Delicious
Digg
Facebook
Flickr
Friendfeed
Last.fm
LinkedIn
MySpace
Reddit
Stumble Upon
Technorati
Twitter
Vimeo
YouTube
What I’ve Been Up To Lately
- Remember kids, Twitter Torah experiment at 2:30PM EST: Collaborative discussion on Parshat Balak. Get in on it at #balak. 23 hrs ago
- RT @spagnoloacht Video of my Creative Commons Salon presentation on the Jewish Digital Narratives platform http://blip.tv/file/2305108/ 1 day ago
- Yes Men pull out of Jerusalem Film Fest http://su.pr/1uJUsU 1 day ago
- More updates...
I'm not upset or anything
But two in a day? What are the odds? Should I feel special?
Check out Benny Shanon in today’s Haaretz, emailed to me so far by three individuals familiar with my drash on manna and the Revelation at Sinai, which I delivered for the umpteenth time at the JCC the Shabbat before last.
“And all the people perceived the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the voice of the horn, and the mountain smoking.” Thus the book of Exodus describes the impressive moment of the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai.
The “perceiving of the voices” has been interpreted endlessly since these words were first written. When Professor Benny Shanon, professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, reads the verse, he recalls a powerful hallucinatory experience he had when he visited the Amazon and drank a potion made from a plant called ayahuasca.
“One of the things that happens when you drink the potion is a visual experience created via sounds,” he says.
Shanon presents a provocative theory in an article published this week in the philosophy journal Time and Mind. The religious ceremonies of the Israelites included the use of psychotropic materials that can found in the Negev and Sinai, he says.
I met Shanon on two separate occasions while researching my project on Jews and drugs, and shared with him my theories on this very subject. And though I’m quite pleased that he’s bringing attention these ideas, and that he makes them “his own” by adding his own spin to the subject — ie., I greatly appreciate the validation — a little attribution goes a long way.
I can’t deny that Shanon has his own body of work to draw from, nor can I even necessarily fault him if he doesn’t recall our conversation. I’ve always found these ideas to be staggeringly obvious, believing that anyone “looking for it” can easily “see it.” But it still kind of sucks, missing the boat on publishing the theory before he did. Ah, bitter lemons.
The full text of Shanon’s paper is here.
[Related] Deconstructing the Daime Shabbat
http://www.reuters.com/article.....EnoughNews
I found this on Reuters, and came right to your site.
Oops!
I read it on Yahoo’s Oddly Enough news. It doesn’t in the least bit surprise me that hallucinogens were used in early Judaism / Israelite rites just as they were in many other indigenous cults / religions. It may be worth comparing, too, what became out of most indigenous religions in the course of history.
People in the Middle Ages used plants like bella donna to cause hallucinations (and to make the pupils larger to appear more attractive), people then were more or less constantly inebriated as water was often anything but sanitary. In some cults, they lick(ed) frogs.
Only the other day, I read a biography of Israel Baal Shem and Dob Beer. By any means and going by the descriptions of their actions, the one was totally out of it, the other turned to shnapps to emulate the ’spiritual’ expressions of the other.
I’ll stick to buying shoes.
Just read the post below; idea theft is not cool at all. Find solace in the thought that in my concept of eschatology, people that steal ideas from others without giving credit will spend their afterlife in a huge bowl full of a woodruff-flavoured generic jell-o product.
What is the purpose of publishing first? Glory? Ego? Cash money?
The world is your audience, and you spend your time trying to reach as many as possible with your message. Here, Shanon is doing you a favor, he is spreading your message.
Imagine a world where all of your messages were spread by others. Sure you wouldn’t be unique, or selling any books.
Now, the tricky part:… What is your message?
Elokai N’tzor L’Shonei Merah
or
Hashem Sfatai Tiftach U’Fi Yagid Tehilatecha?
Matt, considering that a rough one third of the calories one consumes are used by the brain (read that in Süddeutsche Zeitung. Wissen, March 08 last week), idea theft contributes to the much discussed obesity problems of society.
Seriously though, thou shallt not kidnap somebody’s brainchild.
the issue, matt, is that the media buzz around this theory would’ve put assess in the seats at the movie theater when my film debuts. now it will be considered “old news” by the time i get finished with my project.
Ezekiel, Son of Man!
“But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee; Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee.
And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein;”
…
“Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel.
So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat that roll.
And he said unto me, Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it; and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.
And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them. “
you are special..didn’t you know that ?
Hey Dan,
We’re all still clamoring for your book and movie. When’s it due in theaters?
Sorry, couldn’t help it:
http://inventorspot.com/articl.....riju_11219
Anyone thinking of moving to CA?
This was briefly discussed on Opie and Anthony thursday morning while I was at work, but quickly degenerated into a discussion of hallucinogens and lsd scare films.