In 1968 , R. Gordon Wasson proposed that A. muscaria was the Soma talked about in the Rig Veda of India , a claim which received widespread publicity and popular support at the time . He noted that descriptions of Soma omitted any description of roots , stem or seeds , which suggested a mushroom , and used the adjective hári " dazzling " or " flaming " which the author interpret as meaning red . 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 invaders from the north . Indian scholars Santosh Kumar Dash and Sachinanda Padhy pointed out that both eating of mushrooms and drinking of urine was proscribed , using as a source the Manusmṛti . 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 . 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 .