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摩西十誡神蹟 疑迷幻藥幻覺
2008年3月6日【明報專訊】聖經故事中，當摩西從上帝手上接過十誡時，他正站於西乃山之巔。不過以色列心理學家沙努恩(Benny Shanon)教授卻懷疑，這名帶領以色列人走出埃及的領袖，當時的精神狀態可能同樣「high過頭」。他發表一項可能惹來教徒不悅的研究，指若這段聖經故事屬實，摩西當時有可能是因為受到迷幻藥物影響而產生幻覺。
西乃沙漠種有擾亂神志植物
來自耶路撒冷希伯來大學的沙努恩教授，在英國《時間和精神》(Time and Mind)期刊中發表文章，指西乃沙漠中，有兩種植物和生長在亞馬遜地區的一些蔓生植物一樣，含有會擾亂神志的成分。人類進食這種植物後會「失去時間觀念，看到強光，意識模糊及產生幻覺」。沙努恩稱，在聖經《出埃及記》中，摩西在西乃山看到「雷轟、閃電、角聲」等神蹟，都可能只是他進食這種植物後產生的幻覺。
「在進食迷幻藥物後，人們常會表示看到強光、地面隆隆作響。很多人都認為那是來自神的力量。」他表示，那時的人出現這種幻覺後，很自然會將這和宗教以及靈異現象聯繫在一起。「摩西當時看到面前的灌木在一直燃燒但卻沒有燒盡，這可能是他對時間流逝速度的感覺改變了，他的主觀感覺將令他把現實中的數秒視為永恆。這只是他的主觀感受，灌木實際上沒什麼改變。」
沙努恩教授認為，摩西並非唯一服食了這些迷幻草藥的人，跟隨他的以色列人很大機會在摩西從西乃山上拿下十誡時，亦處於迷幻狀態。他指出其中一種可以普遍在中東及西乃沙漠找到、有興奮劑作用的植物，自古以來便被猶太人視為有魔力及有治病作用。
港神父：可信性不高
沙努恩說：「摩西在西乃山上的遭遇，世人可解釋為超自然現象或是神蹟，但兩者我都不相信。另一個解釋，亦是最有可能的，就是摩西和以色列人當時都處於迷幻狀態。」他續稱，聖經中描述了「摩西因與神親近而面容發光」，但這亦可能只是服用迷幻植物後出現的流汗現象。
一些聖經學者對沙氏的論點當然不以為意。東正教祭司舍努(Yuval Sherlow)說：「聖經向我們傳遞了世人不能明白的事，我們需要敬畏的不是科學而是聖經。」
天主教香港教區副主教陳志明神父認為，讀聖經必須要讀原文，了解其歷史背景。教會這麼多年來都沒有人提出過這一說法，相信可信性不高。他又說，聖經最重要的是帶領人認識神，旁枝末節則不需理會，對於今次研究結果，他表示自己沒有興趣詳讀，「呢個世界大把可以學可以睇。」
路透社/每日郵報
Wed., March 05, 2008 Adar1 28, 5768
Researcher: Moses was tripping at Mount Sinai
By Ofri Ilani
\”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 have no direct proof of this interpretation,\” and such proof cannot be expected, he says. However, \”it seems logical that something was altered in people\’s consciousness. There are other stories in the Bible that mention the use of plants: for example, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden.\”
Shanon, former head of the Hebrew University psychology department, said his first experience with ayahuasca was in 1991 when he was invited to a religious ceremony in the northern Amazon in 1991 in Brazil. \”I experienced visions that had spiritual-religious connotations,\” he says. Since that time, he has used it hundreds of times, and has published a book about the plant.
\”Hypotheses have been around for 20 years connecting the beginning of religions with psychoactive materials,\” Shanon says. He believes the Israelites used two plants in Sinai and the Negev: one of them is wild rue, a hallucinogen used by the Bedoin to this day. However this plant is not identified with any plant mentioned in the Bible.
The acacia tree also has psychedelic properties, Shanon says, which the Israelites could have used. The acacia is mentioned frequently in the Bible, and was the type of wood of which the Ark of the Covenant was made. According to Shanon, he drank a potion prepared from a species of acacia while he was in South America, which caused similar experiences to those produced by the ayahuasca.
Shanon also sees signs of a hallucinogenic vision in the story of the burning bush.
\”Moses \’looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed,\’\” Shanon quotes from Exodus 3:2. Time passes differently when under the influence of the plant, he notes. \”That\’s why Moses thought the bush was not consumed. It should have been burned in the time he thought had passed. And in that time, he heard God speaking to him.\”
\”But not everyone who uses a plant like this brings the Torah,\” Shanon concedes. \”For that, you have to be Moses.\”
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