What Was Soma?

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What Was Soma?

another westerner chimes in on the identity of the drug that inspired the Hindu religion

by Brian Ballard Quass, the Drug War Philosopher

May 10, 2025

After studying a variety of online resources about the Vedic religion, I have come up with my own theory about the identity of the substance called Soma, the mysterious "juice" that seems to have inspired the creation of the Hindu faith. I almost hesitate to throw my hat into this ring as an American, however, because at least one online contender in this field, an apparently Indian blogger who went by the name of Swami_48 back in 2013, seems to believe that foreigners are slandering Hindus as drug addicts when they speculate on this topic, at least when they opine that Soma may have contained psychoactive substances such as Fly Agaric or psilocybin or opium .

"But foreign scholars sowed the seeds of doubts in the Indian minds. They dubbed it as hallucinative or psychotropic drug [sic]. They were very happy to dub the Vedic seers as drug addicts and drunkards."¹

This is a reaction that I fully expected to encounter during my research on the topic of Soma, given that the Drug War has politicized the word "drugs" and so turned it into an implicit reproach. The angry Swami has taken America's pejorative definition of the word "drugs" to heart as being an unbiased description of Mother Nature's psychoactive bounty and so he refuses to admit that Soma could be such a substance. He has failed to realize that there are no such things as "drugs" in the evil sense of that word, except in the minds of pharmacologically clueless politicians who have an agenda to disempower minorities and to outlaw religious inspiration and ecstasy. Having thus swallowed the Drug Warrior's libelous lie about psychoactive medicines, however, Swami_48 is left with no way to whitewash his religious Soma except to invoke the Drug War apartheid of which Julian Buchanan ² writes, according to which some psychoactive substances are thought to be evil "drugs," while other psychoactive substances are considered to be beneficial "meds," or in this case, beneficial sacraments. And so our Swami tells us, "No, our Soma is not a drug, thank you very much, it is a sacrament!" The fact is, however, that psychoactive substances are psychoactive substances no matter what we call them, no matter how we brand them, no matter what kind of spin we place upon them as self-interested human beings. They are neither good nor bad. People are good or bad, not plants and fungi.

Our indignant Swami seems to think otherwise, however. He seems to suppose that yes, Soma inspires and elates, but it does so in just such a way as to put it off the radar of the DEA and Drug Warriors, or at least that it would do so "if things were done by rights." What he does not realize is that the Drug Warrior hates nothing so much as drugs that inspire and elate, regardless of their method of action. In fact, America's very definition of the word "drugs" these days is simply "substances that inspire and elate," as is clear from the fact that our long list of outlawed psychoactive substances here in the States have nothing in common as a group except for those twin attributes.

The point that I wish to convey here to the good Swami is this: that R. Gordon Wasson ³ was not calling Hindus drug addicts when he identified Soma with the Fly Agaric Mushroom, Amanita muscaria; neither was Terence McKenna ⁴ ⁵ doing so when he pegged the active ingredient of Soma as the psilocybin mushroom, Psilocybe cubensis. That said, our Swami is partially correct just the same: Hindus are indeed being implicitly demonized by foreigners as drunkards and drug addicts, but they are being demonized by America's Drug Warriors, not by Wasson and McKenna. It is the Drug Warrior that insists that substances that inspire and elate are evil and can have no beneficial uses, religious or otherwise. According to that mindset, the Soma described in the Rig Veda ⁶ was a drug in the worst sense of that word. In fact, if Drug Warriors had been in charge in the Punjab in 1500 BCE, there would be no Hindu religion today. Indeed, if William Bennett had been Drug Czar at the time, those who pressed the so-called Soma sticks ⁷ for Indra and Agni et al. would have been beheaded as evil rotten horrible "drug dealers."⁸

To sum up then, the Swami is justifiably angry: Americans are implicitly hating on Soma. The problem is that the Swami is angry at the wrong Americans. But then that is the Drug Warriors' forte, after all: their ability to blame others for the problems that they themselves are creating.

Now, see what that Swami has done? He got me so rattled that I almost forgot to tell you guys my theory about the true nature of the Soma plant! Fortunately, "omittance is no quittance," as our buddy Shakespeare was fain to say.

My guess then is this: that Soma was a combination of plant medicines, with the chief ingredients consisting of opium , ephedra, and perhaps a dash of Cannabis sativa. Let me list a few of the reasons why I make this claim:

1) Opium inspires creativity and a great awareness of the intricate niceties of Mother Nature's bounty. It educates by allowing one to see one's problems metaphorically ⁹.
2) The amphetamine-like qualities of Ephedra would have counteracted the sleep-inducing tendencies of the poppy plant.
3) According to the Rig Veda (Viii.91.1), Soma is found "growing near water and flowing with a milky juice gained by crushing the plant ¹⁰." This is an interesting observation, given that the poppy plant oozes a milky white latex sap.
4) The combination of opium , ephedra and cannabis is mentioned as a Soma candidate in the following online sources:

--Wikipedia Botanical identity of Soma ¹¹
--In Search Of Soma, An Elixir for Immortality of Soul ¹²
--Soma, ¹³ an Enigmatic, Mysterious Plant of the Vedic Āryas: An Appraisal ¹⁴

More generally, I believe that it makes poetic sense to associate the time-honored panacea of opium with what the Rishi sages obviously considered to be the ne plus ultra of psychoactive medicine. Surely, we should seek out a superlative candidate to fill the roll of an ostensibly superlative mystery substance such as Soma. Moreover, opium ¹⁵ clearly works for people on demand and in unmistakable ways, whereas psychedelics tend to have unpredictable results based on the individual consumer. Someone who is gloomy and depressed is not necessarily going to feel elation and inspiration when using psilocybin or Fly Agaric - or at least that is my impression given my own admittedly limited experience with such substances. The Rig Veda ¹⁶ does not speak of Soma as a substance that works at times, or that even works frequently, but rather as a substance which, without fail, will bring about rapture, energy, and mental focus, at least when used by those for whom it was intended, at the times and in the manner that it was intended. In the words of the commercial blurb, Soma would seem to be a substance that works "first time, every time." This is something that cannot be said of psychedelics.

I should qualify these neophyte surmises of mine with the caveat that Soma was considered as far more than just a plant, or just a fungus, or just a combination of such flora. It was also considered to be a kind of inner principle associated with the pineal gland and capable of manipulation via yogic practice in such a way as to inspire a kind of drug-free ecstasy ¹⁷ - although such ecstasy could presumably be traced to the DMT that we all seem to possess internally by virtue of our membership in the species Homo sapiens ¹⁸. Soma is also the metaphorical incarnation of the Soma plant/fungi and its divine qualities and as such is itself a god, one that eventually came to be associated with the Moon God Chandra ¹⁹.

Finally, a note about the largely unguessed-at power of drugs to inspire and elate in a religious manner - yea, even without causing addiction or dependence.

To illustrate this power, I ask the reader to consider my recent experience undergoing a gnarly dental operation in Harrisonburg, Virginia. I was unconscious during the procedure thanks to the administration of an unknown anesthetic. I "came to" shortly thereafter and was wheeled into the lobby where my brother-in-law was awaiting me. He then walked me out to his car and drove me home. Business as usual, right? But the point of this story is the way that the anesthetic's influence remained with me over the course of the week that followed. I found myself feeling more kindly disposed toward my fellow human beings over the next several days, as if the anesthetic had gotten me in touch with my "inner saint," so to speak. In contemplating this subtle but very real elevation in mindset, I had a bit of an epiphany about religion. Now, I still do not know the name or even the type of anesthetic that I received, whether it was a gas or an opiate, for instance. It occurred to me, however, that absent drug law, one could create a religious sect that administered such an anesthetic to its adherents as part of a weekly church service. During this service, the faithful would be adjured by the church leadership to "work with the substance" over the coming week in such a way as to promote the happiness of others. What a great way to help others -- and oneself -- to feel better about the world!

Assuming that the drug I had received in the dentist office was an opiate, such a church would ritualize the use of such drugs with the help of religious doctrine that had been created for that very purpose, thereby giving church members a way to benefit from a time-honored substance while avoiding problems with unwanted addiction and/or dependence.

The fact that Drug Warriors would never tolerate such a religion is proof that the Drug War is not about drug safety but rather about the outlawing of what Heidegger would have called new ways of "being-in-the-world.²⁰" The bad faith of the Drug Warriors in this connection is glaringly obvious given their refusal to apply their unprecedented prohibitions to alcohol and guns, which kill approximately 178,000 ²¹ and 47,000 ²² every year respectively in the United States alone. This breathtaking hypocrisy shows that the Drug War has nothing to do with safety, that it is all about the outlawing of unwelcome world views, especially those that conduce to peace, love and understanding. The Drug Warrior is, in fact, a selfish hater. They have got THEIR religious liberty, and that is all that matters to them. The religious liberty of others is unimportant to them.

