Soma

Shrouded in mystery for centuries, Soma is simultaneously a sacred hallucinogenic plant, a personified God, and a cosmological principle. With the renewed interest in the ritual use of psychoactive substances, shamanism, and alternative modalities of healing, Soma provides an important key to understanding the earliest systemized methods of medicine, psychology, magic, rejuvenation, longevity, and alchemy.

Soma has become synonymous with a mindful approach to cannabis gardening and an earth-friendly lifestyle. Soma's varieties of marijuana are considered legendary and have been big winners at the most reputable harvest festivals of Europe. Now for the first time, he shares the philosophy and methods that distinguish him as a world-class breeder of cannabis in one concise volume. Essays include detailed advice on organic approaches to growing the plant and address the specific needs of sophisticated connoisseurs and enthusiasts. Two full-color sections of Soma's lush photography reveal the colorful beauty and range of the cannabis plant. Perfectly suited to the home grower, Soma's advice is inspiring and informative, emphasizing the sublime qualities of marijuana's flavor and effects when grown in optimal conditions.

"An account of the development of Aura-Soma color therapy by its founder Vicky Wall"--Provided by publisher.

Argues that the Greek word soma should be read as the individual physical body rather than man as an indivisible whole.

Welcome To The Neighborhood To outsiders, San Francisco is all one big city. But to those in the know, there is SoMa, South of Market, where sleek eateries are squeezed between bail bonds storefronts and high-priced lofts look out over still rough edges. It's home to a generation of hipsters disillusioned by the dotcom bust, restless and searching for the next thrill, the next high, the next step too far. Sex, drugs, kink--you can find it anywhere in SoMa, if you know where to look. But first, you'll need your tour guides. There's Raphe, a writer torn between two worlds, belonging to neither. Lauren, the poor little rich girl living on the edge and pushing farther out. Mark, beautiful and cruel, who lives for games, the more extreme, the better. Baptiste, hot, smooth, and maybe as real as it gets. And Julie, both an object of desire and a pretty pawn to be played. In a glittering, surreal subculture of private sex clubs and kept boys, identity theft and betrayal, nihilism, redemption, and sometimes love, they're spinning out of control and into each other's orbits, desperately looking for something real--something that will show them who they really are. In this provocative, intense novel, Kemble Scott puts a new neighborhood on the literary map for good, in a tale that is disturbing, gritty, wholly original, and utterly unforgettable. Praise for SoMa and Kemble Scott: "Scott provides us with an insider's look at a little known and gritty underground world. . ..Shockingly, his raw and gritty account of this dark world is all true, which makes for an even more fun ride." --Andy Behrman, bestselling author of Electroboy: A Memoir of Mania "I read the first page of SoMa and never put it down until I read the last page. . .I know people who are less real than these characters." --Joe Quirk, bestselling author of The Ultimate Rush "SoMa tells. . .what's really happening in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood. . .It's one man's story of a twisted journey and compromised redemption. San Francisco can be a city of extremes, and we see one here." --Craig Newmark, Creator of Craigslist

Aura Soma: Healing Through Color, Plant, and Crystal Energy, is a natural healing system using multicolored oils containing plant extracts and essences to promote self-healing on a physical, mental or spiritual level. This book explains the over 94 mesmerizing bottles of colored oils and tells how people have discovered their remarkable healing powers, each color variation of oil having its own therapeutic effects. This wonderful method of vibrational healing was originated by a blind woman, Vicky Wall, in the '80s, and her message is carried on here by her loving students, Irene Dalichow and Mike Booth. Aura Soma is a holistic, nonintrusive therapy that not only treats physical and emotional symptoms, but which also revitalizes the human aura. The demand for Aura Soma oils is increasing phenomenally, with interest growing worldwide.

For A.K. Ramanujan, who infused his diverse knowledge of Indian literatures and traditions into his poetry, the idea of Soma, the mysterious plant used by Vedic priests to extract ambrosia, fed his creativity. Sifting through Ramanujan's archives, the editors discovered a series of unpublished 'Soma poems' whose style and theme set them apart from his earlier work. This volume includes these poems beside essays and an interview that contextualizes them. Krishna Ramanujan's essay 'Hummel's Miracle: The Search for Soma' explores the connections between the poems and the quest for the plant's identity from the 1960s to the present. 'The "Ordinary Mystery" Trip: Soma in A.K. Ramanujan's Poetry' by Guillermo Rodriguez dives deep into Ramanujan's layered perspective on Soma. 'The Post-Vedic History of the Soma Plant', by Wendy Doniger, which influenced Ramanujan's perception of Soma, originally published in 1968, is reprinted here with a special preface. The interview conducted in Chicago in 1982 between Malayali poet K. Ayyappa Paniker and Ramanujan offers a peek into Ramanujan's perspectives on poetry and translation. While Soma focuses on A.K. Ramanujan's experimental poems and his creative mindset as an expatriate in America in the 1970s and early 1980s, it also provides a glimpse into a fascinating period in Western Indology when Indian philosophies and traditions were debated, some of which became so ingrained that they influence contemporary culture to this day.

Psyche and Soma is a multi-disciplinary exploration of the conceptions of the human soul or mind and body, through the course of more than two thousand years of Western history. Thirteen specially commissioned chapters, each written by a recogized expert, discuss figures such as the physiciansHippocrates, Galen, Stahl, and Cabanis; theologians St Paul, Augustine, and Aquinas; and philosophers from Plato and Aristotle to Descartes, Leibniz, and La Mettrie. The chapters explore in chronlogical sequence the views of these writers on such questions as the soul's immortality, the control itexerts over the body, how mental disturbances arise out of bodily imbalances, and the roles of the priest and the physician in promoting spiritual and mental health. Psyche and Soma will be a key point of reference and a rich source of illumination in this central area of human inquiry.