Benny Shanon of Jerusalem's Hebrew University has a theory of hallucinating Israelites recounting the story of Moses that is featured in the Time and Mind journal. He hypothesizes a common hallucinogen in the Sinai desert, which is regarded by the Jewish as having both medicinal and curative powers, would have stimulated the mind to have a "religious experience" - such as that describing the receipt of the 10 Commandments. The plants are similar in property to the Ayahuasca, which is known to produce similar deeply moving and religious experiences to the people of South America.

If the hypothesis were true, Judeo-Christians should consider themselves lucky the bible does not feature a passage describing how a giant purple Pop-Tart delivered ten Divine Psychedelic Twinkies to the mushroom-popping desert wanderers.