MOSES WAS HIGH ON MT. SINAI: RESEARCHER

Mind-Altering Drugs Common in Biblical Times, Professor Says

JERUSALEM - High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic drugs when
he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, an Israeli researcher
claims 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 first issue of Time and Mind, a new
peer-reviewed British journal.

"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," Prof. Shanon told Israeli public radio yesterday.

Moses was probably also on drugs when he saw the "burning bush,"
suggested the Israeli researcher, who said he himself has dabbled
with such substances.

"The Bible says people see sounds, and that is a classic 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,"
said Prof. Shanon, who claims he has used ayahuasca more than 100
times. 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.

Some biblical scholars were unimpressed.

Yuval Sherlow, an Orthodox rabbi, told Israel Radio, "The Bible is
trying to convey a very profound event. We have to fear not for the
fate of the biblical Moses, but for the fate of science."