High time for an experiment: 
Since performances of Agniṣṭomas (simple Soma ritual) are no more that rare in India...
A. let there be, between now and, say, five to ten years from now: 
10 classical Agniṣṭomas in which Soma-substitute Pūtīka is pressed;
10 classical Agniṣṭomas in which Ephedra is pressed;
B. Interview the yajamana and soma-drinking priests before and after the ritual.
C. Conclude whether what seems to be the main candidate for having been the "real" Soma, namely Ephedra, -- *in combination with the other "transformative-hallucinogenic" practices such as fasting, listening to myths, riddles and endless chants of samaveda etc.* -- provides or reinforces the expected (not just recreative "hallucinogenic" but rather, in any case for the yajamana between the diiksaa when he starts to keep his fists as an embryo and the avabhrtha or concluding bath when he opens his hands, "transformative") experiences. 

In 2001 I studied only one (1) "Aty-Agnistoma" beautifully performed in Barsi, Maharashtra, in which a local shrub considered to be Pūtīka -- "ran sher" is the name I remember, a sample was identified as probably Sarcostemma brevistigma, without known psychotropic effects -- was pressed, and I filmed a statistically insignificant number of yet in several respects quite revealing interviews (mostly in sanskrit mixed with marathi) with the main participants. A tiny amount of my material has been edited and can be found on the "Vedic ritual" channel at vimeo https://vimeo.com/channels/vedicritual; more, including also material by other scholars, will appear after our panel "Visual Asian Studies: Vedic Ritual in India & Nepal" planned at the upcoming International Congres of Asian Scholars (ICAS 11), July 16-19, Leiden.     

The research could be extended even beyond the two times 10 performances, although the following would be much more difficult to arrange: 
10 *fantasy* Agniṣṭomas in which Amanita muscaria is "pressed": in spite of Dr Stuhrmann's claim in his abstract which he has nowhere substantiated in his 2006 (or 1985) article: the mushroom Amanita muscaria does *not* fit the ritual procedures of drying, transporting, sprinkling and "pressing"  the Soma as demonstrated by Brough 1971 to be read together with Brough 1973; to escape the non-fit of Amanita muscaria, Wasson had to suppose (1972a: 14) that the pressing of Soma with stones or pestles is adventitious (!), in spite of abundant references in the RV and in spite of its structural presence as a crucial ritual episode in the Agniṣṭoma; see further also Jarrod Whitaker's article and his contribution to this thread.   
(On the other hand, some of the truly hallucinogenic candidates proposed by Schwartz and Flattery could be amenable to a "classical" performance, if ritual agents willing to cooperate can be found...)

In his article, Dr. Stuhrmann fails to refer to major evidence and discusions that are problematic for his position, for instance discussions by John Brough and F.B.J. Kuiper.
He enters into a detailed discussion with John Brough on the meagre and preliminary basis of only the latter's 1971 article "Soma and Amanita muscaria." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 34.2: 331-362. 
but does not even mention the continuation of the discussion (and Brough's reply to Wasson's reply) in
Brough, John. 1973. "Problems of the «Soma-mushroom» theory." Indologica Taurinensia 1: 21-32. 

Two other publications that he should have taken into account:
Kuiper, F.B.J. 1970. Review of Wasson 1969. Indo-Iranian-Journal,12.4: 279-285.
Kuiper, F.B.J. 1984. "Was the Putika a mushroom?." In: Amrtadhara: Professor R.N. Dandekar Felicitation Volume (ed. by S.D. Joshi): 219-227. Delhi: Ajanta.

The main error in the argument and valuable contributions to the discussion by Dr. Stuhrmann and others would seem to be that *all* poetic-hallucinogenic descriptions of the Soma plant are taken as resulting *directly and exclusively* from the use of a drug or psychoactive substance, whereas (1) the ritual in which the Soma-beverage is produced contains other, significant "transformative-hallucinogenic" practices that appear as crucial already in the pre-Srauta, Rgvedic ritual; (2) from Saint Franciscus and Teresia of Avila to William Wordsworth and Apollinaire, poets write "psychedelic" or "visionary" poetry without being known to have used strong psychotropic substances.    

C.G. Kashikar 1990 study is mentioned and evaluated in my 2003 article: he naturally made full use of his profound knowledge of the classical Srauta ritual and parallels in Zoroastrian ritual to conclude that a type of ephedra is the most likely plant that was used in the Soma ritual. 
Together with Asko Parpola, Kashikar wrote in Vol. 2 of Staal's Agni (Kashikar and Parpola 1983: 248) that for the original Soma "[t]he most likely candidate seems to be some species of Ephedra."

On Tue, 9 Oct 2018 at 12:46, Joanna Jurewicz via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
https://crossasia-journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/ejvs/article/view/2150

Best, 

Joanna

---
Prof. dr hab. Joanna Jurewicz
Katedra Azji Południowej /Chair of South Asia
Wydział Orientalistyczny / Faculty of Oriental Studies
Uniwersytet Warszawski /University of Warsaw
ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28
00-927 Warszawa


wt., 9 paź 2018 o 05:11 Allen Thrasher via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> napisał(a):
Do any of the authors mentioned discuss the testimony of the mycological literature as to where Amanita muscaria is found and relate it to where the Rgveda is thought to have been composed?

Allen
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--

Jan E.M. Houben

Directeur d'Études, Professor of South Asian History and Philology

Sources et histoire de la tradition sanskrite

École Pratique des Hautes Études (EPHE, PSL - Université Paris)

Sciences historiques et philologiques 

54, rue Saint-Jacques, CS 20525 – 75005 Paris

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johannes.houben@ephe.psl.eu

https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben