What was Soma?

[TooStonedToType]

Comments in relation to the recent Sacred Elixirs Conference in CA.

Panel Discussion with David Flattery, Scott Hajicek-Dobberstein, Clark Heinrich, Dale Pendell, John Winslow. SacredElixirs.com

The Hindu religion venerates four ancient scriptures above all others. These texts are the four Vedas. For millennia, each generation of Brahmin priests passed the Vedas to the next generation in an oral tradition. This practice of faithful repetition continued long after its language, known as Vedic, had fallen into disuse. Remarkably, no Veda was ever written down before the 1800's.

The oldest of the Vedas is the Rig Veda, believed to be at least 4,000 years old, making it the oldest scripture still in daily use. It is a collection of "hymns" chanted by Brahmin priests during a fire ritual. Much of this litany is in praise of soma which, depending on context, may be a sacred psychoactive potion, the plant from which it is made, or a divine being. As the potion which renders the gods immortal, soma is analogous to the nectar of Greek mythology. Also, being a liquid that was poured out in a sacrificial act, it is analogous to the wine libations of the ancient Romans.

During the fire ritual the soma plant was ground up with water, strained through sheep's wool, diluted with milk and drunk, but neither the Rig Veda, its commentaries nor any other Hindu scripture identifies the plant in plain language. What was this soma plant?

------------

Interesting discussion. Several candidates for soma are mentioned such as lotus, ephedera and of course Amanita muscaria. The general opinion is that "soma" is a generic term, depending upon time and place, for psychoactive substances that are being used in a religious context. This seems reasonable to me and I would say it appears to be a word similar to our word entheogen.

In one part of the conference the speakers seemed to think there were substitutes used for real soma in ceremonies. Thus, leading to some of the confusion as to exactly what the substance is. They speculate the priests involved in these multi day events wouldn't be able to maintain altered states for this long and would use inactive substitutes to appear to be in connection with the spirit world to their followers. Much of their power and respect from the community came from their ability/willingness to consume these sacred elixirs.  So basically, they would "fake it" for their audience.

I think this is a backwards approach to understanding the situation and underestimates the shamans. After ingesting Amanitas for several days, they become less effective. One would need to change substances to maintain connections. They didn't want to stop tripping.  But to be able to work in an altered state for a week or more they would use multiple active substances.  The panel mentions cannibus like its not a stong psychoactive substance.  That might generally be true, but in combination with other sacrements it can take on a completely different character.  Anyway, thats just my opinion.

[JRL]

Cannibus combines very well with amanitas......

or so I have heard

[cenacle]

The following is excerpted from "The Psychedelic [in] Society: A Brief Cultural History of Tripping" by Charles Hayes:

http://www.psychedelicadventures.com/BriefHistory.htm

The earliest known religious texts are a collection of hymns called The Rig Veda, written by Aryans who swept down into India from Siberia. Among the one thousand twenty-eight verses, considered the foundation of the Hindu religion, a hundred and twenty are devoted to praise for the rootless, leafless plant called Soma, which is deified for conferring immortality and divine inspiration. “We have drunk the Soma; we have become immortal; we have gone to the light; we have found the gods.” (Rig Veda 8.48.1-15)

Wasson conjectured that Soma was Amanita muscaria, the red-capped Fly Agaric mushroom depicted ubiquitously to this day in European folktale literature, and used ritualistically by Siberian and some Native American tribes. This conclusion was based, in part, on the Amanita’s unique property of being able to inebriate people who drink the user’s urine, which is corroborated by a reference in The Rig Veda to ceremonial urine drinking. Wasson tried Amanita several times himself, but never really got off. Terence McKenna believes that Soma is actually the Psilocybe cubensis mushroom, in part because of the generally weak and erratic performance of the Amanita mushroom in modern trials. In this volume, however, I’ve included an Amanita trip tale that corroborates Wasson’s theory, an excerpt from Clark Heinrich’s book Strange Fruit (1995), which is now available in an (expanded) American edition as Magic Mushrooms in Religion and Alchemy. Uncovering the ancient ethnobotanical truth about Soma is an ongoing endeavor, but there is little doubt that the very ether of Indian religion is a psychotropic, probably mycelial, plant.

