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The drug had him again and he thought: So many times you’ve given me comfort and forgetfulness. He felt anew the hyperillumination with its high-relief imagery of time, sensed his future becoming memories—the tender indignities of physical love, the sharing and communion of selves, the softness and the violence.

This passage occurs in Book II after Paul takes the drug melange, which significantly changes him. His senses become more acute, and he is suddenly able to “see through time.” Paul can now see infinite possibilities in future events, and he realizes his actions will cause a jihad (holy war) in the universe. Paul is also more sensitive to physical contact, particularly when he is with his love, Chani. Paul’s consumption of the melange is an important turning point in his development as a Kwisatz Haderach. Paul becomes dependent on the melange to see into the future, and the addictive substance in turn begins to shackle him. Paul needs the melange to live and to fulfill his role as a Kwisatz Haderach. The French word mélange means a mixture of diverse elements. Paul’s role as a Kwisatz Haderach is to mix the elements of the human gene pool—he needs melange to execute the mixture of gene pools that will ultimately save his species.

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