Water of Life (Dune)

The Water of Life is a fictional drug from Frank Herbert's science fiction Dune universe.

Found on the planet Arrakis, the Water of Life is categorized as an illuminating poison, or an awareness spectrum narcotic. Specifically, it is the bilious liquid exhalation of a sandworm produced at the moment of its death from drowning. In its raw state it is toxic to anyone but a Reverend Mother. A Reverend Mother can metabolize the Water within her body, then expel it to transform the raw Water into a form consumable by others. The "changed" Water is the narcotic used in the Fremen Sietch orgy.

The Bene Gesserit test their acolytes to see if they can be Reverend Mothers by feeding them the Water of Life in a ritual known as the spice agony. If the adept is qualified, she transmutes the poison safely within and becomes a Reverend Mother. If not, she dies. Paul Atreides uses the Water of Life to fulfill his destiny as the Kwisatz Haderach.

Paul also perceives that the Water of Life could also be used to catastrophic effect in combination with a pre-spice mass, as the "blow" reaction which formed the melange would transform the Water of Life into Water of Death, resulting in the destruction of the sandworms and the end of the spice-cycle ecosystem. With the power to destroy all the spice at its source, the Fremen were thus able to exercise a degree of control over both the Bene Gesserit and the Spacing Guild.

Since there were no sandworms after the transformation of Dune to Arrakis during and after the reign of Emperor Leto, it appears that the Water of Life was replaced by spice essence in Bene Gesserit and Fremen rituals.

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