Item from Dune by Frank Herbert
A poison needle used in the Bene Gesserit test of humanity — held at the neck while the subject's hand is placed in a box of escalating pain. Pull your hand out and the needle kills you instantly.
The gom jabbar test separates humans from animals — at least by the Bene Gesserit's definition. The test subject places their hand in the pain box, which uses nerve induction to simulate escalating agony — burning, crushing, flaying — without causing physical damage. The gom jabbar is held at the subject's neck throughout. The rule is simple: pull your hand from the box and you die. An animal — driven by instinct — pulls its hand out to escape the pain and dies. A human — capable of overriding instinct with will — keeps their hand in the box despite every nerve screaming to withdraw. The test identifies those who can master their own reflexes, who can choose suffering over death, who can subordinate the body to the mind. Paul Atreides passed the test at age fifteen, enduring pain beyond anything the Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam had seen. She was testing whether the Bene Gesserit's millennia-long breeding program had produced the Kwisatz Haderach. It had.
A small needle, easily concealed between two fingers or mounted in a thimble-like device worn on the fingertip. The tip is coated in meta-cyanide — a poison so lethal that the slightest scratch through the skin brings death in seconds. Unremarkable to look at; that's the point. The pain box it accompanies is a small, unadorned cube with an opening for one hand.
Also known as: the gom jabbar, the humanity test needle, the poison needle