07/27/2022 – Star Wars and Religion

“May the Force be with you” was first spoken by General Dodonna, a relatively minor character in the first Star Wars movie created by George Lucas. Ever since then, people have been trying to figure out what is the “Force?” We’re going to get into that and a whole lot more in this episode on Star Wars and Religion. And a little bit of politics too. And maybe a few other things. This is TenOnReligion.

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In my Second Year Anniversary episode I mentioned that I was thinking about doing another episode on religion and film since my first one on the Life of Pi has been such a popular episode. A subscriber commented that Star Wars would be the best candidate since it’s the granddaddy of them all. Now there’s a lot of theories about Star Wars and how it relates to religion, what it’s trying to communicate about religion, or what religion or religions most closely resemble what we see in Star Wars. Now I probably need to clarify, I’m only focusing on the George Lucas films, which means the original first trilogy of Star Wars (later subtitled as A New Hope), The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi; and the later prequel trilogy of The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith. This leaves out the later trilogy after the franchise was passed on to Disney and any of the later television or animated series content.

Also, as a side note, in May of 2018 my family went on a cruise which visited the Caribbean island of St. Maarten where one of the main creators of the character of Yoda lives. His name is Nick Maley and he’s known as the Yoda guy. He set up and runs a small free museum of sorts which showcases a lot of Star Wars memorabilia. I had a short conversation with him and saw a bunch of artifacts on display including some pages from the original script for Star Wars. Like, how cool is that?!? Anyways, back to religion.

Okay, I’m so old I actually saw Star Wars in the movie theater the first year it came out way back in 1977. So, I’ve had my own thoughts about this for quite a while. I had a pretty well-formed theory on religion and the early Star Wars franchise, but after recently watching multiple video interviews with George Lucas and reading a number of articles quoting him, I think my thoughts have actually changed a little bit. I’ll explain how and why.

You see, when I was quite a bit younger, I was told Star Wars was about Buddhism. There are sequences referencing how people needed to calm themselves and clear their minds along with other mediation-related themes. Then when I later studied the academic field of religion more in depth and started teaching, I thought Star Wars was really more aligned with Taoism, an ancient Chinese tradition. The “Force” seemed awfully close to the Tao, the natural flow and course of life with which one must spiritually align. But after watching interviews with George Lucas there’s actually something a little more basic underneath it all. Check this out.

George Lucas was born and raised in a Methodist family. In an interview with Charlie Rose, he tells a childhood story about when he was 8 years old. When he was being put to bed one night, he asked his mom, if there there’s only one God, why are there so many religions? This is interesting because this would have been in the early 1950’s in Modesto, in central California, where there would probably have been very little exposure to religions beyond Judaism and Christianity. But it’s an interesting question that I’m sure many children have had. The question wasn’t about religion vs. non-religion, but rather which religion? In this interview he then went on to say don’t kill people, be compassionate and love people, and that’s basically all Star Wars is. But according to other articles and interviews with Lucas, it’s actually more than that.

George Lucas said the whole thing in Star Wars was to take psychological ideas from social issues, political issues, spiritual issues and to condense them down to an “easy-to tell” story of those stories. Lucas chose the character of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, as the main lens to express these stories. It is through his experiences that the audience understands the journey. The space ships, light sabers, and special effects weren’t the main focus for Lucas. He said you’re telling a story using tools. You’re not using tools to tell a story. He referred to this as the downside of Star Wars since it got movie studios and production companies to largely focus on what they perceived to be “sure things” which meant sequels. They wanted more money. George Lucas said Star Wars came from nothing. It always was about the story and not the money. He eventually created all of his own production capabilities so he didn’t have to succumb to the demands of other studios. But the downside of Star Wars, according to Lucas, is that now there is an enormous lack of imagination and fear of creativity because large-scale movie productions are focused on their ability to make money and not being artistic or cultural expressions. This actually echoes a longtime criticism of capitalist culture in general going way back to Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno who wrote in 1947 that the maintenance of the culture market industry was, above all, to perpetuate economic interests leading to a nearly complete bankruptcy of innovative social and cultural expressions. There’s a lot of stuff to unpack there which means that’s probably a discussion for another day.

So, what were the social issues, political issues and spiritual issues? Lucas said he intentionally created this fictional universe “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” so the stories would not fall into a contemporary mode whereby people could argue about what was really going on. He was dealing with delicate things and if he communicated or expressed his views in a more direct fashion, they would not have been that popular in the 1970’s, or maybe even today. There are both religious and political aspects to this. Let me explain.

