The mystery of the soma plant is a subject that intrigues me much. The exact identifaction has never been found, but i think it is safe to say that it had great spiritual value in its intoxicating effect.
But the plant symbiosis has been long lost and the soma rituals are gone.
This kind of saddens me because i belive we can learn alot from these sacred plants if restore the link between us and them, a link that has brought great spirituality to mankind.
The interesting is that cermonies with religious use of hallucinogenic plants is seen all over the world.
South America have widespread use of many diffrent plants, north american indians uses the mescaline containing cacti peyote, traces of plant use have been found allmost all over the world but the tradition is sadly weakened alot worldwide by the invasion of western culture and what that brings with it.
We can conclude that plants have been used for a tool to communicate with the spirit world/higher levels of counciousness with great succes. And many lines can be drawn between the level of counciousness the shamans who ingest these reach and the levels great saints and enlightned masters have reached, the shamans of the amazon rainforest is is thought by the old shamans knowledge of the plants and the spirits of the forest, they shamans have powers like telepathy and healing powers as it is also seen among our hindu saints.
The link below contains the story of a psylocibin mushrooms cermony with the great shaman Maria Sabina.
www csp org/nicholas/A27.html
And it seems like the early vedic religion also thought these types of plants might have played an important role in shaping the vedic tradition, but due to unkown factors and the strict secrecy the soma plant was treatet with the knowledge is lost in india.
But do you accept plant use a way to evovle spiritualy? do you think that intoxication is a valid form of worship?
This zen preist have some interesting stuff to say on the subject:
www maps org/news-letter/v11n2/11243pal.html