Benny Shanon (Hebrew: בני שאנון; born 1948) is a professor of Psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and holds the Mandel Chair in Cognitive Psychology and Education.
Born in Tel Aviv, Shanon studied philosophy and linguistics at Tel Aviv University and received his doctorate in experimental psychology from Stanford University. He is author of the 2002 book Antipodes of the Mind: Charting the Phenomenology of the Ayahuasca Experience published by Oxford University Press.
Benny Shanon is known for his controversial theory that the patriarch Moses was under the influence of hallucinogens when he received the law. Specifically, he believes that a psychedelic cocktail similar to ayahuasca may explain Moses's vision of the burning bush: "In advanced forms of ayahuasca inebriation, the seeing of light is accompanied by profound religious and spiritual feelings."[1]
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Page 1
Time and Mind Volume 1—Issue 1—March 2008, pp. 51–74
Time and Mind:
The Journal of
Archaeology
Consciousness
and Culture
Volume I—Issue I
March 2008
pp. 51–74
Reprints available directly
from the publishers
Photocopying permitted by
licence only
© Berg 2008
Biblical Entheogens:
a Speculative
Hypothesis
1
Benny Shanon
Benny Shanon is Professor of psychology at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem (Israel). His main foci of research
are the phenomenology of human consciousness and the
philosophy of psychology. His publications include The
Representational and the Presentational (1993) and The
Antipodes of the Mind (2002). At present, he is working on
a book devoted to a general psychological theory of human
consciousness.
[email protected]
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.
Keywords: entheogens, psychedelic, psychotropic,
shamanism, Old Testament, Acacia, Peganum harmala,
Ayahuasca
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52 Biblical Entheogens: A Speculative Hypothesis
Benny Shanon
Time and Mind Volume 1—Issue 1—March 2008, pp. 51–74
In his book Poisons sacrés, ivresses divines
(which, to my knowledge, has not been
translated into English), Philippe de Félice
(1970 [1936]) reviews various cultures
throughout the world and notes the use of
psychotropic substances in them.The use
of such substances, most of which fall in
our contemporary Western culture under
the label “drug,” has in many traditions
been considered sacred. Indeed, de Félice
points out that in many religions, both in
the old world and in the new, the use of
such substances was (and often still is)
central.The substances, or the plants from
which they were produced, were deemed
holy and at times even divine. De Félice
puts forward the hypothesis that the
use of psychotropic substances is deeply
embedded in human culture and intrinsically
intertwined with what he characterizes as
the most basic human instinct—the search
for transcendence.Thus, he proposes, the use
of psychotropic substances is at the root of
perhaps all religions.
Subsequently, similar ideas have been
expounded in various different quarters.
Indeed, an increasing number of people refer
to the psychoactive agents more generally
known as psychedelic (mind-expanding) or
hallucinogenic by the term entheogen—that
is, agents that bring one in touch with the
Divine within.This term was coined by Ruck
et al. (1979) and further discussed by Ott
(1996) and by Jesse (2001). For discussions
of the relationship between entheogens
and the origin of religion, as well as that of
the use of entheogens in religious practices,
the reader is referred to La Barre (1972),
Wasson et al. (1986), Ott (1995), Smith
(1964, 2000), the anthologies edited by
Forte (1997), Roberts (2001), and Labate
and Goulart (2005) as well as Devereux
(1997) and Rudgley (1993), the reviews by
Shanon (2001b, 2002c) and the non-scientific
proposals of McKenna (1992). A modern
experimental study of the religious import
of psychoactive substances is that of Pahnke
(1972); illuminating intellectual discussions
of the spiritual and religious significance of
entheogens are offered in Smith (1964, 1976,
2000).
The recourse of powerful psychoactive
plants and preparations in order to establish
contact with the higher realms of spirituality
has been at the very heart of shamanic
practices all over the globe. Special mention
will be made below of the major instrument
of Amazonian shamanism, the hallucinogenic
brew Ayahuasca. Psychoactive plants and
substances were also prominent in the urban
cultures of pre-Colombian America—the
Aztec, the Mayan and the Incaic. For
further information the reader is referred
to Dobkin de Rios (1984), Harner (1972,
1973), Langdon (1979), Langdon and Baer
(1992), Reichel-Dolmatoff (1975, 1978),
Walsh (1990), and Winkelman (1995, 2000).
Further information on hallucinogens and
their role in traditional cultures is found in
Dobkin de Rios (1984), Furst (1976, 1990),
Harner (1973), Ott (1993), and Schultes
and Hoffman (1992). For works especially
concerned with pre-Colombian America
see Emboden (1981, 1982), Emboden and
Dobkin de Rios (1981), Ott and Wasson
(1983), Ripinsky-Naxon (1998), Schultes
(1972), Schultes and Winkelman (1995), and
Wasson (1961, 1980).
But psychoactive plants and substances
also played a key role in the religions of the
old world. Wasson (1968) proposed that
Soma, the magical nectar of the Hindu Vedas,
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Benny Shanon
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Time and Mind Volume 1—Issue 1—March 2008, pp. 51–74
was actually an infusion of a hallucinogenic
mushroom, Amanita muscaria.The sacred
drink employed in ancient Zoroastrian
religion, the Homa or Haoma, was also
suggested to be a psychoactive agent, its
constituent plant being the shrub Peganum
harmala (harmal in Arabic). Indeed, Flattery
and Schwartz (1989) argue that the
Indian Soma was made of this shrub, not
of a mushroom as suggested by
Wasson.
The literary evidence concerning
the prominence of altered states of
consciousness in the religious rites of ancient
Figure 1 Peganum Harmala
(photo:Avinoam Danin)
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54 Biblical Entheogens: A Speculative Hypothesis
Benny Shanon
Time and Mind Volume 1—Issue 1—March 2008, pp. 51–74
India and Persia is quite abundant.The Rig
Veda, the oldest classical Vedic scripture,
is a compendium of hymns to Soma. In
these, worshipers often praise the brew as
a divinity and mark the special effects that
it has induced in them. Zoroastrian hymns
to Homa are similar.The following are my
own free translations of textual examples
presented in de Félice (1970 [1936]):
Oh, King Soma, prolong our lives
Like the sun who nourishes the days every
morning.
*
The Soma is full of intelligence
It inspires man with enthusiasm
It makes the poets sing.
*
We have drunk the Soma: we have come
to be immortal, we have arrived at
the Light, we have reached the Gods.
*
Half of me is in the skies, and the other
extends to the low depths
Have I drunk Soma?
I am tall to the utmost, my elevation
reaches the clouds
Have I drunk Soma?
