Tawny One

The identity of the plant known as soma in ancient India and as haoma in the Zoroastrian tradition has, for around 250 years, exercised the wits and imagination of scores of scholars. This plant is praised in the highest terms--as a kind of deity--in both Zoroastrian and Vedic texts that date from around 1,700-1,500 BCE. It is said to provide health, power, wisdom, and even immortality. It has been variously identified by researchers as a nonpsychoactive plant, as a medicine, as merely water, as alcoholic, as a narcotic, as a stimulant, and as a psychedelic. Currently, the three most supported theories are that soma/haoma was either fly-agaric mushrooms, ephedra, or Syrian rue. The author suggests that the ritual drink was based on analogues of ayahuasca, using a variety of plants, some of which he identifies in the book.

Identitatea plantei cunoscuta sub numele de soma in India antica si ca haoma in traditia zoroastriana, de aproximativ 250 de ani, a exercitat inteligenta si imaginatia a zeci de cercetatori. Aceasta planta este laudata in cei mai inalti termeni - ca un fel de zeitate - atat in textele zoroastriene, cat si in cele vedice, care dateaza de la aproximativ 1.700-1.500 i.Hr.