Use
Herbert notes in Children of Dune that the geriatric properties of melange had been "first noted by Yanshuph Ashkoko, royal chemist in reign of Shakkad the Wise." By the events of Dune, the spice is used all over the universe and is a sign of wealth; Duke Leto Atreides notes that of every valuable commodity known to mankind, "all fades before melange. A handful of spice will buy a home on Tupile." Due to the rarity and value of melange and its necessity as a catalyst for interstellar travel, the Padishah Emperor's power at the outset of Dune is secured by his control of Arrakis, which puts him on equal footing with both the assembly of noble families called the Landsraad and the Spacing Guild, which monopolizes interstellar travel. Seizing control of the planet, Paul Atreides intensifies this form of hydraulic despotism by asserting control over both the Landsraad and Spacing Guild, as well as other factions in the universe.
| “ | Not without reason was the spice often called "the secret coinage." Without melange, the Spacing Guild's heighliners could not move. Melange precipitated the "navigation trance" by which a translight pathway could be "seen" before it was traveled. Without melange and its amplification of the human immunogenic system, life expectancy for the very rich degenerated by a factor of at least four. Even the vast middle class of the Imperium ate diluted melange in small sprinklings with at least one meal a day. | ” |
| — Alia Atreides, Children of Dune |
Referred to as "the spice," melange can be mixed with food, and it is used to make beverages such as "spice coffee," "spice beer," and "spice liquor". Melange is in fact a drug in the clinical sense, and daily use can extend human life spans by hundreds of years. In larger quantities it possesses intense psychotropic effects, and is used as a powerful entheogen by both the Bene Gesserit and Fremen to initiate clairvoyant and precognitive trances, access genetic memory and heighten other abilities. But melange is highly addictive, and withdrawal means certain death; Paul Atreides notes in Dune that the spice is "A poison — so subtle, so insidious . . . so irreversible. It wont even kill you unless you stop taking it."
Read more about this topic: Melange (fictional Drug)
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