<< Possession

In *Children of Dune; Alia, sister of the legendary Paul Atreides is faced with a predicament: She is incapable of controlling all the wisdom granted by her past lives.

As a desperate last resort, she takes a faustian bargain and allows one of her inner lives, the old baron Harkonnen, to overtake her psyche. And thus becomes an abomination.

There is deep symbology at play here. For Herbert it seems; the ideology of the dead, their personas transmitted into the future are an abomination, a monster need not exist. In the universe of Dune this is the same indeed as as a demonic possession.

The Atreides might lies in their connection to mankind's story, which brings them knowledge of countless lives over. Alia, scared of her own capacity, allows a dark creature of the past to take host in her body.

The book speaks to us of something which is like feeling enamored, infatuated or identified with ideas which are not our own. The purpose of life is adaptation: to reinterpret and adjust the ways of the past and thus respond to new challenges. 

The role of history is therefore an advisory one, decisions of the present must not be taken in the light of ghosts of the past.

Not doing so is indeed allowing an evil spirit to take over your body. A door to suffering created by our lack of capacity to bring forth new ideas. 

return 0;

Notes:

Children of Dune is the 3rd book of the original trilogy.