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McGuire –Leadership and Supernatural Belief 1

Leadership and Supernatural Belief

In the Science Fiction Novel Dune

by

Katherine McGuire

Culture of Formal Work Environments

PADM 9070

Dr. Lee Allen

November 30th

Valdosta State University


Introduction

In the novel Dune, the main character Paul Atreides exhibits unusual talents from a

young age. Born into the noble House Atreides to Duke Leto and his concubine Jessica, an

initiate of the Bene Gesserit Sisterhood, from the beginning Paul seemed to be marked by

destiny. His mother Lady Jessica was instructed by her order to bear only daughters, in the hope

that her child might one day marry Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, unite the nobility, and improve the

bloodline by producing the Kwisatz Haderach, a legendary superhuman being with highly

evolved prescience, who can look “into both feminine and masculine pasts” (Herbert 1965, 13).

Jessica, however, out of love for her lord and deference to his desires, bears him a son. When

Paul is fifteen, Jessica’s Bene Gesserit mentor, the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam,

meets the boy to determine what the result of her protégée’s disobedience might be. The

Reverend Mother is curious about Paul’s dreams that seem to give him unique insight into past,

present and future events. She subjects him to trial by the gom jabbar, a poison-tipped needle

used to test believers, and he prevails by overcoming his instinct for fear, causing the old woman

to wonder if Paul himself might be the Kwisatz Haderach.

Paul received an education befitting an Atreides heir, including training under the

warmasters Gurney Halleck and Duncan Idaho, the lore of Mentat skills from Thufir Hawat, the

ways of leadership and statesmanship from his father the Duke, and the prana-bindu techniques

of the Bene Gesserit from his mother. The breadth of his education was meant to prepare him

for the challenges of leadership that lay ahead for him; while his mother wondered if he might be

the awaited Kwisatz Haderach, his father thought that he might become a gifted Mentat. The

diversity of his training also prepared him to be adaptable, a trait that would prove invaluable


when leadership was thrust upon him at an early age: “Muad'Dib learned rapidly because his

first training was in how to learn.” (Herbert 1965)

When Paul was fifteen years old, his father was assassinated and he and his mother had to

flee from Arrakeen when it was attacked by the Harkonnens. Because of his mother’s Bene

Gesserit abilities and his own proving of himself in a ritual battle to the death with the Fremen

Jamis, Paul and his mother are accepted into the Fremen tribe. While his mother, after ingesting

the Water of Life, becomes the Reverend Mother of the Fremen, Paul teaches the Fremen his

mother’s Bene Gesserit “weirding” ways, or fighting techniques, while mother and son learn the

Fremen ways.

Paul’s exposure to the consciousness-expanding drug mélange, or spice, while living with

the Fremen, as well as his nearly death-inducing ingestion of the Water of Life, seem to increase

his early-developing prescient abilities. For instance, Paul “sees” the imperial fleet above

Arrakis readying to attack the planet. Paul’s prescience extends not only to his visions of the

future, but to knowledge of current and even historical events, and seems to be understood as a

sort of genetic memory or collective unconscious of the human race. Thus Jessica’s mentor

Mohiam says, “I see in the future what I've seen in the past. You well know the parent of our

affairs…”

Frank Herbert, Dune’s author, was intentional about his novel being a backdrop against

which issues of leadership might be examined. DiTomasso says:

There is in Dune an explicit and conscious engagement with political issues. Herbert uses

the commonplace science fiction trope of a galactic empire as the means to a serious

analysis of some of the central questions of political theory: What is the legitimate

purpose of government? What is the proper relationship between rulers and those they


govern? What is the relationship between the means to power and the ends of power?

(DiTomasso 1992)

In examining these questions and the issue of supernatural ability, it is instructive first to

examine theories of leadership, identifying those which seem to be relevant to Paul’s journey in

Dune from gifted child to prophet-leader of the Fremen. Another important issue is what some

theories of the supernatural are, in particular what the function of supernatural belief might be in

cultural interactions and social cohesion. Finally, a viable alternative explanation for Paul’s

unusual abilities will be proposed.

Theories of Leadership and Leadership Styles

Early theories of leadership focused heavily on the traits found in effective leaders, in the

belief that if these traits could be identified in successful leaders, then they could be taught to

others who aspired to leadership. It became apparent that while personality did play a role in

differentiating leaders from followers and successful leaders from ineffective leaders, it was a

combination of traits rather than a single trait that was important (Stogdill 1974). The table

below shows the skills identified by Stogdill as important to leadership.

