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===== Soma ===== {{See also|Botanical identity of Soma-Haoma}} In 1968, [[R. Gordon Wasson]] proposed that ''A. muscaria'' was the ''[[Soma (drink)|soma]]'' talked about in the [[Rigveda]] of India,{{sfn|Wasson|1968|p=10}} a claim which received widespread publicity and popular support at the time.{{sfn|Letcher|2006|p=145}} He noted that descriptions of ''Soma'' omitted any description of roots, stems or seeds, which suggested a mushroom,<ref>Wasson, ''Soma'', p. 18.</ref> and used the adjective ''hári'' "dazzling" or "flaming" which the author interprets as meaning red.{{sfn|Wasson|1968|pp=36–37}} One line described men urinating ''Soma''; this recalled the practice of recycling urine in Siberia. Soma is mentioned as coming "from the mountains", which Wasson interpreted as the mushroom having been brought in with the Aryan migrants from the north.{{sfn|Wasson|1968|pp=22–24}} Indian scholars Santosh Kumar Dash and Sachinanda Padhy pointed out that both eating of mushrooms and drinking of urine were proscribed, using as a source the ''[[Manusmṛti]]''.{{sfn|Letcher|2006|p=146}} In 1971, Vedic scholar John Brough from Cambridge University rejected Wasson's theory and noted that the language was too vague to determine a description of Soma.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brough |first1=John |title=Soma and Amanita muscaria |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies |date=June 1971 |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=331–362 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X0012957X }}</ref> In his 1976 survey, ''Hallucinogens and Culture'', anthropologist Peter T. Furst evaluated the evidence for and against the identification of the fly agaric mushroom as the Vedic Soma, concluding cautiously in its favour.{{sfn|Furst|1976|pp=96–108}} Kevin Feeney and Trent Austin compared the references in the Vedas with the filtering mechanisms in the preparation of Amanita muscaria and published findings supporting the proposal that fly-agaric mushrooms could be a likely candidate for the sacrament.{{sfn|Feeney|2020|p={{pn|date=December 2024}}}} Other proposed candidates include ''[[Psilocybe cubensis]]'', ''[[Peganum harmala]]'',{{sfn|Flattery|Schwartz|1989|p={{pn|date=December 2024}}}} and ''[[Ephedra (genus)|Ephedra]].''
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