As I was just telling our Swami friend several paragraphs ago, this is why Drug Warriors are the real enemies of the Hindu people when it comes to their religion. If the Drug Warriors' oppressive attitude toward godsend medicines had been in force in the Punjab in 1500 BCE, Hinduism would not exist today. The property of the Rishi would have been confiscated, their Soma ²³ plants burnt, and their right to earn a living in the Indian subcontinent would have been revoked. Today, the Vedic religion would just be a footnote in our history books, where it would be described as a rebel movement that had been ruthlessly suppressed by the Drug Warriors of yore.

Notes for essay entitled What Was Soma?: another westerner chimes in on the identity of the drug that inspired the Hindu religion:

1: “Confusion About Vedic Soma Plant.” 2013. Tamil and Vedas. May 5, 2013. https://tamilandvedas.com/2013/05/05/confusion-about-vedic-soma-plant/. (up)
2: Breaking Free From Prohibition: A Human Rights Approach to Successful Drug Reform Buchanan CPA, DSW, MA, PhD, Julian, Drugs, Human Rights & Harm Reduction, 2018 (up)
3: Wasson, Gordon. 2006. “The Divine Mushroom.” ThriftBooks. February 20, 2006. https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/soma-divine-mushroom-of-immortality_r-gordon-wasson/468400/. (up)
4: McKenna, Terence. 2026. “History Ends in Green.” The Library. 2026. https://www.organism.earth/library/document/history-ends-in-green. (up)
5: “Food of the Gods : The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge : A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution : McKenna, Terence K., 1946-2000 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive.” 2022. Internet Archive. 2022. https:// (up)
6: Complete Rig Veda in English (Sakala Shakha). n.d. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/rigvedacomplete. (up)
7: Rao, Rekha. 2021. “Somayajña -the Vedic Soma Sacrifice – Smriti.” Upaasana.net. May 20, 2021. https://smriti.upaasana.net/2021/05/20/somayajna-the-vedic-soma-sacrifice/. (up)
8: Beheading of Convicted Drug Dealers Discussed by Bennett LA Times - Reuters, 1989 (up)
9: “‘The Crawling Chaos’ by H. P. Lovecraft with Winifred V. Jackson.” 2026. Hplovecraft.Com. 2026. https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/crc.aspx. (up)
10: Prabhu, U. Mahesh. 2016. “The Secret of the Soma Plant | American Institute of Vedic Studies.” June 13, 2016. https://www.vedanet.com/the-secret-of-the-soma-plant/. (up)
11: “Botanical Identity of Soma–Haoma.” 2026. In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Botanical_identity_of_soma%E2%80%93haoma&oldid=1381067906. (up)
12: Shah, Bipin. 2021. “In Search of Soma-an Elixir for Immortality of Soul.” Academia.edu. June 10, 2021. https://www.academia.edu/49200796/In_Search_Of_Soma_An_Elixir_for_Immortality_of_Sou (up)
13: “Blue Tide - Mike Jay.” 2025. Mike Jay. May 18, 2025. https://mikejay.net/books/blue-tide/. (up)
14: Shah, N C. 2015. “Soma, an Enigmatic, Mysterious Plant of the Vedic Āryas: An Appraisal.” Indian Journal of History of Science 50 (1). https://doi.org/10.16943/ijhs/2015/v50i1/48110. (up)
15: The Truth About Opium by William H. Brereton DWP (up)
16: Complete Rig Veda in English (Sakala Shakha). n.d. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/rigvedacomplete. (up)
17: History of Ayurveda. 2019. “History of Ayurveda.” History of Ayurveda. 2019. https://www.historyofayurveda.org. (up)
18: “Natural High: Endogenous Psychedelics in the Gut and Brain.” n.d. The Scientist Magazine®. https://www.the-scientist.com/natural-high-endogenous-psychedelics-in-the-gut-and-brain-71301. (up)
19: “Soma: The God of the Moon and the Sacred Drink.” 2024. Ramana Maharshi. December 12, 2024. https://www.ramana-maharshi.org/soma-the-god-of-the-moon-and-the-sacred-drink/. (up)
20: Heidegger’s Concept of Being-in-the-World: A Fundamental Existential Condition Philosophy.Institute, 2023 (up)
21: CDC. 2024. “Facts About U.S. Deaths from Excessive Alcohol Use.” Alcohol Use. July 8, 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/facts-stats/?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/features/excessive-alcohol-deaths.html. (up)
22: Gramlich, John. 2025. “What the Data Says about Gun Deaths in the U.S.” Pew Research Center. Pew Research Center. March 5, 2025. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/03/05/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-us/. (up)
23: Blue Tide: The Search for Soma: a philosophical review of the book by Mike Jay DWP (up)

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What Was Soma?

another westerner chimes in on the identity of the drug that inspired the Hindu religion

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