[TooStonedToType]

I believe it was Clark Heinrich that mentioned Mike Crowley's book, "When the Gods Drank Urine".  (good book, unfortunate title)

Excerpt here:
http://www.erowid.org/plants/amanitas/a ... ngs1.shtml

Crowley's upcoming book "Secret Drugs of Buddhism" was mentioned as well.  It presents sacred plants used in Buddhism.  He mentions an ayahuasca made from Acacia catechu (DMT), Psilocyble cubensis, Argyreia nervosa, Cannibis, Datura and Amanita mascaria.

[Trevyn1]

Your answer lies in the "Vedic Hymns".

Especially the section entitled: The "Rig-Veda".


HINT: There are several versions AND several interpretations of the modern - day translations as compared to the translation to ancient greek and latin.

But, yes, "white boy" - your anser lies there.

[TooStonedToType]

Was there a question?

[boomer2]

The first known reference to the Soma shrooms is ro0m the 9th and 10th mandala of the vedic scriptueres int he Reg Vida.

One can also find a great paper on t he alternaive suggestions to the Soma being Amanita, although  I believe R. Gordon wasson is correct in his identification of the mushrooms amanita muscaria as Soma.

here is a reference for the Riedlinger article.

Reidlinger, Thomas J. 1993. Wasson's alternative candidates for Soma. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs vol. 25(2):149-156.
In Which the author offers several alternative for the Soma plant including Peganum Harmala, Datura and Cannibis.

[Ganapati]

I'm going to agree that it's quite possible that soma could simply mean just about any entheogenic/hallucinogenic plant.

However

There is also some hints of a trinity in soma, indicating a possibility that at least some versions contain three plants in combination.

My current theory is that soma is a combination of cannabis, opium, and ephedra.
Ephedra, of course, is "energizing".  For those who don't know, opium and cannabis combine to greatly amplify the hallucinogenic properties of cannabis.  
And, of course, cannabis can also be quite 'energizing' to the mind/thought.

To me it seems very likely that these three plants were soma.

[laughingwillow]

If a person desires to remain in an altered state for any length of time (days or weeks) it is beneficial to have multiple active sacraments available, as mentioned above.

Also, I have no problem with defining "soma" as "active sacrament."

While exact recipes may be interesting from an anthropological point of view, the average psychonaut in 2009 has many more choices concerning active sacraments than those living in the more locally/regionally based societies of antiquity.

lw

[Satori]

Just a quick question. It was a bit hard to find any info on the participants on whether any of them know any Sanskrit?

I think for a serious discussion about soma, it is important with someone who can decipher the original text.
All of us who has worked with translating into english, or in my case into danish, from a language such as sanskrit, knows that every translation is as much an interpretation. So some good knowledge about the original language is good.
Not from all, but from at least one or two.

[boomer2]

Well I would like to bring up to date a little information concerning Soma and it's mysterious hidden identity.

OF course, Soma was first brought to the attention of the world though many praises sung in honor of Soma as depicted in the ninth and tenth mandala of the Vedic Scriptures, the Rig Veda.

Although the Vedic scriptures precede all modern literature in regards to a plant or living entity that became known as Soma, it was the work of John Allegro, Andrija Puharich, Robert Graves (world renown Greek historian and scholar, who in turn, directed the idea of this Plantae mysterious to the attention of R. Gordon and Valentina Wasson.

  During the 17th to late 18th and 19th centuries, explorers and travelers, as well as nomadic tribal groups of Finns, Lapps, Chukchee, Koryak and Kamchadal tribal groups living in Siberian and nearby regions, had been observed utilizing a bright red with site spotted mushroom as a sort of inebriant throughout the regions north and northeast of Russia all the way to Finland.

Shipwrecked travelers kept diaries and chronicled certain events that involved said use of this bright reddish white spotted mushroom.  The writings of many of these travelers, explorers, scientists, lost wayfarers, and even local headsmen in villages throughout the region begin to share visions of strange occurrences to those from the outside world.  Some of the very observations they noted began to attract the attention of historians, botanists and others who soon wrote of what they saw and observed and such writings were soon published outside of the Siberian plateaus.

Reported observations often included reindeer and urine drinking by reindeer after a human who had eaten Amanita muscaria needed to urinate.

