A two-part training program was pursued simultaneously by a candidate: the training of the mind and the training of the body. Thus a small child would spend hours learning the many languages in use in her culture, and later spend more hours sitting rock-still, lowering
her body temperature or slowing her heartbeat, moving one muscle at a time as she catalogued the stimulus/response pattern of her body. The physical training program, the prana-bindu school, is perhaps the best way to illustrate the unification of these two primary branches of training.
The clearest analysis to date of the system is in Reverend Mother Maxius Claire Beeghler’s Prana and Bindu: Control for Power. She identifies the basic premise of the training as that found in an ancient Terran religion in which the path to the truth was called Sabda and closely resembled what is known to the Bene Gesserit as the “Way.” Sabda allowed an internal realization of truth which identified the knower with an immutable reality. The Bene Gesserity Way also identifies the knower with reality, but denies immutability. Thus the Bene Gesserit axiom: “The purpose of argument is to change the nature of truth.” The same conditioning processes, however, are used to attain both Sabda and the Way. The key to both is achieving harmony and tranquility through establishing balance within the individual. This balance is achieved through tapas (austere regimens which control and organize the psychic and physical forces of the body, and concentrate one’s powers) and upsana (the meditation which allows one to go deep within oneself to find the link between the internal forces, the point of balance between knowing the body and knowing the mind).
The mental self is trained through nayana—a discipline which controls reasoning. Nayana pairs linguistics and logic in order that the individual can distinguish between language and meaning. The student is constantly taught that a sentence means more than the meaning of the individual words, that it includes the physical activity which accompanies the act of speaking. The observer, therefore, must be able to “read” and “register” the gestalt of the speaker, must be able to understand the linguistic patterns of thought conveyed through the immediate language, and must be able to synthesize all these channels instantly in order to understand completely what actually is being “said.” Thus, in the process of learning, the student must always control the internal sources—her own physical, mental, and emotion condition at the time of synthesis—and totally perceive the external sources—the environment of the speaker, the physical and psychic gestalt of the speaker, the cultural undertones of the language, and the actual overtones of the word sets being used. In general, this technique of data collection, synthesis, and
understanding was only perfected after the Butlerian Jihad. The aim was to replace thought machines with people who were not only capable of instantaneous logic computations, as were the machines, but who were also able to assimilate sensory and emotional information. Through a rational/intuitive process, such people would come to conclusions that were human rather than mechanistic but objectively detached rather than egotistically biased.
Specifically, prana (nerve) and bindu (muscle) training prepared one for the state of concentration need to understand the reality of a situation. (This state of concentration is also essential to the Bene Gesserit observational skills and martial art techniques.) To gain the proper attitude for complete concentration, one must first remove oneself, mentally if not physically, from all distractions. To do this one uses relaxation techniques which eliminate the distraction from extraneous stimuli. At this point in her studies, the student also learns how to distinguish primary information from secondary or unessential information—“to see the facts and discard the ghafla.” Once one has relaxed and has begun to observe proper information, one must learn to observe closely and clearly. In this state of observation one assimilates pertinent data from the present situation and recalls all pertinent data from memory.
If possible, the observer next assumes a positive physical posture of relaxation and concentration. When the analytical work is being done under private, leisurely conditions, the person relaxes in one of
thirty-three postures, each appropriate to a specific type of analytical work. In public situations, the observer assumes an immediate but unobtrusive ritualistic posture which calls the muscles and tissues into alertness. If under great stress or immobilized, one can alter this posture to accommodate the restraints. Next, one begins controlled breathing for concentration, relaxation, and an oxygen supply sufficient ot support accelerated mental activity. Finally, as the last step before entering the concentration mode one withdraws sensory and emotional awareness from all internal areas of distraction. In most cases, the Sister performs a simple calmness ritual, but in times of great danger, she recites the litany against fear to subdue any instinctual, primal terror, particularly those stimulated by a race- memory fear:
Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that leads to total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me, I will turn to see fear’s path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
At this point, the observer can being the concentration mode. The concentration mode involves three stagesof observational analysis. First, one must no severly limit the attention to only the past and present data concerning the topic. Second, one must enter a state of total contemplation in which the attention flows in a steady stream over the topic—the observer completey enclosing the topic. Third, one must be conscious not of the techniques of observation, not of the presence of self, but of the topic—one must become the topic. At the moment of unity, the observer understand the topic as she understands herself. Thus, all knowledge depends on the observation of detail and on one’s body being trained to support close observation, on objective classification and cataloguing, and on maximum retention of data. Only complete control of nerves and tissues, muscles, blood and chemistry, can detach one enough from the demands of the self to allow objective detachment during the observation, analysis, and synthesis process. The control of the body leads to the purification of the mind necessary to separate the real from the unreal.
