Can the Force be considered a form of magic?

So, I have a bunch of friends over and an argument has broken out. One friend feels that the Force is indeed a form of magic because it employs telekenesis which he feels is a form of magic. The other friend feels that an incantation needs to be said in order for it to be considered magic. I, the poster, am just the messenger, so don't shoot me. So, we would like the fellow Star Wars fans to post some responses. Thanks in advance.

 

Well sir, you make an excellent point. I too believe that the force, like your compadre, is NOT magic. We all know that in the history of man and magical beings that specific incantations are needed to conduct magic. Wands are optional, but the repetition of words is a necessity. Therefore, it can only be assumed that the force, while being able to control the supernatural, is most definately not magic.

-Forcetical, previous name Forceticles.

 

If im not mistaken the force also has a molecular makeup.

 

aha!

 

From a storytelling aspect I would say yes, it's a kind of "magic". (Remember the Crystal in "Splinter of the Mind's Eye ? That's the fairy-tale likeness of early, very early Star Wars, unlike it is today.)

Apart from that I'd say no, because the Force doesn't incorporate things that are normally considered magic. Telepathy is for example in my eyes no magic; it's instead a skill that in general people possess, but works rather in the unconscious area. Having ever wondered why a person you looked at turned into your direction ? I assume that this is unconscious telepathy working.

 

Alrik,
I'm not sure what you talk about would be necessarily telekinesis, to me it's as likely that the other person senses (in a psychic/empathic way) your looking at them and turns, though of course it makes sense that they wouldn't be able to sense your looking at them unless you were connecting with them in some way; that is, maybe it's more like you're calling out to them, and they may hear you if they are sensitive to the way you're connecting with them, and then they choose to turn or not to turn toward you, but I'm not sure it has anything to do with control so much as influence. And if they control themselves they will or will not turn toward you.

 

Its " magic " the way that magicians in our world consider " magic " as opposed to " illusion " which is like trickery or sleight of hand. Magic is supposed to be something that defies physics or something like that, but thats are world not SW so who the hell knows? By the way Darth Marino, as a NY Jet fan I used to reference to Marino using your screen name. Fake spike.Ugh!

 

i don't know if it is magic...in fact i don't know what you would call it in the first place..

 

I think it is like magic, but is not actually magic.

 

I for one believe that the Force is indeed magical. I have always believed this and am not in the least disuaded from believing it by the Midichlorian connection. Of course, magic being ever and always a fictional concept, there can be no cultural consensus on what magic is to be defined as. Therefore it would be difficult for me to convince someone that the Force is magical if that person did not share my definition of "magic".

Nonetheless, there is value in this argument, because the nature of the Force is the hinge upon which a larger debate rests. That debate being whether or not SW belongs in the genre of Sci-Fi or Fantasy.

So I offer a definition of magic:
Magic is the use of will to effect change in the world.

Through conscious acts of will, the Jedi and the Sith use the Force, an emanation of the natural world, to alter existence in ways both subtle and astonishing.
This, to me, is nothing less than magical.

 

Well it's certainly much more than simple fantasy magic. The Force is an actual entity, an energy field surrounding everything, while magic seems to be more of and explanation or classification of extraordinary events. Of course there are many different kinds and interpretations of magic throughout literature so it wouldn't be fair to generalize, but I would say that the Force isn't magic.

 

Of course it can. The force, the characters, the story , everything in Star Wars, heck, anything in every movie is a metaphor. Some work better than others. The force being a metaphor for the mystical energies and powers that control, guide, and bind life; just like magic, or god(s) for that matter, is a no-brainer.

 

I've despised the scientific explanation of the Force offered in The Phantom Menace ever since I heard it. That was an attempt to try and snare Trekkies with some pseudo-technobabble.

Anyway, I do see the Force as more than just a force of nature, if you'll forgive the expression--yet life creates it, and it creates life, rather than a goddess of magic or an overdeity. Indeed, judging by the New Jedi Order and some of the PT's talk of the "will of the Force", the Force might be some aspect of an overdeity. The Force does, of course, have some sort of supernatural mystique to it, but in the Star Wars universe, it is

The Force is magic in the way other hypertech sci-fantasy or hypermagic sci-fantasy uses it: either magic so advanced it works like technology, or technology so advanced it works like magic. It's partially grounded in science, partially in spirituality.

I suppose the answer to "is it science or is it magic?" is "yes".

 

It might be similar to magic, in a way, in that they're both illusions.

I've held two different "radical" views of the Force over the years:

1. That the Force is the results of a symbiotic relationship between midichlorians and living things. With non-sentients, it's just kind of using each others waste products. For Jedi and "good" Force users, it was a mutually beneficial symbiosis. The Dark Side, finally, represented a symbiosis that produced toxicities within the sentient, that, while allowing them some extraordinary abilities, was also killing them.

2. That the Force doesn't exist at all, and is simply a highly advanced form of hypnotism. For instance, Darth Vader doesn't actually choke anyone, he just hypnotizes people into repressing their respiratory system until they die. Things like Force lightning or telekinesis are done artificially, as the aura around the hypnotists started to build up, and they attracted attention/power.

 

There is a possibility that the Force is some kind of spiritual force (or something akin to the spirit of God), from which magic or psychic abilities stem from.

Don't forget that most of the talents that the Jedi and the Sith utilize are considered psychic (or psi) abilities - telekinesis, telepath, pre-cognition, levitation, electrokinesis, etc.

 

Since I actually believe in what I know as "chi" or "ki" and that is seemingly a *real* "life-force", I see many similarities between it and the Force of the GFFA.

This is no magic; instead it's what keeps all living beings together. It flows through us, it maintains our own "life-force", and it connects everything that lives together. That's what I believe.

In Star Wars, the Force is very similar to that, but with magical aspects : manipulating things and people is not possible with Chi, at least as far as I know it. So this aspect is indeed "magical" in the movie.

To sum it up, the Force in the GFFA is to me a mixture of reality (especially asian philosophies, for example I know the concept of Ki as to more or less come from Buddhism, but I'm not an expert in that, and one of the most sophisticated philosopcal concepts that I've found is within Huna) and fantastic, unreal elements.