It was written that a reindeer can smell human urine mixed with the inebriating properties from Amanita muscaria from as far away as a half of a mile.  

It was later determined that the active ingredients or properties of these Amanita mushrooms include ibotenic acid and muscimol, and are referred to as stearic acids.

I would like to point out also, that in R. Gordon and Tina Wasson's two volume books titled, "Mushrooms, Russia and History," that the Wassons' listed numerous references in both non-fiction and scholarly literature speaking of these mushrooms and what they seemed to be capable of producing within the human mind.

Even one such reporting of the use of these mushrooms was from a Japanese Seaman who was lost and wandered throughout Siberia for several years.

Furthermore it was learned that shamans within the Kamchadal districts and also the Koryak and Chukchee tribal peoples used these mushrooms in shamanic-like ceremonies in sessions of divination.

One of the more interesting of tales to emerge in the literature during the early reporting of this habit of urine-drinking, discussed by many modern anthropologists who have studied these people and their use of the mushrooms for decades, comes the interesting tale of drinking the urine of those who could not afford to purchase an Amanita mushrooms. So it was written that poor people would drink the urine of their rich landlords, and patrons to get high and join in the revelries of the mushrooms entrancing powers of knowledge.

Now one would wonder, how would someone know how to drink the urine of another person in order to become inebriated?

I find the answer to this in the simplest of concepts.  Observing the reindeer attack a comrade or friend who basically just stepped out the back door of a yurt or maybe a log cabin to take a leak in the dark or light of the forest, and then slam, bam and wham, and then whacked by a drug seeking psychopathic mad reindeer.   Hard to imagine standing alone in the middle of the same woods where Peter and the Wolf had it out and surviving and the you suddenly get whacked by a reindeer or possibly by a small herd of reindeer who trample you to death in order to drink your urine which they just happen to smell about a mile away form you because unfortunately the wind was blowing the wrong way.  In other words, you who just got trampled were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Please do not laugh at this. It is serious business because it has actually happened as I have posted above.  And not just once but on numerous occasions.

So, R. Gordon Wasson, his wife Valentina, their colleagues, Puharich, Allegro, Graves, Hindu and Vedic Scholars, Sanskrit Scholars, etc, all believed that this strange unknown plant must have been the mushrooms known as Amanita muscaria.

It led to Wasson and others into reading the English translations of the book and of the 9th and 10th  Mandala of these scriptures which praised and actually exalted the virtues of  some unknown plant that many modern scholars began to believe to be this beautiful Brilliant red capped mushroom with white warty spots on it.

Now I would like to remind all that the Aryan nomads crossed over the Himalayas and brought their religion with them.  Thus the Amanita mushroom was said to become part of the many complex deities of the continent.

Eventually the Hindu peoples, as well as the Vedic historians and scholars whose race brought the alleged religious use of this mushroom to India, soon disappeared. And again for centuries and millennia, its existence remained hidden from the outside world.  However, Amanita muscaria, used to stuptify flies when mixed with sugar, was known in most or Scandinavia,  the UK and from the shores of Spain to the Eastern European block and throughout Mother Russia and north to Siberia and many other countries looked at this beautiful mushroom as something marvelous to look at yet possibly dangerous to employ.

It soon began to appear in literature, Church and religious icons and paintings during the last 1,000 years.

And then the Wassons and their colleagues and other friends, as well as anthropologist Maria Dobkin de Rios soon began their studies of this fantastic interesting mushroom that seemed to have a history dating back at least possibly several thousand years, and also its use in North America for 400 years:

(from me and this is my interpretation, but the tale was told in the Rig Veda but I just embellished it to make it more magical and to let people believe of the possibilities of the truth of the tale).

Now, Here we find a conclusion that would most undoubtedly lead one to really believe that the Amanita was the Soma of the Vedic Scriptures.  In the scriptures is a parable about a time in the history of the Aryans where they were suffering, their crops failing, no rain and bitter hot and dry and then cold and wet seasons, plagues of locust and who knows what else, and according to historical records, deadly plagues of ergotism in many parts of the world of the Aryans.

