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Friday March 7, 2008

Was Moses on something?

Moses may have been high at Mount Sinai, an Israeli researcher posited recently.

Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has argued that the miraculous sights and sounds in the Exodus account of God’s giving of the Torah to Moses may have been drug induced.

Shanon, who published his theory in the scholarly journal Time and Mind, said the Mount Sinai spectacle recalled a trip he experienced after drinking psychotropic drugs that can be found in some desert plants.

“It seems logical that something was altered in people’s consciousness,” Shanon said. — jta

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