George Lucas drew from very powerful mythic images when he created the Star Wars universe, mostly inspired (I think) by reading . Joe lived on George's estate towards the end of his life and talked a lot about the Star Wars ethos in a series of six hour-long interviews with Bill Moyers on public television. One of the insights that Joe and stress is that we can learn more about how our human nature works by studying myths than by sticking electrodes into the legs of dead frogs.

I believe in "The Force", but I prefer to call it personal power. It's the power you wield when you decide to protect some random living creature who runs across your path, when you help family and friends achieve their innermost goals, and when you give your life to some great cause like ending poverty, disease, ignorance or war from our world.