(Rig Veda)
Oh Haoma of gold, I am asking you for
wisdom, force, victory, health,
healing, prosperity and grandeur.
(Zen Avesta)
As for ancient Europe,Wasson and his
collaborators (Wasson, Hoffman, and Ruck,
1978; Wasson et al. 1986) proposed that at
the center of the famous Greek mysteries of
Eleusis was the consumption of yet another
psychoactive brew, one containing ergot
alkaloids. (See also Ruck 2006, where the
entheogenic role of mushrooms is discussed.)
Suggestions have been made that the
three great monotheistic religions of the
West—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—also
have their roots in the consumption of
psychoactive substances. In his famous and
controversialThe Sacred Mushroom and the
Cross,Allegro (1970) associated the origin
of Christianity to a psychoactive mushroom;
this work is primarily based on philological
analysis. Other entheogenic theories
concerning early Christianity were later put
forth by Ruck, Staples, and Heinrich (2001)
and Ruck (2006) as well as by Bennett and
McQueen (2001) and, most recently, Gosso
and Camilla (2007). In particular, basing their
argumentation on the analysis of works
of art and textual exegesis, Ruck and his
associates proposed that early Christianity
involved the use of psychoactive mushrooms.
Further religious artwork from medieval
Spain and Italy portrays associations between
datura and sacred knowledge, hence a
possible indication of an entheogenic use of
this potent psychoactive plant (Celdrán and
Ruck 2001).
Similar suggestions were also made
in conjunction with Islam. Studying Arab
and Bedouin folklore in southern Jordan,
the independent investigator Rami Sadji
hypothesized that Islam and pre-Islamic
Arab religion are grounded in the use
of entheogens (Sajdi at
www.acacialand.
com). And just as this manuscript went
to press, a most interesting scholarly work
discussing entheogens in Islam appeared (see
Dannaway, Piper, and Webster 2006).
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Time and Mind Volume 1—Issue 1—March 2008, pp. 51–74
This paper is concerned with Judaism.
Merkur (1985, 2001), a psychoanalyst
and student of religion, proposed that the
Manna the people of Israel received from
heaven during their wandering through
the Sinai desert was actually an entheogen.
Here I would like to put forth a hypothesis,
admittedly speculative, regarding other
enteogenic uses in early Hebrew religion.
Before turning to the subject matter
itself, I would like to clarify the nature of
my involvement in the issues at hand. I am
a cognitive psychologist and a philosopher
of psychology whose main professional
concern is the phenomenology of human
consciousness. For about twenty-five
years I have been studying normal waking
consciousness, and I have attempted to
formulate a structured theory thereof
(see Shanon 1989, 1998c, in press). Fifteen
years ago, the contingencies of life led me
to encounter the Amazonian powerful
psychoactive brew Ayahuasca, and to
have my first personal experiences with it.
Subsequently, when reading about the topic,
I was struck by the similarity between the
visions I have had with the brew and those
reported in the records of the experiences
of indigenous Amerindians.This made me
entertain the idea that Ayahuasca visions are
not, as anthropologists have claimed (see
Reichel-Dolmatoff 1975), the manifestation
of the fantasies of the minds of primitive
people, but rather a symptom of the working
of the human mind, the mind of Homo
sapiens in general. I shall note that at the
time of my first encounter with Ayahuasca
practically all scientific studies of this brew
belonged either to the natural sciences
(botany, pharmacology, physiology, and
medicine) or to cultural anthropology. My
assessment, however, is that in its essence,
the phenomenon at hand pertains to the
realm of internal experience, and thus to
the discipline concerned with mind and
consciousness. In line with the pioneering
insights of William James (1929) and
Aldous Huxley (1971), I regard the study
of psychoactive plants and their effects as a
most precious avenue for the study of the
human cognitive system in general and of the
phenomenon of consciousness in particular.
Thus, I have launched the first cognitive-
psychological study of Ayahuasca ever
conducted.
Empirically, my work is based on the
interviewing of a large number of persons
coming from different locales and contexts
of use as well as on my own extensive
experience with this brew. (I have partaken
of it about 160 times in various locales
and contexts.
2
) Theoretically, this research
project presents a systematic, comprehensive
charting of the various facets of the
Ayahuasca experience and offers a novel
theoretical framework to conceptualize them
from a cognitive psychological perspective.
The results of these investigations are
reported in my comprehensive monograph
The Antipodes of the Mind (Shanon 2002a)
as well as in Shanon (1998a, 1998b,
2002b, 2003a, 2003c). One main finding
of my research is that, indeed,Ayahuasca
visions exhibit significant inter-personal
commonalities that defy socio-cultural
variations.
Lastly by way of introduction, I am a
Jew who, though not observant, finds the
Jewish textual heritage to be personally
very meaningful. Following my experiences
with Ayahuasca, I came to regard various
aspects of the Jewish heritage from a new
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Time and Mind Volume 1—Issue 1—March 2008, pp. 51–74
perspective. Propelled by ideas on the role of
entheogens in human history such as those
reviewed above, I am here proposing still
another entheogenic, admittedly speculative,
hypothesis.The hypothesis originated in the
finding of parallels between psychological
effects induced by Ayahuasca and patterns
described in the Bible in conjunction with
special experiences and events in the life
of the founder of the Israelite religion and
its greatest prophet, Moses.The hypothesis
is further corroborated by botanical and
ethno-botanical information that I have
collected, by linguistic considerations, by the
exegesis of Talmudic and mystical Jewish texts,
by anthropological information pertaining
to Jewish and Mideastern traditional lore,
as well as by psychedelic data pertaining to
a concoction analogous to Ayahuasca.The
textual and empirical information discussed
below was gathered from various domains
and pertains to a variety of academic and
cultural disciplines. Some of the findings
noted here are new, and the bringing of
the different elements together is originally
mine. All told, I would say that this research
has been conducted in a way similar to
that of an independent detective-like
investigation.
Ayahuasca
Before I turn to Moses and the Bible, let me
present some further information about
Ayahuasca and about the Mideastern bush,
harmal.
Ayahuasca is one of the most important,
and most powerful, of the psychoactive
agents employed in Amerindian cultures
(see Schultes 1982). Etymologically,“aya-
huasca” in Quechua (the language of the
Inca empire) is a compound word meaning
“the vine of the spirits” or “the vine of
death.”The brew is made out of two plants.
Usually, the first is Banisteriopsis caapi
(Malpighiaceae), a liana, whereas the second
is Psychotria viridis (Rubiacaea), a bush which
in the vernacular is referred to as chacruna.
