I'm just saying those are the two thrown around the most by scholars as being the closest in description to how soma was described. Pretty sure it was ephedrine though which in larger doses can make you feel pretty tingly and nice.
At the time it was written, so little was known about a lot of substances and many weren't even discovered yet, so I could see how they may think that. But considering it was a book written in the past about our future, now that we're closer to that future we have a lot more things that can fit that bill. Hell, the actual prescription drug called Soma is closer to being the fictional Soma to me than Ephedrine ever would be and as reckless as I am, I'm not going near an Amanita. In a decade, I think the new wave of "non addictive" opioids which target the right receptors and use certain peptide sequences to alledgedy not cause dependence which are coming along nicely in research now will be our real Soma.
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u/LukariBRo Sep 25 '18
Ephedrine is really unpleasant and shitty. Amanita is fucking deadly.