Mysteries of the PAIN BOX Explored | Dune Lore Explained

An explanation of the mysterious Pain Box device, what its purpose is and how it works. At its heart, Frank Herbert’s Dune is a story of power, religion, ecology, and human nature. One particularly intriguing element of this saga is the "box of pain," a seemingly simple device that holds a wealth of symbolism and insight into the nature of humanity.
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[@NerdCookies]

Thank you for watching this video! If you enjoy my content, please consider supporting me on Patreon: www.patreon.com/nerdcookies

[@klyanadkmorr]

WHAT'S IN THE BOX!!! (SE7EN)

[@jamesmaples1255]

People have often asked me why Dune is my favorite novel. This. This is why. So much depth and insight. Frank's universe is so rich, even an imatimate object, used only once, could have its own spinoff story.

[@benjaminchristensen5678]

I feel the same way the massive universe of dune is so breathtaking and beautiful with so many rich and unique characters freighting villains and heroes that are great as well as flawed it’s such a rich tapestry of what it means to be human

[@christinemusselman5499]

Exactly right. Dune is a masterpiece!

[@smoore6461]

No book series, aside from.Tolkiens "Lord of the Rings" has as much depth, life, and detail, in my opinion. This is just one moment in the series, but it tells you so much about the characters involved. From Paul and Revernd Mother Mohiem to the lady Jessica as she stands outside the door thinking of her own death should Paul fail the test. I think the pain box was aveolutly a tool that foreshadowed the trials that were to come for Paul. Then, think of how horrible the Golden Path was for Leto. If after all that he went through, he STILL couldn't take the step onto the path that Leto took. It's that kind of thread in the series I love so much!!

[@sid2112]

My buddy and I have this joke. I keep my weed in this ornate box. When he wants to roll a joint, I say "put your hand in the box" to which he replies "what's in the box? I say with sinister overtones.... "weed".

[@nfboogaard]

Hillarious 😂

[@Adam-xr6fj]

weed

[@colormedubious4747]

2021 reply: emotive facial expressions requiring no words be spoken. 1984 reply: "The WEED!!!"

[@paulh2468]

Historians discovered the earliest form of the box of pain was called a cubicle. It was one of many cubicles arranged into a “farm”. Human debt slaves toiled every day in their cubicle of pain, mainly getting yelled at by their supervisors and “customers”. This occurred via an early form of electronic distrans called a “telephone”. Most slaves became blind from staring endlessly at a computer screen. This was one of the causes of the Butlerian Jihad.

[@carolynallisee2463]

This idea of nerve induction has always intrigued me. As a type II diabetic, I've developed neuropathy over the years, and discovered that it doesn't just cause loss of sensation, though this is what is tested for during diabetes control reviews. I also get a lot of different sensations in all areas of my body, including burning sensations and acute and severe pain. Whilst this is the result of nerve damage, just how much work would be needed to create a device that could replicate the symptoms without also causing damage, I wonder?

[@sakajungle]

Directed Energy Weapons are real, indeed. Note that high-energy microwave radiation can cause real damage to personel, depending the intensity and time of exposure.

[@danelamoreaux4166]

Fear is the mind killer. Thanks for another awesome video to you and your team.

[@Jared_Wignall]

You’re Dune videos are always interesting. Keep up the great work and have a great day Elaine!

[@c.ladimore1237]

think the flesh-burning scene in fight club was inspired by the pain box? very similar. embrace the pain, don't ignore it, and you will reveal inner truths

[@Agamon]

NICE! Thank you so much. Love your Dune lore content :)

[@NerdCookies]

Thanks for your support @Agamon!

