Tracing the Path of Soma: Traditions and Transformations of Amṛta in Indic Philosophy and Religion

The publication of Wasson and Doniger's Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality in 1968 precipitated scholarly controversy and popular fixation on the connection between Indic traditions and psychedelics, refracted through the concept of soma. The work addressed the question of the botanical identity of soma, specifically Wasson's amanita muscaria thesis, and forwarded Doniger's argument connecting the use of soma and the development of yoga. In this paper, I critically examine these two theses regarding soma in light of contemporary yoga research, offering an expanded analysis of soma's botanical identity—or identities—in relationship to yoga, and its role within multiple strata of Indic philosophy and religion, including the priestly literature of the Vedas and Upaniṣads, Pātañjala Yoga, haṭhayoga, āyurveda, and modern/contemporary practice. I argue three points: 1) that attention to a wider range of psychoactive agents with nootropic, as opposed to psychedelic, effects provides an important corrective; 2) that psychoactive substances are, in key contexts, framed as having a clear synergistic effects on yogic discipline, and vice-versa; and 3) that common effects of endogenous and exogenous approaches leads to fluidity of the boundary between soma as a substance and as a metaphor within yoga practice—especially with respect to the attainment of yogic perfections (siddhi) and longevity (dīrghāyu) and the postulation of a psychospiritual nectar of immortality (amṛta) accessible via the yogic/subtle body. Lastly, I provide brief discussions of the contemporary use of psilocybin and yoga within psychedelic facilitation and microdosing postural yoga practices. I suggest the nature and function of soma has long been marked by adaptation and reinterpretation and that, ironically, the question of “authentic” soma continues to be a topic of considerable scholarly and popular curiosity, despite its clearly plural and fluid identity in Indic philosophy and religion.