# What were soma and haoma in the Hindu and Persian traditions?

*No culture of drugs: soma, haoma and Amanita muscaria in ancient traditions*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7skyphqzdy8/s/5/
- Date: 2020-10-17 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Psychedelics are NOT haram | Mufti Abu Layth (18:24–22:07)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SkyPhQZdY8&t=1104s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7skyphqzdy8/

**Topics:** Spiritual experience and psychedelics; Christians and other faiths; The ancient Near East and scripture

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Ancient traditions such as the Vedic soma and the Avestan haoma point to the same entheogenic experiences, which those cultures had no vocabulary to explain; soma is argued to be Amanita muscaria, which may explain the deification of cows and the drinking of their urine.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says ancient traditions such as the Vedic soma and the Avestan haoma record the same entheogenic experiences without a vocabulary for them, and that if soma was Amanita muscaria this explains the Hindu drinking of cow urine and the deification of the animals.

**Evidence, his words at 19:04:** “many ancient traditions had these kind of things and you can see how because they didn't have a culture to explain it” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SkyPhQZdY8&t=1144s)

## Longer summary

Mufti Abu Layth says people in the past had no culture of drugs and often did not know what caused a particular reaction, such as ergotised grain, and sums up Rumi as a clear example: drinks of harmala seed, an MAO inhibitor, together with obsession with a flute made from a reed highly active with DMT. He says many ancient traditions had such things without a culture to explain them: the Rig Veda speaks of the drink soma, the fruit of the gods, which appears as haoma in the Avesta of the Persians, and whoever understood the plant could use it to empower themselves. He notes that researchers such as Wasson argue soma was the mushroom Amanita muscaria, which becomes most active after passing through urine, and suggests this explains the Hindu practice of drinking cow urine: ancient users waited for deer or other animals to eat the mushroom and urinate, and people drinking it had an opening of consciousness and inadvertently deified the animals.

## Sources and names cited

- Rig Veda
- Avesta
- soma (haoma)
- Amanita muscaria
- R. Gordon Wasson

## Transcript (machine tier, 18:24–22:07)

[17:48] um you will see that many historians when they spoke about um this harm They mentioned what its uses were and you can see that Awam speaks about uh it in Spain that it was used in bread often that's amongst one of the classical usage uh for that particular seed the paganum seed and just the the traditional you know the traditional kind of approach to all of this you have to remember something people in the past

[18:26] they didn't have this culture of drugs. So this word did not exist. People were not even sometimes aware of what is causing a particular reaction to certain things like uh like we mentioned people could have been having erotized grain with urgot growing on it. people could have liked. So here you've got a fine example of roomie often making drinks out of uh pegum seed which is a mau inhibitor which means that if you now receive DMT it will be active and then obsessed with his flute which

[19:04] was made from the particular read highly active with DMT. This is a clear example. So the and the reason I'm saying this is that many ancient traditions had these kind of things and you can see how because they didn't have a culture to explain it. So one of them is like if you look at the ancient um Hindu u traditions including the Persians.

[19:32] So in the rigas they speak of this drink called s. Now that's fascinating because s is this whole thing of the gods. Okay, it is the the fruit of the gods. That's what the drink uh if I bring this up here you can see this and I wanted to share this with you that look people who understand the identity of the plant s could use it to empower themselves and this comes in the avesta as well and it's mentioned as hom in uh the fari and the reason being is

[20:09] that uh in far they would often you know you'd get the s going to a like um it for example ha seven would go to subt um that kind of link. So the the or whether it would go which direction it would take is is is debatable but the point is that you see these coralates. So this drink s I just wanted to say check this out people.

[20:37] It is argued to be amanita muscaria which is a particular mushroom. Now, this is what certain people like Wassan and others who've researched it argue. This the only way it becomes incredibly active is if it it has to pass through urine. [laughter] Now, that's interesting, isn't it?

[21:00] Because when you look at the Hindu tradition of um of how drinking urine and it was something that was done and the urine of the cows because the ancient civilizations that used uh amanita mascaria would often wait for the deers or other animals to consume it and urinate it. So the fact that if these cows were consuming ammonita muscaria um and urinating it and people were drinking that urine they would have this opening of consciousness and thereby inadvertently they would deify these you

[21:40] know these animals because they would think well this is where we're getting this from you [laughter] and it just explains it's it's I just think when you think about it it really does um blow one's mind. I will um there is also if I can find here there was uh to the extent that some people had had made had presented hadith.

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment 7SkyPhQZdY8/s/5. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/7skyphqzdy8/s/5/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.