I will permit it to pass over me and through me. The Bene Gesserit are eventually outraged and horrified by Alia's existence, but she is out of their control. In Dune, Lady Jessica notes that the ritual originated with the "discovery of the poison drug on Rossak". Paul's meteoric rise to power is greatly facilitated by his association with the mahdi legend. They are also referred to as "pre-born" in Children of Dune. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Male memory will be complete until moment of conception, when physical contact with the father is lost. Though the effects of melange are highly favorable, including vastly increased lifespan and mental powers, withdrawal results in death. New opposition arrives in the form of a violent matriarchal order calling themselves the Honored Matres, a ruthless and brutal force who seek domination over the Old Empire and who do not use or rely on melange for their powers. In Dune, Lady Fenring is instructed by the Bene Gesserit to seduce Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in order to "preserve the bloodline" by retrieving his genetic material through conception. An acolyte unable to effect this change dies. The prequel Dune: The Battle of Corrin establishes that the first Bene Gesserit to use the Voice is Raquella Berto-Anirul, the founder of the order. The captive Honored Matre Murbella, who has been assimilated into the Bene Gesserit and gained the full powers of a Reverend Mother, defeats the leader of the Honored Matres in combat and thus becomes Great Honored Matre. This fictional organization would claim it did not believe in organized religion, but the sisters were spiritual nonetheless. [3] Sometimes called "witches" due to their secretive nature and misunderstood powers, the Bene Gesserit are loyal only to themselves. Paul learns that he is not the only one to have tried it, but is perhaps specially resistant; this conversation points to a widespread use of it as a tool among the Bene Gesserit to measure self control, nerve control, and as Mohiam puts it, crisis and observation. He realizes, however, that while prescience grants knowledge, absolute control of outcomes is not possible due to interference patterns caused by their own actions. To this end, the Bene Gesserit provide some of their trained initiates as wives and concubines, and will train the daughters of noble families for a fee.

A practitioner of the art has to know that the action he or she "wants" to perform has already been performed. The group is an exclusive sisterhood whose members train their bodies and minds through years of physical and mental conditioning to obtain superhuman powers and abilities that seem magical to outsiders. That the mahdi legend has been planted on Dune indicates to Jessica that conditions on Dune are truly awful, since this legend is reserved for only the harshest environments where a Bene Gesserit would need the maximum advantage over surrounding influences. Any person who consumes melange regularly becomes addicted to it and requires it for survival; however, one who has gone through the agony has a far greater need. The Bene Gesserit are focused on acquiring more power and influence to direct humanity on an enlightened path. Raquella manages to internally convert the poison into a harmless substance and is thus the first to experience the awakening of Other Memory. One of the most significant biological abilities of the Bene Gesserit is their control of their own menstrual cycles, and their ability to control (at conception) their child's sex. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Prior to Dune, Jessica has begun teaching it to Paul; after the Reverend Mother Mohiam tests him in the novel, she urges Jessica to "ignore the regular order of training. The captured Honored Matre Murbella attempts this on Duncan; his own imprinting ability, secretly conditioned into him by his Tleilaxu creators, suddenly manifests itself. Also called "the one who can be two places simultaneously" or "the one who can be many places at once", the Kwisatz Haderach (defined by Herbert as "The Shortening of the Way"), with mental powers that would bridge space and time and access to both male and female lines in Other Memory, will be an overt figure in the Bene Gesserit's manipulations, thrust upon the universe as a messiah.[8]. With Paul holding a tight monopoly on melange, a decade later the Bene Gesserit participate in a conspiracy to topple his rule in Dune Messiah (1969). With his mother's guidance, Paul is able to make use of the planted myths by claiming to be the "mahdi", a messianic figure from legendary material planted among the Fremen by the Missionaria Protectiva.

Only I will remain.[4].

