I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. These are illusions of popular history which a successful religion must promote: Evil men never prosper; only the brave deserve the fair; honesty is the best policy; actions speak louder than words; virtue always triumphs; a good deed is its own reward; any bad human can be reformed; religious talismans protect one from demon possession; only females understand the ancient mysteries; the ri ch are doomed to unhappiness. Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade t his pattern. And as the aristocracy develops, government tends more and more to act exclusively in the interests of the ruling class — whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy. If you believe certain words, you believe their hidden arguments. When you believe something is right or wrong, true of false, you believe t he assumptions in the words which expre ss the arguments. Such assumptions are often full of holes, but remain most precious to the convinced. Those who would repeat the past must control the teaching of history. Rules build up fortifications behind which small minds create satrapies. A perilous state of affairs in the best of times, disastrous during crises. Confine yourself to observing and you always miss the point of your life. The object can be stated this way: Live the best life you can. Life is a game whose rules you learn if you leap into it and play it to the hilt. Otherwise, you are caught off balance, continually surprised by the shifting play. Non-players often whine and complain that luck always passes them by. They refuse to see that they can create some of their own luck. All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted. Laws to suppress tend to strengthen what they would prohibit. This is the fine point on which all the legal professions of history have based their job security. We do not teach history; we recreate the experience. We follow the chain of consequences — the tracks of the beast in its forest. Look behind our words and you see the broad sweep of social behavior that no historian has ever touched.
All states are abstractions.
Do not depend only on theory if your life is at stake.
A major concept guides the Missionaria Protectiva: Purposeful instruction of the masses. This is firmly seated in our belief that t he aim of argument should be to change the nature of truth. In such matters, we prefer the use of power rather than force. The best art imitates life in a compelling way. If it imitates a dream, it must be a dream of life. Otherwise, there is no place where we can connect. Our plugs don’t fit. Give me the judgment of balanced minds in preference to laws every time. Codes and manual s create patterned behavior. All patterned behavior tends to go unquestioned, gathering destructive momentum.
No sweeteners will cloak some forms of bitterness. If it tastes bitter, spit it out. That’s what our earliest ancestors did.
Enter no conflict against fanatics unless you can defuse them. Oppose a religion with another religion only if your proofs (miracles) are irrefutable or if you can mesh in a way that the fanatics accept you as godinspired. This has long been the barrier to science assuming a mantle of divine revelation. Science is so obviously man-made. Fanatics know where you stand, but more important, must recognize who whispers in your ear. We witness a passing phrase of eternity. Important things happen but some people never notice. Accidents intervene. You are not present at episodes. You depend on reports. And people shutter their minds. What good are reports? History in a news account? Preselected at an editorial conference, digested and excreted by prejudice? Accounts you need seldom come from those who make history. Diaries, memoirs and autobiographies are subjective forms of special pleading. Archives are crammed with such suspect stuff. Spend energies on those who make you strong. Energy spent on weaklings drags you to doom. (HM rul e) Bene Gesserit Commentary: Who judges? Our household god is this thing we carry forward generation after generation: our message for humankind if it matures. The closest thing we have to a household goddess is a fai led Reverend Mother — Chenoeh there in her niche. Making workable choices occurs in a crucible of informative mistakes. Thus Intelligence accepts fallibility. And when absolute (infallible) choices are not known, Intelligence takes chance with limited data in an arena where mistakes are not only possible but also necessary. When you think to take determination of your fate into your own hands, that is the moment you can be crushed. Be cautious. Allow for surprises. When we create, there are always other forces at work. We tend to become like the worst in those we oppose. Religion (emulation of adults by the child) encysts past mythologies: guesses, hidden assumptions of trust in the universe, pronouncements made in search of personal power, a ll mingled with shreds of enlightenment. And always an unspoken commandment: Thou shalt not question! We break that commandment daily in the harnessing of human imagination to our deepest creativity. They say Mother Superior can disregard nothi ng — a meaningless aphorism until you grasp its other significance: I am the servant of all my Sisters. They watch their servant with critical eyes. I cannot spend too much time on generalities nor on trivia. Mother Superior must display insightful action else a sense of disquiet penetrates to the farthest corners of our order. Some never participate. Life happens to t hem. They get by on little more than dumb persistence and resist with anger or violence all things that might lift them out of resentment-filled illusions of security. Major flaws in government arise from a fear of making radical internal changes even though a need is clearly seen. Humans are born with a susceptibility to that most persistent and debilitating disease of intellect: selfdeception. The best of all possible worlds and the worst get their dramatic coloration from it. As nearly as we can determine, there is no natural immunity. Constant alertness is required. We walk a delicate line, perpetuating Atreides (Siona) genes in our population because that hides us from prescience. We carry the Kwisatz Haderach in that bag! Willfulness created Muad’dib. Prophets make predictions come true! Will we ever again dare ignore our Tao sense and cater to a culture that hates the
chance and begs for prophecy?
