Editing Dune (novel) (section)

===Zen and religion===
{{Main|List of Dune religions}}

Early in his newspaper career, Herbert was introduced to [[Zen]] by two [[Jungian]] psychologists, Ralph and Irene Slattery, who "gave a crucial boost to his thinking".<ref name="O'Reilly C2">{{cite book|url=http://tim.oreilly.com/herbert/ch02.html|title=Frank Herbert|first=Tim|last=O'Reilly|chapter=Chapter 2: Under Pressure|access-date=March 26, 2019|via=oreilly.com|archive-date=December 30, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071230080811/http://tim.oreilly.com/herbert/ch02.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Zen teachings ultimately had "a profound and continuing influence on [Herbert's] work".<ref name="O'Reilly C2"/> Throughout the ''Dune'' series and particularly in ''Dune'', Herbert employs concepts and forms borrowed from [[Zen Buddhism]].<ref name="O'Reilly C2"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Unpublished interview with Frank Herbert and Professor Willis E. McNelly |date=February 3, 1969 |url=http://www.sinanvural.com/seksek/inien/tvd/tvd2.htm |via=sinanvural.com |access-date=March 21, 2019 |archive-date=February 13, 2002 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020213105526/http://www.sinanvural.com/seksek/inien/tvd/tvd2.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The Fremen are referred to as [[Zensunni]] adherents, and many of Herbert's epigraphs are Zen-spirited.<ref>{{cite book|last=Touponce|year=1988|title=Frank Herbert|chapter=Life and Intellectual Background|page=10|publisher=Twayne Publishers |isbn=978-0-8057-7514-3}}</ref> In "''Dune'' Genesis", Frank Herbert wrote:

{{blockquote|What especially pleases me is to see the interwoven themes, the fugue like relationships of images that exactly replay the way ''Dune'' took shape. As in an [[M. C. Escher|Escher]] lithograph, I involved myself with recurrent themes that turn into paradox. The central paradox concerns the human vision of time. What about Paul's gift of prescience—the [[Presbyterian]] fixation? For the [[Pythia|Delphic Oracle]] to perform, it must tangle itself in a web of [[predestination]]. Yet predestination negates surprises and, in fact, sets up a mathematically enclosed universe whose limits are always inconsistent, always encountering the unprovable. It's like a [[koan]], a Zen mind breaker. It's like the [[Crete|Cretan]] [[Epimenides]] saying, "All Cretans are liars."<ref name="Genesis"/>}}

Brian Herbert called the ''Dune'' universe "a spiritual melting pot", noting that his father incorporated elements of a variety of religions, including [[Buddhism]], [[Sufism|Sufi mysticism]] and other Islamic belief systems, [[Catholicism]], [[Protestantism]], [[Judaism]], and [[Hinduism]].<ref name="Dune Afterword Religion">{{cite book |last=Herbert |first=Frank |author-link=Frank Herbert |contributor-first=Brian |contributor-last=Herbert |contributor-link=Brian Herbert |title=[[Dune (novel)|Dune]] |contribution=Afterword by Brian Herbert |year=1965 |edition=[[Amazon Kindle]] |publisher=[[Penguin Group]] |page=873 |isbn=978-1-101658-05-5}}</ref> He added that Frank Herbert's fictional future in which "religious beliefs have combined into interesting forms" represents the author's solution to eliminating arguments between religions, each of which claimed to have "the one and only revelation."<ref name="Dune Afterword Religion"/><ref>{{cite web |last=Herbert |first=Frank |date=February 3, 1969 |title=Interview with Dr. Willis E. McNelly |url=http://www.sinanvural.com/seksek/inien/tvd/tvd2.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020213105526/http://www.sinanvural.com/seksek/inien/tvd/tvd2.htm |archive-date=February 13, 2002 |access-date=January 26, 2010 |publisher=Sinanvural.com |quote=During my studies of deserts, of course, and previous studies of religions, we all know that many religions began in a desert atmosphere, so I decided to put the two together because I don't think that any one story should have any one thread. I build on a layer technique, and of course putting in religion and religious ideas you can play one against the other.}}</ref>