What is Soma? Well, they don’t want people to feel things in the future. Feelings are bad. If an Epsilon cleaning toilets feels inadequate about his or her life, then all hell will break loose. Nobody will clean the toilets, right? If the Alphas and Betas get upset that nobody’s cleaning their toilets, well, then, we have a serious problem. So what do you do? Take a Soma and you don’t feel anything. Soma is basically a legal drug they push on everybody. Lenina takes it a lot. I mean, a lot a lot. She likes to be in a soma coma. Soma means sleep in Latin. Lenina slept for 18 HOURS with soma! Guess the FDA is pretty lax in the future. Soma: side effects may cause some kiss-ass drowsiness. Do not operate heavy machinery or even heavy breathing while using this product. Expect extreme pacification.
classicwinterbriefs's Blog 
Soma I do remember from the book. I feel we have strong parallels already in our current society, with all the anti-anxiety, anti-depression, and sleep aid drugs we use. I mean really, what’s the difference? That may have been Huxley’s point I suppose, given what he saw of roaring ’20s America.
I read a synopsis on wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World
I remember very little of the book, actually, so I’m going to put it in the TBR stack.
Thanks for the posts!
I did a little research on Soma before I posted and found that the name Soma is used as a muscle relaxer drug. I’m not sure if the name is taken from the novel or a coincidence. I don’t think the drug is still on the market. Also, Soma was a sacred plant in ancient India and Persia. It was made into a drink and drunk at ceremonies, called the “elixir of life”. Makes you wonder if Huxley got the Soma idea from this.