Religion must be accepted as a source of energy. It can be directed for our purposes, but only within limits that experience reveals. He is the secret meaning of Free Will. Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty. Do not be quick to r eveal judgment. Hidden judgment often is more potent. It can guide reactions whose effects are felt only when too late to divert them. There’s no secret to balance. You just have to f eel the waves.
Fremen speech implies great concision, a precise sense of expression. It is immersed in the illusion of absolutes. Its assumptions are a fertile ground f or absolutist religions. Furthermore, Fremen are fond of moralizing. They confront the terrifying instability of all things with institutionalized statements. They say: “We know there is no summa of all attainable knowledge; this is the preserve of God. But whatever men can learn, men can contain.” Out of this knife -edged approach to the universe they carve a fantastic belief in signs and omens and in their own destiny. This is an origin of their Kralizec legend: the war at the end of the universe. The existence of no-ships raises the possiblity of destroying entire planets without retaliation. A large object, asteroid or equivalent, may be sent against the planet. Or the people can be set against each other by sexual subversion, and then can be ar med to destroy themselves. These Honored Matres appear to favor this latter technique. Humans live best when each has his place to stand, when each knows where he belongs i n the scheme of things and what he may achieve. Destroy the place and you destroy the person. The trouble with some kinds of warfare (and be certain the Tyrant knew this, because it is implicit in his lesson) is that they destroy all moral decency in susceptible types. Warfare of these kinds will dump the destroyed survivors back into an innocent population that is incapable of even imagining what such returned soldiers might do. Technology, in common with many other activities, tends toward avoidance of risks by investors. Uncertainty is ruled out if possible. Capital investment follows this rule, since people generally prefer the predictable. Few recognize how destructive this can be, how it imposes severe limits on variability and thus makes whole populations fatally vulnerable to the shocking ways our universe can throw the dice. In my estimation, more misery has been created by reformers than by any o ther force in human history. Show me someone who says, “Something must be done!” and I will show you a head full of vicious intentions that have no other outlet. What we must strive for always is to find the natural flow and go with it. The Tleilaxu secret must be in their sperm. Our tests prove that their sperm does not carry forward in a straight genetic fashion. Gaps occur. E very Tleilaxu we have examined has hidden his i nner self from us. They are naturally immune to an Ixian Probe! Secrecy at the deepest levels that is their ultimate armor and their ultimate weapon. The outer surface of a balloon is always larger than the center of the damned thing! That’s the whole point of the Scattering! The failure of CHOAM? Quite simple: They ignore the fact that larger commercial powers wait at the edges of their activities, powers that could swallow them the way a slig swallows garbage. This is the true threat of the Scattering — to them and to us all.
