The Bene Gesserit of Dune tests all their students with an extremely dangerous test before they are initiated into their order. The test is called the “Gom Jabbar”.
In the first movie, Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam tests Paul. She tells him,
“I hold at your neck the Gom Jabbar a poison needle of instant death. The test is simple: remove your hand from the box and you die.”
In the book she tells Paul,
“Withdraw your hand and I’ll touch your neck with my Gom Jabbar - the death so swift it’s like the fall of the headsman’s axe”.
The box is filled with pain. The pain increases and increases to unbearable limits. Though if you take your hand out you die. Any animal and most humans would take their hand out once the pain gets great enough. They would react with instinct, not being able to overcome the signals their body is sending to their brain. Though the humans that have separated themselves from their body and have a stronger mental awareness can rise above the test and pass.
The Bene Gesserit in the book says “It kills only animals”.
In the movie after Paul passes. Reverend Mother Gaius Helen says, “Like sifting sand through a screen, we sift people”. And later she says. “If you could not have controlled your impulses like an animal we could not have let you live. You will inherit too much power”.
For the Bene Gesserit mission, they are trying to make a male version of themselves, one which will have great powers called the Qwisatz Haderach. The Qwisatz Haderach is the prophesied Messiah and superbeing formed by the Bene Gesserits. They test Paul with this because they cannot have the male Qwisatz Haderach be unable to control the mind and overcome instinct. This concludes that Paul has mental capabilities much higher than a normal human male and is likely to be the candidate.
This test filters for humans who have high control over their instincts and in doing so creates high agency people. Being able to overcome the body one is able to act their will to a higher level than others. These people have more control over their lives and decisions they will make.
Being a high agency human is what we strive for. Being high agency means that we are able to have more decisions and opportunities we are available to act upon. We all want to overcome the mammal ways and pleasures that our body tends to. Once we take control over our body through a higher awareness we can conquer the world around us and can live our lives to our highest potential.
The Gom Jabbar is a symbol of the consequences of our actions. Every day we go through mini Gom Jabbar tests that can kill our potential instead of our life. So rise above, be an observer of your thinking patterns, reactions, and instincts, and become a high agency being that is the highest version of yourself.
Works cited
Herbert, Frank. Dune. Chilton Books, 1965.
Dune. Directed by Denis Villeneuve, Legendary Entertainment, 2021.
"Gom Jabbar." Dune Wiki, Fandom, https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/Gom_jabbar.
Gom Jabbar Drawing Image, https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/dune/images/0/0c/Eye_of_the_Storm_-_Gom_Jabbar_-_The_Little_Death.png/revision/latest?cb=20251016033850
Video screenshots, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SCWy9gsw3E
“Litany Against Fear”, Dune Wiki, Fandom https://dune.fandom.com/wiki/Litany_Against_Fear
- Lucas Edward