Fear is the mind-killer

Frank Herbert’s famous litany from Dune.

Frank Herbert was a noted American science fiction author. His most famous work, Dune, has sold millions of copies.

The book and its sequels contained many memorable quotes. These reflected the author’s own outlook on life as well as those of the characters in the books.

The quote below is from Dune. It is one of his most famous and resonates with many.

We have all experienced fear, and what it does to us. Herbert’s litany tells us everything we need to understand this sensation and how to survive it.

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I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

— Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear

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What Frank Herbert meant

Fear can consume us. It can suspend rational judgment and impede clarity by hijacking our minds. It can kill our mental functions.

An understanding of this means we can rise above the effects of fear, we can let the feeling pass. We can control our own reaction. The mentally disciplined do not let fear control them.

Fear can induce a freeze response. This is most associated with a physical freeze, but it starts in the mind.

Herbert is describing a phenomenon many have experienced at one time. Fear, and associated sensations like anxiety, panic or dread, can take possession of our minds and reduce or even halt our ability to function.

The quote alludes to solutions. How we can discipline ourselves to withstand the effects of fear, to not submit to its effects and instead rise above it and let the sensation dissipate.

What fear does to us

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

Fear temporarily destroys the mind’s function. It impedes the machinery we use to think.

This is a kind of death. The death of reason perhaps. At least for a moment. But for Herbert that momentary loss of one’s full faculties is enough to obliterate who we are.

He captured the horror of fear, how it makes us feel. As it induces this involuntary sensation we experience it as a kind of annihilation. This is not us, this is not how we normally feel.

How we deal with fear

I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

Herbert suggests a kind of stoic detachment is needed. We face our fears, we do not turn away from them.

He recognizes the sensation of fear as something outside the self, so it passes over and through like some kind of spirit. Because of the detachment we retain the ability to observe the feeling pass.

As this process unfolds our detached attention can perceive the sensation of fear dissipate. We can pay attention and learn it is a temporary phenomenon, even if it affects us strongly.

The effect of fear

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Fear is a phenomenon happening inside our heads. It will pass and when it does we remain behind.

This alludes to the all-encompassing nature of strong fear. We imagine we have no control over such a primitive and serious thing.

But if we follow Herbert’s advice he reminds us it does pass, and we will still be here.

We can summarize Herbert’s view as follows:

1. Fear has a mental effect — This can overwhelm us and stop us thinking.

2. The solution is to face fears — When we do we allow the fear to happen then dissipate.

3. Strength works — Once fear has passed, we remain, and now we have learned how fear works. This makes us stronger.

What we can learn from this

In Herbert’s famous book Dune, the young hero, Paul Atreides, is faced with a considerable challenge early in the story. He is tested with the gom jabbar, a method to separate humans from animals.

Paul passes. He is deemed human, more than a mere animal. In Herbert’s world the animal is unsophisticated, someone who relies on instinct and reacts to life with limited thought.

By comparison the human can anticipate and think. A human can do much more than just react. During the test of the gom jabbar the young hero Paul must resist the artificially induced pain that is the key part of the test. He must demonstrate restraint.

This concept is implied in Herbert’s litany against fear. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. The emphasis is on constraining a natural reaction. This separates the human from the animal; the capable who are in control of themselves from the merely reactive.

Herbert is concerned with self-mastery. Mastering one’s own impulses to fully live life. To control life so it is experienced fully and not something that passively happens to us.

An active embracing of life and all that it can give us. A life enhancing attitude to complement the mastery.

In the book Paul is young. He ultimately wins because of his mastery of himself even in the bleak surroundings he finds himself. Importantly others lose because they cannot control or master him. He is his own master.

Many of us fail to master our own impulses. We watch too much television, we are addicted to our smartphones. We lose ourselves in social media or doomscrolling.

We can therefore look at the litany against fear in broader terms, about loss of control over our impulses more generally.

The specific impulse of fear is a useful introduction as most will have experienced it. But it is applicable to other impulses such as anger or anxiety.

We can observe them, we can let them wash over us, and we can let them pass and we will remain. Detachment, observation and acceptance can be practiced to help us master many of the emotions that conquer others.

If fear is the mind-killer then a mind free of fear is mind-enhanced. We get to use our minds in a clean way as intended, as a fine instrument.

Those who see clearly can act rationally, leaving the muddled behind. Herbert was clear about this in his writing. No political correctness in the 1960s. In those times winners won while others lost for a variety of reasons.

His preoccupation was with how to win, and one component was to master fear to banish any notion of cowardice. His best characters went down fighting, and they won through hard discipline and overcoming mental obstacles through practice.

Perhaps this is the takeaway from Herbert’s litany against fear. Our job is to not succumb, to understand we can overcome our natural tendencies. And if we do we gain access to our mind as an instrument we use to better ourselves

In Dune Paul Atreides mastered his fear time and again. He is tested often and he wins.

He brings superior discipline and has absorbed the wisdom of the natives of the desert planet he finds himself on. They too have much to fear on their harsh waterless world, a brutal life few would relish.

Yet they do master it, as does the young hero, and as a consequence they flourish.

If Dune is about anything it is mastery of oneself, of one’s impulses, all in the goal of pursuing what matters and overcoming the obstacles life throws in our way. One key example of supreme self-control is mastery of fear because fear can stop us in our tracks and prevent any growth by hijacking our cognitive functions. Fear can be a mind-killer if you let it.