Ancient Hebrews And Ethneogens

[steve_bank]

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2752/175169608783489116

Biblical Entheogens: a Speculative Hypothesis

Abstract

A speculative hypothesis is presented according to which the ancient Israelite religion was associated with the use of entheogens (mind-altering plants used in sacramental contexts). The hypothesis is based on a new look at texts of the Old Testament pertaining to the life of Moses. The ideas entertained here were primarily based on the fact that in the arid areas of the Sinai peninsula and Southern Israel there grow two plants containing the same psychoactive molecules found in the plants from which the powerful Amazonian hallucinogenic brew Ayahuasca is prepared. The two plants are species of Acacia tree and the bush Peganum harmala.The hypothesis is corroborated by comparative experiential-phenomenological observations, linguistic considerations, exegesis of old Jewish texts and other ancient Mideastern traditions, anthropological lore, and ethnobotanical data.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233597014_Biblical_Entheogens_a_Speculative_Hypothesis

It makes sense that the ancient Hebrews had their own psychoactive brew.

Of the three Abrahamic faiths, the Jewish religion offers the most clues that early prophetic consciousness involved the sacramental use of entheogenic plants. Let us take a brief look. There are at least three profound passages in the Tanakh — the Hebrew Bible — (also known as the Christian Old Testament) that indicate this. Firstly, In Exodus 3, an angel appears out of a burning bush to Moses, which leads to Moses hearing the call of God. In a nod back to earlier Egyptian and Assyrian/Sumerian practice, some scholars suggest that Moses was burning Acacia Nilotica, a rich source of DMT and the “Tree of Life” from antiquity.

Secondly, in Exodus Chapter 16, a “fine, scale like thing” appeared “upon the face of the wilderness”, which Moses explains is the “bread which the LORD hath given you to eat” while in the desert. It has been suggested many times that this “Manna from heaven” refers to the psilocybin mushroom.

Again, in Genesis Chapter 32, Jacob wrestles with a man, and through this experience becomes “Israel”, naming the place “Peniel” where the struggle took place. As with Moses and the Burning Bush, Jacob has an experience of light, “And the sun rose upon him as he passed over Peniel”, suggesting that the transfigured experience may have had an entheogenic origin, and may of course also relate to the pineal gland as the gateway towards mystical experience.

In the 70s I read John Lilly's book Cnter Of Th Cyclone. In the 60s he combined salt water isolation tanks with LSD.

You Float in brine dense enough to keep you afloat with the water at body temrture wering an O2 mask. With the water at body temp you loose the sense of a body environment boundary.

He had viid hallucinations. He aid he had conversations with the likes of Buddha and Moses. They'd walk up.

To ancent people withut science would naturally think such experiences drug induced or otherwise were real.

Statring in the 60s the combination of music and drugs became a mystical experience for mainstrem people.

 

[Tharmas]

Back in the Sixties there was a book that caused a stir, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross, by John Allegro. His thesis was that early Christianity had originated in psychedelic mushroom cults. Even though back in the Sixties I was myself doing psychedelic mushrooms, whether sacred or not, I thought Allegro's book was a bit of a stretch.

I remember Lily's work. Didn't he also talk with Dolphins?

 

[steve_bank]

As I recall he was diinng barin surgery on live dolphins until he concluded they had awareness and consiosness.