Traits

Skills

Adaptable to situations

Alert to social environment

Ambitious and achievement-orientated

Assertive

Cooperative

Decisive

Dependable

Dominant (desire to influence others)

Energetic (high activity level)

Persistent

Self-confident

Tolerant of stress

Willing to assume responsibility

Clever (intelligent)

Conceptually skilled

Creative

Diplomatic and tactful

Fluent in speaking

Knowledgeable about group task

Organized (administrative ability)

Persuasive

Socially skilled

Figure 1: Key Leadership Skills and Traits (Stogdill 1974)


Paul demonstrates many of these traits. His cleverness and aptitude for learning have

already been noted. He possesses a high degree of insight about social situations, perhaps

because his Bene Gesserit training included hyperawareness about small details in his

environment, such that he can anticipate the actions and emotions of others. He rapidly reaches

an understanding of how to adapt to the ways of the Fremen and be accepted as one of them. He

is also very persuasive in speech, both in his choice of words, and also by using the Voice, a

vocal modulation technique that can influence others’ behavior. He is assertive from a young

age, having no difficulty in speaking up to the Reverend Mother even at the age of fifteen.

Although trait theory still influences leadership thinking, it eventually lost ground to

behavioral theories of leadership. A classic work in this field was McGregor’s Theory X and

Theory Y. McGregor theorized that there were two views of human nature: Theory X, which

held that people were inherently work-avoiding, and needed constant oversight to produce labor;

and Theory Y, which held that people have intrinsic motivation for tasks that they believe in the

value of and are engaged in and that the role of leadership is to engage commitment from others

(McGregor 1957).

Paul may be thought of as a case study of a person who is intelligent and educated above

others in his society, but still desires to resist Theory X-style elitist ideals of power. Some of his

egalitarian and democratic impulses have been inherited from his father. Duke Leto, for

instance, expresses concern for the safety of the spice miners under his command and feels

weariness for the perpetual war that is a part of his feudalistic culture: “The Duke felt in this

moment that his own dearest dream was to end all class distinctions and never again think of

deadly order” (Herbert 1965.) Like his father, Paul is thrust into a political situation that

demands strong leadership and struggles against his instinct to behave more democratically.


Another behavioral theory of leadership is Blake and Mouton’s behavioral grid. In this

model, concern for productivity and concern for people are the two sides of the grid. The ideal

form of leadership is when concern for both are high, resulting in Team Management. However

this ideal is not always possible. Some personnel may not have the maturity, skills, or initiative

to be successful team members. Alternatively, process and a positive environment may be more

important to an organization than productivity alone. In practice, in many well-functioning

organizations, both concern for people and concern for production are moderately important and

balanced, resulting in “Organization Man” management.

Figure 2: Blake and Mouton’s managerial grid. (in Bolden 2003)

The faufreluches system that Paul lives in is highly concerned with production, in

particular the production of Spice, which in addition to being a longevity enhancer also is

necessary to the Guild for space travel. People must sublimate their own wishes and desires to

the demands of Spice production and the goal of social stability. This results in the relations

between people being defined solely by social station and role, and transgressions against social


mores are punished severely; personal relationships thus lack authenticity and spontaneity.

Paul’s candor and ability to see through social artifice are thus an appealing trait to others in his

repressive society.

Contingency theory models of leadership, on the other hand, posit that it is not neither

solely the innate traits of the leader, nor the demands of the organizational environment, but

rather the matching of the person with the organization or the situation that makes for ideal

leadership scenarios. “The contingency model…suggests that certain leadership styles are more

effective in certain situations” (Denhardt, Denhardt, and Aristigueta 2009, 178). The arc of the

Dune story seems to be that Paul is the right person at the right time to lead the Fremen

revolution against the Harkonnens and the Empire. His birth as a son to a member of the Bene

Gesserit and a Duke whose house is perceived as a viable threat to the throne of the Emperor, his

possession of unique perceptive abilities, his training in the arcanum of many different peoples

of Dune that allows him to both integrate with another culture and impress them with combat

techniques and other skills they are unfamiliar with, and perhaps most of all his innate leadership

ability and ability to intuitively “read” people and situations mark him as distinctive to many

who meet him. In particular, the Bene Gesserit and the Fremen people foresee him as fulfilling

their prophecies. Paul does not discourage or contradict these beliefs, being politically savvy

enough to realize that his survival depends on his being perceived as having value to his adopted

people so that they will accept him.

