Excellent interview. I ended up here because I've been reading/rereading The Artful Universe for years and I'm trying to get a better sense of if his "thesis" and way of framing things was accepted by his peers, and if so, has it had any lasting impact in the scholarly field, and what are some textual examples? That book was written in 1998-- I'm sure a lot more has come to light since then, particularly as it relates to the origins of mediation. His book still stands as the best explanation that I know of for the origins of this very unique phenomenon, and I would love to hear other scholars views and critiques concerning his ideas. And why, just why are scholars still so hesitant, in the year 2024, to simply admit that soma was, and still is, referring to various iterations of cannabis infused drinks? The "reefer madness" taboos that haunted all the academies of the 50's and 60's has long passed, and the ethnobotanical information regarding Cannabis's influence on the early Indic and Chinese cultures/religions is vast. Even your textbook couch-stoner could read one poem from the Vedas to the soma goddess and think, "Yeah, they were definitely writing about being high" and of the unique and poetic insights one has in such elevated states of consciousness. And people in India still drink a form of soma, as it's now know as bhang lassi. My areas of interest in this subject are many, but in particular, as a practitioner of Taijiquan and Qigong and of the yangsheng/Nourishing Life practices. I've have a particular interest in the Warring States period of China, and of the Nourishing Life and Meditative cultures that deeply informed the philosophical debates of that time-- and the rest of Chinese history. And it's just simply too hard to ignore that the roots of those "Daoist" meditative practices and praxes don't seem to have originated in China, but instead, in India. And so much of what he says in this interview strengthens those positions. The ideas of Rita as Dao, as well as the similarities between how he explains the function of soma as a sort of fluid 'vital essence', is exactly the same as how the Neiye, the earliest extant "qigong" text describes "jing/essence", as a sort of physiological fluid-substrate for the Dao to embody a calm heart-mind. Anyhow, thanks for this podcast-- it was very insightful. Cheers
Excellent interview. I ended up here because I've been reading/rereading The Artful Universe for years and I'm trying to get a better sense of if his "thesis" and way of framing things was accepted by his peers, and if so, has it had any lasting impact in the scholarly field, and what are some textual examples? That book was written in 1998-- I'm sure a lot more has come to light since then, particularly as it relates to the origins of mediation. His book still stands as the best explanation that I know of for the origins of this very unique phenomenon, and I would love to hear other scholars views and critiques concerning his ideas.
And why, just why are scholars still so hesitant, in the year 2024, to simply admit that soma was, and still is, referring to various iterations of cannabis infused drinks? The "reefer madness" taboos that haunted all the academies of the 50's and 60's has long passed, and the ethnobotanical information regarding Cannabis's influence on the early Indic and Chinese cultures/religions is vast. Even your textbook couch-stoner could read one poem from the Vedas to the soma goddess and think, "Yeah, they were definitely writing about being high" and of the unique and poetic insights one has in such elevated states of consciousness. And people in India still drink a form of soma, as it's now know as bhang lassi.
My areas of interest in this subject are many, but in particular, as a practitioner of Taijiquan and Qigong and of the yangsheng/Nourishing Life practices. I've have a particular interest in the Warring States period of China, and of the Nourishing Life and Meditative cultures that deeply informed the philosophical debates of that time-- and the rest of Chinese history. And it's just simply too hard to ignore that the roots of those "Daoist" meditative practices and praxes don't seem to have originated in China, but instead, in India. And so much of what he says in this interview strengthens those positions. The ideas of Rita as Dao, as well as the similarities between how he explains the function of soma as a sort of fluid 'vital essence', is exactly the same as how the Neiye, the earliest extant "qigong" text describes "jing/essence", as a sort of physiological fluid-substrate for the Dao to embody a calm heart-mind.
Anyhow, thanks for this podcast-- it was very insightful. Cheers