Submitted by I Was Here on
Debate about the identity of the ancient entheogenic plant known as Soma has gone on for centuries. Although the plant was once the primary sacrament of the diminant spiritual culture of Northern India, its identity became obscured. When I came to High Times in 1987, I first became aware of Gord Wasson, who wrote a book asserting Soma was Amanita Muscaria, a mushroom. Gordon’s theory had already become dogma in both the psychedelic and academic communities.
The same year I created an event in Amsterdam, “The Cannabis Cup,” a celebration of all things cannabis with a harves competition designed to identify the best strain of cannabis available in Amsterdam. About five years into that project, I suddenly realized I had a serious obligation to study the history of cannabis in ceremonies. This quest led me to meet Stephen and Ina May Gaskin, Wavy Gravy, Paul Krassner, Ken Kesey, Mountain Girl, Ken Babbs, and the rest of the Merry Pranksters. I recognized these people as masters of ceremony for the counterculture. I soon picked up a copy of the Penguin translation of the Rig Vega, and read the chapter on Soma. One paragraph immediately jumped out:
“Soma is a sage and a seer inspired by poetry
[S]he clothes the naked and heals all who are sick
The lame walk, the blind see.”
This clearly was a reference to cannabis. I spent the next few years investigating this story, while crafting rituals for the High Times Cannabis Cup and World Hemp Expo Extravagaja (Whee!). After I discovered Wasson worked for J.P. Morgan, once the richest person in America, I no longer placed much faith in the validity of Wasson’s research.
While many people concede corruption plays a major role in contemporary political power structures, few believe such corruption extends to our established religious institutions. Unfortunately, the truth is the creation of organized religion was the first attempt at mass mind control, and most wars over the last two thousand years have been fomented in the name of one religion or another. Obviously, spirituality and religion are different concepts and ceremonies manifest naturally in all living things. Even people who claim not to be spiritual cannot escape the reality that everything in our universe is somehow connected.
Our modern counterculture has its roots in New Orleans because Congo Square was the only place where people of all colors and religions could gather together to hold ceremonies. When people of diverse cultural backgrounds join together to create new ceremonies, a form of cultural hybrid vigor ensues. This hybrid vigor is responsible for jazz, blues, rock’n’roll and the improvisational-based culture we know today as the counterculture.
It’s no accident cannabis played an essential role in shaping this culture, for cannabis use was at the very foundation of almost every major religious insitution in history. Yet almost no one knows this history because there has been a longstanding cultural war on shamanic plants and the insights and connections to spirituality that they offer. This cultural war was created to sever our spiritual connections. The best evidence we have today is the relentlessly male nature of all the religious institutions. By removing the natural male/female balance from spirituality, religions were created that manifested war, bigotry and hatred, a cultural heritage we still live with today.
The counterculture is a baby, infant spirituality that may someday blossom into a full-blown religion. When this happens, Jack Herer will probably be recognized as one of the founding saints. In fact, it was Herer who first inspired me to examine the corruption of our religious institutions. Chris Bennett, however, will someday be recognized as the most important religious scholar of our time. Just as Herer revealed the great lies behind hemp prohibition, Bennett has unveiled the great lies behind our established religions and their attempts to blot out true history of ceremonial use of cannabis. The counterculture is not anything new, just a natural emanation of true spirituality. Cannabis is the sacrament of this culture and always has been. Unfortunately, we’re currently trapped in a system that manufactures war to sustain economic growth. If this unfortunate dynamic is ever going to change, it will be due to the growth of the counterculture. Bennett continues to fight for our religious right to cannabis, both in the courts in Canada and in his gorundbreaking research. This is one of the most important books you will ever read.
And if you go to Kumbeh Mela, the sadus will undoubtedly tell you the identity of Soma was never lost by them (and then pass a chillum to you).
Sincerely Yours,
Steven Hagar
June 16, 2010
Woodstock, New York
This article was originally published as a Foreward in the following book:
Bennett, Chris, CANNABIS AND THE SOMA SOLUTION, Trine Day, Walterville, OR, 2010.
Bold, italicized, and underlined text was added in order to add emphasis to specific passages – the text does not appear in this format in the original publication.