There are several different types of power that leaders can possess, and many effective

leaders possess several of them in combination. Types of power include reward power, in which

the leader can confer benefits to followers for good service; coercive power, in which leaders can

punish or otherwise harm follower who do not perform assigned tasks; legitimate power, which


is conferred by formal organizational structure and hierarchy. Individuals may also possess

referent power, by virtue of others’ desire to identify with them or with the group they represent,

or expert power, by virtue of their knowledge or skills (French and Raven 2011). Paul has little

power to reward his followers, coming to them as he does without wealth or resources. It is

possible that he can coerce them, since they fear his fighting skills and use of Bene Gesserit mind

control techniques, but he is certainly in no position as a single person to exert such control over

a whole community if they do not acknowledge his authority. Towards the end of the novel,

Paul assumes legitimate power, when he claims his right to be recognized as successor to the title

of Duke. However, Paul’s main sources of power in the Fremen community are expert power

and referent power. Paul has expert power because of his knowledge of Bene Gesserit weirding

ways and advanced weaponry techniques that he learned from the warmasters Gurney Halleck

and Duncan Idaho. He also has referent power, because the Fremen recognize his own goals of

overthrowing the Harkonnens and the Empire as their own and are willing to work within his

leadership to achieve them. They see him as the fulfillment of their ancestral prophecy and thus

“one of their own” that they can identify with and take pride in.

Leaders have also been distinguished as transactional versus transformational leaders

(Bass 1985; Burns 1978). Transactional leaders are those who manage by punishing or

rewarding good behavior in subordinates, seeking to maintain the status quo. This is the

traditional model of leadership and also the one most frequently seen in Dune, for this feudalistic

society may certainly be said to “be preoccupied with power and position” and favor leadership

which “focuses on tactical issues.” The faufreluches system requires individuals to trade

personal freedoms and loyalties for protection; thus leaders have little interest in how those who

serve them feel about their work or their place in life, and no responsibility to motivate or engage


them. Followers acquiesce to leadership or they suffer the consequences, which can be harsh. In

the case of the deranged Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, not even compliance can protect one from

arbitrary punishments meant to express dominance and inspire fear. The Padishah Emperor

likewise rules through fear and the capricious granting of favors. The Dune nobility are obsessed

with strategizing for power and their place in the rigid hierarchy of the Dune universe.

Transformational leaders, on the other hand, are not merely dependent on followers’

current desires, but actively engage with followers to shape their desires and raise their

awareness. Instead of just power, they seek moral authority to shape change, and are thus able to

get followers to sacrifice their own narrow interests for the good of the group or for an ideal

(Denhardt, Denhardt, and Aristigueta 2009).

Transactional Leadership Transformational Leadership

Builds on man’s need to get a job done and

make a living

Is preoccupied with power and position,

politics and perks

Is mired in daily affairs

Is short-term and hard data orientated

Focuses on tactical issues

Relies on human relations to lubricate

human interactions

Follows and fulfils role expectations by

striving to work effectively within current

systems

Supports structures and systems that reinforce the bottom line, maximize

efficiency, and guarantee short-term profits

Builds on a man’s need for meaning

Is preoccupied with purposes and values, morals, and ethics

Transcends daily affairs

Is orientated toward long-term goals without compromising human values and

principles

Focuses more on missions and strategies

Releases human potential – identifying and developing new talent

Designs and redesigns jobs to make them meaningful and challenging

Aligns internal structures and systems to reinforce overarching values and goals

Figure 3: Transactional vs. Transformational Leadership (Covey 1992)

Paul’s orientation towards leadership tends more towards the transformational model. He

is not comfortable that he should merely be followed because he is the heir to the Duke’s title or

the putative Kwisatz Haderach, but makes the case for his own leadership based on the good of

all Fremen. He also recognizes the value of change, focusing on “long-term goals” and


“missions and strategies” (Covey 1992), rather than the goal of short-term stability regardless of

the resultant conditions of inequity and injustice that have guided faufreluches philosophy:

Other factions, such as the Imperium, the Bene Gesserit, and the Spacing Guild, try to

resist the constant flux of the universe and create a safe and predictable future for

themselves – and this results in their ruin. Paul prevails because he understands the

currents of both history and the incipient future and learns to live in accord with them

while keeping his freedom intact (Mullins 2012)

Paul also comes from a family that values social connectedness and believes in the inherent

worth of people:

Friendship and family loyalties are also central in Dune. Valuing human life is

established early in the novel as the basis for morality, when Kynes finds himself

reassessing Leto in light of his actions at the spice field: “this Duke was concerned more

over the men than he was over the spice”; against his own will he admits “I like this

duke.” (List 2009, 43)

The Fremen and Bene Gesserit seem to share this orientation, as both Stilgar and Jessica speak

harshly to Paul after he kills Jamis in duel, so that he will not come to see glory in the loss of

human life, and Paul himself expresses regret over the fact of Jamis’ death.

Perhaps a more important reason why Paul’s leadership must be considered

transformational rather than transactional is that, coming to the Fremen as a powerless, penniless

refugee, Paul does not have the ability to offer incentives or threaten punishments to the Fremen

people. What he offers them instead, because of their belief in his fulfillment of prophecy, is the

possibility of change. To people who are oppressed and economically exploited, living


underground in difficult and dangerous circumstances, the possibility of success in a struggle for

freedom and self-determination proves the greatest motivator.

Charismatic leadership is a specific type of transformational leadership in which the

leader’s personal attributes are highly appealing to followers and inspire tremendous personal

loyalty and commitment to mission. Schultz and Schultz state that “Charismatic leaders have a

broad knowledge of their field, a self-promoting personality, a high energy level, and a

willingness to take risks and use unconventional strategies” (Schultz and Schultz 1998, 212).

Sandberg and Moreman note that Weber, one of the first to discuss the role of charisma as an

important trait in organization leaders, actually defined it in supernatural terms (2011). They

conclude that “Charismatic leaders…invite their followers to be part of a group and give them a

sense of belonging and meaning in life…Their personal attributes…allow them to gain non-

rational authority, which presents itself as a mystery to followers and researchers alike”

(Sandberg and Moreman 2011, 239). They also note that two other aspects of charismatic

leadership are that it frequently requires a crisis in order to emerge, and that it is “founded within

the relationship between leader and follower” and thus characterized by the follower’s

abrogation of personal responsibility for moral choices in deference to leader (Sandberg and

Moreman 2011, 240). Galvin, Balkundi, and Waldman have also noted the role of followers in

surrogate behavior, who promote and defend the leader to distant followers and model

appropriate follower behavior (2010).

Charismatic leadership is a common style of religious leaders as well as heroic leaders.

As the purported prophet of the Fremen legend, Paul assumes moral authority for the Fremen

tribe. They are dazzled by his personal magnetism, his privileged knowledge of Bene Gesserit

and Mentat lore, and his martial arts prowess, as well his supreme self-confidence given his


youth. His apparent fulfillment of their ancient prophecy gives them purpose and meaning and

the willingness to undertake the risky enterprise of revolution against the empire.

However, Chasteen argues that charismatic leadership alone is not enough to produce

organizational change. He points to a triumvirate of related skills which he calls the leadership

vector, which all must be present in varying degrees to create a critical mass of leadership

momentum for change. This vector includes charismatic leadership, but also instrumental

leadership, which includes the ability to engage others through one’s own skills and intelligence,

and political connections, which includes the ability to build strong relationships and garner

attention from others in power (Chasteen 2010).

Figure 4: Chasteen’s Leadership Vector (2010)

Paul demonstrates instrumental leadership in addition to charismatic leadership by his ability to

gain leverage among the Fremen by the use of his skills with weaponry and his apparent powers

of prescience and Bene Gesserit mind control techniques. He demonstrates mastery of the use of

political connections by such actions as making Stilgar his second in command and letting him

retina leadership over the Fremen through Paul’s decree, thus allowing the Fremen leader to save

face and making him a valuable and trusted ally.


