Soma Divine Mushroom of Immortality: Ethno Mycological Studies

by R. Gordon Wasson

First edition. Hardback. No dustjacket. Hardback. Very good indeed.

Genres: Nonfiction, Drugs, History, Science, Plants, Mysticism, Religion

404 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Robert Gordon Wasson was an American author, ethnomycologist, and a Vice President for Public Relations at J.P. Morgan & Co.
Wasson spent most of his career is banking in his position at J.P. Morgan. Later in his life, despite having little formal training in the field, he turned his interests to the study of hallucinogenic mushrooms, religion, and ethnomycology, publishing papers that received attention and acclaim. In the course of work funded by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Wasson made contributions to the fields of ethnobotany, botany, and anthropology. He is perhaps most famous for the problem of the botanical identity of soma–haoma in the ancient Aryan religion. Wasson suggested that "soma" described in the Rigveda was the fly agaric mushroom, and "haoma" in the Avesta was a hallucinogen.

Reviews

[Shortsman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wasson makes a good case, a very interesting read. Could be a hard book to find, but it’s worth the struggle. Especially if you can try fly-agaric afterwards.

[Shrivatsa Om · Rating 1 out of 5]

Decent read! Touches more on fly agaric and it's properties and lore than Soma and it's importance for Vedic civilization

[Woody Stanlee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy Interesantes las ideas de los antiguos basadas en las propiedades de las plantas y hongos que les rodeaban, Amanita muscaria sin duda posee ciertas moléculas entre ellas la Muscarina que poseen diversas propiedades que se discuten hoy en día. Debido a su aplicación en pacientes con ansiedad, depresión, etc.

[Brandi Duke · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author writes in a very sure way that is off putting. Learning the history of Gordon Wasson kind of ruined the book and put some of his opinions in a greater perspective that left a bad taste in my mouth. Overall the author was so full of himself which made it a not so great read.

[Tony duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely interesting book about the religious use and the possible history of the sanskrit "Soma", the fabled drug of the Gods form the vedas. Very intriguing case is made that Aminita Muscara, the Fly Agaric mushroom from northern Europe and Siberia is Soma. It has been used by Eurasian shamans to look into the spirit world.
the interesting thing about A.M. is that to be safely and effective it needs to be eaten and then consumed from the urine. Somehow the drug is not as effective unless it has been processed by the kidneys ( Ok so who figured this out ). Also the worst poisons are removed or neutralized in the process. I think it was usually consumed form a bowl and very rarely shown on webcams.

this is a seminal work on botanical anthropology, and engendered a huge controversy in the field that I think is still unresolved.

if you have ever tried hallucinogens and/or want to know of their importance in human culture , this is a great detailed and well written book.