In
Aldous Huxley's
dystopian novel
Brave New World,
Soma is the popular dream-inducing drug which is employed by the government as a method of control through pleasure and immediate availability. It is ordinary among the culture of the novel for everyone to use it for whatever various practices: sex, relaxation, concentration, confidence. It is seemingly a single-chemical combination of many of today's drugs' effects, giving its patients the full hedonistic spectrum.
Soma is the central theme of the poem
The Brewing of the Soma by the American Quaker poet,
John Whittier (1807-1892) from which the well-known Christian hymn "
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind" is derived. Whittier here portrays the drinking of soma as distracting the mind from the proper worship of God.
Soma has also been frequently referenced in popular culture, see
Soma (disambiguation).