(OPINION) 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.
Speaking to journalist David Holthouse on an April 2 episode of the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, Rogan discussed how UFO encounters have skyrocketed since the atomic bomb, though he suggested that supernatural beings might have been interacting with humans since biblical times or before.
Rogan then read from the first chapter of Ezekiel, in which the prophet recounts his inaugural vision of the Lord and various angelic beings, such as the four-faced cherubim and the wheel-like angels known as ophanim in traditional Christian angelology.
“I mean, to anybody that’s done DMT or ayahuasca — really tripped on psychedelics — you read that, and it feels familiar. … The glory of God, these visions of these beings,” Holthouse said.
“And the fact that these things are constantly changing their experience,” Rogan added. “That’s the thing about the DMT experience; it’s not a stationary, static experience; it’s constantly changing and moving in front of you.”
DMT, or dimethyltryptamine, is a potent psychoactive compound that is illegal in many countries despite occurring naturally in many plants and animals, including humans. When eaten, inhaled, or injected, the drug induces rapid-onset hallucinogenic experiences, during which some have reported encountering external entities that often resemble the supernatural beings in the Bible or other religious texts.
DMT is also one of the active ingredients in ayahuasca, a psychoactive brew that features in the religious ceremonies of some indigenous cultures in South America.
Rogan went on to suggest Moses might also have been high when he encountered the burning bush in Exodus 3, a theory he claimed emerged from a university in Israel.
“When you say that ‘Moses saw the burning bush,’ what kind of bush would burn that would give you a psychedelic experience?” Rogan asked. “Well, the acacia tree.”
“The acacia tree, which is very common to that area, is rich with DMT. And how do you psychoactively acquire DMT? You smoke it.”
“So you’re smoking this tree — this burning bush — and you’re seeing God, and God has brought you Ten Commandments of how to live life, which sounds like a lot of what you experience when you have the DMT experience. When you have that, and you have this contact with the entities, they give you guidelines on how to live.”
Moses did not receive the Ten Commandments at the burning bush but later at Mount Sinai after the Israelites had fled Egypt, according to Exodus 19-20.
Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, suggested in 2008 that Moses was under the influence of psychoactive plants when he encountered the Lord in the burning bush and at Sinai, according to ABC News.
“As far as Moses on Mount Sinai is concerned, it was either a supernatural cosmic event, which I don’t believe, or a legend, which I don’t believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an event that joined Moses and the people of Israel under the effects of narcotics,” Shanon said during an interview Israel Radio at the time.
Shanon penned an op-ed in The Guardian later that year clarifying that he never claimed Moses was “stoned” and that he has “the deepest respect for Moses, the Jewish tradition and religious faith in general.”
Rogan often discusses religious topics on his popular podcast. During an interview with former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines last month, the two spoke about Satan, Jesus, biblical prophecy, and the role transgenderism plays in the moral decline of society.