Now It was written in the Rig Veda that the people became so desperate that they called out to their Gods to save them, and free them from their wanton ways and destruction of their souls and to please give back to them, their lives and happiness.  They did this for weeks, calling to the sky, "oh majestic and powerful my mighty lords of the sun and the stars, Father of the skies, Mother of the air, Brother and sisters of the earth, the water, and the fires, "Please heed our plea," they pleaded.  "We so need your help."

And with a quite calm and collective voice, the villagers heard their lord say to them.

"Go in peace, my people and I promise I will send you the help you need."

And again, much time had soon passed and the people were still in despair.

One day, a ravenous beggar came hobbling into the main village center, leprous and diseased.  He wore tattered rags and he stared, looking out towards the citizens of the village, his eyes pleading for salvation and aid, food and warmth, and before too long, the children of the village, the old hags of the village, and the spokespeople for the village all began to make fun of him, laughing at him, heaving solid items at him, telling him to leave. To go and get lost.  They threw rocks and small stones at him.  Some probably defecated on him.  And soon he spread his legs apart, took out a cup from his wollen-woven blanket and with his other hand he pulled his penis out and began to pee in the tin cup.  The townsfolk began to gasp in disgust at the actions of this dirty filthy beggar.  They began to scream in anger at him, and many yelled at him asking, "Just what in the hell do you think you are doing you filthy pig."

And soon they started to beat him with switches they had just began to break off the branches of small trees and bushes in their nearby surroundings, and proceeded to chased him from their village, all the while, screaming, yelling vulgarities and obscenities at him as he fearfully fled for his life from the village he just sought help in.

Soon much time had passed and the villagers were still very despondent at their living conditions and lack of food and disease, and sickness and illness amongst their women and children.  And yes, once again they began to pray to the Gods for help to come soon or they all might died.

Suddenly, a clouded voiced blared down from the heavens with anger and despise.

The village people looked up to the heavens and prayed to their lord, begging him with words such as, "Oh great Lord of the Universe. We needed your help. We called out to you to please help us and you said it would come, yet we are still no better off today then we were four years ago.

With that, thunder roared which only happens when it rains. And lightning zigged and zagged through the skies and the lord replied, "Well", said the lord, "I sent it to you and you sent it away."

The above quote is based on a short paragraph from the Rig Vida that also includes the use of curds and whey. So I basically made it a little more interesting to read.
So that is my tale.  Now a known scholar, last year confided in me that he believes he has now actually claimed to have found the plant he believes is actually the soma of the Aryans and that it is not Amanita muscaria.  But that I am not allowed to divulge until after he publishes and I have no idea when. That was now almost two years ago.

I want to post the reference to Wasson's Alternatives to Some other than Amanita muscaria.

Some references for those who want to read up on amanita muscaria.  Also, if you have a copy of Wasson and Wendy O Doniger;s Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality, there are dozens of references to nooks from the 14th to the 20th century about use of Soma in Siberia.


Here a few images you might enjoy.

In 1997 I lectured at the Hua Hin Hilton along the Surat Thani Coastline at the Asia-Pacific Mycological Conference on Biodiversity and Biotechnology.

Before my lecture, a Professor, Dr. Subaya subramanian, a leading plant pathologist and Sanskrit scholar as well as a Vedic scholar gave a lecture on Soma (Amanita muscaria) and he too announced and said it is not the soma of the Aryan religions.  And he claimed that many Vedic and Sanskrit scholars have disagreed with the Wasson theories, especially since Wasson was not a Vedic scholar and really knew nothing of Aryan history or studies or of the other psychoactive plants of India.

About Dr. Subramanian:

SUBBAYA SUBRAMANIAN
Assistant Professor
Department of Lab Medicine & Pathology
University of Minnesota
14-271 Moos Tower (Mail code: MMC 206)
515 Delaware St, S.E
Minneapolis, MN-55455
email: mailto:subree@umn.edu">subree@umn.edu
Tel: 612-626-4330
Fax: 612-626-7031
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDUCATION
Doctor of Philosophy in Molecular and Cellular Biology (2003) Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
Post graduate Diploma in Patents Law (2003) NALSAR University of Law, India
Master of Science in Biotechnology, Center for Plant Molecular Biology (1998) Tamil Nadu Agricultural
University, India
Batchelor of Science in Agriculture (1995) Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India.

Here is the syllabus of my lecture.