At the quantum level our universe can be seen as an indeterminate place, predictable in a statistical way only when you employ large enough numbers. Between that universe and a relatively predictable one where the passage of a single planet can be timed to a picosecond, oth er forces come into play. For the in-between universe where we find our daily lives, that which you believe is a dominant force. Your beliefs order the unfolding of daily events. If enough of us believe, a new thi ng can be made to exist. Belief structure creates a filter through which chaos is sifted into order. Love always chooses sides on the basis of enforcement power. Morality and legal niceties have little to do with it when the real question is: Who has the clout? The basic rule is this: Never support weakness; always support strength. The significant fact is this: No Bene Tleilax female has ever been seen away from the protection of their core planets. (Face Dancer mules who simulate females do not count in this analy sis. They cannot be breeders.) The Tleilaxu sequester their females to k eep them from our hands. This is our primary deduction. It must also be in the eggs that the Tleilaxu Masters conceal their most essential secrets. What social inheritances went outward with the Scattering? We know those times intimately. We know both the mental and physical settings. The Lost Ones took with them a consciousness confined mostly to manpower and hardware. There was a desperate need for room to expand driven by the myth of Freedom. Most had not learned the deeper lesson of the T yrant, that violence builds it s own limits. The Scattering was wild and random movement interpreted as growth (expansion). It was goaded by a profound fear (often unconscious) of stagnation and death. Quite naturally, holders of power wish to suppress wild research. Unrestricted questing after knowledge has a long history of producing unwanted competition. The powerful want a “safe line of i nvestigations,” which develop only those products and ideas that can be controlled and, most important, that will allow the larger part of the benefits to be captured by inside investors. Unfortunately, a random universe full of relative variables does not insure such a “safe line of investigations.” Bureaucracy destroys initiative. There is little that bureaucrats hate more than innovation, especially innovation that produces better results than the old routines. Improvements always make those at the top of the heap look inept. Who enjoys appearing inept? People always want something more than immediate joy or that deeper sense called h appiness. This is one of the secrets by which we shape the fulfillment of our designs. The something more assumes amplified power with people who cannot give it a name or who (most often the case) do not even suspect its existence. Most people only react unconsciously t o such hidden forces. Thus, we have only t o call a calculated something more into existence, define it and give it shape, then people will follow. We have long known that t he objects of our palpable sense experiences can be influenced by choice — both conscious choice and unconscious. This is a demonstrated fact that does not require that we believe some force within us reaches out an d touches the universe. I address a pragmatic r elationship between belief and what we identify as “real.” All of our judgements carry a heavy burden of ancestral beliefs to which we of the Bene Gesserit tend t o be more susceptible than most. It is not enough that we a re aware of this and guard against it. Alternative interpretations must always receive our attention. All organized religions face a common problem, a tender spot through which we may enter and shift them to our designs: How do they distinguish hubris from revelation? Concealed behind strong barriers the heart becomes ice. We are not looking at a new state of matter but at a newly recognized relationship between consciousness and matter, which provides a more penetrat ing insight into the work ings of prescience. The oracle shapes a projected inner universe to produce new external probabilities out of forces that are not understood. There is no need to understand these forces before using them to shape the physical
universe. Ancient metal workers had no need t o understand the molecular and submolecular complexities of their steel, bronze, copper, gold and tin. They invented mystical powers to describe the unknown while they continued to operate their forges and wield their hammers.
One observes the survivors, and learns from them.
There are weapons you cannot hold in your hands. You can only hold them in your mind.
We consider the various worlds a s gene pools, sources of teachings and teachers, sources of the possible.
No outsider has ever seen a Tleilaxu female and lived to tell about it. Considering the Tleilaxu penchant for genetic manipulation — see, e.g., related memos on clones and gholas — this simple observation raises a wealth of additional questions. History has seldom been good to those who must be punished. Bene Gesserit punishments cannot be forgotten.
The haughty do but build castle walls behind which they seek to hide their doubts and fears.
Perceptions rule the universe.
Speak the truth. That is always much easier, and is often the most powerful argument.
Hatred is as dangerous an emotion as love. The capacity for either one is the capacity for its opposite.
Storms beget storms. Rage begets rage. Revenge begets revenge. Wars beget wars.
