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SUMMARY:The use of psychedelics in ancient Asia and Greece - Matthew Clark
 \, University of London
DTSTART:20201103T180000Z
DTEND:20201103T193000Z
UID:TALK152737@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Bianca De Sanctis
DESCRIPTION:For our first talk of the semester\, the Cambridge Psychedelic
  Society is very excited to host Matthew Clark to talk about his research 
 regarding the historical use of psychedelics. \n\nTalk abstract: The ritua
 l drink called soma/haoma\, which can be traced to the late Bronze Age (c.
  1600 BCE)\, is central to the religious practices of brahmans who perform
  Vedic ritual and also to Zoroastrianism. The three main theories currentl
 y endorsed by scholars are\nthat soma/haoma was either fly-agaric mushroom
 s\, ephedra or Syrian rue. The evidence seems to indicate that soma/haoma 
 was a psychedelic/entheogenic drug of\nsome kind (though not all scholars 
 agree with this). I propose in my recent book (The Tawny One: Soma\, Haoma
  and Ayahuasca\, Muswell Hill Press\, 2017) that soma/haoma was never a si
 ngle plant but was instead a combination of plants that worked similarly t
 o ayahuasca. I also propose that this kind of plant combination was most p
 robably the basis of the ritual drink known as kykeon\, which was used in 
 Greek mystery rites.\n\nSince 2004\, Dr. Matthew Clark has been a Research
  Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of Lo
 ndon)\, where he taught courses on\nHinduism between 1999 and 2004. He has
  spent many years in India\, which he first visited in 1977\, visiting nea
 rly all important (several hundred) pilgrimage sites and trekking around 2
 \,000 miles in the Himalayas. He first engaged with yoga in the mid-1970s 
 and began regularly practising Ashtanga Yoga in 1990. Since 2006 has been 
 lecturing world-wide on yoga\, philosophy and psychedelics. He is one of t
 he editors of the Journal of Yoga Studies and is one of the administrators
  of the SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies. His publications include The Daśanā
 mī-Saṃnyāsīs: The Integration of Ascetic Lineages into an Order (2006
 )\, which is a study of a sect of sādhus\; an exploration of the use of p
 sychedelic plant concoctions in ancient Asia and Greece\, The Tawny One: S
 oma\, Haoma and Ayahuasca (2017)\; and a short book on yoga\, The Origins 
 and Practices of Yoga: A Weeny Introduction (revised edition) (2018).\n\nT
 he zoom link for this talk is here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81578008695?
 pwd=V0sxVCszN3JyajhhL3RwNmxONVVIQT09\n\nThe Cambridge Psychedelic Society 
 was started last year as a platform to encourage discussion and education 
 about psychedelic substances\, their use in medicine\, as well as their cu
 ltural\, legal\, philosophical\, and artistic impacts. Everyone welcome. A
 dvertising or soliciting illegal drugs is strictly prohibited.\n\nJoin our
  Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/psychedelicsoc/\n\nJoin our 
 mailing list here: https://mailchi.mp/f0eb54c6cbf6/psychedelics\n\nCheck o
 ut Matthew's book here: https://www.aeonbooks.co.uk/product/the-tawny-one-
 soma-haoma-and-ayahuasca/94930/
LOCATION:Online
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