"[attachment=2:3uppjjf8]hua_hin1abc.jpg[/attachment:3uppjjf8]"

A picture of Dr. Subramanian from a journal publication in regards to his lecture.  This was a real fascinating person, and he had read a few of my journal publications on psilocybine shrooms.

[attachment=1:3uppjjf8]hua_hin2.jpg[/attachment:3uppjjf8]

His name is famous and in the Batu Caves in Kuala Lumphur, each year, close to 250,000 people celebrate the Subramanian festival. This is where hundreds of Hindus put to and three foot long pins in their bodies and make alters of themselves.

With these people who annually do this, there are dozens of German and Australian skin heads who also do the same.  Some Germans had meat hooks inthe backs being carried around like a chandelier

There is also a monstrous invasion of bats who leave the caves once the drum processions began their entrance into the Batu Caves.

Also about 75 km from the Batu caves and festival are the giant 9-foot wing spread fruit bats who eat fruits form fruit trees.  And they also have praying mantis insects 10 to 13 inches tall.

And finally a photograph of my poster presentation in a different hall.  many of us had both lectures with slides, power point and poster presentations.  ME and Dr. Subbaya subramanian

[attachment=0:3uppjjf8]Dr_subramanian.jpg[/attachment:3uppjjf8]

 there was also a large Paul Stamets table set up by some Thais who obviously presented his salable items at every bio and myco conference every years in Thailand.  cheesy because he is not there, but the Thai are honest and told me he made lots of money for not being there.

Cheapskate.



By the way, These following references are only but 27 out of 354 references pertaining to Amanita muscaria, Soma and the chemistry of that species and related Amanitas and histories of Soma form 3,000 years ago to present.
 

Riedlinger, Thomas J. 1993. Wasson's alternative candidates for Soma. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs vol. 25(2):149-156.
In Which the author offers several alternative for the Soma plant including Peganum Harmala, Datura and Cannabis.

Trotsky, Leon. 1890. Why do men stupefy themselves? In: Drunkeness:185-203. by Dr. P. S. Alexyev.
The above essay was written as a preface to a book on drunkenness. In this essay, Trotsky talks about intoxications from the ingestion of opium, ether, vodka, wine, beer, hashish, morphine, tobacco and the fly agaric mushroom Amanita muscaria.

Dobkin De Rios, Marlene. 1976. The Reindeer herdsmen of Siberia. The Wilderness of Mind vol. 5. No. 90-039. Sage Research Papers in Social Science.

Dobkin De Rios, Marlene. 1984. Reindeer herdsmen of Siberia. Hallucinogens: Cross Cultural Perspectives. Albuquerque. University of New Mexico Press.

Doniger O'Flaherty, Wendy. 1990. `Somatic' memories of R. Gordon Wasson. In: Thomas J. Riedlinger (ed.) The Sacred Mushroom Seeker: Essays for R. Gordon Wasson:55-60. Dioscorides Press. Portland, Oregon.

------. 1968. The post-Vedic History of the Soma plant. In: Wasson and Doniger O'Flaherty's Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality:95-147. Ethno-Mycological Studies no. 1. Mouton & Co. The Hague, Netherlands.

------. 1982. Epilogue. Journal of the American Oriental Society vol. 102(4):591-603.
Also in Botanical Museum Leaflets of Harvard vol. 29(3):246-247, 1982; and in Wasson, R. G. et al. (1986), "Persephone's Quest: Entheogens and the Origins of Religion":138-139. Ethnomycological Studies No. 10. Yale University Press. New Haven, Ct.

Keewaydinoquay. 1978. Puhpohwee for the People: A Narrative Account of Some Uses Among the Anishinaubeg. Ethnomycological Studies No. 5. Botanical Museum of Harvard. Cambridge, Massachusetts. February.
An account of the first report of the ceremonial use of Amanita muscaria by a North American Indian tribal group, the Ojibway. For further detailed information regarding the North American Indian use of Amanita muscaria, read the two papers in French and German by Navet, (Navet, 1988; Navet, 1993).

------. 1979. The legend of Miskwedo. Journal of Psychedelic Drugs vol. 11(1-2):29-32. January-June. Proceedings from the Conference on Hallucinogens and Shamanism in Native American Life. San Francisco, California. November. 28 September-October 1, 1978.
For further detailed information regarding the North American Indian use of Amanita muscaria read the two papers in French and German by Navet, (Navet, 1988; Navet, 1993).

