Litany against fear

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The Litany against fear is a fictional incantation spoken by characters in Frank Herbert's Dune and its sequels in order to focus their minds in times of peril. The litany is as follows:

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.

This incantation originates from the Bene Gesserit. Paul Atreides, the son of Duke Leto Atreides, uses it when the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam compels him to put his right hand in a box that causes pain as a test of his human will. While doing so she points the gom jabbar, the needle with the deadly poison, to his throat. He must withstand the agony on pain of death.

The litany helps him to focus his will, and withstand the excruciating agony.

[edit] In adaptations

David Lynch's feature film version adaptation of Dune contains an abridged version of the litany, ending in "I will permit it to pass over me and through me." A fuller though slightly different version of this litany was used in the Dune miniseries and Children of Dune miniseries, replacing "I must not fear" with "I will not fear", and "I will permit it to pass over me and through me" with "I will let it pass through me".

The litany originated with the Bene Gesserit as a means to calm themselves or reduce their fear in the Dune novel series.

[edit] Other appearances

  • In Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, an MMORPG, the phrase "Fear is the Mind-Killer" appears on a tablet in Lord Tsang's Tomb.
  • In the videogame Rez the final level is played out to the song "Mind Killer" by Adam Freeland.
  • The Litany is sampled (from Lynch's movie version) in the song "Fear is the Mindkiller" from the Void Dweller album by techno-rave group EON.
  • On the animated television series Earthworm Jim, the first three lines were quickly chanted by Peter Puppy whenever he found himself in an overwhelming situation (usually at least once per episode)
  • In the NBC TV show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (episode 14 season 1) the litany is recited by a rapist victim as a judge refuses to deliver a warrant based on DNA evidence alone (without knowledge of the identity of the suspect).
  • In the early primary season of the 2004 U.S. presidential election, the second line was quoted during a televised debate by Ambassador Carol Mosely Braun, candidate for the Democratic nomination.
  • Appears in the Firefox extension named "I must not fear!".
  • The band Fear Factory released an album called Fear Is the Mindkiller
  • The second line is repeated in the song "Near Fantastica" by Matthew Good
  • Commissar Ciaphas Cain makes a reference to the second line of the litany in the Warhammer 40,000 novel Caves of Ice.
  • In the webcomic Questionable Content, Marten paraphrases the Litany: [1]
  • "I must not fear, fear is the mind killer" is used in the track 'Mind Killer' by the drum & bass duo Shimon & Andy C
  • "Fear is the mind killer" is a phrase from Aldous Huxley's Novel, "Island" Published in 1962.
  • In an episode of the short-lived cult TV show Dead Like Me, Mason at one point tells the main character George that "Monotony is the mind-killer".
  • The first three lines of the Litany are uttered by a fictional portrayl of "Lord Byron" in an episode of "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy."
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