Hey Dude, Don’t Make Stuff Out Of Clay
– and then pray to it…. it’s freaking me out man!!
High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, an Israeli researcher claimed 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 Time and Mind journal of philosophy.
I can hear the outrage now, as a matter of fact I already did….. one of our favorite Upper-Right-Quadrant-WingNuts (Glenn Beck) nearly had an aneurysm over it this morning.
As for me, I figure it has merit, and so would most reasonable people….. I mean really, if I told you over coffee that I had a conversation with a burning bush that lead to a spiritual relevation you’d wonder what I was on wouldn’t ya? Drugs, including hallucinogenics, have played roles in many religions, in fact bunker researchers combing the InterWeb have found that
Some historians and etymologists have claimed that cannabis was used as a religious sacrament by ancient Jews and early Christians.
— and we all know we’re told that the best hashish comes from the Middle East.
Let others search for the Holy Grail if they want, the bunker is going after that most holiy of relics – “The Bong of Moses”.
Trackposted to Rosemary’s Thoughts, A Blog For All, third world county, DragonLady’s World, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Big Dog’s Weblog, Cao’s Blog, A Newt One, Right Voices, Pursuing Holiness, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
Wow, I almost had a Antique Road Show epiphany and started digging through my closet. I have this old bong, and I know I just know I had it this very coveted icon you wrote about. I could just see it “The Bong of Moses” I’ll let you know when I find it and place the ad to sell it on E-Bay. I’ve finally hit the big time…thanks
One toke over the line, Sweet Jesus…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye3ecDYxOkg
Ha!
Folks as diverse as William James, Joseph Campbell and Carlos Castaneda have pointed out the importance of consciousness-altering drugs in the human religious experience. They play exactly the same role in worship as meditation, chanting, fasting, or a vision quest (whether Jesuit or Ojbiway) – they yank us out of our linear, logical, cause-and-effect based consciousness and confront us with the incomprehensible and the chaotic, shattering that lens of order we carefully use to organize our worlds.
Smashing that perception of linear order is the first step in most mystical paths. Interestingly, the more authoritarian and hierarchical the religion, the less emphasis on mystical experience…can’t have the Universe talking to folks without the appropriate mediation, right?
Maybe that’s what the stuff coming out of Moses’s head in this Jose de Ribera painting is supposed to represent. Not a bad hair day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Moses041.jpg
Moses, Keifer of the Tablets