It is important to note that despite his sensitivity to social situations and injustices and

resistance to the overbearing rule of the Empire, and his ability to inspire others with his vision,

Paul is essentially a product of the faufreluches system: his leadership is in the authoritarian, not

democratic, tradition. It is apparent that he, like Duke Leto before him, finds elements of

authoritarian leadership distasteful; however, the social milieu in which he finds himself, as well

as the conditions of war, demand a strong leader who stands apart from the group in decision

making. Paul asserts himself as Duke over the Fremen people, arguing that only with his

leadership can they defeat the Harkonnen, due to his superior fighting and strategic skills. As is

typical of authoritarian leaders, Paul keeps his strategies close to his vest, revealing his plans

only when the time comes to execute them. Korten has hypothesized that conditions of high

goal-structure and high stress, such as must have existed among the Fremen, can move groups

towards more authoritarian styles of leadership (Korten 1962).

Theories of the supernatural

Think you of the fact that a deaf person cannot hear. Then, what deafness may we not all

possess? What senses do we lack that we cannot see and cannot hear another world all

around us? (Herbert 1965)

A number of theories have been proposed for the persistence of supernatural beliefs in

human societies, among them cognitive biases and neurobiological processes. One common

cognitive explanation for supernatural belief is confirmation bias. Events that confirm false

hypotheses tend to have more saliency to people than to events that disprove them. Another

common cognitive explanation is the availability heuristic, in which sensational examples may

come to mind when people consider confirmatory or refutative evidence they may possess. The

Forer effect, in which people apply a general description that could apply to many situations to a


specific one, is another cognitive bias that is frequently the cause of supernatural beliefs (Schick

and Vaughan 2010). For example, the ancient prophecies about the Fremen prophet and the

Kwisatz Haderach were assumed to apply to Paul, even though such prophecies were so vague

they probably could have applied to many other people or situations. Svedholm, Lindemann,

and Lipsanen (2010) have also observed that “confusions originating in intuitive psychology are

good predictors of beliefs in the purpose of events and other paranormal beliefs.” Thus,

mistaken beliefs about the natural world, such as that inanimate objects have intentions, or that

biological or physical forces such as energy are living or mental entities, predispose people to

have supernatural beliefs about the purpose of events.

Palmer et al. (2010) also offer a hypothesis for supernatural belief from the field of

anthropology. They propose that belief in magical phenomena is a form of social

communication that promotes social relationships and group cooperation:

We suggest that all forms of religious behavior involve persons communicating

acceptance of a supernatural claim and that this act communicates a willingness to accept

nonskeptically the influence of the person making such a claim. Thus, religious behavior

communicates a willingness to cooperate with the claim maker and others who accept his

or her influence. (Palmer et al. 2010, 317)

Furthermore, rejection of a claim of supernatural action has social ramifications that go beyond

the specific claim or claimant at issue: “To reject, deny, or ignore a traditional supernatural

claim is to reject not only the person making it but also one’s ancestors—the source of one’s

existence, one’s traditions, and one’s kin” (Palmer et al. 2010, 333).

One can readily see how this applies to the Fremen’s acceptance of Paul as the prophet of

their legends. By accepting Paul as possessed of supernatural abilities, they not only signal their


willingness to accept his authority but additionally they reinforce their own ancestral cultural

beliefs and group cohesion. Their acceptance of his supernatural claim is a way of

communicating their commitment to the tribal group and intention to engage in cooperative

social action.

Cognitive anthropologists Tofalvy and Viciana (2009) describe supernatural beliefs and

the belief in supernatural entities, such as prophets, as methods of social control which

discourage dissent, promoting rapid consensus rather than deliberative decision-making:

Social behavior in most human societies is characterized by the following of moral rules

explicitly justified by religious belief systems. Supernatural entities…may be seen as a

form of “conversation stoppers,” considerations that can be dropped into a moral decision

process in order to prevent endlessly reconsidering and endlessly asking for further

justification. (Tofalvy and Viciana 2009, 230)

In other words, supernatural entities may end debate over moral ends and means by a

phenomenon called “moral dumbfounding” (Sneddon 2007). Moral dumbfounding occurs when

someone expresses a strongly held conviction, but then cannot support it with any further

evidence (Sneddon 2007). Tofalvy and Viciana posit that such “conversation stoppers” may be

socially necessary when the costs of cooperation are high for the individual but the collective

costs to the group of indecision are even higher. In Dune, the question of whether Paul is the

prophet of legend, which is essentially a question of faith, serves to deflect attention away from

issues of political strategy, the legitimacy of his claim to leadership, and the morality of his

decisions and actions, and shifts the attention of the Fremen towards practical matters of

revolution and military strategy.