[@shanenolan5625]

Thanks Elaine. I saw a device worn like a wrists watch, that is used for people suffering from parkinsons disease, it helps some the hand shakes. Some pulse that effects the nerves, ( counters the nerve malfunction)

[@kdog3908]

The pain box reminds me of a few real life episodes where people have managed to cut off body parts in pursuit of escaping life threatening situations. One of which was a man who's arm got caught in the machinery of his farm equipment. The stalling of the machinery caused by his trapped arm subsequently caused the machine to catch fire. To escape the surely fatal situation he first broke both bones in his forearm. Then, he took out his knife and removed all of the muscles, tendons, fascia etc surrounding the breaks in the bones. Thereby freeing most of his arm from the part that was trapped in the burning machinery. He basically performed a field amputation upon himself. Similar to the sequence in the novel, the Reverend Mother tells how an animal will gnaw off it's own limb to escape a trap but a human can endure the pain and suffering in order to, in turn, trap the hunter to remove the possibility of further traps being laid for fellow humans. In both real life and in the novel, the human ability to override instinct with reason is what separates humans from animals. The Gom Jabbar. 'the high handed enemy' . The ultimate 'What would you do when faced with death?' test. Basically, can you make the most out of impending doom. The ultimate test of selflessness. The ultimate test of humanity.

[@Robert_Douglass]

Very well explained. You've managed to distill the essence of this topic in very understandable terms. Crisis and observation. Testing to the limits, with no margin for error. If the candidate fails, then the Reverend Mother absolutely must kill them, then and there.

[@vDREEGONv]

I think it's more that it's animal instincts to survive but we humans are much more personal creatures that could choose a less optimal solution in a threatening situation out of fear. In that way I think The Box is not a test of humanity but rather if you can overcome your humanity, and this is important because humanity makes us stronger than other creatures in some areas while making us much weaker in others like when our fear takes over.

[@GamerplayerWT]

“You have more than one birthright, boy.” Kinda says it all.

[@circleofowls]

That was one of the most important lines in the movie, IMHO.

[@jackuber7358]

Always a pleasure to receive your insights into the deeper meanings behind this and other similar plot elements.

[@shanenolan5625]

There are some who would pay a pretty penny for the secret of this box . ( reverend mother mohiam)

[@sgt.grinch3299]

Great, another Dune video just in time for lunch. Thank you Elaine.

[@NerdCookies]

Thanks for the support, Grinch :)

[@theturquoisedream9244]

Break time Dune Cookies!!! Yayyy!🤩🤩🤩

[@Davepool-hs7vr]

The box of pain was such a great scene in the 1984 and 2021 versions of Dune

[@Concreteowl]

Less so in Phantasm but the Bene Gesserit were still in their infancy in the 1980s.

[@agreyreb]

People with stimulators for pain control usually have their own personal box of pain. If it gets turned some how, the pain rushes in. Mine literally is sending a constant current into my spinal cord in an attempt to "short out" the constant foot/ankle pain. Technically that's a box of pain. Direct nerve stimulation. The joys of modern technology.

[@JamesLaserpimpWalsh]

Yes, that would save a lot of time to find out how much will power and gumption a person has. I can see the truth of it he said as I recall. I'm still hyped for part two. I watched Porko Rosso by the way. Great flick, thanks for the recommendation. Now that Kennedy is out of the picture at Lucasfilm I might give Ahsoka a fair go. I really enjoyed the Clone Wars and Rebels cartoons, so I think her character has earned a live action show. Anyway thanks for the vid.

[@laurasaxon694]

"I must not fear Fear is the mind-killer Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration I will face my fear I will permit it to pass over me and through me And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." Classic Bene Gessirit Litany Against Fear as used in the Dune Novels and brought back in the 2021 reboot movie.

[@AlecMuller]

I've always wondered what percentage of people make it through the test alive. I assumed failure always resulted in death, but based on this video, I can imagine the test-giver recognizing the test taker was about to fail and backing off (letting them fail, but survive). Do they tell us how many make it through alive?

[@kineticstar]

For some reason the title made me remembered "I'm a man in a box. Buried in my PAIN."

[@renuvatio9986]

The Pain box is to me is symbol of real life hardships and pain we face through our lives and how we are going to handle it. Loved how they explained there is no physical damage I have seen thing like this in many books and movies not exactly the same but in general. Love the breakdown... Oh off topic just watched Dune part 1 again does anyone else think the ships on dune when Rabban is standing looking at the spice containers in the beginning look like the Garthim from the dark crystal

[@nfboogaard]

Dune is the novel that keeps giving... fascinating videos by Nerd Cookies 💜👽✌🏼

[@RodneyGraves]

Herbert was brilliant in telling us what while leaving us to puzzle over how...

[@permeus2nd]

My nervous system is so messed up it probably wouldn’t even work on me.

[@lel7841]

Yeah right there with you. I have nerve damage in every limb and (luckily) small sections of my spinal cord which can cause random affects. Pain is my shadow, always with me, and can be small pr large depending on other inputs. The other problems are mostly just annoying

[@RubyMarkLindMilly]

Love this channel ❤️ excellent stuff as always 👍

[@kronos9860]

Better or worse than the Boo Box?

[@shanenolan5625]

Apparently, the water of life is worse. ( the agony) a reverend mother gets shot and loses her legs and said the pain was terrible, but not as bad as ( the agony) the spice essence poison.

[@demariomontague27]

Thanks for the insightful analysis, also I'm partial to your classic music opening! Great stuff...cheers!!!

[@sorokahdeen]

Super nice vid, as always and one that I imagine must have been difficult to make. The test is so much and so little in the novel-at the same time, trivial in that it appears exactly once in Dune's nine-hundred pages, while creating one of the best "hooks" ever to be used in written science fiction. Contrary to the instinct to elevate the things that we like and the people who produce them, Herbert wasn't that good a writer. If you don't believe that, try to sit through a reading of "Whipping Star" or "The Dosadi Experiment" and then remembering anything about them afterwards. Dune truly was Herbert's magnum opus, and the device of the box of pain is an inspiration on numerous levels as it wraps an unforgettably intense scene (everyone who reads Dune for the first time has his or her hand in the box with Paul's) that opens the door to the complex sociology of a novel that features a female-only religious establishment that tests its member's mental discipline and self-control by an ordeal that is potentially a test to destruction. There really is nothing else like it in science fiction (that I know of or care about). It's one of Herbert's highest moments as a writer whose work that precedes and follows it is simply not that good. Fight me. The device itself is so powerful a device, so unforgettable *as* a literary device, that it is, as you rightly point out, a science fiction icon that has invited so much speculation about how it might work beyond the technobabble of, "nerve-induction" that it might have inspired the crowd-control and non-lethal weapon technologies you mention in a way that calls to mind how the Star Trek communicator inspired the design of the first Motorola Flip Phone which originally bore the name, "digital communicator." As you point out, a lot of things are true about the famous box, but what is perhaps the greatest of them all is how present it is in the consciousness of everyone who reads the novel-creating in it a non-existent object that is solid in its mythology as the science-fiction faster-than-light drive(s)-a whole technology that doesn't exist and yet is instantly recognized for its power in the the imagination, a "presence" that is proven by a strange exchange on facebook where a company's advertising a devices for soothing and improving hand-function by warmth and massage that was met by at least one wag's responding to the add by writing, "Gom Jabbar not included." Again, nice video, as always.

[@1123JGilbert]

this type of video about all of the simple questions about dune would make a great youtube shorts video... i watch a lot of that and would love to see you pop up sometimes. obviously it would need to be cut down, but TLDR is a thing people look for.

[@theeffete3396]

I always thought of the nerve-induction box as a prelude to the Spice Agony. Those who survive the box demonstrate they are ready for adept training and potential rise to Reverend Mother. I also wonder of the Sisterhood uses the poison needle (or perhaps just the threat of one) with their females. It's difficult to imagine that they would actually kill those that fail rather than simply use them in some lesser capacity. My head cannon is that the gom jabbar was a specific test for Paul alone, his death being the punishment for Jessica's betrayal.

[@nachinachi5085]

That's probably where Rogal Dorn got his idea from when designing the Pain Glove.