In common parlance, the term Ayahuasca
is used to refer not only to the brew but
also to the first of the two constituent
plants.The indigenous peoples of the upper
Amazon region have used Ayahuasca for
millennia, and in the vast region including
western Brazil and the eastern areas of
Ecuador, Peru and Colombia,Ayahuasca has
been the main pillar of the native culture. In
the past,Ayahuasca was used for all major
decisions of a tribe, particularly declaring
war and locating game for hunting. It was
also at the center of initiation rites.Today,
Ayahuasca remains a common instrument of
shamans and medicine-men (see for instance
Reichel-Dolmatoff 1971, 1975, 1978; as well
as Dobkin de Rios 1972, 1992; Langdon,
1979, and Luna 1986).The brew also serves
as a pivotal sacrament in several new
syncretic religions that bring together the old
Amerindian traditions of the Amazon and
popular Christianity (see Labate and Sena
Araújo 2002; Polari 1999).
Typically,Ayahuasca induces powerful
visions as well as hallucinations in all
other perceptual modalities. Pronounced
nonperceptual cognitive effects are also
manifest.These include personal insights,
intellectual ideations, affective reactions and
profound spiritual and mystical experiences.
Moreover,Ayahuasca may introduce those
who partake of it to what are experienced
as other realities.Those who consume the
brew may feel that they are gaining access
to new sources of knowledge and that the
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mysteries and ultimate truths of the universe
are being revealed to them. All this is often
coupled with what Ayahuasca drinkers
describe as an encounter with the Divine.
Chemically, the main active constituents
of the brew are the alkaloids N,N-
Dimethyltryptamine or DMT, harmine, and
harmaline.The first is a potent hallucinogen,
but it is inactive when taken orally.The
deactivation of DMT is itself blocked by
the other constituents, all beta-carbolines
which are monoamine oxidase (MAO)
inhibitors.The beta-carbolines protect the
DMT from deamination by the MAO and
thus render it orally active. (For a classical
review, see Schultes 1972; for more recent
comprehensive discussions, see Ott 1993,
1994, as well as Strassman 2001.)
The consumption of each constituent
of the Ayahuasca potion alone does not
result in hallucinatory effects.
3
For this, the
two indicated plants (or their functional
equivalents) are needed. Specifically, DMT,
the substance inducing the hallucinations, is
found in the chacruna, whereas the other
compounds are found in the Ayahuasca
vine. It is often said that the first constituent
gives light, whereas the second gives forceful
energy, but for the hallucinogenic effects
the combination of the two is necessary.
At times, alternative constituent plants
are used, but the basic principle is always
maintained: one plant contains DMT
whereas the second contains the MAO
inhibitors.
As noted above in Brazil there are several
syncretic religions combining Christian and/or
African traditions with Ayahuasca rituals.
In one such religion, the Church of Santo
Daime, hymns are sung during the Ayahuasca
(in that context the brew is called Daime—in
vernacular Brazilian Portuguese,“give me”)
session. Personally, I was very much struck
by the great similarity between many of
these hymns and those of the Vedic and
Zoroastrian traditions.The following are my
own free translations of some representative
fragments of Daime hymns; the interested
reader is referred to MacRae (1992) and
Polari (1999):
Daime force, Daime light
Daime love !
4
*
Daime ... the professor of all professors
*
I have taken this drink
It has incredible power
It demonstrates to all of us
Here in this truth
I have climbed, I have climbed, I have
climbed
I have climbed with joy
When reaching the Heights
I encountered the Virgin Mary
I have climbed, I have climbed, I have
climbed
I have climbed with love
I have encountered the Eternal Father
And the Redeemer, Jesus Christ
The hymns from which these fragments are
taken are said to have been received by the
founder of the Daime Church, Mestre Irineu
Sera, a rubber-plantation worker who lived in
the Bolivian and Brazilian Amazon during the
early part of the twentieth century. Surely,
he did not know of either the Vedas or of
the Zoroastrian religion. I have cited from
these hymns, even though they pertain to
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Time and Mind Volume 1—Issue 1—March 2008, pp. 51–74
a tradition totally different from that which
is the topic of this paper, to give further
support to the hypothesis, made by Flattery
and Schwartz (1989) and cited above,
according to which the Hindu Soma and
the Iranian Haoma are to be identified with
Peganum harmala, the Near Eastern harmal.
Harmal
The MAO inhibitors harmine and harmaline
contained in Banisteriopsis caapi are also
found in the above mentioned shrub of the
Near East, Peganum harmala. Indeed, the
scientific name of the plant as well as the
names of the active substances in question
derive from the name harmal. In Arabic, this
means “taboo” as well as “sacred.” Of the
same root is the Hebrew word herem, which
means “taboo.”
Having had quite extensive experience
with Ayahuasca, I was curious about harmal.
Following the instructions of Dr. Mina Paran,
a pharmacologist who is an expert on
the medicinal plants of the Land of Israel, I
found a large field of the plant. It was just
in front of the Qumran caves, the home of
the Essenes, the ancient Judaic (and perhaps
proto-Christian) mystic group who lived in
the Judaean desert from the second century
BCE
to the second century
CE
. Qumran is
also the place where the oldest biblical
manuscripts (along with other religious texts),
the so-called Dead Sea scrolls, have been
found. I was startled. Intuitively, it seemed to
me evident: The Essenes must have made
use of this psychoactive plant. I did not have
any empirical proof for this but found the
coincidence most powerful.
In the Bible there is not a single mention
of harmal. Or rather, we do not know of any.
Of course, the old Hebraic text is replete
with names of plants whose botanical
identification we do not know or of which
we cannot be certain.
However, harmal is associated with a long
medicinal tradition in the Near East. Feliks
(1997) reports that a twelfth-century Jewish
encyclopedia-like text describes harmal as
a medicinal plant. Inquiries I have made in
Israel with Jews from Iran and Morocco
confirmed that harmal was traditionally
associated with various magical and curative
powers. In Iran, harmal (known as asphan)
incense was used to exorcize evil spirits,
whereas Moroccan Jews used harmal in
various medical treatments as well as for the
induction of abortion. Further still Yemeni
Jews used the plant to heighten one’s spirit
and in treatments against depression, and
in (Arabian) Egypt it was known to have
hallucinogenic properties (for reviews of
which, see Emboden 1972; Danin 1983;
and Palevitch and Yaniv 1991). Surfing on
the Internet I encountered the above-
mentioned site of the Jordanian researcher
of traditional Bedouin medicine, Rami Sajdi.
Sajdi discovered that Bedouin healers have
used harmal for both medicine and sorcery.
Sajdi also reports on many mythological and
folkloristic tales associated with the plant.
Moses and the Psychedelic
Experience
Let us now go back to the Old Testament,
to Moses. As written in conjunction with
his passing away, at the very end of the
Pentateuch:“There arose not a prophet since
in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord
knew face to face” (Deuteronomy 34:10; see
also Exodus 33:11; all citations in this paper
are taken from the King James translation).
Indeed, in the Jewish tradition it is said that
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whereas all prophets saw the divine through
a speculum that does not shine, only Moses
saw God through a speculum that shines
and spoke to him directly, face to face
(Babylonian Talmud,Tractate Yevamot, 49b);
for further discussion, see Scholem (1993)
and Wolfson (1994).
Following are five episodes in Moses’ life
that struck me as exhibiting patterns that
are typical of psychedelic experiences. More
specifically, all patterns are very similar to
ones that, in my own personal experience
corroborated by interviews with a great
number of other users of the brew, are
encountered while under the effects of
Ayahuasca.
The first episode is Moses’ very first
encounter with God. It took place in the
Sinai desert, where Moses resided with his
father-in-law, Jethro, who was the priest of
the desert people of Midian. Consider the
following:
Moses kept the flock of Jethro ... and he
led the flock to the backside of the desert,
and came to the mountain of God, even
to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord
appeared unto him in a flame of fire out
of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and,
behold, the bush burned with fire, and the
bush was not consumed. And Moses said,
I will now turn aside, and see this great
sight, why the bush is not burnt. And
when the Lord saw that he turned aside
to see, God called unto him out of the
midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses.
And he said, Here am I. (Exodus 3:1–4)
Encountering the Divine is one of the most
powerful experiences associated with high-
level Ayahuasca inebriation, (For an extended
description of the experiences within the
indigenous Amazonian context, the reader
is referred to Payaguaje 1983; for other
examples and further discussion, see Shanon
2002a, 2001b, 2002c.) Experiences of this
kind, however, are private and delicate to
the utmost and I prefer not to comment on
them further. Rather, I would like to focus
on the other element in the description, the
bush which was not consumed.
I propose that this event involved no
change in the real world, having nothing to
do with either the bush or the fire. Rather,
it reflected a radical alteration in the state
of consciousness of the beholder—that
is, Moses. Moses’ sense of time changed,
and an actual moment in physical time was
subjectively perceived as an eternity. Such
altered perception of time is common with
high levels of Ayahuasca inebriation (Shanon
2001a).Thus, gazing at the bush, Moses felt
that much time had passed. In particular,
he felt that enough time had passed for
the bush in front of him to be burnt and
consumed. But in the external physical
domain, only a fraction of a second had
elapsed, hence no actual change in the bush
was perceived.
Also of interest is a comment made by
Feliks (1994) in a lexicon of plants of the
Holy Land. He notes that various (uncited)
investigators have proposed that the bush
was either a plant that produces light
scintillations or that it was a hallucinogen.
In the latter case, he suggests the gum that
grows on acacia trees. We shall return to
acacia below.
A second biblical episode is that of
the encounter of Moses and his brother
Aaron with Pharaoh’s sorcerers. In it both
parties transformed rods into serpents (or
great reptiles). As attested by both the
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Time and Mind Volume 1—Issue 1—March 2008, pp. 51–74
anthropological literature (for a review, see
Luna and Amaringo 1991) and my own
empirical research (Shanon 1998a, 2002a),
in Ayahuasca visions serpents are most
common. Moreover, visions in which rods
and pillars of wood are transformed into
serpents are reported as well.
Third, let me turn to the most sacred and
tremendous event in the Hebrew Bible—
theophany at Mt. Sinai. It is on this occasion
that the Ten Commandments were given and
it was then that the covenant between God
and Israel was established. With this, Israel
was made into a people. All the Children
of Israel were present.They had to prepare
themselves in three days of purification and
sanctification, during which no sexual activity
was allowed. It is said that God came upon
the mountain and that under penalty of
death no one except for Moses was allowed
to step forward:
And it came to pass on the third day in
the morning that there were thunders
and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon
the mount and the voice of the trumpet
exceeding loud; so that all the people
that was in the camp trembled ... And all
the people saw the thunderings, and the
lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet,
and the mountain smoking. (Exodus 19:16;
20:18)
[After the laws were given, the people of
Israel offered sacrifices and]: They saw the
God of Israel and there was under his feet
as it were a paved work of sapphire stone,
and as it were the body of heaven in his
clearness ... And the sight of the glory
of the Lord was like devouring fire on
the top of the mount in the eyes of the
children of Israel. (Exodus 24:10, 17)
There are several features in the foregoing
description that resemble prominent
characteristics of the Ayahuasca experience.
Before I turn to these, however, let me
underline the three-day purification, including
the abstention from sexual activity. In all
traditional contexts of Ayahuasca use, such
restrictions are standard.
5
Turning to the experience of theophany
itself, I shall highlight three features which
are also common with Ayahuasca.The first is
fire. In all contexts of its use, the Ayahuasca
experience is characterized as an encounter
with light. People who have partaken of the
brew often speak of supreme light, many
times in the form of fire. In advanced levels
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—that
which is the source of everything that exists
and the power that sustains the cosmos,
life, and the mind. Many identify this power
as God. In Shanon (2002a), I devote special
discussion to the experiences of supreme
light. By way of example here is a report
furnished by one of my informants:
In front of me was a most brilliant source
of light, like a lantern of many, many facets.
I knew that were I to look at it straight
ahead I would collapse and perhaps
die.Thus, I turned my head. During this
experience, I felt as if I was losing my
sense of self and the faculty of memory.
The second feature to be noted is the
fear of death. Such fear is very common
with Ayahuasca. Indeed, drinkers of the
brew often feel that they are about to die.
Significantly, as noted above, etymologically
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the term “ayahuasca” is associated with
death.
Third is synaesthesia, that is, the blending
of percepts pertaining to different sensory
modalities. In the biblical text cited above,
we read that the Children of Israel saw the
thunder and the noise of the trumpet. Both
a review of the anthropological literature
and my own empirical studies reveal that the
seeing of auditory material is very common
with Ayahuasca. Other synaesthetic effects
are also encountered, but they are less
common (for further discussion, see Shanon
2003d).