Lucas said the “Force” was an easy-to-deal-with metaphor for the similarities of what religion is. I originally wasn’t sure what he meant by that until he clarified that the name came from what was termed as the “life-force” of what primitive religions believed in. This is animism – the belief that certain objects, creatures, or even places possess a very real form of spiritual life which is not only as very much as real as the physical or material world, but regularly interacts with it. Many native and indigenous people groups worldwide hold these beliefs today. So, in Lucas’ mind the “Force” seems to represent an early form of religion upon which all later forms were based, thus answering his own childhood question about why there were so many religions. When you work with the life-force, your efforts are much more effective.

Lucas’ explanation of what he originally envisioned the “Force” to be goes a long way in explaining why I thought it was the Tao in Taoism. The Tao has many descriptions and definitions, but in a simplified way it’s a road or journey which one actualizes by living in a certain way in flow with the natural course of the universe. Though it is extremely difficult, people can find a way to perfect their journey in Taoism and eventually arrive at becoming what Taoists term an “Immortal” who can communicate with people still in this realm of life. This seems awfully close to the netherworld and the glowing Jedi figures who have passed on and occasionally communicate with living Jedi. Clearly Taoism has had a significant influence in how the Jedi are depicted on screen. I’m not really an expert on either animism or Taoism, but it seems like it to me that the two are very much related.

There are also many subtle, or perhaps not-so-subtle, references and actions in Star Wars which relate to ancient India, be it Hinduism, Buddhism or Jainism, especially relating to meditation and the clearing or calming of one’s mind. In the 1970’s the majority of the population in the United States would have been much more familiar with Judaism and Christianity and thus it was quite intentional on the part of Lucas to heavily incorporate more ideas and images from Eastern traditions in a pop culture way to make them more palatable for the general audience both to understand and, even more importantly, to accept.

After the research for the motifs in Star Wars started to take shape in Lucas’ mind, he started reading books by Joseph Campbell, most notably The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell’s idea of the monomyth, the journey of an archetypal hero as the basis for all mythic narratives, heavily influenced the later Star Wars saga. Lucas finally met Campbell after the first trilogy was completed and invited him to screen all three films at his newly finished Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, north of San Francisco. I’ve haven’t read any of Campbell’s works, but I’m certainly curious about them now.

Lucas also said that religions are human psychological needs that have been put together mostly to create a society. That’s not too far off from what many academic scholars would probably say. I mean, my episode on debt and religion states the same principle from the perspective of economics. By the way, that was a great episode. You should watch it. I learned a lot by reading David Graeber’s book which is the basis for most of that episode. End of commercial.

But wait, there’s more: politics. My last point is where things get a little more controversial. Lucas has hinted, or maybe more than hinted, that the big bad Galactic Empire is capitalism, not only in a more general sense, but specifically capitalism as represented by the United States. There was quite a bit of social and political upheaval in the U.S. during the time of the Vietnam War and Lucas, along with many others, didn’t see the actions of particular U.S. government leaders in a good light. Without mincing words, the Galactic Empire was the U.S. and the Rebel Alliance was the Viet Cong. Lucas has stated that the psychological basis of the films was mythological, meaning religious, but the social and political bases were historical. Many people come away thinking that the Empire was a loose representation of the Nazi Party but Lucas actually said it was America. Lucas even directly stated that Palpatine in the second trilogy… Palpatine was President Nixon, quote, “He subverted the senate and finally took over and became an imperial guy and he was really evil. But he pretended to be a nice guy." I mean, wow. So, for Lucas, capitalism which fuels an endless greed and bottomless hunger for wealth is bad and politicians which attempt to subvert democracy are also bad. As Padmé incredulously delivered her line in the Revenge of the Sith, “This is how liberty dies.”

So, how do we try and wrap this up? Star Wars was essentially a mythology about…mythologies. I guess Lucas decided the negative entities in the films were based on political power and economic greed, more the former than the latter, and the way to fight against those was based in ancient mythology and religion. Don’t kill people for political and economic ends. Instead, be compassionate and love people because life is precious. Life can be used for good or for evil. Which side are you choosing to be on? The light side or the dark side of the “Force?”

I hope you’ve enjoyed this investigation into the religious and slightly political background of the first six films of the Star Wars saga. I’ve tried to keep my presentation as closely tied to the words of George Lucas himself so as to not inject too much of my own interpretation. I may or may not have been successful in doing that. Leave a comment below and let me know what you think about Star Wars and religion. Until next time, stay curious. If you enjoyed this, support the channel in the link below, please like and share this video and subscribe to this channel. This is TenOnReligion.

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