During the spice agony, there are two areas of the soul that the acolyte may visit the part that gives, and the part that takes; a Reverend Mother cannot access the memories of her male ancestors, and is terrified by the psychic space within her that the masculine memories inhabit. Bene Gesserit specifically trained as Truthsayers are able to determine whether someone is lying by analyzing their speech, body language, and physical signs like pulse and heart rate. The Bene Gesserit super-being whom they call the Kwisatz Haderach arrives a generation earlier than expected in the form of Paul Atreides, who is free from their direct control though his mother is the Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica. A Bene Gesserit who survives the ritual spice agony gains access to Other Memory, the combined ego and memories of all her female ancestors. Especially when the Mother Superior perishes, it is important to take her ego/memory so that her plans and strategies may continue uninterrupted. They can control their need for food and water to the extremes of hunger and thirst, and even commit suicide at will by simply stopping their hearts or shutting down their brains. Ambitious young Valya Harkonnen has hopes of using her Bene Gesserit training to complete her family's vendetta against Vorian Atreides and his entire bloodline. The Bene Gesserit choose to use indirect methodologies to further their goals, rather than wield overt power themselves. In Heretics, the Honored Matres have themselves refined this ability to such an intense level that the targeted male becomes completely enslaved. personnel has long been appreciated, but never have we seen a condition-ut-extremis with more ideal mating of person and preparation. Raquella believes that the only hope for the Sisterhood to survive is for the Wallach IX sisters to reconcile with Dorotea's faction on Salusa Secundus; her health failing, she summons Dorotea to the School and forces Dorotea and Valya to put their differences aside and agree to work together for the good of the Sisterhood. When combined with their analytical abilities, this "hyperawareness" makes the Bene Gesserit capable of divining secrets and arriving at conclusions that are invisible to everyone else. Under the guise of humbly "serving" the Empire, the Sisterhood is in fact a major power in the universe, using its many areas of influence to subtly guide humanity along the path of its own plan for humanity's future. He has taken the Bene Gesserit breeding program from them and uses it for his own mysterious purposes, and their limited spice supply is subject to their obedience to Leto, and his prescient vision. Thirty-five hundred years later, his breeding plan produces Siona Atreides, the first in a line of humans who are able to disappear from prescient sight, and Leto allows himself to be assassinated. This plan is disrupted when Jessica chooses to conceive an Atreides son rather than the daughter she had been ordered to produce. [22], In Mycelium Running, mycologist Paul Stamets argues that Herbert was influenced by tales of Mara Sabina and the sacred mushroom cults of Mexico in creating the Bene Gesserit.[23]. He could see, however, that the Bene Gesserit overlay had been a delicate thing, never penetrating the basic sweetness of her nature."[13]. This is why the Honored Matres have been driven back into the Old Empire; over-controlling, they have built up both resistance and rebellion, and are now on the run from their former subjects. However, if a Bene Gesserit undergoes the agony while pregnant, the fetus will also experience it, acquiring full consciousness and access to Other Memory. For example, to imagine oneself behind an opponent at the current moment in time; when trained well, this knowledge will place you at the spot desired. Slight differences in air currents or the design of a room might allow a Bene Gesserit to detect hidden portals and spyholes; minute variations in a person's vocal inflection and body language allow a Bene Gesserit to deeply understand a person's emotional state, and manipulate it. Despising the religion that has risen up around him and seeing where it will lead, Paul walks into the desert seeking death in hopes that he can change the course of the future. Fifteen hundred years later in Heretics of Dune (1984), the Bene Gesserit have regained their power and relocated to a hidden homeworld they call Chapterhouse, and the spice cycle has been renewed on Arrakis, now called Rakis. The litany against fear is an incantation used by the Bene Gesserit throughout the series to focus their minds and calm themselves in times of peril. He already has a good start in it, but we both know how much more he needs and that desperately. She also intends to "plant deep in his deepest self the necessary prana-bindu phrases to bend him", which she later refers to as the "Hypno-ligation of that Feyd-Rautha's psyche". Jessica was ordered to bear only daughters to the Atreides, but defied her Bene Gesserit sisters (out of her love for the Duke) and had a son, Paul Atreides. [4][5], In Frank Herbert's 1965 novel Dune, the Bene Gesserit are a secretive matriarchal order who have achieved superhuman abilities through physical and mental conditioning and the use of the drug melange.