The acceptance of supernatural claims is also believed to be dependent on psychological

factors such as locus of control and inhibition. Randall and Desrosiers (1980) have demonstrated

that regardless of religious tradition, those with an external locus of control are more likely to

accept supernatural explanations. Additionally, Lindemann, Reiki and Hood (2011) found that

lower levels of inhibition are related to acceptance of supernatural explanations. While locus

and control and inhibition are frequently thought of as fixed personality traits, in fact both can be

influenced by events and situations. Hood has proposed that stress can weaken inhibition and

make individuals more likely to accept non-rational ideas, such as the paranormal or superstition

(2009). The oppressed Fremen people, living with foreign occupation and forced labor, may be

assumed to have been under this kind of stress, predisposing them to believe in supernatural

explanations for Paul’s unusual abilities.

An Alternative Explanation for Supernatural Events: Intuition

In general, supernatural theories of events may be discounted if a plausible alternative

rational explanation exists. A plausible alternative explanation for Paul’s seeming-prescience

exists in research about the cognitive phenomena of intuition. Schick and Vaughan note:

Intuition perceived as a kind of sixth sense like ESP cannot be regarded as a source of

knowledge…Intuition as a type of heightened sensory perception, however, has been

shown to be actual. (Schick and Vaughan 2011, 90)

Among the forms of Bene Gesserit training that Paul received were hyperawareness and

Truthsay. Bene Gesserit were trained to tell by very subtle cues, for example, a person’s body

language and their physiological state, whether they were telling the truth or not. Like Sherlock

Holmes in Doyle’s novels, they could also detect environmental cues that others could not.

Others not trained in such techniques might easily believe that such knowledge was supernatural.


Leiberman has hypothesized a social cognition model of human intuition in which

parallel processes occur at the social, cognitive, and neural level (2000). Because people must

make very rapid evaluations of social situations in order to quickly generate an appropriate

response, such processes become nonverbally encoded and automatic. Lieberman believes this

occurs through a process of implicit learning, learning that happens without the person’s

awareness or conscious intention. Implicit learning is likely a nonverbally coded form of

learning, although it may occur simultaneously with verbal and explicit learning tasks.

Leiberman further posits that the brain region involved in this process is the basal ganglia, a set

of structures situated at the base of the forebrain that is believed to be involved in habitual

behaviors and the selection and planning of motor responses, as it is linked to both the cerebral

cortex and motor centers.

Figure 5: Intuition at the social, cognitive, and neural levels (Leiberman 2000)


Such a mechanism might explain how intuitive social and environmental knowledge and

responses could occur without conscious awareness of the individual who performs and

perceives them, and thus be attributed to supernatural causes like prescience.

Brain imaging studies show that intuitive tasks activate heterogeneous and diffuse brain

regions, rather than being more specifically localized as for explicit tasks. This suggests that the

semantic networks underlying intuition may be quite widespread, as would be expected with

basal ganglion mediation, and would be another reason why such processes may not occur at the

conscious level (Ilg, et al., 2007). Cognitive psychology experiments have also demonstrated

that intuitive judgments may be made under response deadlines that do not allow time for

conscious deliberation and have indicated that a possible cognitive mechanism for such “gestalt”

judgments may be the unconscious activation by subtle or incomplete environmental cues of

semantic representations in memory (Bolte and Goschke 2005; Bolte and Goschke, 2008).

Psychologists Betsch and Glockner have observed in studying intuition that “extensive

consideration of multiple pieces of information can happen in an astoundingly narrow time

frame,” and point out that intuition may be a phenomenon that poses an exception to bounded

rationality’s supposition that individuals use simple rules of thumb rather than complicated

maximizing strategies, because intuition research “demonstrate[s] that individuals can integrate

multiple pieces of encoded information very quickly and even under cognitive constraints”

(2010, 286).

Furthermore, just as Paul has several types of different abilities that seem remarkable,

such as understanding what people are thinking and feeling, being able to anticipate his enemies’

strategies, and being able to predict future events, Hogarth notes that there are different types of

intuition, such as intuition derived from cultural capital, backward or forward-looking intuitions


(i.e., diagnoses and predictions), or problem-solving intuitions that involve pattern recognition

(2010). Hogarth also believes that intuition is a learned activity, even though “for the most part,

the learning processes involved in the honing of our intuitions escape conscious attention” (2010,

343). If this is true, it is not unlikely that Paul’s Bene Gesserit training could have honed his

intuitive capabilities without his knowing or recognizing it.