[@J-GUT]

I like to think that the box was a mild version of the Gom jabber as it shows more of a reflection of the Bene Gesserits way of manipulation where you think you have two options but it’s really just the one they chose for you lol

[@georgelebron4560]

Such a simple yet beautiful and elegant video, my only issue with it is that it ended❣️

[@SEKIRO_-tz8ct]

I think the test is to prove whether Paul is capable to prevail over his human instincts for the higher purpose. Most humans reaction to extreme pain is to retreat which is a primal instinct and Paul was capable to suppress and control it because otherwise, he'd died from the needle.

[@vikingskuld]

Good video thank you for what your doing its really appreciated

[@phillower8806]

Watching the Gom Jabbar for the first time in the first movie was an experience

[@sakajungle]

Love your vids ❤❤❤ cheers from Brazil 🇧🇷

[@jonathanmurphy3141]

The Box of pain needs to be experienced while sitting on “the sofa of reasonable comfort (from a Doctor Who parody, 1999). Or “the comfy chair” from M’Python’s “Spanish Inquisition” ☺️😆

[@jameeljohnson6504]

I immediately heard, "that's right boy, pray", from the Dune miniseries! Hahahaha...Dune has wormed its way into my inner monologue!

[@someother5512]

Were the other people that did not pass the test actually killed by the poison needle, or was just a bluff?

[@NerdCookies]

Yep. Lots of people died.

[@circleofowls]

"They tried and failed?" "They tried and died." - not the Gom Jabbar but it might as well have been.

[@KaironQD]

If so, one would suppose they never tested Hasimir Fenring this way then.

[@agesflow6815]

Thank you, Nerd Cookies.

[@NerdCookies]

Thank you too!

[@jamesb7993]

The Bene Gesserit feel like the most powerful humans in the Dune universe, so fascinating.

[@Sasuke81a]

This exactly echoes what Gurney Halleck teaches too as he warned Paul in the 1984 Movie: Arrakis is real. The Harkonnens are real. -Gurney Halleck, Dune 1984

[@muddlewait8844]

The old music! Hooray!

[@barbara9315]

The pain Paul felt was probably genetically carried over to his descendants,and that’s why they never trusted the Bene Gesserit.

[@davidolden971]

There is a *VERY* interesting parallel between this scene and an early scene from LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. LAWRENCE strikes a match, lights Potter’s cigarette, then sits, holding up the still-burning match. He pulls back his sleeve, and dramatically pinches the match with his bare fingers, extinguishing it … without flinching. He reaches to gather his belt and cap, and turns to leave. Potter pulls out a match stick, ignites it, and … POTTER OOH! It damn well hurts! LAWRENCE Certainly it hurts. POTTER Well, what’s the trick then? LAWRENCE The trick, William Potter, is **not minding that it hurts** From 1962’s LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (Starting at 0:10:44) (For comparison, the Pain box scene in DUNE: PART ONE starts at 0:24:00). Oh - and both films shot in Jordan, among other parallels … (Each, a charismatic leader of an indigenous desert people they would lead into battle…)

[@MrDavidSalamon]

I am glad you addressed this subject. Do you think the pain is created from the nun through the box to the person? Like can the box create same pain effect without the nun being present?or will the box create pain irrelevant to the presence of the nun? Do you think the control of the intensity of the nerve induction in the box is under control of the nun? Do you think there awareness nf the part of the nun to the amount of pain delivered--- or is ut just an awareness of the intensity of pain due to the length of duration of time? Is there a sense on your part if the nun would really go thru with it and kill Paul if he failed and pulled hand out?

[@chewytraverso]

I think the only purpose of the box was to hide that nothing was actually happening to the hand. It had no operations.

[@arisakathedappergoose4796]

"Did you ever read the works of Sha yu?" oh wait, wrong series...

[@rolf3806]

Paul’s strength is amazing his story is the classic tragedy be careful of what you have been trained for . years of training only to realize only to become the harbinger of death

[@NguyenQuangLuan802]

Watch Dune 1984, that Pain Box is the best scene to watch Including Frank Herbert's Dune in Dune 2000 has a map of this, edit by CmBlast

[@theAverageJoe25]

When I watched Dune 2021 I kinda thought he was going to lose a hand

[@Concreteowl]

The trick Mr Atreides is not minding that it hurts.