Going on with Moses’ life, I now note the
fourth episode:
And Moses said unto the Lord. See, thou
sayest unto me, Bring up this people; and
thou hast not let me know whom thou
wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said, I
know thee by name, and thou hast also
found grace in My sight. Now therefore,
I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy
sight, shew me now thy way, that I may
know thee, that I may find grace in thy
sight ... And he said, My presence shall go
with thee, and I will give thee rest. And
he said unto him, If thy presence go not
with me, carry us not up hence ... And
the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this
thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou
hast found grace in my sight, and I know
thee by name ... And he said, I will make
all my goodness pass before thee, and I
will proclaim the name of the Lord before
thee; and will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious, and will shew mercy on
whom I will shew mercy. And he said,
Thou canst not see my face; for there shall
no man see me, and live. And the Lord
said, Behold, there is a place by me, and
thou shalt stand upon a rock. And it shall
come to pass, while my glory passeth by,
that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock,
and I will cover thee with my hand while
I pass by. And I will take away mine hand
and thou shalt see my back parts; but my
face shall not be seen. (Exodus 33: 12–23)
This episode is most amazing. Indeed, it
has perplexed traditional Jewish scholars
throughout the ages. How can God have a
face and a back? How can any part of Him
be seen? Maimonides, the great Medieval
scholar and rationalist philosopher, explained
that in this context the epithets ‘Face’ and
‘Behind’ refer respectively to higher and
lower levels of man’s understanding of
the Divine or to central or peripheral
aspects of His essence (see Maimonides
1963). But again, the Ayahuasca experience
suggests another explanation. Seeing
creatures without being able to see their
faces is a common aspect of the Ayahuasca
experience.This is explicitly noted in the
folklore of various Amerindian groups and
corroborated in my own investigation. In
one of the interviews I conducted with
non-indigenous experienced drinkers of
Ayahuasca in Rio de Janeiro, in response
to my (standard) query as to the most
impressive Ayahuasca vision that the
informant had had, I received the following
description:
I saw a creature. It was a woman, but not
a normal person, not a regular human
being. I saw this woman clearly, but I could
not see her face. I so much wanted to
see her face, and I implored her Please,
please show your face to me. She walked
forward, away from me, with her back to
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me. I continued to implore her.Very swiftly
she turned her head backwards, towards
me. It was so swift that I could hardly see
anything.The only thing I detected was a
smile. She had smiled at me in a fashion
which was both benevolent and slightly
mocking, as if to indicate how small I was
as a human being. And then she went on
walking with only her back towards me.
What I find most striking in the biblical
description is not only God’s hiding of his
face, but Moses’ entreating. What happens
during an Ayahuasca session, and in particular
what one sees in the visions that the brew
induces, is not merely a function of the
brew itself.The person partaking of the
brew has a most important contribution as
well. With the same quantity of the same
brew, different persons may experience
visions of different degrees, as may a single
person in different contexts. It is as if what
happens during an Ayahuasca session is
an interaction, a pas de deux, between the
brew and the person who has partaken of
it. As every long-term user of Ayahuasca
discovers, with experience one learns to
handle the brew and the mental energies it
generates. And with experience one can go
farther and advance in one’s journeys in the
regions of non-standard consciousness. As
explained in detail in Shanon (2002a, 2002b),
with experience one’s interaction with
one’s visions becomes more active. At the
beginning, one only sees ‘things’, later (or with
higher levels of inebriation), one may step
into scenes. With more experience, one can
interact with the entities, creatures or objects
that one sees in one’s visions. In the most
advanced (hence, rare) cases, one might
even direct (as does the director of a film)
what is going to happen during the vision.
Moreover, whereas the novice is utterly
passive, advanced drinkers of Ayahuasca will
often exercise more effort and attempt to
penetrate the ‘Ayahuasca world’ more deeply.
Some people may be more insistent than
others. Facing a gate, some will venture to
enter, others will be afraid to do so; seeing a
door, some will attempt to open it, whereas
others will pass by; if the door does not
open, some will insist, implore, perhaps pray,
hoping that it eventually opens, revealing
more and more secrets. Indeed, many see
the Ayahuasca experience as precisely
that—an occasion to discover secrets—of
this or other realities. My own investigations
indicate that it is precisely the person with
this attitude (as compared, for instance,
to those who partake of the drink just in
order to be cured and to gain well-being)
who has the most powerful visions. Having
such an attitude is symptomatic of certain
personality traits; these include inquisitiveness,
venturesomeness, courage, daring,
determination, insistence, perseverance, as
well as a propensity to be attracted to the
magical and secretive. Reading the Scriptures
reveals that Moses exhibited all these
personality traits. In fact, we see this in his
very first encounter with the Divine, the first
episode examined here, that of the bush in
the desert.
Not indicated in the biblical texts
associated with Moses is the seeing of
disembodied eyes.This, however, is a feature
noted in the most explicit visual description
of Divine revelation—that in the first
chapter of the book of Ezekiel, known as
the Vision of the Chariot. In an independent
analysis (Shanon 2003b) I have compared
this famous biblical account with powerful
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Ayahuasca visions and marked significant
similarities between the two. I shall note that
the latter are also reminiscent of descriptions
of celestial realms in the Jewish mystical
tradition known as the literature of the
Merkava (chariot) or Heikhalot (palaces),
which spans from the second to the fifth
century
CE
.
The fifth and last item pertaining to
Moses that I would like to mention as
symptomatic of a psychedelic experience is
that noted by all who saw Moses when he
came back the second time from the Mount,
bringing the tables of the Law—the skin of
[Moses’] face shone (Exodus 34:30). I have
found this to be a very common, practically
universal, experience: after Ayahuasca
sessions, people seem to be shining—they
look younger, the skin of their face is smooth,
their eyes are full of light, and they appear to
be especially beautiful.
Let us take count. Inspecting various episodes
in the life of Moses, one encounters striking
similarities with features characteristic of the
altered states of consciousness induced by
the Amazonian brew Ayahuasca. Indeed, the
biblical episodes describe experiences that
are among the most common with this brew.
These include serpentine metamorphosis,
synesthesia, intense light, seeing creatures
without faces and the encounter with the
Divine. Whereas the detection of light
and the encounter with the Divine are not
specific to Ayahuasca, the other features
noted are especially symptomatic of this
particular entheogen. Having established
the basis for the characterization of Moses’
special religious experiences as DMT-induced
altered states of consciousness, let me turn
to the psychotropic substance at hand and
examine whether it could have been within
Moses’ (and that of his fellow Israelites)
reach.The following discussion will attempt
to show that the answer to this question is a
definite yes.
Shittim—a Possible Biblical
Entheogen
In the book of Exodus, immediately following
the account of the Mt. Sinai theophany, we
read:
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto the children of Israel, that they
bring me an offering: of every man that
giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall
take my offering. And this is the offering
which ye shall take of them: gold, and
silver, and brass. And blue, and purple, and
scarlet and fine linen and goats’ hair. And
rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins
and shittim wood. Oil for the light, spices
for anointing oil, and for sweet incense.
Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the
ephod [the high priest’s vestment, B.S.],
and in the breastplate. And let them
make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell
among them. According to all that I shew
thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle,
and the pattern of all the instruments
thereof, even so shall ye make it. And
they shall make an ark of shittim wood ...
and thou shalt overlay it with pure gold,
within and without shalt thou overlay it,
and shalt make upon it a crown of gold
round about ... And thou shalt make
staves of shittim wood, and overlay them
with gold. And thou shalt put the staves
into the rings by the sides of the ark, that
the ark may be borne with them ...Thou
shalt also make a table of shittim wood ...
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and thou shalt overlay it with pure gold,
and make thereto a crown of gold round
about ... and thou shalt set upon the table
shewbread before me always ... And thou
shalt make boards for the tabernacle
of shittim wood standing up ... and thou
shalt make ... sockets of silver under the
... boards ... And thou shalt make bars
of shittim wood ... and thou shalt overlay
the boards with gold. (Exodus 25: 1–14,
15–29, abridged)
And thou shalt make a vail of blue, and
purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen
of cunning work ... And thou shalt make
an hanging for the door of the tent, of
blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine
twined linen, wrought with needlework.
And thou shalt make for the hanging five
pillars of shittim wood, and overlay them
with gold, and their hooks shall be of gold;
and thou shall cast five sockets of brass for
them. (Exodus 26: 31, 36–7)
And thou shalt make an altar of shittim
wood ... and thou shalt overlay it with
brass ... And thou shalt make staves for
the altar, staves of shittim wood, and
overlay them with brass. (Exodus 27: 1, 2, 6)
The materials listed throughout this passage
are precious.This is obvious for gold, silver,
and precious stones.The dyes of blue, purple,
and scarlet were extremely costly in the
ancient Near East and they were highly
valued.The only item that stands out is
‘shittim’, a type of wood. As indicated by
the long citation, this item plays a central
role in the construction of the tabernacle
—the frame of the tent, the ark, the table,
the supportive boards are all made of this
tree.
Let me, before going on, make a linguistic
clarification. In the original Hebrew text, the
expression is “atzei shittim.” Atzei is a plural
form of etz, tree or wood, and shittim is the
plural of shita, acacia.The proper translation
of atzei shittim should have been “acacia
trees”. Indeed, the modern Jerusalem Bible
translates the expression at hand either to
“acacia” or to “acacia wood.”
Why shittim? Traditional Jewish scholars
have explained that the poor, those who
do not have at their possession gold and
silver, should provide wood. I would like
to propose another explanation—the
tree having psychoactive properties.
There are many varieties of the tree,
and it grows not only in the Sinai desert,
but also in Australia, Mexico, and South
America. Subspecies growing in the Sinai
peninsula and in the Negev desert of
southern Israel and containing DMT
are Acacia albida (Mimosaceae), Acacia
lactea (Mimosaceae) and Acacia tortilis
(Mimosaceae). Also containing DMT are
Acacia seyal (Mimosaceae) and Acacia nilotica
(Mimosaceae), which grow in Egypt (see
Shulgin and Shulgin, 1997). Feliks (1997)
proposes that the biblical shittim is Acacia
albida; Duke (1983) associates the shittim
with Acacia seyal. However, Danin (personal
communication), the present-day leading
expert on the plants of the Land of Israel,
has pointed out to me that neither of these
plants grows in the Sinai peninsula. (See
also Alon, 1993; as well as on the Flora of
Israel Online website, <flora.huji.ac.il> and
website of the Hebrew University botanical
gardens <www.botanic.co.il/A/catalog.asp>.)
Thus, the most likely candidates seems to be
Acacia tortilis and Acacia lactea. In sum, while
the particular identification of the biblical
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tree might be unsettled, it is a fact that some
acacia subspecies that grow in the region do
contain DMT.
The acacia tree is mentioned again in later
Jewish texts. In the Talmud (Tractate Gittin,
69b) it is noted that the sap of Acacia serves
as a medicine. In another context, the Talmud
explains that the word shittim is derived
from the word shtut (nonsense) (Tractate
Sanhedrin, 106a). Is this an allusion to the
psychological modifications that this plant
can induce? Curiously, after enumerating the
medicinal qualities of the plant, one Talmudic
interpreter notes that some say that this is
the sneh [the aforementioned bush from the
biblical story] in biblical language (see Krispil
1988). Elsewhere in the Talmud (Tractate
Avoda Zara, 24b) as well as in the early
Jewish hermeneutical texts (Genesis Rabbah,
54) the following extolling poem appears
(cited in Elior 2004, p. 252):
Sing, O sing, acacia tree
Ascend in all thy gracefulness
With golden weave they cover thee,
The devir
6
palace hears thy eulogy
With diverse jewels art thou adorned.
While, to my knowledge, there are no
contemporary data on medicinal or
psychoactive use of acacia in the Near East,
such use is encountered in South America.
The indigenous people of the Brazilian state
of Pernambuco use the bark of the roots
of one species of acacia, Mimosa hostilis
(Mimosaceae) in entheogenic ceremonies;
in the local dialect it is called jurema (see de
Mota 1979, 2005). As explained above in
conjunction with Ayahuasca, for the DMT in
jurema to have an effect, a second plant, one
containing MAO inhibitors, must be added to
it. Dr. Grünewald, a Brazilian anthropologist
who participated in jurema ceremonies,
investigated the matter and could not
discover any other plant admixture (see
Grünewald 2005). I, with him, leave the issue
open.
The acacia was regarded as sacred by
the ancient Egyptians. In their mythologies
the tree enjoys a very special status, being
associated with the birth of the god Osiris
and of that of the pharaohs (Helck 1975).
Osiris was said to have been killed by being
enclosed in a coffin from which an acacia
tree sprouted; out of this tree Osiris (in
other versions, Horus) came out to life.
Indeed, the ancient Egyptians regarded
acacia as the “tree of life” as well as a divine
hypostasis (Koemoth 1994). Later legends
linked the acacia tree with death and the
afterlife. According to the “Book of the
Dead” some children lead the deceased
to the tree, and coffin texts describe that
parts of it were squashed and bruised by
the deceased, and then employed with
magical healing effects (see <
www.pantheon.
org/articles/a/acacia.html>). Indeed, acacia
served the ancient Egyptians for a variety of
medicinal usages, and they also used it for
the construction of sarcophagi (Krispil 1988).
Moses, we may recall, came from Egypt, and
some have even speculated that he was an
Egyptian prince (see Freud 1953 [1939]).