As the Matres all but exterminate the Tleilaxu race and next target the Sisterhood, Bene Gesserit Mother Superior Taraza implements a bold plan to release humanity from the oracular hold of Leto II by goading the Honored Matres into destroying Rakis. A slightly lower pitch would have been better, but it could still fall within this man's spectrum. Naming them co-leaders, Raquella dies; Valya however, still bitter about Dorotea's betrayal, uses her newly discovered power of Voice to force Dorotea to commit suicide. The new Mother Superior Darwi Odrade recognizes that the threat of this unknown enemy is greater than that of the Honored Matres, and forms another bold plan. The ordeal also makes Raquella the first to access Other Memory and use the power of Voice; she later establishes the Bene Gesserit, instituting a similar ritualized poisoning to unlock the same abilities in others.

In Children of Dune, Jessica realizes that her daughter Alia has done this, which is her first sign that her daughter is sinking into Abomination.[21]. Through prescience, he has foreseen humanity's possible destruction, and has forced humanity into what he calls the Golden Path, a plan which he believes will assure their survival.

She also uses the ego of her mother, Chani, as a "door guard" of her other alter egos, only "peeking behind the door" when she needs advice from Other Memory. Knowing that any schooling impresses a particular pattern in its students, they are able to use these clues to predict and anticipate actions. Herbert notes that over 10,000 years before the events of Dune, in the chaotic time after the Butlerian Jihad and before the unveiling of the Orange Catholic Bible, the Bene Gesserit "consolidated their hold upon the sorceresses, explored the subtle narcotics, developed prana-bindu training and conceived the Missionaria Protectiva, that black arm of superstition. When a Reverend Mother dies in the presence of another Reverend Mother, the second will accept the ego/memory of the first to prevent the loss of the dying Reverend Mother's experience and ancestral memories. The Bene Gesserit call this "Abomination", and such children are killed immediately. These enable one to deliver powerful blows and to move with extreme precision and speed. On Arrakis, the Fremen Reverend Mothers use a poison called Water of Life, which is the exhalation of a drowning "little maker" (small sandworm) in water. It aims to create a superbeing that can tap into abilities even the Bene Gesserit cannot, a being whom they can use in order to gain more direct control over the universe. Unarmed attacks are part of a specialized Bene Gesserit martial art which incorporates the prana-bindu methods of optimized muscle control. Thinking machine leader Omnius is wiped out of existence by the Oracle, and the Face Dancer threat eliminated. Later in God Emperor of Dune, Herbert establishes that despite Leto's many restrictions on them, the Bene Gesserit still train young noblewomen for a price. Lucilla also mentions the hundreds of sexual positions and variations she knows. In Dune, the Fremen use the word "weirding" instead of "Bene Gesserit", calling Jessica a "weirding woman" and noting "he has the weirding voice" when Paul wields this power.

Since the child has not yet developed a sufficiently strong ego before being exposed to her tide of ancestors, she is more susceptible to their influence, and there is a danger that she will ultimately be overcome and possessed by a strong ancestral ego. Long were we warned against such a one and how to prevent such a birth, but one of our own has betrayed us." The New Sisterhood's fleet of warships succumbs to Face Dancer sabotage, but is saved from thinking machine attack by a host of Guild Navigators in heighliners, brought together by the Oracle of Time, Norma Cenva. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. Murbella and Duncan basically imprint each other, neither having complete control over the other. Brian Herbert, Frank Herbert's son and biographer, explains that the concept of Other Memory is "largely based upon the writings and teachings of Carl Gustav Jung, who spoke of a 'collective unconscious', that supposedly inborn set of 'contents and modes of behavior' possessed by all human beings". Over 10,000 years before the events of Dune, the Sorceresses of Rossak had started keeping detailed breeding records circa 400 B.G., trying to improve the potency and prevalence of their telekinetic powers.