Anyone who has read Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction novel Dune will have pondered on the inspiration for the book’s fictional spice melange—supposedly the most valuable commodity in the universe. This naturally occurring drug can only be found on the planet Arrakis. The spice is much sought after as it can give users heightened awareness, longevity and the ability to see into the future. Melange is also the source of power for the Spacing Guild’s spacecrafts called “heighliners”—the drug allowing users to safely steer the heighliner during a “navigation trance.” It’s a useful drug.
The downside? The spice leads to addiction, turning the users eyes a luminous blue.
Withdrawal can be fatal.
At the time of publication in 1965, many thought Herbert was making reference to LSD—something director Alejandro Jodorowsky considered when he planned to film the book back in the 1970s, when he claimed his movie:
...would give the people who took LSD at that time the hallucinations that you get with that drug, but without hallucinating.
In fact, Herbert was making a reference to psychedelics in particular his own predilection
for
magic mushrooms.
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