These ancient Egyptian myths and
legends are pertinent to our discussion
here in still another respect. Manifestly, it is a
myth of death and rebirth (and in fact it has
been suggested that it is at the root of the
Christian theology of resurrection as well).
Death and rebirth are key facets of both the
ayahuasca experience and the Amerindian
lore associated with it. Recall that the name
Ayahuasca means the vine of death.
7
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Recently, a personal communication
came to my attention of the Israeli painter
Ron Gang. Gang specializes in the painting of
acacia trees in the desert areas of southern
Israel (see
www.rongang.net and Figure
2). He notes that Bedouins have told him
that they have the traditional custom of
conducting oathmaking rituals under these
trees. Lastly, and directly related to the old
Egyptian myths, is the use of acacia branches
as a central symbol of Freemasonry (Pike
1871).
Acacia and Harmal
Connecting the different threads of our
discussion together, let me consider the
two plants, acacia and harmal, in tandem.
Recall that the key psychoactive molecules
of the Ayahuasca vine are harmine and
harmaline, whose name is derived from that
of the Mideastern bush harmal. Following
my acquaintance with the Brazilian acacia
species jurema, I learned that the seeds of
Peganum harmala can be added to jurema
and thus a brew can be prepared which, like
Ayahuasca, is a mixture of DMT and MAO
inhibitors. In a private setting in Brazil, I have
partaken of such a brew. Unlike mushrooms,
peyote or San Pedro (Trichocerus pachanoi,
the South American cactus rich in mescaline)
which induce very different psychological
experiences, the jurema-cum-peganum
concoction impressed me (as well as several
other people I have conversed with, all
having extensive familiarity with Ayahuasca)
as exhibiting a definite resemblance to
Ayahuasca. One might say that even though
the experiences induced by the two potions
are not identical, the feeling is that they
both belong to the same family. By way of
Figure 2 ‘Acacia’, a painting by Ron Gang (courtesy of Ron Gang)
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analogy, I would say that the Ayahuasca and
jurema brews are similar in the way red and
white wines are similar to one another, and
different from other major entheogens in a
manner analogous to the way wines differ
from other alcoholic beverages.
Other Cases
There are several additional cases in ancient
Israelite and Jewish history in which the use
of psychoactive plants other than harmal
or acacia is suggested; the first two cases
involve biblical stories, the others concern
post-biblical reports and exegesis.The topics
of these additional cases are neither harmal
nor shittim, but they are all suggestive that
the ancient Israelites regarded psychoactive
plants in high esteem.
The first story concerns Rachel, Jacob’s
beloved wife. Jacob loved Rachel much more
than he did Leah, her sister whom his father-
in-law obliged him to marry as well.“But
when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he
opened her womb, but Rachel was barren”
(Genesis 29:31).“And when Rachel saw that
she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her
sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children
or else I die” (Genesis 30:1). All this is the
direct background to our episode, which
goes as follows:
And Reuben [Jacob’s first son, whose
mother is Leah] went in the days of wheat
harvest, and found mandrakes in the field,
and brought them unto his mother Leah.
Then Rachel said to Leah: Give me, I pray
thee, of thy son’s mandrakes. And she
said unto her: Is it a small matter that thou
hast taken my husband? and wouldest
thou take away my son’s mandrakes also?
And Rachel said,Therefore he shall lie
with thee tonight for thy son’s mandrakes.
(Genesis 30: 14–15)
This story is truly amazing. After the biblical
text makes it very clear that the most
important thing in Rachel’s life was the love
of her husband whom she had to share with
her hated sister, we are told that this very
Rachel is willing to sacrifice her relationship
with her husband in order to obtain some
mandrakes. Furthermore, it is noted that
Leah, too, greatly cherished the mandrakes,
for she compares the taking away of these to
the taking away of Jacob, the target of rivalry
and animosity between the two sisters.
Apparently, the reason the narrator inserts
this episode within the main story, whose
subject matter is Jacob’s relationship with
his wives and the manner in which his sons
(the founders of the twelve tribes of Israel)
were begotten, is to indicate how valuable
mandrakes were in early Israelite society.
Mandrakes are, of course, highly psychoactive
(see, for instance, Schultes and Hofmann
1992).
The second biblical story is the Ur-story
of them all, that of the Tree of Knowledge.
This is one of the most important episodes
in the Old Testament, and one of the most
intriguing, and the literature about it is
vast. Here, let me confine myself to two
observations that directly concern the topic
of entheogens.The first observation has to
do with the cultural beliefs that the story
presupposes. Whatever the interpretation
one gives to this pivotal story, one thing is
clear—it is being told in a context in which
people believed that knowledge could
be obtained by means of the ingestion of
plant material. The second observation
concerns the striking similarities between
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this biblical story and Amerindian Ayahuasca
mythologies. Ayahuasca is associated with
more mythologies than any other South
American psychoactive agent. In particular,
there are many mythological accounts of
the origin of the brew. I attribute this to the
fact that the discovery of this brew is indeed
mind-boggling. As noted above,Ayahuasca
requires the combination of two plants,
each of which alone does not produce a
psychedelic effect.The Amazonian forest
is so abundant that it is extremely unlikely
that the combination could have been
discovered by means of a simple method of
trial and error. As acknowledged by several
modern scientists, the discovery presents
an enigma (see Furst 1976; Naranjo 1983;
Narby 1998). Different Amerindian tribes
have different stories about the origins of
Ayahuasca. However, an examination of
about ten such stories that I have found in
the anthropological literature reveals some
common themes.These include snakes and
an act of a crime, usually an illicit sexual
act. Furthermore, the first encounter with
Ayahuasca is usually characterized as a
cataclysmic event. Before, human life was
paradisiacal—people lived in harmony
with nature, all their basic survival needs
were readily provided for, and they could
also converse with the animals; since the
appearance of Ayahuasca, human life has
involved work and struggle.The discovery of
Ayahuasca is also regarded as the birth of
human culture. For instance, with it people
discovered knowledge, their tribal identity,
marital laws, and music (see, for instance,
Reichel-Dolmatoff 1975 and Luna and White
2000).The resemblance to the biblical story
of the Tree of Knowledge requires no further
comment.
The next case is that of the incense
employed in the Temple of Jerusalem (the
ktoret, also known as ktoret ha-samim, the
incense of drugs).This incense contained a
series of ingredients, the identity of most
not known to us today. Its recipe was held
secret, known only to one priestly family,
and with the destruction of the Temple it
was lost.The ktoret was used daily in regular
temple services, but only once a year was
it offered inside the Holy of Holies, the
inner sanctum of the Temple.This was done
alone, by the High Priest, on Yom Kippur,
the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.The
Talmud narrates that there was a danger
the High Priest might not return sound and
well, and that therefore a chain of fine gold
was attached to his robe trailing outside for
others to monitor his well-being. Drawing on
a phonological similarity of the word “ktoret”
and the Hebrew word for “connectivity,” the
Zohar, the great kabbalistic text, explains that
the ktoret established a connection between
God and Man.
