Benny Shanon, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (not a professor of history, comparative religion, or theology but of...uh...cognitive psychology) has decided to enlighten the world by setting the record straight -- Moses was a druggie.You see, the way that Professor Shanon figures it, "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."
Despite having no historical evidence whatever for his theory, Shanon maintains that mind-altering substances were an integral part of the Israelites' religion in biblical times. This explains, for the iconoclastic professor anyhow, the stories behind the burning bush and other experiences that the patriarchs mistakenly interpreted as encounters with God.
Shanon admits his theory has some connections to his own experience with psychedelic drugs, mentioning particularly his quaffing down a hallucinogenic brew back in 1991 at a tribal religious ceremony in Brazil. (see above photo.) "I experienced visions that had spiritual-religious connotations," Shanon said. However, Dr. Shanon has a long history of pursuing mind-expansion through drug use, experiences that led to the 2002 publication of Antipodes of the Mind: Charting the Phenomenology of the Ayahuasca Experience for Oxford University Press.
It's too bad Timothy Leary is no longer dreamily with us. It looks as if his weird, wild and grandly nonobjective methods are back in style with modern academia.
Drink up.
