Gordon Wasson, an amateur ethnomycologist, who asserted that soma was an inebriant but not cannabis, and suggested fly-agaric mushroom, Amanita muscaria, as the likely. These effects can include visuals, which would be waves of colors or streams of psychedelic imagery, wavy vibrational patterns, characters people, robots, animal beings etc, perhaps possibly anythingmanifestations of geometric shapes, sometimes spinning or rotating, and the. A number of proposals were made, including one in 1968 by the American banker R. Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality by R. While unlikely to end debate over the identity of Soma, this study's findings help to solidify the foundation of Wasson's theory, and also to demonstrate the importance of preparation in understanding and uncovering the true identity of Soma. In the late 1960s, several studies attempted to establish soma as a psychoactive substance. The findings of this study demonstrated that the effects of Amanita muscaria were related to the type of preparation employed, and that its toxic effects were considerably reduced by preparations that paralleled those described for Soma in the Rig Veda. In order to address these specific criticisms over 600 anecdotal accounts of Amanita muscaria inebriation were collected and analyzed to determine the impact of preparation on Amanita muscaria's effects.

0 0 found this document not useful, Mark this document as not useful. this is a seminal work on botanical anthropology, and engendered a huge controversy. 0 0 found this document useful, Mark this document as useful. Several critics have reasoned that such preparation should be unnecessary if equivalent results can be obtained by consuming the raw plant, as is done with other psychoactive mushrooms. Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality By R. One omission in Wasson's theory is his failure to explain how pressing and filtering Soma, as described in the Rig Veda, supports his theory of Soma's identity. While Wasson's theory has garnered acclaim, it is not without its faults. Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality From inside the book What people are saying - Write a review Contents Other editions - View all Common terms and. Gordon Wasson first proposed his groundbreaking theory identifying Soma, the hallucinogenic sacrament of the Vedas, as the Amanita muscaria mushroom.

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