Humanity's soul -- DUNE Novels Discussion Board

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04/17/24 18:54:04 [ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, [3], 4 ]

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Date Posted: 09:48:12 07/10/03 Thu
Author: Ghanima
Subject: Humanity's soul
In reply to: IDAHO 's message, "Duncan Idaho and the Soul" on 16:32:30 07/09/03 Wed

It seems to me that the characters in Dune are possessed of a common soul. A soul of humanity, if you will.
For example, look at the Other Memories. They can be powerful ;) enough to possess someone, does that mean that the ancestor's soul has taken over the body? I don't think so, because many many people can have the same other memories, the same ancestors.
Gholas seem to recover the memories and the personality of the previous incarnation, but it seems that the cells of the new ghola are required to recover these memories. I say this because Leto would often order a new Duncan before the current one had met his demise, but the new one would appear to remember only up to the time of his first "death." I would think if the soul of an individual Duncan was involved it would remember the previous life regardless of when the cells were taken. Unless you choose to take the view that each ghola has it's own separate soul. However, the Tleilaxu appeared to regenerate and awaken themselves, keeping all of their memeories and creating a sort of immortality. What about their souls?
It seems to me that in Dune, humanity seems to have a collective soul that harbors individual personalities, but cells harbor the memories. Other memory taps into this physical memory, but then how do you explain shared memory? I think shared memory is allowing individuals access to other parts of the collective human soul.
What about Face Dancers? Remember when the face dancer who took over the priest's body in Heretics or Chapterhouse (cant remember which) actually believed that he was the priest and couldn't even remember being a face dancer, did he actually steal the priests soul and lose his own? I think it makes more sense to say he was still part of humanity's collective soul but that the transfer of personality was total.
What do you think?

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Replies:

Soul- less Gholas -- RavensZim, 14:11:12 07/10/03 Thu