It is said that there is nothing firm, nothing balanced, nothing durable in all the universe — that nothing remains in its original state, that each day, each hour, each moment, there is change. Before us, all methods of learning were tainted by instinct. Before us, instinct-ridden researchers possessed a limited attention span — often no longer than a single lifetime. Projects stretching across fifty or more generations never occurred to them. The concept of total muscle/nerve training had not entered their awareness. We learned how to learn. War is a form of organic behavior. The army is a means of survival for the all-male group. The all-female group, on the other hand, is traditionally religion-oriented. They are the keepers of sacred mysteries. What is this Love that so many speak of with such apparent familiarity? Do they truly comprehend how unattainable it is? Are there not as many definitions of Love as there are stars in the universe? The purpose of argument is to change the nature of truth. Religion is the emulation of the adult by the child. Religion is the encystment of past beliefs: mythology, which is guesswork, the hidden assumptions of trust i n the universe, those pronouncements which men have made in search of personal power all mingled with shreds of enlightenment. And always the ultimate unspoken commandment is “Thou shalt not question!” But we do anyway. We break that commandment as a matter of course. The work to which we hae set ourselves is the liberating of the imagination, the harnessing of imagination to humankind’s deepest sense of creativity.
The Unknown surrounds us at any given moment. That is where we seek knowledge.
There is no reality — only our own order imposed on everything.
I stand in the sacred human presence. As I do now, so should y ou stand some day. I pray to your presence that this be so. Let the future remain uncertain for that is the canvas to receive our desires. Thus the
human condition faces its perpetual tabula rasa. We possess no more than this moment where we dedicate ourselves continuously to the sacred presence we share and create.
The Bene Gesserit tell no casual lies. Truth serves us better.
There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgements.
One uses power by grasping it lightly. To grasp with too much force is to be taken over by power, thus becoming its victim. How to define the Kwisatz Haderach? The male who is everywhere simultaneously, the only man who can truly become the greatest human of all of us, mingling masculine and feminine ancestry with inseparable power.
The greatest and most important problems of life cannot be solved. They can only be outgrown.
Humans must never submit to animals.
To keep from dying is not that same as “to live.”
Love is an ancient force, one that served its purpose in its day but is no longer essential for the survival of the species.
When we try to conceal our innermost drives, our entire being screams betrayal.
The less we know, the longer the explanation.
What can I say about Jessica? Given the opportunity, she would attempt Voice on God.
One cannot hide from history or from human nature.
Power is the most unstable of all human achievements. Faith and power are mutually exclusive.
Among sentient creatures, only humans continually strive for what they know is beyond reach. Despite repeated failures they continue to try. This trait results i n high achievement for some members of the species, but for others, for those who do not attain what they want, it can lead to serious trouble.
The Sisterhood has no need for archaeologists. As Reverend Mothers, we embody history.
The more tightly packed the group, the greater the need for strict social ranks and orders.
The human body is a storehouse of relic s from the past — the appendix, thymus, and (in the embryo) a gill structure. But the unconscious mind is even more int riguing. It has been built up over millions of years and represents a history throughout it s synaptic traces, some of which do not appear to be useful in modern times. It is difficult to find everything that is there. In a technological culture, progress may be viewed as the attempt to move more quickly into the future, rushing to make known the unknown. A thought derived from intensity of feeling is localized in the heart. Abstract thought must be localized in the brain. Laws are dangerous to everyone, innocent and guilty alike, because they have no human understanding in and of themselves. They must be interpreted.
