Roman specialist in natural history Pliny (AD 23–79) cites a fragment from Democritus concerning a plant called thalassaegle, or potamaugis, in which many scientists see hemp.
Pleasant to drink, it causes a delusional state with bizarre visions of a very unusual nature. This thaengelis, he says, grows on Mount Libanus in Syria, on the mountain range Dikta in Crete, as well as in Babylon and Susa in Persia. His infusion gives the magicians the ability to predict. Similarly, gelotophyllis is a plant found in Bactria and on the slopes of Borysfen. When taken internally with myrrh and wine, all kinds of visual images arise, causing the most unlimited laughter. / Quoted in Walton, op. cit., p. eight/
Dioscorides (I century AD) gives a great description of hemp and mentions its use in the manufacture of ropes and in medicine, but says nothing about its intoxicating properties. Since the climate favored the growth of cannabis in the Middle East and the Arab world, and Islam preferred it to alcohol, cannabis became for many a selected intoxicant. This addiction to hashish and cannabis was very old already at the time of the Prophet, which explains the explicit prohibition for the “righteous” on alcohol, while hashish was the subject of theological disputes. By 950 AD er Hashish consumption and abuse have spread so widely that this topic has become prominent in the literature of that period. An exhaustive account of the position of the society of dominion regarding cannabis is contained in one of the oldest descriptions of behavior that we have,associated with addiction to this plant.
One Muslim cleric who frantically urged not to consume “Beng” in the mosque — a plant whose main characteristic is to cause intoxication and sleep — was so seized by his sermon that a piece of paper with this forbidden means, which he himself often indulged in, fell out of him sinuses right in the circle of listeners. Mullah, without losing self-control, immediately exclaimed: “This is the enemy, that demon whom I told you about; the power of my words put him to flight, look, so that, having left me, he would not lash out at any of you and seize him ”. No one dared to touch the paper, and after preaching this ardent sophist received his “Beng” again.
As is clear from this story, the monotheistic ego is capable of the most extraordinary feats of self-deception and self-deception.