Editing Bene Gesserit (section)

=== Sexual talents ===
The Bene Gesserit are notable for their extensive skill in seduction, sex and [[sexual imprinting]]. The most talented and most highly trained are known as '''Imprinters'''. Men in a position of power or future power, or those with specific qualities that the order wishes to incorporate into their breeding program, are typical targets of a Bene Gesserit imprinter. Men seduced by an imprinter are permanently affected (imprinted) by the intense sexual experience and are thereafter consciously or subconsciously favorable to the Sisterhood. An imprinter can be successfully resisted if the subject has been psychologically conditioned to do so, and the subject's automatic defensive response may even be entirely subconscious.

In ''Dune'', [[Margot Fenring|Lady Fenring]] is instructed by the Bene Gesserit to seduce [[Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen]] in order to "preserve the bloodline" by retrieving his [[genetic material]] through conception. She also intends to "plant deep in his deepest self the necessary prana-bindu phrases to bend him", which she later refers to as the "Hypno-[[wikt:Special:Search/ligation|ligation]] of that Feyd-Rautha's psyche". When Paul later fights Feyd to the death, Jessica advises her son to temporarily stun him using the word-sound ''Uroshnor'', typically implanted in a dangerous person who has been prepared by the Bene Gesserit. Paul, however, refuses to use this advantage.

In ''Heretics of Dune'', Reverend Mother and Imprinter Lucilla is charged with the seduction-imprinting of the [[Duncan Idaho]] [[ghola]] so that the Sisterhood may assert some control over him; he ultimately avoids her. Lucilla also mentions the hundreds of sexual positions and variations she knows. In ''Heretics'', the [[Honored Matres]] have themselves refined this ability to such an intense level that the targeted male becomes completely enslaved. The captured Honored Matre [[Murbella]] attempts this on Duncan; his own imprinting ability, secretly conditioned into him by his [[Tleilaxu]] creators, suddenly manifests itself. Murbella and Duncan imprint each other, neither having complete control over the other. In ''Chapterhouse Dune'' the order has learned the Honored Matre method from Murbella and use it for their own purposes, specifically to awaken the memories within the [[Miles Teg]] ghola.