Searching for Soma: The Golden Vedic Enigma Summary and Analysis

McKenna argues that in order to solve the global crisis, human beings must return to ancient models, a solution that requires current notions, such as illegal plants, to be tossed aside. A renewed shamanism is offered as a last best hope.

The ancient Indo-Europeans were nomadic, credited with the domestication of the horse and practiced a religion based on a substance called Soma. Soma was a juice or sap squeezed from the Soma plant, filtered and often mixed with milk. It was believed to have magical origins - from an eagle from the highest heavens or in the mountains placed by a Hindu god.

Modern-day scientists have tried to piece together to which plant Soma refers. Geographically, Soma was likely an item of trade available in the original homelands...