February 28, 2024 - A new study into the archaeological remains of food and plant matter found at two Philistine temples in the biblical city of Gath has revealed new details on the extinct culture’s traditions and how they were seemingly influenced by other historic Mediterranean cultures. Some of the plants found in both temples are known for their medicinal or psychoactive properties and were also used in ancient Greece in temples mostly dedicated to female deities such as Hera, goddess of marriage and childbirth; Artemis, goddess of vegetation, chastity, and childbirth; and Demeter, goddess of agriculture.

June 1, 2019 - The High Priest enters the Holy ... Israelite priests, like some shamans, used plant preparations entheogenically to facilitate the encounter, to trigger visionary, auditory, and other ASC experiences of divinity...

July 27, 2022 - The ancient Israelites weren’t the only ones using them; in the 6th century BC, Herodotus detailed Scythian tribesmen pegging down the flaps of their tent before throwing “kannabis” on red-hot stones, describing how “the Scyths, delighted, shout for joy.” ... Try ALL of Our Courses for 30 days! ... After being anointed, the High Priest would proceed to the Holy of Holy Hotboxes and commune with the angels of YHWH while burning psychoactive resins in large doses—“hands full of sweet incense beaten small” according to Leviticus.

Scientists discover 2,700-year-old remains of cannabis on a Tel Arad incense altar, paralleling details of the reign of King Ahaz. But does the ritual cannabis

March 7, 2019 - The Ointment and the Incense are herbal preparations used by the priestly caste to facilitate a direct experience of the · Israelite God. A wide variety of psychoactive components are found in these preparations, including GABA-receptor

December 12, 2024 - There’s no textual evidence that manna was meant to refer to a psychoactive substance, rather than a myth about Divine providence and sustenance in the middle of a hostile desert. Or consider Shanon’s provocative thesis that Biblical Israelites may have blended acacia bark (which contains DMT) with Syrian rue, aka peganum harmala (which contains the MAOI harmaline), to make an ayahuasca-like potion. Yet there is no evidence that these substances were combined, that acacia was used as a sacrament (it was used extensively in sacred architecture, but that is different), or that peganum harmala was even known to Biblical Israelites (it’s never mentioned in the Bible).

Psychoactive properties of aromatic-cum-odoriferous substances, especially plants, are mentioned in Song of Songs: myrrh, balsam, cinnamon, perfume, and anointing oil.9 The Bible refers to the holy incense (qetoret) burnt in the Temple.

February 12, 2024 - We discussed the new data with what is already known about the Philistine diet, as well all plant-related information from Philistine cultic paraphernalia, such as incense altars and ritual vessels, cult stands, etc. In addition, we correlated the Philistine temples’ plant use with the local Canaanite, Israelite, and Judahite cultures, as well as with other ancient Near Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean traditions (Fig.

July 21, 2025 - In these traditions, plant medicine is never isolated from its ceremonial, ecological, and cultural context. It is part of a living system—a web of reciprocity where healing is not an individual event but a communal, spiritual, and ecological ...

June 1, 2020 - The Israelite prophets… acted as mediums. In a state of trance or frenzy they related their divine visions in a sing-song chant, at times a scream. These states could be induced by music… But the prophets also used, and sometimes abused, incense, narcotics and alcohol… (Johnson, 1987) -Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews · The idea that the Old Testament prophets, may have been using psychoactive substances in order to attain a shamanic trance in which the revelations of Yahweh could be received, is as troubling for modern day believers, as Darwin’s theory of Evolution was to their 19

July 1, 2016 - ... Haoma is considered a bridge between earthly and spiritual realms, embodying divine wisdom, immortality, and spiritual enlightenment, believed to possess physical and spiritual healing properties (Abdullaev 2010, Ostovari et al.2013). Its consumption during religious rituals is thought to facilitate communication with the divine and foster spiritual ecstasy, enlightenment, and union with Ahura Mazda

March 3, 2025 - A study reveals the Philistine temple's connection to nature, agriculture, and Aegean cults, highlighting plant-based rituals.

The qualitative and quantitative study of the assemblage and its spatial distribution within the temples' precincts enables us to address plant choice and possible use, unraveling the timing of rites, types of offers, and improving our understanding of this extinct culture. Indeed, plants in ritual contexts shed light on the seasonality of rites, the role of agriculture, medical/psychoactive activities, and the geographic origin of offerings3–9.

May 29, 2020 - “The use of [other] psychoactive ... since prehistory. It seems likely that cannabis was used at Arad as a deliberate psychoactive, to stimulate ecstasy as part of cultic ceremonies....

February 9, 2025 - These widespread Mediterranean plants connect Philistines with cultic rituals, mythology and paraphernalia related to early Greek deities, such as Hera, Artemis, Demeter, and Asclepios. In addition, plants with psychoactive and medicinal properties in the Philistine temples reveal their use for cultic activities.

May 28, 2015 - Breakthrough 'sensory archaeology' research reveals a 3,000-year-old ritual culture of mind-altering substances in Israel

November 4, 2016 - The late Dan Merkur, theology professor from Toronto, theorized that chemicals comparable to LSD were in the manna (the edible substance God gave the Israelites during their travels in the desert), while Hebrew University’s Benny Shanon proposed that Moses inhaled vaporized DMT (a psychedelic chemical present in plants such as ayahuasca, which is also found in the brain) from the burning bush, leading him to his initial prophecy.