Force Guide, part two

[JediKaren]

Due to the length I will post this in two sections. Please enjoy and note that much of this information came from my psi articles.

The Force User Guide
Part 2
The Living Force

Review
So far you have learned the basic skills of the Force. These skills include calming yourself with meditation and learning about the Force. Learn how to use this meditation to open yourself up to the Force and recognize the feeling of the energy that is all around you. Once you've learned to identify the force, you learned how to gather it around you and cast it away by sending the Force to the ground. To end part one, you learned the reasons why your control may not be constant and what to do what that. You also learned about the dangers of what too much of the Force can to do the mind. Now comes a new aspect to the Force, how the Force affects living things.

Living Force
The Force and life are forever connected and bound to each other. Without the Force there could be no life and vise versa. The strength of the Force is directly related to the amount of life living in that place. The more life in one place, the stronger the Force is going to feel. A thick, thriving forest teaming with life will have more available living Force than a dry, sandy desert. A Jedi can sense the living Force in a person and is a quick way to tell the health of that person. When a person grows weak, their life Force grows weak too and can be felt as such. Not only is the cosmic Force is always around us, so is the living Force. There will always be the living Force where there is life. Even when a Jedi is in the dead of space, there is still the living Force, because the Jedi is alive. The living Force is generated by any animal, human, or the smallest life forms, single cell organisms.

There is a very special connection between the Force and living things called the living Force. The living Force is different from the cosmic Force because its source comes from only living things, while the cosmic Force comes from everything that is not living, else such as rocks, water, and the sun. A Jedi’s power will mostly come from the living Force, rather than the cosmic Force.

The Force flows everywhere and through everything. Through the living Force, Jedi can see how all life is connected. They can see how the animals are affected by the plants, weather, and bodies of water. A Jedi can sense how people interact with their surroundings. They can see how the Force affects societies and how these societies function. Jedi can also sense thoughts and emotions from animals and people. It's important for a Jedi to be able to connect to living things because they serve the people. In order to do that, Jedi must be able to understand the complex web of thoughts and emotions. A Jedi can sense everything, even non living things, around them.

Sensing
With the Force, a Jedi can feel everything from air molecules to distant planets to people, and even events that might happen in the future. Distance does not matter, only the skill of the Jedi. There are three types of sensing. A Jedi can sense inanimate objects and their location, people and animals and their location, and pick up warning, or signs, from the Force.

Sensing Objects
Being able to sense objects is one of the most useful and important skills a Jedi could learn. There is an argument about when a Jedi senses an object do they see it, feel it, or a combination of both. In this guide, the third option will be discussed.

When a Jedi senses an object, they almost physically feel and see the object. A good example of this is someone sticking their hand into a bag full of blocks without looking. As the hand grabs onto that object, the nerves in the fingers and palm send a message to the brain. The person will register the block is solid, made out of wood, is in a cube shape, the surface is somewhat smooth, but a bit rough and the cube is small. At the same time an image in formed in the person’s mind. They end up picturing what the cube looks like, based on what they feel. So in a sense, that person has felt and seen the cube without even looking with their eyes. With the Force, this is no different. Instead of reaching out with a hand, the Jedi will reach out with their mind, using the Force as the nerves in the mental fingers and palm.

There is no limit of what you can feel with the Force. You can stretch out and feel a block. A beginner Jedi is most likely going to have a short range of vague awareness of their surroundings. This is will grow in length and clarity with time and practice.

For practice, it is suggested that you take a simple object, one that does not have too many parts to it and that you are familiar with. Close your eyes and open yourself up to the Force. Gather the Force around and inside of you. Think where the object is and then expand your awareness of the Force to that object. Wrap your Force awareness around and inside the object. It will feel as though you are holding, faintly seeing, and feeling the inside of the object all at once. You may notice what your sense will not be very distinct or that you can not feel the entire object at once. This is ok and will improve with practice.

Sensing a Presence
Most animals rely on scent and can detect another animal a long distance off. Jedi also have a similar ability. Everything that is alive and is not a plant has some sort of Force scent or signature. The scent or signature is the feeling you get when you are around a person or another living thing. This is because animals have brains and a soul of some sort. When a Jedi feels this energy signature and links with their mind to the person or animal, they can tell where the person is.

