Kwisatz Haderach
Kwisatz Haderach, or "the one who can be many places at once" to the
Bene Gesserit, is a
fictional character in the
Dune universe, created by
Frank Herbert. The term means "shortening of the way" and denotes the hope and goal of the
Bene Gesserit breeding program.\r
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They hoped to create a
male Reverend Mother capable of absolute powers of prescience, able to predict all possible futures and to cause select threads of time to be realized through manipulation. They hoped to use him to strengthen Bene Gesserit power among other power loci within the Empire. Unknown to them at first, their breeding program came to a successful conclusion with the birth of
Paul Atreides, but they could not control him. The result was the being they prized the most was the instrument by which their order diminished.\r
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The phrase
Kwisatz Haderach קפיצת הדרך originally came from
Hebrew and means "Jump ahead of the path", i.e. a significant breakthrough.