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"The
Dune Litany"
by
Larry
"Harris" Taylor, Ph.D.
This
material is copyrighted and all rights retained by the author. This article is
made available as a service to the diving community by the author. This article
may be distributed for any non-commercial or Not-For-Profit application.
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Rights Reserved.
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One of my favorite science fiction novels is Frank Herbert's Dune. I read it as an undergraduate.* The story was so compelling that I read the entire book in one sitting. One early memorable scene was when the hero, Paul Atreides, had his humanity tested, under life threat. To survive the test's overwhelming perceived pain, he used the Bene Gesserit (an ancient order focused on exceptional development of physical, mental and emotional control) Litany Against Fear:
All of us who dive will most likely, at some point in time, find ourselves in an extremely stressful, if not life-threatening, situation ... an event where the fear becomes palpable as it rises from deep within us and threatens to take control. To prevent an undesirable outcome, this fear must be mediated.
In times where I have had a perceived life-threat, I used a shortened (so as to not have to memorize / recall so many words) version:
This "ritual" of mentally reciting this Litany (or some other personally chosen mantra) is psychologically calming and lessens the fear (alters focus away from the rising tide of anxiety), so that the situation can be resolved. In other words, a potentially tragic event becomes an inconvenience (later, a "war story") and not a catastrophe.
*Note added (April, 2026) after receiving a defaming email claiming my post was BS and that it was not possible to read Dune in a few hours:
The version that I read (Dune, first edition) in the late-1960's was 412 pages. I was so immersed in the Dune Universe that I lost all track of time. When I completed the novel, a little more than 18 hours had passed. This corresponds to a reading speed of 412 pages / ~18 hours = ~23 pages per hour. That is certainly not an impressive reading speed. (The novel was read for enjoyment, not speed.) Dune is the only novel that I, as a voracious science fiction reader, ever consumed in a single sitting.
Various book versions of Dune, depending on font size, page size, margins, illustrations, and added appendixes / glossaries vary between 400 - 900 pages.
Lastly, I have on DVD or Blu-ray all the movie / TV versions of Dune (part of the currently 2986 science fiction titles in my constantly expanding media library (currently 8396 total fiction titles). So, before I get flamed for lying about my media collection, the pictures below are of my home office ... the shelves behind my desk represent ~ 75 % of my science fiction collection. (Animations, Aviation, Drama, Comedy, Musicals, Scuba, Westerns, 365 Great Courses and other Non-Fiction / Educational collections are in other rooms.)
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Two additional pictures (from 2022) of this office (and the 22 computers running 24/7/365 for the BOINC scientific computing network) can be found at Names and Logos.
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About
The Author:
Larry "Harris" Taylor, Ph.D. is a biochemist and Diving Safety Coordinator at the University of Michigan. He has authored more than 200 scuba related articles. His personal dive library (See Alert Diver, Mar/Apr, 1997, p. 54) is considered one of the best recreational sources of information In North America.
All rights reserved.
Use of these articles for personal or organizational profit is specifically denied.
These articles may be used for not-for-profit diving education