There are no facts — only observational postulates in an endlessly regenerative hodgepodge of predictions. Consensus reality requires a fixed fr ame of reference. In a multilevel, infinite universe, there can be no fixity; thus, no absolute consensus reality. In a relativistic universe, it appears impossible to test the reliability of any expert by requiring him to agree with another expert. Both can be correct, each in his own inertial system. Politics is the art of appearing candid and completely open, while concealing as much as possible. A secret is most valuable wh en it remains a secret. Under such circumstances, one does not require proof in order to exploit the information. We could be dreaming all the time, but we do not perceive th ose dreams while we are awake because consciousness (like the sun obscuring stars during t he day) is much too brillian t to allow the unconscious content so much definition. Diplomats are chosen for their ability to lie. It is astonishing how foolish humans can be in groups, especially when they follow t heir leaders without question. Other memory is a wide, deep ocean. It is available to help the members of our order, but only on its own terms. A Sister invites trouble when she tries to manipulate the internal voices to her own needs. It is like trying to make the sea one’s own perso nal swimming pool — an impossibility, even for a few moments. Humans are different in private t han in the presence of others. While t he private persona merges into the social persona in varying degrees, the union is never complete. Something is always held back. We depend entirely upon the benevolent cooperation of the unconscious mind. The unconcious, in a sense, invents the next moment for us. Many creatures bear the outward form of a man, but do not be fooled by appearances. Not all such lifeforms can be considered human. The universe is always one step beyond logic. Who knows what detritus of today will survive the eons of human history? It might be the slightest thing, a seemingly inconsequential item. Yet somehow it strikes a resonant chord, and survives for thousands of years. Does knowledge increase a person’s burden more, or ignorance? Every teacher must consider this question before beginning to alter a student.
The search for an ultimate, unifying explanation for all things is a fruitless endeavor, a step in the wrong direction. This is why, in a universe of chaos, we must constantly adapt. Humanity knows its own mortality and fears the stagnation of its heredity, but it does not know what course to take for salvation. This is the primary purpose of the Kwisatz Haderach breeding program, to change the direction of humankind in an unprecedented manner. It is not easy for some men to know they have done evil, for reasoning and honor are often clouded by pride. All proofs inevitably lead to propositions that have no proof. All things are known because we want to believe in them.
Brutality breeds brutality. Love breeds love. Truth often carries with it the inherent necessity for change. The most common expression when real change enforces itself is the plaintive cry: “Why didn’t anyone warn us?” Truly, they do not hear — or hearing, do not choose to remember. There is no doubt that the desert has mystical qualities. Deserts, traditionally, are the wombs of religion. You've heard of animals chewing off a leg to escape a trap? That's an animal kind of trick. A human would remain in the trap, endure the pain, feigning death that he might kill the trapper and remove a threat to his kind.
We Bene Gesserit sift people to find the humans.
Survival is the ability to swim in strange currents.
The willow submits to the wind and prospers until one day it is many willows - a wall against the wind. This is the willow's purpose. A world is supported by four things: the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the righteous and the valour of the brave. But all of these are as nothing, without a ruler who knows the art of ruling. The one-eyed view of our universe says y ou must not look far a field for problems. Such problems may never arrive. Instead, tend to the wolf within your fences. The packs ranging outside may not even exist. Religion often partakes of the myth of progress that shields us from the terrors of an uncertain future. When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movement becomes headlong – faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thought of obstacles and forget that a precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it's too late.
Do not count a human dead until you've seen his body. And even then you can make a mistake.
To use raw power is to make yourself infinitely vulnerable to greater powers.
It is with reason and terrible experience that we call the pre-born Abomination. For who knows what lost and damned persona out of our evil past may take over the living flesh? To suspect your own mortality is to know the beginning of terror; to learn irrefutably that you are mortal is to know the end of terror. One cannot have a single thing without its opposite. Languages build up to reflect specializations in a way of life. Each specialization may be recognized by its words, by its assumptions and sentence structures. Look for stoppages. Specializations represent place where life is being stopped, where the movement is dammed up a nd frozen. Each planet has its own period, and each life likewise. A large populace held in check by a small but powerful force is quite a common situation in our universe. And we know the major conditions wherein this large populace may turn upon its keepers:
o
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One: When they find a leader. This is the most volatile threat to the powerful; they must retain control of leaders. Two: When the populace recognizes its chains. Keep the populace blind and unquestioning. Three: When the populace perceives a hope of escape from bondage. They must never even believe that escape is possible!
The less we know, the longer the explanation.
One cannot hide from history... or from human nature.
