High on Mount Sinai
March 6th, 2008
Benny Shanon, professor of cognitive philosophy at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, thinks Moses and the children of Israel may have been high on a hallucinogenic drug when they received the Ten Commandments. According to Shanon there are two naturally existing plants in the Sinai Peninsula that have psychoactive components that can be combined to make a potent drug cocktail. This beverage would be very similar to a drink called ayahuasca usually found in the Amazon jungle. In an article for the British journal Time and Mind Shanon writes, “In advanced forms of ayahuasca inebriation the seeing of light is accompanied by profound religious and spiritual feelings. On such occasions, one often feels that in seeing the light, one is encountering the ground of all Being … many identify this power as God.”
In an interview with Israel Radio he said, “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 effects of narcotics.”
He also suggested that Moses was probably under the influence when he saw the burning bush. According to Shanon the Exodus account of the bush burning without being “consumed” is evidence of the power of drugs. Of course this is all just speculation since he has no direct proof of any of these claims.
Shanon admits to having first hand knowledge of the affects of the ayahuasca plant, having “partaken of the … brew about 160 times in various locales and contexts”. One wonders whether Professor Shanon was under the influence of ayahuasca while writing his article since this seems to be the extent of his research.
Assuming Shanon has enough healthy brain cells left after 160 mind altering drug trips to engage in rational thought, I have one or two questions that beg answering. What are the odds really that an entire nation would all experience the exact same hallucination at the same time? And not just once, but a number of times, including the plagues of Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, the Egyptian army being thrown into the sea. Were those all just drug induced hallucinations? Man, that’s a lot of ayahuasca. And what about the Ten Commandments? Are we to believe that a hallucination carved this document into tablets of stone that for thousands of years have stood the test of time? Is that really what you want us to believe, Dr. Shanon?
