Bene Gesserit - The Second Chapter

My interest in the Dune books prompted me to re-examine my life. I took a look around for an actual organization that teaches the ideas and skills presented in the books and did not. It is basically a roll your own adventure. I am 34 years old, male, and a computer person by trade.

My vision of an organization that would approximate the BG has grown and changed over the years. There are many different aspects to knowledge and the expanding of human potential, and if you want to learn stuff that is a bit off the beaten path with any speed you are going to need guides, specialists, teachers. Getting access to those resources to allow me to explore human potential is really what interests me the most. Everyone knows something, whether it is botany, brain surgery, skiing. Some sort of school structure where everyone is teacher, everyone is student, and the student's interests form the curriculum maybe?

Political studies, religious studies, physical training, diet, lifestyle, spirituality are all things that I struggle to learn and balance in daily life. Finding a balance of simplicity, maybe a semi-monastic lifestyle and routine might be beneficial to me.

I have been interested in the Dune Chronicles for a very long time. I became quite interested in the Bene Gesserit aspect of Dune and thought that it would be so wonderful if there was such a group that existed.

I am glad to see that you are back. I did follow the other, old website and was quite saddened when it disappeared.

I have read Fletcher's Manual. While I do think that much of it is good, some of it is iffy. I am happy that he did it, though. It is a beginning. And we know how delicate beginnings are, don't we?

Good to be here and to "see" you again. Hope I can help in whatever way I can.

Lucia

My interest in the Bene Gesserit began the moment I watched Sian Phillips take the screen as Gaius Helen Mohiam in David Lynch’s 1984 version of Dune. I must admit to being young enough to have this film be my introduction to the books and not the other way around. I was thirteen years old at the time, but from that point onward, I have read and re-read all the books of the Dune universe (including the rather less ambitious newcomer novels of Brian Herbert) more times than I can count on both hands. I would categorize my interest as following a very predictable pattern that mirrors what you see in the books themselves.

First I was interested in the unusual physical powers they possessed. Then I became interested in their political power - the power of understanding and manipulating systems. Inherent in this second fascination is the interest in psychological power. I was intrigued by their ability to understand and control their own psychological state as well as divining the state of others. Lastly, as with the last three Frank Herbert novels, I became interested in their conception of the universe and the individual’s role in it. I am especially intrigued by their quantum mechanical understanding of the role of human consciousness in the physical universe, as well as their understanding of the potentiality and cost of human evolution.

These ideas have fundamentally shaped who I have become. I study the genetics of human disease and deal with the ideas of the genetic evolution of human traits every day. I am also an enthusiastic student of comparative religion, especially in areas of mysticism and transcendent experience within the Christian and Sufi Islamic traditions. Lastly I would say that I am dedicated to a self-exploration (mostly through meditation) that was not actually born from but was solidified by its continual presence as necessity in Herbert’s novels.

Though I wasn’t aware of the first incarnation of this Sisterhood, I am happy to have found this second generation and I look forward to the many interesting discussions we will inevitably have.

-Minerva

I read the entire Dune series about 10 years ago in my late teens. At first I didn't know exactly why I liked them, but as I grow and learn, it is easier to articulate why they fascinated me.

The Bene Gesserit are by far my favorite organization in the Dune Universe, followed by the Spacing Guild and the Bene Tleilax
The two aspects of the Bene Gesserit that I find most interesting are their beliefs on free will & destiny, predicting the future, and their breeding programs.

I am Fatalist, I believe everything has been predestined and there is only one inevitable future. If this is true, the future should be predictable, and if the future is predictable you can prove it by predicting it. I love Fatalism because it is the only religious belief that can theoretically be proven (I use the word proven lightly). If we have free will, the future is not preexisting, and so it should not be predictable. However, if the future is not predictable, you can't prove it by not predicting it, because it is always possible you simply did not have enough information. The whole point of the Bene Gesserit Kwisatz Haderach breeding program is to create a Messiah with nearly perfect powers of prescience. Fatalism and Prescience is where Philosophy, Science, and Religion meet.

After reading about the BG breeding program, and their desire to gain the objective power of predicting the future, I became interested in the concept of eugenics. My search eventually brought me to my mentor, Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood. You can read her books and listen to her interviews on my website www.progenica.org. Her book, The Pivot of Civilization changed by life. Above everything else, she was an implementer. She had the vision to materialize her program for the "New Race". I also have read her Autobiography, and plan on reader her book, Woman and the New Race this summer.

Anyway, I hope this works out and I get to know all of you

-Progenica

To all,

I have yet to formally introduce myself so I shall now.

When I was a young girl, I wanted to be a witch or a nun. When I was a bit older, I saw Lynch's "Dune" and saw RM Mohiam and Lady Jessica and knew that there was such a thing to be had. I then read Dune and the other books of the series. For some reason, these books stuck with me more than any other books that I have read.

I like going to school so I got my first Master's studying Jungian psychology and religion. I have always had a very strong interest in all things religious throughout my life. My religious interests vary from Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, and Taoism to Germanic paganism and folk magick. I also have a keen interest in occult studies.

I decided to continue with school and got my Master's in Library Science in 2008. While I do not work in a public library (my internship rid me of that interest), I do work at the National Archives in Lenexa, KS. I work in the Federal Records Center.

I am musically-inclined and play the piano and guitar. I love literature, poetry, and gardening. I was quite pleased when I read that the BG had orchards and gardens on Chapterhouse. I always thought of them as being farmers and harvesters of people, in a way.

Hajra