The Genesis Project. Chapter 19, Part 2

Lot's angelic visitors save his family from God's raining destruction upon Sodom and nearby cities.

Hello, and welcome back to The Genesis Project.

Before getting into this week’s post, I would like to back up and explain how I moved from my DMT and psilocybin research in the early 1990s to my deep dive into the text of the Hebrew Bible.

My original intention in performing human psychedelic research was to understand the biology of spiritual experience. I wanted to know to what extent the effects of DMT, an endogenous psychedelic, mimicked what people reported during non-drug spiritual states, such as those occurring in meditation, trance, NDE’s, etc. That is, to the extent that the two states overlapped, one could argue for a role of endogenous DMT in the non-drug states. Two findings emerged from my attempt to answer this question.

First, the DMT effect was different than what both the research volunteers and I expected. That is, the empty of content, unitive (”all is one),” non-verbal, blissful state—that my background in Zen Buddhism, and that of the volunteers’ backgrounds similarly influenced by Eastern religion—led us to expect, did not occur. Instead, the DMT state was full of content with which an intact sense of self willfully interacted, where the exchange of information (verbal, emotional and physical) took place. Often, this was mediated by distinctly discernible entities, or beings, of various shapes, forms, sizes, and qualities.

Second, the take away lessons gleaned from subjects’ experiences was relatively banal compared to the exquisite detail they offered in describing the state itself. Phenomenologically rich, cognitively less so. “Love is all there is,” “God is in every cell of our body,” and so on. These were notions volunteers originally possessed, but now became even more meaningful as a result of the drug experience. Personally very meaningful, and perhaps even transformative, but not spiritual novel or profound. It was a disappointing finding in some ways--I expected DMT and DMT alone would produce more substantive and novel spiritual insights, more in accord with great religious figures who also had their own highly altered states of consciousness prompting their missions.

So, I had two new findings with which to grapple: 1) the interactive relational properties of the DMT state, and 2) the lack of spiritual profundity in the messages obtained in that state.

And, the answers came from a most unexpected source, the Hebrew Bible.

(To be continued next week)

In this week’s post, I address the additional contents of Chapter 19, what we might call “Lot’s chapter.” In last week’s Part 1, we read about how Lot’s angelic guests experience first-hand the sinfulness of Sodom. In this week’s post, Lot and his family escape from the destruction God rained down upon Sodom. In next week’s post, we conclude Chapter 19, and learn how Lot’s two daughters bear his two sons—conceived after they get him drunk to insensibility. Fascinatingly, one of these sons’ lineage culminates in King David, from whom the Jewish Messiah will spring.

Free subscriptions provide access to my painstaking translation of the text, while paid subscribers can unlock the footnotes that comprise about 90% of the Word file.

Chapter 19 Part 2. March 16, 2026 release

10: The men[1] extended[2] their hand[3] and brought Lot[4] to themselves, to the house,[5] and closed the door.[6] 11: And the men[7] who were at the entrance of the house^[8] they struck with the blindness,[9] from the small and up to great.[10] They tried vainly[11] to find the entrance.

12: The men[12] said to Lot,[13] “Whom else is yours here?[14] A son-in-law,[15] or your sons,[16] or your daughters?[17] All that is yours in the city^[18] bring out[19] from the place.[20] 13: For we[21] are destroying[22] this place,[23] for their outcry[24] is great before YHVH. YHVH[25] has sent us[26] to destroy it.”[27]

14: Lot went out[28] and spoke to his sons-in-law,[29] takers of his daughters,[30] and he said, “Arise, go forth[31] from this place, for YHVH is destroying[32] the city.” He seemed like a mocker[33] in the eyes of his sons-in-law.[34]

15: And when[35] the dawn[36] was breaking,[37] the angels[38] pressed upon[39] Lot saying, “Arise, take[40] your wife and your two daughters,[41] who are found,[42] lest you be swept away[43] in the iniquity of the city.”^[44]

16: He delayed,[45] and[46] the men[47] grasped[48] onto his hand, and onto his wife’s hand, and onto his two daughters’ hand,[49] in the mercy of YHVH[50] on him.[51] They brought him and left him[52] outside the city.[53]

17: It came to pass in their bringing them to the outside, he said,[54] “Escape for your life.[55] Do not gaze behind you[56] and do not stand anywhere in the Plain.[57] Escape to the mountain[58] lest[59] you be swept away.”

18: Lot said to them,[60] “Not, na,[61] Lord.[62] 19: Behold, na, Your[63] servant has found favor in Your eyes[64] and You have magnified Your kindness that You have done with me, to save my life.[65] As for me, I cannot escape^[66] to the mountain lest[67] the evil[68] attach[69] itself to me[70] and I die.[71] 20: Behold, na, this city is near to flee to there, and it is small.[72] I will escape, na, to there.[73] Is it not small?[74] And my soul shall live.”[75]

21: He[76] said to him, “Behold, I[77] have granted you consideration,[78] also[79] for this thing[80] so as not to overturn[81] the city[82] about which you have spoken.[83] 22: Hurry, escape to there, for I[84] am unable to do anything until your coming to there.” Therefore,[85] he[86] called the city’s name Zoar.[87]

23: The sun went forth[88] upon the earth[89] and Lot came[90] to Zoar. 24: And YHVH rained[91] upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah[92] sulfur and the fire[93] from YHVH[94] from the heavens. 26: He overturned[95] these cities,[96] and the entire Plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities,[97] and the vegetation[98] of the soil.[99] 26: His wife[100] gazed[101] from behind him[102] and she became a pillar of salt.[103]

27: Abraham arose early in the morning[104] to the place[105] where he had stood there before YHVH.[106] 28: He gazed down toward Sodom and Gomorrah[107] and toward the entire land of the Plain. He saw, and behold,[108] the smoke[109] of the earth rose as smoke of the lime pit.[110] 29: It came to pass in God’s destroying the cities of the Plain, that God remembered[111] Abraham and sent out Lot[112] from the midst[113] of the overturning in His overturning the cities in which Lot had dwelt.[114]