was that nothing ever happened at mt sinai
[Whoever knows what was here.]
How would they explain everyone hearing/seeing the same sounds/things?
The "potion" would have affected everyone differently.
Just a thought.
The "potion" would have affected everyone differently.
Just a thought.
QUOTE (Kalashnikover_Rebbe @ Mar 4 2008, 07:48 AM) 
Researcher: Moses was tripping at Mount Sinai
By Ofri Ilani, Haaretz Correspondent
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/960403.html
"And all the people perceived the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voice of the horn, and the mountain smoking." Thus the book of Exodus describes the impressive moment of the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.
The "perceiving of the voices" has been interpreted endlessly since these words were first written. When Professor Benny Shanon, professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, reads the verse, he recalls a powerful hallucinatory experience he had when he visited the Amazon and drank a potion made from a plant called ayahuasca.
"One of the things that happens when you drink the potion is a visual experience created via sounds," he says.
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."
...
He believes the Israelites used two plants in Sinai and the Negev: one of them is wild rue, a hallucinogen used by the Bedoin to this day. However this plant is not identified with any plant mentioned in the Bible.
The acacia tree also has psychedelic properties, Shanon says, which the Israelites could have used. The acacia is mentioned frequently in the Bible, and was the type of wood of which the Ark of the Covenant was made.
...
By Ofri Ilani, Haaretz Correspondent
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/960403.html
"And all the people perceived the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voice of the horn, and the mountain smoking." Thus the book of Exodus describes the impressive moment of the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.
The "perceiving of the voices" has been interpreted endlessly since these words were first written. When Professor Benny Shanon, professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, reads the verse, he recalls a powerful hallucinatory experience he had when he visited the Amazon and drank a potion made from a plant called ayahuasca.
"One of the things that happens when you drink the potion is a visual experience created via sounds," he says.
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."
...
He believes the Israelites used two plants in Sinai and the Negev: one of them is wild rue, a hallucinogen used by the Bedoin to this day. However this plant is not identified with any plant mentioned in the Bible.
The acacia tree also has psychedelic properties, Shanon says, which the Israelites could have used. The acacia is mentioned frequently in the Bible, and was the type of wood of which the Ark of the Covenant was made.
...
Syrian rue is just a MAOI (harmine, harmaline and a few other tryptamine alkaloids) and has very mild if any "tripping" properties on its own. Moreover, paradoxically MAOIs are known to reduce and mitigate effects of ergotamine derivates (modern day LSD-25; then - ergot fungus). Thirdly, a collective trip of so many people hallucinating to the same tune would be more of a miracle then Kriyas Yam Suf.
QUOTE (shaya_getzl @ Mar 4 2008, 12:33 PM)
Syrian rue is just a MAOI (harmine, harmaline and a few other tryptamine alkaloids) and has very mild if any "tripping" properties on its own. Moreover, paradoxically MAOIs are known to reduce and mitigate effects of ergotamine derivates (modern day LSD-25; then - ergot fungus). Thirdly, a collective trip of so many people hallucinating to the same tune would be more of a miracle then Kriyas Yam Suf.
Correct, MAOI acts as an enzyme (MAO) Inhibiter for the actual active chemical - psychotria viridis leaves (DMT) to get through the digestive system into the bloodstream intact.
If not digested, DMT doesn't require an MAOI. Smoking DMT produces some of the most intense hallucinatory experiences attained (so I hear).
What's interesting, is that there are anecdotal accounts of two people tripping on DMT and seeing the same [alternate] reality and even being able to interact with each other navigating this reality.
Of course, I don't believe these anecdotal accounts by even one iota. And, whatever the article above says is heretical.
QUOTE (Natanel @ Mar 4 2008, 08:20 AM)
I thought the official story was that nothing ever happened at mt sinai
QUOTE (Natanel @ Mar 4 2008, 08:20 AM)
I thought the official story was that nothing ever happened at mt sinai
Hypothetically speaking
QUOTE (int @ Mar 4 2008, 12:51 PM)
Correct, MAOI acts as an enzyme (MAO) Inhibiter for the actual active chemical - psychotria viridis leaves (DMT) to get through the digestive system into the bloodstream intact.
If not digested, DMT doesn't require an MAOI. Smoking DMT produces some of the most intense hallucinatory experiences attained (so I hear).
What's interesting, is that there are anecdotal accounts of two people tripping on DMT and seeing the same [alternate] reality and even being able to interact with each other navigating this reality.
If not digested, DMT doesn't require an MAOI. Smoking DMT produces some of the most intense hallucinatory experiences attained (so I hear).
What's interesting, is that there are anecdotal accounts of two people tripping on DMT and seeing the same [alternate] reality and even being able to interact with each other navigating this reality.
Don't believe those junky hippies.
QUOTE
Of course, I don't believe these anecdotal accounts by even one iota. And, whatever the article above says is heretical.
That stems out of the last name of the professor.
QUOTE (int @ Mar 4 2008, 07:51 PM)
What's interesting, is that there are anecdotal accounts of two people tripping on DMT and seeing the same [alternate] reality and even being able to interact with each other navigating this reality.
Yeah - that happened on an episode of the X-files!
Here's another link about it:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=08...;show_article=1
<clip>
"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.
<clip>
There we go!
QUOTE (Pinchas @ Mar 4 2008, 02:12 PM)
Yeah - that happened on an episode of the X-files!
Here's another link about it:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=08...;show_article=1
<clip>
"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.
<clip>
There we go!
Here's another link about it:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=08...;show_article=1
<clip>
"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.
<clip>
There we go!
Why doesn't he allow for both ?
QUOTE (shaya_getzl @ Mar 4 2008, 09:17 PM)
Why doesn't he allow for both ?
What's curious is that even he admits something happened a Sinai... I wonder why?
QUOTE (Pinchas @ Mar 4 2008, 02:39 PM)
What's curious is that even he admits something happened a Sinai... I wonder why?
Because he probably got high there ...
QUOTE (shaya_getzl @ Mar 4 2008, 10:28 PM)
Because he probably got high there ...
And to think Sinai wasn't even the highest mountain! *rimshot*
QUOTE (Pinchas @ Mar 4 2008, 09:39 PM)
What's curious is that even he admits something happened a Sinai... I wonder why?
It's sort of like the Holocaust denying A-rabs who run to compare Israel to the Nazis at every given opportunity.....
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