The Force Is Real
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Like pretty much everyone else who has ever watched Star Wars, I’ve marveled at the force and thought to myself: “Too bad the force isn’t real.”
After all, the force couldn’t possibly exist anywhere but on the silver screen.
The force is what Darth Vader used to do pretty much whatever he wanted. The force can influence people to do something they otherwise wouldn’t do (“These aren’t the droids you’re looking for”). The force allows fictional characters to levitate, move inanimate objects with their minds, and a host of other powers that are nearly impossible for us to comprehend.
And because of this, we’re all drawn to the idea of the force, aren’t we?
On some level we’re seduced by the idea that it’s possible to influence the tangible and intangible parts of the world using nothing but our minds. Of course, the force appears so alien from anything that actually exists in the real world that it doesn’t seem possible for any of us to have such incredible power at our disposal.
But the truth is, the force is not something that only lives in the world created by George Lucas. It’s not something for us to marvel at or daydream about. It doesn’t exist exactly the way it’s portrayed in Star Wars, but the force is very real.
Because at its most basic, when you take away the Jedi’s and lightsabers and special effects, the force is ultimately the ability to use our minds to effect the world around us. It’s the idea that there are certain universal truths that connect us all. That certain things resonate with all of us. That certain things hold all of us together, and these things can be harnessed to effect the world.
And as we all know, our minds have the wonderful ability to birth ideas and thoughts, which are really nothing more than energy. And when an idea or a thought is great, this energy attaches itself to other people and becomes something more than just an idea or a thought. It becomes a catalyst for action and something that can literally change the physical world that we inhabit.
How many times has a thought or idea changed the way people think or how they act? How often have ideas or thoughts changed the world? Maybe not in some great way, but if an idea or thought can impact just one person, that’s great in and of itself.
The fact that an idea or a thought created by one human being is capable of causing another human being to think or behave differently is proof enough that the force is absolutely real and present in all of our lives.
In the context of Star Wars, the force seems unlike anything that exists in our world, but if we look around us we’ll see that people’s thoughts and ideas have profound and tangible effects on the real world every single day. The beautiful thing about this truth is that we’re all capable of using our minds to touch other people and affect the world around us as well.
Star Wars is, of course, fictional. But when it comes to the force, there are way too many examples that prove it is a very real thing that every single one of us is capable of using.
So please remember this the next time you have an idea or a thought. Because ultimately, the power that we possess is not much different than so many of the things that captivate us when we watch Star Wars. Even if our real-life version of the force isn’t nearly as mesmerizing, what we possess is just as powerful.
