Post originally by Jack Holcomb at 2004-09-14 14:46:47
Converted from Phorums BB System

IMAGinES wrote:

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Hello, Jack. On the face of it, I'd have to disagree with you slightly on the psychic powers vs. potential of the human brain biz. I'm with you on the cpabilities of the Bene Gesserit and Mentats, but if there's one thing that throws the issue into something of a cocked hat, it's the Reverend Mothers of the Fremen (and presumably the Bene Gesserit as well). Jessica manages to inherit the personality and memories of the Reverend Mother of Stilgar's Tribe - and the memories of those RMs who came before - without any sort of physical transferrence that could put a hole in the "psychic" explanation. Even genetic memory doesn't quite work, as we're talking about branches of the BG that probably haven't been woven back into the mother organisation.
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Hmmm. Right you are. Of course, the Water of Life is a spice product (dying puke of the sandworm or somesuch), and there are many, many hints that the spice has genetic effects, so the Water of Life could be a mechanism by which mitochondrial DNA (or whatever it is that carries ancestral memory in Dune) can be passed on outside a single line of genetic succession. But that would require that the previous genetic donor be present at the WoL ceremony and there again be some means of physical transferrance...like this?

"Someone eased her to a sitting position. She saw the old Reverend Mother Ramallo being brought to sit beside her on the carpeted ledge. A dry hand touched her neck.
"And there was another psychokinesthetic mote within her awareness! Jessica tried to reject it, but the mote swept closer...closer.
"They touched!
"It was like an ultimate _simpatico_, being two people at once: not telepathy, but mutual awareness."

OK, that "psychokinetic mote" thingy she uses to transform the water of life and have a shared hallucination with Ramallo seems awfully psychic, but I think it's still somewhat ambiguous. Given the established subtlety of BG sensitivity, and the extreme effects of melange, it seems consistent to me that a hand on the neck might be enough to pass the carrier of genetic memory--that no actual exchange of body fluids would be necessary. On the other hand, we don't know a whole lot about the preparation of the WoL, and it's possible that they keep RM backwash in the waterbags between ceremonies

But this is a creative reading. You're right.

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Anyway, I hope you'll pardon me for being nit-picky.
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Ha! No pardon necessary--or I need it too, very desperately. It's all in fun.

Jack