The Influence of Anthroposophy on Star Wars

In a discussion of the recent Clone Wars episodes on the LACWAC board, I came across a user talking about anthroposophy as an influence on SW and those episodes in particular. Prior to this week, I had never even heard of anthroposophy. Evidently it's a spiritual movement that sort of branched off from theosophy in the early twentieth century. I'm unclear on what exactly its principles entail, as all I've done so far is skimmed the Wikipedia article.

According to that page, the goal is to apply scientific reasoning to spiritual experiences. And as far as I can tell, not in a sort of Pascal Boyer, Scott Atran, cognitive theory of religion sort of way, but I guess to the things that happen within the experiences themselves? It seems kind of self-help-like?

Since it depends on the meaning and objective validity/factuality(I think?) of inner experiences, it has some religion-like ideas (and some Freud/Jung-like ones):

?A transcendent spirit that exists within layers of physical substrate (humans as comprised of spiritual, physical, living, and ego-based "parts," as it were)

?The spiritual/mystical dimension being real, and what we see as reality having come from/being an overlay on that spiritual base

?Humanity having lost touch with an intuitive way of living/seeing the world

?Two opposing forces at work in the world. Interestingly, these are not good and evil but rather creative/spiritual versus intellectual/technological.

?A Christ-figure who walks the middle path and balances the two opposites.

I'm sure you see connections with the philosophy and plot of SW, as well. And it might be possible to dismiss them, since the above ideas are fairly common mythological/religious themes. Anthroposophy seems to have taken them from a jumble of religions anyway, in a parallel to Lucas' process of creating SW.

But according to one of the posters in LACWAC (not the best source, but it's what sparked my interest in this), Lucas actually has ties to anthroposophy as an organization. Again, from that source, his kids go to a Waldorf school (associated with anthroposophy) and his educational foundation uses its principles too (?). Finally, it was said that possibly this influence came from his wife (though she was unnamed, I can only assume the poster meant Marcia Lucas).

The really interesting question is (assuming there is some truth here), when did this philosophy start to influence SW? Some of the tenets above seem tied to the original trilogy - but these are also common Buddhist ideas (among others). And Lucas did call himself a Buddhist-Methodist (during the making of Empire?). It's possible the mythology of the OT came out of anthroposophy as well, but I don't see any particular clear connectors. The main thing that I wonder about is the last tenet above, about the Christ-figure balancing the light and dark.

Christ-figures are a dime a dozen in religion, and the creative/intellectual distinction is not especially rare either. But in the original films, there was not a whisper about balancing the Force, or about a Chosen One. Did Lucas come to this philosophy after the OT, and then was only able to incorporate this idea in the prequels? There was a prophecy about the Son of Suns in the second draft of the first film, but it says nothing about bringing balance. One of the fan-theorized titles for Episode I before its release was Balance of the Force, though I don't know how long before it came out this was - it might be just taken from Mace Windu's line in the teaser trailer. Or perhaps that concept was mentioned in some pre-release interviews with Lucas or McCallum. I thought I remembered a fan-script from the pre-prequel era with the Balance title too, but after nearly four seconds of searching I can't find it. It's entirely possible (probable?) that this title and concept are only post-OT, prequel-era creations.

This may explain why the Chosen One and the concept of "balanc

 

Really, no responses at all? I know it's a pretty obscure subject, but...

 

I don't think that the chosen one / balance / prophecy aspect was at all jarring when the PT introduced it, and that it fit naturally with what the OT showed us (just that the OT did so without using the specific terms). The same goes for midichlorians too, for me. As to the anthroposophy ideas discussed at length in those TCW threads, I'm personally not really giving any of it a lot of weight in regards to SW.

 

Remember, according to The Making of Star Wars midichlorians were part of the backstory since the seventies, they'd just never been mentioned in the spin-off fiction. I sometimes wonder why this is so infrequently brought up in discussions of them.

And while we differ on the "Chosen One" thing, that's just my personal reaction... the thread's really more about the philosophy. If there's anything to it you'd think someone like zombie would have come across references to it in all the digging he's done.

 

http://southerncrossreview.org/73/miller-matrix.html

You may wish to read this and make your own comparison between anthrop' and star wars. The table at the bottom of this link is really cool for summarising the spiritual journey re athrop', matrix... and starwars perhaps?
best wishes...

 

Probably because they (midichlorians) didn't have quite the same application within the SW canon of that time (mid-77') as they've had since TPM (or whenever Lucas decided to bring back the 'Chosen One' concept, and apply it to Anakin instead of Luke). In that MOSW bit that you mention, midichlorians were referenced as being found in high quantities among some alien species.