Shocking Discovery at Ancient Temple in Israel

Discussion about the Hebrew Bible, Septuagint, pseudepigrapha, Philo, Josephus, Talmud, Dead Sea Scrolls, archaeology, etc.
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ConfusedEnoch
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Joined: Sun Sep 13, 2020 11:39 am

Re: Shocking Discovery at Ancient Temple in Israel

Post by ConfusedEnoch »

>I've dealt with users of many stripes. Their wisdom comes more form the subjective impressions of experiencing their process. There is little substance to their wisdom. To rationalists, this kind of impression might be useful, necessary. But a decently honest and intelligent abstract thinking would only be hindered by psychedelics.

Other than the oversimplification (a symptom of a rationalistic view of reality) that "Psychedelics are harmful and useless to abstract thinkers", I would tend to agree with you that basing your entire ideology on the perceived Wisdom residing in a fungus or plant is idiotic. This is also why I said what I said after the sentence you replied to -> "This should make you realize why these substances were present in the most ancient periods of human thought, when individual experience was tantamount to objective reality itself, when Science came in the form of psychedelic "We are all connected" New Age type of ideas, when cultures were structured almost entirely by their collective tribal rituals and the moral/ontological concepts that arise from such rituals..."

I must say, I am confused as to what exactly you believe. You claim to be neither an idealist nor a rationalist because of the apparent weight given to subjective experiences and yet you also use your own subjective impression of drug users as proof of a certain truth you are claiming... Don't you see the hypocrisy in that?
From what you said, namely that "Definition is derived from flux which challenges definition", I assume you must be some kind of constructivist who relies mostly on relating sensory observations with empirical evidence and not simply your intellectual reasoning for constructing your worldview. However, you also claim that it's "very clear how psychedelics work" when that is absolutely not the case, *especially* if one relies on empirical evidence to make that claim.

Psychedelics are very poorly understood in terms of their physiological effects on the nervous system, and from the evidence we do have, they are far from being "harmful", let alone "useless". An article was published in Nature not too long ago on the potential benefits of DMT (arguably the strongest psychedelic on the planet) for the human brain, which I think singlehandedly disproves your entire view that "intelligent thinking would only be hindered by psychedelics".
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-020-01011-0.

Here's the conclusion if you can't be bothered:
In conclusion, this study shows that DMT present in the ayahuasca infusion promotes neurogenesis by stimulating the expansion of neural progenitors populations, and by inducing the differentiation of these NSCs. Moreover, the neurogenic stimulation observed after DMT treatment correlates with an improvement in spatial learning and memory tasks in vivo. Stimulation of the neurogenic niches of the adult brain can contribute substantially to the antidepressant effects of ayahuasca in recent clinical studies. The versatility and complete neurogenic capacity of the DMT guarantee future research regarding this compound. In addition, its ability to modulate brain plasticity indicates its therapeutic potential for a wide range of psychiatric and neurological disorders, among which are neurodegenerative diseases.
Again, I think people like you retroactively develop these kinds of beliefs because you are disillusioned with the whole "woke" culture of self-help and YouTube gurus sharing pseudointellectual ideas about philosophy like "The Law of Attraction" or "Vibrational frequencies" and claiming to have found the "Truth" by interacting with these plants, as if the plants themselves contained those truths and they just stumbled upon them... I completely understand the hatred towards these kinds of people, but I don't think it's completely warranted to also hate psychedelics because of them.
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billd89
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Re: Molecular Science & a Roman Perfume revealed

Post by billd89 »

Ironically, this funerary perfume smells like The Dead :tomato:
https://phys.org/news/2023-05-proof-rom ... houli.html
John2
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Joined: Fri May 16, 2014 4:42 pm

Re: Shocking Discovery at Ancient Temple in Israel

Post by John2 »

I hadn't noticed Jeremiah 6:20 before, but assuming that it does refer to cannabis, it strikes me as being against sacrifices offered by unworthy people (no matter how valuable the sacrifices may be) rather than being anti-cannabis. Disaster will come upon Israel and their sacrifices were useless "because they have paid no attention to My word and have rejected My instruction" (as per 6:19).

The same thing is going on in Is. 1:13-14:

Bring your worthless offerings no more; your incense is detestable to Me; your New Moons, Sabbaths, and convocations. I cannot endure iniquity in a solemn assembly. I hate your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them.

I take this to mean that Isaiah isn't anti-incense and anti-Sabbath (etc.), but is against unworthy people who offer and observe them.
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arnoldo
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Incense from Sheba for the Jerusalem Temple

Post by arnoldo »

Abstract

In Eilat Mazar’s excavations in the Ophel in Jerusalem, a partially preserved inscription engraved on the shoulder of a pithos was found in 2012 in a context dated to the 10th century BCE. Although close to a dozen interpretations of the inscription have been offered over time, its reading remains highly disputed. All of these interpretations consider the script to be Canaanite. In this study, it is argued that the inscription was engraved in the Ancient South Arabian script and that its language is Sabaean. The inscription reads “ ]šy ladanum 5.” The aromatic ladanum (Cistus ladaniferus), rendered as lḏn in the inscription, is most probably שׁ ְ חֵ לֶ ת (šǝḥēlet), the second component of incense according to Exod 30:34. The inscription was engraved before the locally made vessel was fired, leading to the conclusion that a Sabaean functionary entrusted with aromatic components of incense was active in Jerusalem by the time of King Solomon.
https://jjar.huji.ac.il/volume-4-2023
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