The sacred incense is also at the center
of two other episodes from the life of
Moses, both involved transgression with
fatal consequences. In the first, Nadab and
Abihu, the sons of Aaron, the first High Priest
and Moses’ brother, offered the incense not
according to the regulations and without
permit, and were immediately killed by fire
that came out of the ktoret (Leviticus 10:
1–7).The second episode concerns the
revolt by the priest family of Korah against
the authority of Moses; this revolt too
involved an illicit use of the incense.The
revolutionaries were punished by death,
and later an epidemic broke out among the
people. Aaron cured the afflicted using the
incense (Numbers 16–17). Bringing the two
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episodes together, later Jewish scholars and
kabbalists explained that the ktoret was a
drug both deadly and of great healing power.
For quite some time now, it has been
suggested that the term ‘cannabis’ is a
cognate of the Hebrew term knei bosem,
which means fragrant reeds and is indicated
as one of the ingredients of the sacred
incense employed first in the tabernacle and
later in the two temples of Jerusalem (for
the original hypothesis, see Benetowa 1967
[1936]; for further discussion, see Bennett
and McQueen 2001).Very recently, I have
been told of a yet unpublished research
project currently conducted by Mechoulam
and Moussaieff (personal communication).
These Israeli pharmacologists have
discovered that the Boswellia resin is a
mild psychoactive agent.This resin, levona
in Hebrew, was a major component of the
incense burned in the Jewish Temple in
Jerusalem. It was also used in religious rituals
by the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, as well
as from the fourth century by Christians.
Yet another curious piece of information is
encountered in the writings of first-century
Jewish historian Josephus Flavius who
mentions that on the mitre of the Jewish
High Priest there was golden image of the
plant Hyoscyamus.This plant is known to be
highly psychoactive (see Schleiffer 1979, pp.
169–70).
Lastly, after this paper had been written,
I asked an orthodox Jew well versed in
the rabbinical and kabbalistic literature to
read it.
8
He directed me to the writings of
Rabbeinu Be'cha'yei ben Asher, a medieval
Jewish scholar (1255–1340) famous for
his interpretation of the Torah. Rabbeinu
Be'cha'yei writes that the purest of foods
were created at the very beginning of
Creation in order to allow for the attainment
of higher knowledge. He explicitly relates
this to the biblical tree of knowledge,
and comments further that such higher
knowledge can also be gained through
the use of drugs and medicines available
at his time. In addition he notes that the
Manna had such qualities as well (recalling
the contemporary work of Merkur on the
Manna as an entheogen mentioned earlier in
this paper).
Biblical Entheogens: a Speculative
Conclusion
By way of conclusion, let me summarize
the line of argumentation presented here.
In the southern regions of the Holy Land
and in the Sinai peninsula there grow two
plants containing the molecules that together
constitute the key ingredients of one of the
most powerful psychedelic substances in
existence, the Amazonian brew Ayahuasca.
One plant is Peganum harmala, harmal in
Arabic, the other is Acacia, shita (plural,
shittim) in Hebrew; they contain beta-
carbolines and DMT, respectively. In the Bible,
there are no indications of the use of the
first plant, but there is clear evidence that
the second plant was most valued. From it
were made the tabernacle and the ark in
which the Mosaic Tablets of the Law were
guarded.The acacia tree was also regarded as
sacred by the ancient Egyptians. Nowadays,
traditional Arab and Bedouin healers employ
both plants in their curative practices.
Likewise, Jews throughout the Middle East
use harmal in various forms for medicine and
sorcery.
In the Bible we discover clear indications
that psychoactive plants were highly valued in
ancient Israelite society. Remarkably, several
Page 20
70 Biblical Entheogens: A Speculative Hypothesis
Benny Shanon
Time and Mind Volume 1—Issue 1—March 2008, pp. 51–74
key episodes in the life of Moses exhibit
features that are prominent symptoms of
the Ayahuasca experience.These episodes
include Moses’ first encounter with the
Divine and the Theophany at Mt. Sinai,
traditionally regarded to be the most
important event in all of Jewish history. Later
Jewish rabbinical and mystical texts lend
further support for the present entheogenic
hypothesis.
Taken together, the botanical and
anthropological data on the one hand, and
the biblical descriptions as well as later
Jewish hermeneutics on the other, are, I
propose, suggestive of a biblical entheogenic
connection. Admittedly, the smoking gun is
not available to us. However, so many clues
present themselves which, like the pieces
of a jigsaw puzzle, seem to cohere into an
intriguing unified whole. I leave it to the
reader to pass his or her judgment.
Acknowledgements
I thank Dr. Mina Paran and Profs. Avinoam
Danin, Rachel Elior, Orli Goldwasser and
Raphael Meshoulam as well as Ittai Meyer
and Yaron Manossi for helpful discussions.
I am especially grateful for my diligent
student assistants who have helped in the
preparation of the various versions of the
manuscript—Yoel Strimling, Eran Laish,Yoed
Kenett, Dani Shavit and Gil Rubin. I also
acknowledge the kind permission of Ron
Gang for the reproduction of his painting and
of Prof. Avinoam Danin for the use of his
flora photography.
Notes
1 A good number of years passed between the
conception of the ideas presented in this paper
and their coming out in print.To a great extent
this is due to the non-orthodox, iconoclastic
nature of the thesis suggested here. I appreciate
the open-mindedness of the editors of Time
& Mind in dealing with this paper. An aural
presentation of these materials was delivered at
the Conference on Entheogenesis in Vancouver in
February, 2004.
2 After all, would one ever conceive writing about
music without ever having heard music him/her-
self?
3 However, there are reports that at sufficiently
high dosages the harmaline alkaloids can produce
hallucinations even without the addition of DMT
(see Shanon 2002a; Ott 1993).
4 This is a play on words.The text means both ‘The
brew is force’, etc., and ‘Give me force’, etc.
5 These restrictions are with reason.They come by
way of minimizing adverse physiological reactions
as well as physical malaise during the course of
the inebriation.
6 The devir is the inner sanctum, the holy of holies, of
the Jewish temple.
7 Interestingly, the Greek myths associated with the
mysteries of Eleusis mentioned above also have
death and rebirth as their main theme (Wasson,
Kramrisch, Ott, and Ruck 1986).
8 This person did not want his name to appear in
print.
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