Wasson, R. Gordon. 1960. Lightning bolt and mushrooms: An essay in early cultural exploration. Antiquity and Survival vol. 3(1):59-73.
In Dutch. Revised and amplified version of original. Originally in: For Roman Jakobson: Essays on the Occasion of his 60th Birthday, October 11, 1956:605-612. In Dutch. Mouton & Company. The Hague. This paper also appeared in Persephone's Quest: Entheogens and the Origins of Religion. This was Gordon Wasson's first publication in ethnomycology.

------. 1964. The divine mushroom of immortality. In Peter T. Furst's 1972 edition of Flesh of the Gods:185-182. Prager Pub., Inc.

------. 1967. Fly agaric and man. In: Efron, David H., Holmstedt, Bo., and N. S. Kline (eds.) Ethnopharmacological Search for Psychoactive Drugs:405-414. NIMH Workshop Series No. 2. Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare. United States Public Health Service Bulletin No. 1645. U. S. Government Printing Office. Washington, D. C.

Wasson, R. Gordon. 1968. Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality. Ethno-Mycological Studies No. 1. Mouton and Co. The Hague, Netherlands. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. New York.
Limited half-leather bound edition of 680 copies (40 illustrations, including 3 maps, 1 chart, 2 watercolors, and 18 colored tipped-in plates. In 1970 a trade hard-cover and paperback facsimile edition appeared in print (original photographs but not tipped-in. Three printings of the trade edition followed. A Deluxe first edition, in slipcase xiv + 381 + [i colophon] pages. Ethno-mycological Studies No. 1 of the Botanical Museum of Harvard University. Colophon page reads, "Of this book 680 copies have been made, designed by Giovanni Mardersteig and set in Dante type, of which two are designated A & B and the others are numbered 1 to 678. Text and illustrations were printed by the Stamperia Valdonega in Verona, except for two plates in pochoir, which were executed in Paris by Daniel Jacomet et Cie. The paper was hand-made by Fratelli Magnani, Pescia, and the printing completed in 1968." Contents: Three parts: 1. Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality, 2. The Post-Vedic History of the Soma Plant by Wendy Northern Eurasia and the Tree of Life and the Marvelous Herb, acknowledgements, exhibits and index consisting of 47 items divided into 2 sections: I. The Fly-Agaric in Siberia, II. The Fly-Agaric in Scandinavian Writings, citations from the Rg Veda, index. List of illustrations-22 plates, list of 10 illustrations in the text, list of 4 maps and linguistic chart accompanying part 3.

------. 1970a. Soma: Comments inspired by Professor Kuiper's Review of R. Gordon Wasson and Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty's Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality. Indo-Iranian Journal vol. 12(4):286-298.
Kuiper's review immediately precedes the reply in the same issue.

------. 1970b. Soma of the Aryans: An ancient hallucinogenic. Bulletin on Narcotics vol. 22(3). A United Nations Publication. July-September.
Also published in French as "Le Soma des Aryans: un ancient hallucinogène." Bulletin des Stupeiants vol. 22(3). Also in Journal of Psychedelic Drugs vol. 3(2):40-46. Spring 1971. Later reprinted in Psychedelic Review 1971.

------. 1971. The Soma of the Rig Vida: What was it? Journal of the American Oriental Society vol. 91(2):169-187. April-June.
Also: Remarks of Mr. Wasson's Soma by Daniel H. H. Ingalls. Both reprinted in Journal of the American Oriental Society as No. 7. Also in: The Spanish Journal Plural in 1976.

------. 1972a. The divine mushroom of immortality. In Peter T. Furst' (ed.) Flesh of the Gods:185-200. Praeger. New York.

------. 1972b. What was the Soma of the Aryans. In Peter T. Furst' Flesh of the Gods:201-213.

------. 1972c. Soma and the Fly Agaric: Mr. Wasson's Rejoiner to Professor Brough. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ethnomycological Studies No. 2.

------. 1976. Soma: The divine mushroom of immortality. Discovery vol. 3(1):41-48. Fall.

