Ghola

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A Ghola is a creature in the fictional Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. Gholas are created using a technological process known only to the Bene Tleilaxu.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Gholas are essentially clones grown in axlotl tanks from genetic material retrieved from the cells of a deceased subject. (The distiction between gholas and clones is made several times throughout the novels.) In the period of Dune, gholas are merely physical copies, but at the end of Dune Messiah, the ghola of Duncan Idaho recovers the memories of the original, essentially becoming a reincarnation of Idaho. An important feature of the Dune universe is 'genetic memory': the ability to recover the memories and egos of one's ancestors. The ghola of Duncan Idaho (given the name 'Hayt' by the Tleilaxu) is programed to kill Paul Atreides under post-hypnotic suggestion. But the stress of attempting to kill someone who was deeply loved in the ghola's previous incarnation breaks the mental barrier between the ghola's consciousness and the life memories of the original (though not between the subject and his ancestors).

This discovery has tremendous consequences. The Tleilaxu masters, using the technology of axlotl tanks and the ability of a ghola to recover its memories, grant themselves effective immortality: every master is "recreated" upon his death, and recovers his genetic memories, accumulating many generations of knowledge and experience, and permitting planning on a timespan of millennia.

In God Emperor of Dune, Leto II has, as constant companions, a series of Duncan Idaho gholas with restored memories of the original Idaho (but not the memories of the previous ghola incarnations).

In Heretics of Dune, the Bene Gesserit become the consumers of Duncan Idaho gholas; significantly, when Idaho recovers his memories, he recovers the memories of all his ghola incarnations, apparently even including previous gholas from whom no cells could be recovered. This suggests a metaphysical commitment that is never explored in the novels.es:Gholas fr:Ghola

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