[@michaelodonnell824]

Forgive me but isn't there something Sadistic in the use of that "Pain Box"? Paul, at the time he is Tortured by this is on or below the Age of Consent; his father is unaware that this is being done to him and his mother's objections are trampled upon by the "Reverend Mother". Further, at no point does Sadist Gaius Helen Mohiam express regret or guilt; nor does she ever show compassion. I am reminded of the "Blade Runner" movies where a similar test is performed. However, the Voight - Kampff test merely asks questions and inspects the responders reactions in order to determine whether the responder is "Human". Failing the test in both the Dune and Blade Runner universes is a Death Sentence, but Blade Runner doesn't Torture its suspects....

[@Concreteowl]

Feyd's poisoned spur was the Harkhonnen Gom Jabbar

[@baahcusegamer4530]

Sateré-Mawé boys be like “bring it on bitch.”

[@junior63]

Built different

[@marknovak6498]

Star Trek TOScused the simulatedcpain idea in its show in a futuristic torture device. With no circular damage, the device could more than if there was damage.

[@mistermysteryman107]

Ok but how about a Pleasure Box….where I can stick other things in it

[@bsulrich1]

In the Dune movie adaptation, Paul is the first male to ever pass the pain box test and triumphs over more pain than any other human subject in the history of the Bene Gesserit pain box exam. Yet, Gais Helen Mohaim appears unconvinced he is The One awaited for. He has "great potential" and states with contempt "I hope you live" as she exits the room. If Gais had showed just an ounce of kindness and appreciation for Paul's astonishing accomplishment, perhaps the centuries of torment the Bene Gesserit were forced to endure as punishment for treating him so callously could have been avoided. If you treat someone important to your plans terribly, is it really such a surprise that same person treats you horrible in return?

[@masterpython]

Count Fenring was probably tested. It sounds like he was another Bene Gesserite creation. They set him up with a wife to keep an eye on him

[@KaironQD]

THE PAIN!!!

[@toddtangen6750]

I want to build one.

[@akymrinkovsky289]

What do I think about the pain box, you ask. 🤔 ~ I think it's a great place to start. Now, go through such agony three times a week for 18 months. Welcome to my world 🌎~ Respectfully Muad'dib 🙇‍♂️~ Always bra okay. It's a long, brutal story. But if you would like me too, tell it to you one day. Just ask 🙏~

[@jaquandrejones]

That box reminds me of how my reverend stepfather used to treat me :'(

[@pyroromancer]

"what's in the box?" -Brad Pitt

[@user-zp8kj2cl9g]

4:24 mfw NerdCookies doesn't uploads

[@Ramoreira86]

"THE PAIIIIIIIIIIN!"

[@BADSEED13]

Mind over matter.

[@michaelpipkin9942]

I have a crush on you like "Topanga bad" That's pretty serios...

[@bryankennedy2257]

Pain is an illusion my friends....

[@Eric-yo4qk]

What if he had failed the test? Do uou think the Reverend Mother would have actually killed him? I think so, she was dead serious.

[@christinemusselman5499]

This was a flaw in the Villaneuve movie. The point of the Box was to see if a person could take intense pain without breaking. Paul screaming because of the pain shows he didn't pass the test.

[@maryamkim1281]

Showing pain or reacting to pain was not "failing" the test, the point was *removing* his hand to make it stop -- and dying. Why do you think there was a Gom Jabbar at his neck?

[@Staggo_L]

Once the test were done, I’d have kicked the witch to death.

[@michaelpipkin9942]

Im so glad im high. Love to chill with this chick.

[@kronoscamron7412]

why is it moist?, sorry wrong box

[@nfboogaard]

😂😂

[@sterlingdennett]

If Paul REALLY experienced THAT much pain, he would have thrown up all over the Reverend Mother!

[@Marcelo83uk]

"What's in the box!!!!!!!!" Dam it wrong film ;)