Podcaster Joe Rogan floated the idea last week that Moses and Ezekiel were under the influence of hallucinogens during their supernatural experiences recorded in the Bible.
Which Was More Important, The Cave Or the Trip?
The Israeli research team speculated that the ancient subterranean artists who executed the drawings “might have believed that there was something special about the caves themselves.” Without having a scientific understanding of blood flow to the brain the ancient artists most probably interpreted their experiences “as metaphysical in nature.” The authors said it was maybe “not the decoration that rendered the caves significant, rather, the significance of the chosen caves was the reason for their decoration.”
In another paper the same authors said the rock face within the cave was conceived “as a membrane, a tissue connecting the here-and-now world and the underground world beyond.” The archaeologists think that when someone made the conscious choice to enter these deep, dark environments, it was “motivated by an understanding of the transformative nature of an underground, oxygen-depleted space.”
Was the vision of the burning bush a psychedelic experience? Did use of drugs inform early Christianity? Scholars who linked the emergence of religion to altered states of consciousness once paid a heavy price, but that may be changing