NOM

https://www.livescience.com/cannabis-shrine-israel.html

So this is where ancient prophets got the Spirit...... Cannabis, otherwise known as "weed" you know, Satan's drug Marra-G-wanna, has been discovered in ancient Israel and Tel Arad on the sacred altars of the ancient temples! I truly seriously cannot wait to see the religious "spin" from Sic et Non on this one. Wanna talk to God? Wanna have visions? Wanna be influenced by the Holy Ghost? Go to the temple and inhale the Frankincense and Weed.
Discussion also found in The Times of Israel here:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/1st-high- ... k-ecstasy/
Looks like Mormons need to keep restoring the "true" ancient faith, religion, and ritual of ancient Israel to be a complete and "true" restoration.
The Holy Ghost actually turns out to be Satan's drug...... imagine that.........CHORTLE!

Apparently cannabis was important for religious ceremonies from Egypt to the Levant.

There's a guy named Reverend Danny Nemu who talks about the psychedelic aspect of ancient Israelite religion, which he says included cannabis and many other substances. Besides cannabis, the priests also inhaled the smoke of Frankincense and Myrrh, both of which are produce psychoactive effects. It kind of helps explain why those spices were more valuable than gold. According to Nemu the veil of the temple was to seal the smoke inside the holy of holies.

Nemu believes that anointing the priests with a specially prepared oil (shemen ha-mishchah) was just as important as the inhaling, and the two together was a powerful one-two punch. The mischchah is the source of the words massage and Messiah (anointed one), so this was probably not a dribbling of oil on the head but a full body rubdown of mind-altering substances that were absorbed though the skin.

The old testament gives the formula. Besides olive and cannabis oils the shemen ha-mishchah contains a chemically complex mixture of other substances in a very interesting combination. Some of those substances are psychoactive and some are enzymes inhibitors that make the other substances active. It would work similarly to ayahuasca, which is made from two plants. When ingested individually they have no effect, but when used together they produce one of the most potent psychedelics known.

Some statements in the Old Testament might make more sense when look at them in that light. 1 Samuel 13:16 "Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward."

Here are a couple of places where Nemu talks about it. He has also written several books:
http://nemusend.co.uk/
https://thethirdwave.co/drugs-in-the-bible-transcript/

Here is my best apologetic attempt.

This is not the temple at Jerusalem, the only authorized temple in Israel at the time. These are apostate worshipers who did not have access to the true spirit, so they had to simulate spiritual experiences with psychoactive drugs. The true priests would have had nothing to do with this. /apologetic

I am sure that drugs were an important part of many ancient religions. I think sacrament meeting would be more endurable, even enjoyable, if a little intoxication was part of the meeting. The church's insistence on boring rituals, boring meetings, and boring music all contribute to the problem of keeping people.

blazerb wrote: ↑Sat May 30, 2020 10:13 am This is not the temple at Jerusalem, the only authorized temple in Israel at the time. These are apostate worshipers who did not have access to the true spirit, so they had to simulate spiritual experiences with psychoactive drugs. The true priests would have had nothing to do with this. /apologetic

Unless, as some scholars believe, the Israelites' kaneh-bosm is the same cane-like plant that was burned in the other temples, which these days goes by a similar name: cannabis. Add to that the Old Testament's emphasis on burning things like frankincense and myrrh, both of which are psychoactive substances and Nemu's anointing oil that I described above.

Benny Shanon of Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote about the acacia tree, which is a natural source of DMT, a powerful psychedelic, which is found throughout the holy land. I'm not sure how I feel about this one, but Shanon points out that burning the tree releases the DMT into the air and could be a good explanation about why Moses had visions while standing next to a burning bush.

Early Christian writers made no attempt to hide their use of intoxicating and psychedelic substances, according to Nemu in the podcast transcript that I linked.

blazerb wrote: ↑Sat May 30, 2020 10:13 am I am sure that drugs were an important part of many ancient religions.

That appears to be the emerging picture for pretty much every ancient religious tradition going all the way back to the earliest Indus Valley religious texts.

Who wants to dive into the Joseph Smith entheogen theory?

Hagoth wrote: ↑Sat May 30, 2020 1:55 pm Unless, as some scholars believe, the Israelites' kaneh-bosm is the same cane-like plant that was burned in the other temples, which these days goes by a similar name: cannabis. Add to that the Old Testament's emphasis on burning things like frankincense and myrrh, both of which are psychoactive substances and Nemu's anointing oil that I described above.

Benny Shanon of Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote about the acacia tree, which is a natural source of DMT, a powerful psychedelic, which is found throughout the holy land. I'm not sure how I feel about this one, but Shanon points out that burning the tree releases the DMT into the air and could be a good explanation about why Moses had visions while standing next to a burning bush.

Early Christian writers made no attempt to hide their use of intoxicating and psychedelic substances, according to Nemu in the podcast transcript that I linked.

Well, you know how the GA's feel about scholars.

I hope it's clear that I think drugs have been used by religions. The idea that ancient Judaism included intoxicants in their religious ceremonies makes perfect sense. I'll have to listen to that podcast. I am intrigued.

jfro18 wrote: ↑Sat May 30, 2020 4:51 pm Who wants to dive into the Joseph Smith entheogen theory?

I think he probably did. I don't think the evidence is incontrovertible, but it would surprise me if JS did not make use of every tool he could.

Drums were also used to induce a trance state. Scholars even think that might have been the point of stone henge, to have the sound reverberating off the standing rocks. There was even one article suggesting the ark & covenant was a big drum used in ceremonies to induce trances, as well as helping the vibrations of people marching around Jericho to bust up walls.

My personal preference for inducing a trance would be drums. There is too much that can go wrong with drugs and people don’t convert well if they have a bad trip, as some did at the dedication of Kirkland and temple.

blazerb wrote: ↑Sun May 31, 2020 7:50 am I think he probably did. I don't think the evidence is incontrovertible, but it would surprise me if JS did not make use of every tool he could.

Apparently he made extensive use of one tool, anyway.

alas wrote: ↑Sun May 31, 2020 1:02 pm There is too much that can go wrong with drugs and people don’t convert well if they have a bad trip, as some did at the dedication of Kirkland and temple.

That's why, as soon as multi-level hierarchy develops in a religious system one of the first things that happens is that only special people are given allowance to commune with the divine. The priest takes the plant medicine journey to the spirit realm and communes with gods and spirits on behalf of the masses, who become disallowed from using sacred substances that are approved only for the specially initiated. "We take the drugs so you don't have to." Eventually the tightening of orthodoxy pushes the enthogens out of the picture entirely and you are just left with a bunch of self-important guys hording power and wealth but not giving back any divine guidance in return.