The movie Star Wars has captured the minds of so many people since it first came out. Everyone can identify with its gripping story of good versus evil, with good winning in the end. Besides from gaining a lot of fans, it soon became a religion.
People’s fascination over the movies, specifically about the supernatural and telepathic powers, made it a phenomenon, eventually becoming known as the religion of Jediism. But what exactly is Jediism? Let us find out in this article.
The Jedi are those who believe in the Force. The Force is a specific energy flowing through all things. It is what binds the universe together. In the movie, the Jedi can tap into the Force, even shape it to unlock a greater potential. The Jedi serve as the guardians of knowledge, justice, and truth.
To this day, some actual people believe in the Force. These Jedi consider their beliefs as a religion while some refer to them as a philosophy, a lifestyle or a way of life or a development movement they follow.
The Jedi religion is also known as Jediism, which even to this day is a decentralized system of belief. Various groups exist trying to teach their beliefs to others. However, a lot of the people who believe in Jediism are still widely different than the individual Jedi than the Jedi organizations.
The teachings of Jediism are not generally considered rules, but more to be guides and suggestions. Because of this, the various Jedi groups have different approaches to Jediism teachings. But although the approach is different, they do not necessarily believe that the approach is incorrect.
The first time that the Jedi was mentioned as in the movie Star Wars IV: A New Hopei in 1977. The concept of Jedi and the Force remained central in the movies Star Wars movies that followed, even in the games and novels that were part of the Star Wars universe.
The sources of Jediism were completely fictional. However, George Lucas who was the creator came up with the idea of Jedi after researching various religious perspectives. Two of the religions that have influenced the concept of Jedi were Buddhism and Daoism, plus several others.
Even though Jediism is far spread out in the world, it rapidly multiplied in the last two decades due to the convenience provided by the Internet. According to the followers of the Jedi religion, they do recognize that the movies were fictional, but it has religious truths in them for which they believe.
As mentioned before, Jediist followers are widespread, and they follow unique approaches towards the religion. As not a traditional religion and due to the fact, it started from fiction, Jediism is not recognized as a legal religion except in the United States.
In the United States, Jediism has registered in one state. More specifically, a Temple of the Jedi Order can be found in Texas which was registered in 2007. The state government granted them an IRS tax exemption back in 2015.