Thursday, March 27, 2008

The Acacia Tree

The acacia tree was called the "tree of life" by ancient Egyptians. It's quite possible that this is the same "tree of life" that was in the garden of Eden. The Hebrew word for it was shittah. It's a thorny tree the wood of which was used to make the ark of the covenant which holds the ten commandments. The wild acacia (Mimosa Nilotica), under the name of sunt, is believed by many to be the type of plant which Moses witnessed as the "burning bush" atop Mt. Sinai. This is also the most likely plant to have been used to create the "Crown of thorns" that Jesus wore during his Crucifixion. Acacia contains the powerful hallucinogenic DMT.

Today, many news organizations are writing about a recent article published in the Journal "Time and Mind". In this article, Benny Shanon, professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has concluded that psychedelics extracted from the Acacia tree may have been used by Moses and his followers. He believes that this helps explain the burning bush on top of Mount Sinai. One such article can be found here:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/960407.html.