You must forgive; I am not intimately familiar with Dune, so I am here having to rely on my admittedly hazy memory (and a quick internet search) to try to clarify what I meant.
First, as for the race consciousness, I don't think this is the world soul, but it is something like the world soul, either a gestalt of some sort, or an impersonal pantheistic consciousness. I think that it is entirely possible to read it as something both transcendent and possessing a will. (Transcendent is an ambiguous word, but we might for this discussion mean something that is not located in at singular points either time or space.) Paul experiences the race consciousness as a purpose- a will. (I compiled a few quotes from Dune referring to the race consciousness for reference.)
As for the Bene Gesserit, when I said they were cynical I meant only that they do not believe the religious claims they spread. The Missionaria Proctectiva brought the Madhi (messiah) legends of the Panoplia Propheticus to Arrakis explicitly so that the resulting religious beliefs of the natives could be manipulated. Jessica did manipulate those beliefs of the Fremen in a coming messiah.
And yet, it seems to me the messiah came.
To which Gandalf might reply, “Surely you don’t disbelieve the prophecies because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don’t really
suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit?”
....
Race Consciousness Quotes
"He remained silent, thinking like the seed he was, thinking of the race consciousness he had first experienced as terrible purpose."
"He sensed it, the race consciousness that he could not escape."
"But he could feel the demanding race consciousness within him, his own terrible purpose, and he knew that no small thing could deflect the juggernaut. It was gathering weight and momentum. If he died this instant, the thing would go through his mother and his unborn sister."
"I am a prey to the imperfect vision, to the race consciousness and its terrible purpose."
"Here was the inborn jihad, he knew. Here was the race consciousness that he had known once as his own terrible purpose. Here was reason
enough for a Kwisatz Haderach or a Lisan al-Gaib or even the halting schemes of the Bene Gesserit. The race of humans had felt its own dormancy, sensed itself grown stale and knew now only the need to experience turmoil in which the genes would mingle and the strong new mixtures survive."