Gesserits

The Bene Gesserit, commonly known as the Gesserits, are a secretive sisterhood in Frank Herbert's Dune series. They train women in advanced physical and mental disciplines and aim to guide humanity’s evolution through long-term political and genetic strategies rather than overt rule. Members undergo rigorous conditioning from childhood, mastering prana-bindu control of the body, heightened perception, and specialized learning in manipulation of others through the Voice. They also access Other Memory, the collective memories of female-line ancestors, through ritual purification and awakening.

The order runs a centuries-long breeding program designed to produce individuals with heightened prescience and abilities, culminating in the Kwisatz Haderach, a prophesied superbeing with superhuman prescience. To influence events indirectly, the Sisterhood employs the Missionaria Protectiva, embedding religious practices and prophecies on remote worlds to provide benevolent prerequisites for their later plans.

Practices include the Gom Jabbar test, in which a Reverend Mother uses a poisoned needle to discipline a candidate as a test of humanity, and the Litany Against Fear, recited to master terror. The Bene Gesserit act as political operators, cultivating alliances with noble houses and, when possible, with the Spacing Guild and the Emperor, while pursuing their own long-term goals.

Revered by some as shrewd manipulators and by others as saviors, the Gesserits occupy a central role in the political and religious landscape of the Dune universe. They appear across the series, with interpretations varying among authors.