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The Bene Gesserit are a key social, religious and political force in Frank Herbert's science...

The Bene Gesserit are a key social, religious and political force in Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe. The group is described as an exclusive sisterhood whose members train their bodies and minds through years of physical and mental conditioning to obtain powers and abilities that can easily seem magical to outsiders. Due to their secretive nature and misunderstood abilities, outsiders often call them witches. Acolytes who have acquired the breadth of Bene Gesserit abilities are called Reverend Mothers within the organization's ranks. Trained at the Mother School on Wallach IX, and later headquartered at a hidden world known as Chapterhouse, the Bene Gesserit are loyal only to themselves. However, to obtain their goals and avoid outside interference, they often screen themselves with an illusion of being loyal to other groups or individuals. In 1965's Dune, the Princess Irulan writes (via epigraph): It is noted in Frank Herbert's original novel Dune that 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