Interestingly, one highly rationalist setting where intuition in decision-making has been

frequently studied is healthcare decision making. As Easen and Wilkinson observe, “experts”

are often able to make rapid decisions about diagnoses that do not appear to engage rational

processes, because of their apparent effortlessness. In such cases, “intuition” based on extensive

experience has been cited as a possible explanation:

We argue that intuition may be understood as an irrational process that has a rational

basis. Intuitive thinking has certain essential features and involves the use of a sound,

rational, relevant knowledge base in situations that, through experience, are so familiar

that the person has learned how to recognize and act on appropriate patterns. (Eason and

Wilcoxon 1996, 667)

Thus, a number of empirically-based disciplines have accepted intuition as a phenomenon with a

probable rational mechanism whereby individuals can possess knowledge without an awareness

of how they arrived at it. Paul’s abilities therefore may be better explained by scientific theories

of expert intuition, augmented by training in hyperawareness, than by supernatural prescience.

Intuition and Leadership

Intuition has also been studied in the context of leadership and decision making. Dane

and Pratt have noted that frequently in organizational decision making one must choose between

speed and accuracy, which means that managers are always interested in methodologies that will


maximize “successfully completing tasks that involve high complexity and short time horizons.”

(2007, 33). They suggest, as some CEO’s have, that expert intuition is what separates middle

managers, who rely on hard data and analysis, from top-level executives, who must frequently

make decisions on the basis of professional judgment in the face of ambiguous data or

information. Likewise, Paul’s privileged access to intuitive knowledge in uncertain times helps

to mark him as a leader among the Fremen.

Hodgkinson et al. (2009) make several other observations about intuition in organizations

that are salient to the unusual skills of Paul Muad’Dib. They note that decision makers

frequently exercise the use of both intuitive and rational processes in tandem. An intuitive

“hunch” may be verified through a more thorough conscious analysis of the problem. Despite

his belief in his own prescience, Paul does not stop also relying on his formidable intelligence

and education to analyze and strategize, as well as to continue to learn about the ways of the

Fremen. It is worth pointing out that there is agreement that creating intuitive leaders requires

training and practice,

…a blending of conceptual/analytical knowledge, probably best gained in the classroom,

with experiential knowledge, gained through years of exposure to challenging

problems…Deliberate practice, accompanied by candid but constructive, feedback is the

order of the day. (Hodgkinson et al., 2009, 287)

It may have been true then that Paul was destined to become a leader of the Fremen, but this was

likely by virtue of his excellent and broad education making him uniquely suited for the job of

leadership in a time of tough choices rather than because of paranormal abilities.


Hodgkinson et al. have additionally noted that a potential problem with intuition in

decision making is that it may be difficult for leaders to justify and defend intuitive decisions,

since they are based on unconscious thought processes rather than analysis:

While language plays a pivotal role in articulating analytical cognition, it inevitably falls

short in attempts to articulate intuitive and other forms of non-conscious cognition…The

use of stories and metaphors provides a potentially powerful means by which intuitions

can be articulated to develop a shared understanding of the situation. (Hodgkinson et al.,

2007)

In this way a narrative of prophecy, visions, and prescience becomes a mechanism for Paul and

the community he leads to understand the basis of his intuitive knowledge and the decisions it

informs, as well as the fulfillment of prophecy serving as a source of group pride which

promotes commitment to a shared cause.

Conclusion

Thus, the apparently supernatural talents of Paul in the novel Dune may be ascribed to

rational sources. Paul was, as noted, a talented leader who possessed a keen understanding of

political and social situations and training in hyperawareness of environmental cues. It is likely,

therefore, that he was able to anticipate both situations and the actions of the people around him

through an unusual level of perception about his surroundings, and that his intuitive processing

of social cues may have actually been in many cases unconscious and automatic, such that even

he himself believed such knowledge to be supernatural. Additionally, because belief in his

supernatural powers was advantageous both to Paul’s authority as a leader and the need to make

rapid decisions in the face of ambiguity and crisis, as well as to the social cohesion and unity of


purpose of the Fremen tribe, this seemingly irrational belief was perpetuated for its political

usefulness in furthering the aim of revolution against the Harkonnens and the Empire.


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