------. 1979a. Traditional use in North America of Amanita muscaria for traditional purposes. Journal of Psychedelic Drugs vol. 11(1-2):25-28. January-June. Congress on Hallucinogens and Shamanism in Native American Life. San Francisco, California. November 1978.

------. 1979b. Soma brought up to date. Botanical Museum Leaflets of Harvard vol. 26:211-223. June 30.
Also in: Journal of the American Oriental Society vol. 99(1):23-35. 1979.

------. 1995. Ethnomycoology: discoveries about Amanita muscaria point to fresh perspectives. In: Schultes, R. E. and S. von Reis. Ethnobotany, Evolution and Discipline. Dioscorides Press. Portland.

------. 2002a. The Miskwedo of the Ahnishinaubeg. In: Hoffman, Mark. (Ed.) Entheos, The Journal of Psychedelic Spirituality vol. 1(2):3-12. June. 200 copies.
Previously unpublished, from the Harvard University Botany Libraries, Tina & R. Gordon Wasson Ethnomycological Collection Archives and is presented here by kind permission of Wasson's daughter and executor, Dr. Masha Britten. The MS is a chapter from an abandoned work in progress, typewritten, with hand corrections by RGW. It bears the subtitle, Ten Extraordinary Tales and was written about 1980. The Text, as published here {in the article] is complete, with certain deletions noted in the footnotes. Wasson met Keewaydinoquay in 1975 through Professor John Nichols of the University of Wisconsin. Kee agreed to divulge tribal traditions to him and painted a birch bark scroll to illustrate her narrative of the "Sun Mushroom Tale." It and this commentary were not to be published until fifty years after her death because she feared the jealousy of rival shamans and her peoples ostracism.

------. 2002b. (Letter). Mr. R. H. Gold, Easter, 1965. In Entheos: The Journal of Psychedelic Spirituality Vol. 2(1):3.
A letter written to Mr. Gold regarding Soma and other suspected healing drug/plants. Letter is dated April 18, Easter Sunday, 1965. Permission to print this letter in the journal Entheos was granted by Dr. Masha Wasson, Gordon's daughter.

Wasson, R. Gordon with Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty. 1968. Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality. Harcourt Brace. New York. Ethnomycological Studies No. 1.
A pre-histrory of the Soma complex by which R. G. Wasson suggests that the Soma of the ancient Vedic Hymns is actually the mushroom Amanita muscaria.

Wasson, R. Gordon et al. 1980. Unpublished manuscripts. (From Ott, 1993).
"The Miskwedo of the Ahnishinaubeg" by Keewaydinoquay; "Supporting Evidence" by R. Gordon Wasson; "A Mushroom Ceremony" by R. Kaplan. The three printed and bound copies of this rarest piece of Wassoniana are locked up in the Houghton Rare Book Library at Harvard University until the year 2020 (Schultes, 1992; Personal communications with Jonathan Ott). Since Wasson sent me copies of these three manuscripts for the book during its writing, these were available for examination. The three printed books contain a reproduction of a hand-painted scroll made by Keewaydinoquay, the original of which Wasson showed me, detailing the Ahnishinaubeg folk stories regarding Amanita muscaria, and the book features a series of Ahnishinaubeg tales in which the sacred mushroom figures. Wasson's introductory chapter, "Supporting Evidence" is substantially similar to the paper he published in the Journal of Psychedelic Drugs (Wasson, 1979a), being the lecture he gave at a 1978 conference in San Francisco, in which Keewaydinoquay, M. Perchel and Reid Kaplan also participated."

boomer2

[cosmobirdie]

I'm a Classicist, trained at Oxford University - and unsurprisingly taught nothing about drug use in the ancient world. But my curiosity has led me to find a few gems that seem to be an Western Echo of what you are talking about with soma, and show the global link between spirituality and altered states of consciousness/getting high.

I've heard that it was Ergot, the base ingredient for LSD, that was used in Eleusis, perhaps the most famous of all Classical mysteries. Anyway I was just interested in what you thought of this article about all this kind of stuff and taken to a modern conclusion:

//http://www.brainwaving.com/2009/10/29/lsd-and-the-evolution-of-consciousness/

[laughingwillow]

Thanks for posting that link, mon.

lw