Although the process of preparation, control, and analysis seems complicated and time consuming, after a woman has trained for ten years, first in the separate steps and then in the entire process, she can, if necessary, perform the entire function in less than a second. One of the controls learned is the ability to release oneself from the artificial confines of the human notion of “time.” There is no “time” in the concentration mode—all activities can be managed simul- taneously.
Once the basic processes have been mastered, second-level functional states can be invoked such as Dao, Prajna, and Adab. Dao is the dormancy trance, a type of bindu suspension in which an adept can slow her physiological activities to a level just on the edge of life-maintenance, a trance useful for survival under threatening conditions and also necessary to rejuvenate cells. The Prajna meditation trance is used for deep understanding and for the special state of “seeing” some Sisters are capable of performing (a state usually augmented with enhancement by chemicals such as mélange). Adab, on the other hand, is a retrieval process accessible to all skilled Bene Gesserits; this state of recall is also called th “demanding memory,” a recollection of necessary stimulated externally or by the gestalt of a situation rather than being triggered consciously by the woman herself. Adab is different from the “consciousness impression/complete recall” method used regularly to store and process data. The normal mnemonic process allows complete reproduction of any conversation, even simulating the tone and pitch control of the original speaker (a practice always used by Sisters or novices who acted as messengers). But Adab not only stores material in the subconscious, it also uses the subconscious to integrate new information with stroed data, thus producing
completely accurate and logically assimilated memory, a memory so
strong that when stimulated it will overwhelm the woman’s consciousness.
Prana-bindu training is also used by the adept in all the daily functions of her life. For example, the famous Bene Gesserit martial arts, the “weirding ways of battle,” are based upon complete prana- bindu control. The hand-to-hand combat techniques retained from ancient Terran cultures depend upon supreme muscle control for their astonishing ferocity. Not only the unarmed combat maneuvers depend on this training but the extraordinary knife and whip skills also require this command of muscles and nerves. Prana-bindu control can heal wounds and retard aging. The Bene Gesserit knew their cellular structure so intimately that they could analyze and neutralize most poisons within their bodies. The great test of this ability occurred during a woman’s initiation as a Reverend Mother in neutralizing the “Water of Life” within her system. Occassional women were found to have cellular allergies to and incompatibilities with the chemical and were unable to neutralize it, but fortunately this occurred rarely.
The training program had a secondary objective: the ability to control others whether as individuals, masses, or cultures. The Bene Gesserit is taught to “read” and “register” a person in order to manipulate him by Voice. In “reading” one observes and identifies the clue tones which will control the other person. In “registering” one uses a brief mnemonic trance to retain the clue tones, making that person controllable in future situations. Finally, through the use of
rihani decipherment, a Bene Gesserit can recognize a registered individual no matter what overt change in behavior or appearance he assumes. Rihani decipherment also allowed sisters to unerringly identify Face Dancers and gholas, even when they assumed the appearance of individuals unknown to the Sister herself. The decipherment pattern allowed her to discern the non-human characteristics.
Through Voice, a subtle manipulation of vocal tones, a Bene Gesserit could manipulate individuals or large groups by triggering clue tones. Certain voice patterns trigger primal human responses, and the registered person could be controlled in any situation. Women specially gifted with The Great Control could manage any number of people in any situation, and could even control other Bene Gesserits. Particular subtleties of Voice usage are the Lie Adroit— manipulation through concealed falsehood; the Zensunni Codex—a play of words that confuses or obscures the truth; and the
implantation of auto-suggestive cue words (for example, the most common word thus implanted is “Uroshnor,” a word itself empty of meaning, but which, when spoken, triggers a state of immobilization). These techniques, however, are taught only for specific professional work.
In order to learn how to control large groups of people and even cultures, during her final three years of education a candidate enters a series of courses teaching the characteristics of mob behavior (e.g., history, politics, anthropology, and mythology). Unless a woman is to be a political determiner when she graduates or is being groomed for political roles within the order, these courses are theoretical. For those who enter the Missionaria Protectiva, however, a special training program teaches the manipulation of cultural attitude through mythos-manipulation. Truthsayers, economists, and women preparing to be MBAs are all trained in practical group manipulation as well as in theory.
Of course, as a secondary part of the entire training program, candidates are also taught survival techniques. For example, a rudimentary course is “Hand and Finger Signals,” while a more advanced course in the same discipline is “Tactile Encoding Methods.” Though the techniques of setting and breaking palm locks is designated as an advanced course, there is evidence that each middle-school girl prided herself in mastering the technique. Such primary regimens as the waiting stance, the sense-cleansing regimen, and tranquility mode were taught to children in the kinder houses.