Searching for a presence with the Force is very much like ultrasound. Certain animals, like dolphins, use ultrasound to locate things. They send out clicks of sound that go out into ocean. The clicking waves will hit something and bounce back to the dolphin, giving the dolphin a picture of the area around them. A Jedi can also do this with the Force. The first thing you will need to do is gather the Force. Now pick a person or animal that you do not know the exact location of, but someone you know well. Picture them in your head and think about the feeling you get when you're around them. Send the Force to that person. Feel the person and their Force signature. Feel their moods and thoughts. Sense the general direction of where they are. Sense how far they are from you. What you are doing is creating a link. This is useful when needing to find another Jedi or a hiding pet.

Force Warnings
This can be confused with suggestions of the future. If a Jedi walks into a dangerous situation and is open and listening to the Force, they can pick up a feeling of danger. This feeling is a feeling of the present. Usually, this danger is caused by a disturbance in the Force, which can be translated into an imbalance in the Force. Force warning can be very difficult to understand and can be misleading. Sometimes the warning is not for or about you, but about someone else. These warnings can also be on a bigger scale for a large group of people or a country. So, it is extremely important for a Jedi to always be aware of the Force, what the Force has to say and their surroundings, so to protect the people around them.

Empathy
To help people, a Jedi must be able to recognize different emotions of people or animals Jedi are dealing with. Being able to distinguish each emotions and reasons for this emotion, can help a Jedi understand a situation better. Many emotions are complex, involving many factors and even other emotions. Anger is often a way to cover up fear, guilt, a feeling of weakness or of being threatened.

Emotions have a strange property of being able to spread like a contagious disease. Although happiness, peace, and joy are emotions a Jedi wishes to spread and experience, more often it is the negative emotions that can grip people, towns, and nations. These emotions cause the Force to become unbalanced. A Jedi should be well aware of all the negative emotions or emotions that can cause a negative impact, the causes, and how to deal with each emotion for own peace and for the peace around them. A Jedi should be able to recognize their own personal emotions so to have a clear mind and a strong connection to the Force. If a Jedi is unstable they will be unable to help fight and protect others

Emotions
Anger has a strange way of spreading like a disease. A father comes home from work in a bad mood. He stomps in, slams the door close and announces angrily that he is home. The mother is thrown off (not physically) and can not figure out what is wrong with the father. The youngest kid has left some toys out and the father trips over them. He yells at the kid, who breaks out into tears. The mother gets angry at the father for unnecessary yelling. The older kid storms in and demands that everyone quiets down. The whole family is now yelling and screaming at each other. Remember, this all started because one person was angry.

Fear is another very important emotion to understand because of the effects it can have on people. There are all levels of fear. There is the fear when you realized you have forgotten about a test. There is the fear of death and the fear of god or some powerful presence you look up to. Fear paralyzes people. Fear will block you from your connection to the Force. While fear does not spread like the same way that anger does, it will affect other people. If people do not share your fear, they are most likely going to distance themselves from you. It is generally a sign they can not do anymore for you and have given up.

Pure joy, hyper activity, excitement, and strong, positive emotions are not always the best for the Jedi’s mind and abilities. These emotions are highly distracting and often times addicting. A Jedi will find it hard to calm and focus their mind if they experience these emotions too much. Too much of these emotions can bring actions that lead to the dark side. This does not mean a Jedi can't laugh and play around, but it should be done in moderation.

Having an ego is good and healthy, but where the danger is having to big, too important of one. Being a Jedi is a good, important thing. You are helping other people. You can get a lot of personal satisfaction out of helping someone, but a Jedi needs to be careful. Too much satisfaction can boost up your self esteem to the point that you become arrogant and blind. A Jedi who has too much pride will distance them from the Force. Also beware of what the Force can do to the ego of any Force User. The Force is powerful and always there. As Force users we can feel this and use the Force to accomplish seemingly miracles. Because we are different in what we can do, our ego is subject to grow and therefore once again give us the wrong impressions of who were are and how much we matter.

Feeling Emotions
Now that a Jedi is aware of what emotions can do, a Jedi must be able to pick up these feelings through the Force. This way you can pick on any hidden emotions or the emotions of a crowd.

Clear your mind of feelings and thoughts. If you are having trouble, you should meditate for a few minutes. Having emotions will make it hard to tell the difference between yours and someone else’s.

Pick the person you wish to know the feelings of. Visualize his or her name or if you can, visualize his/her face. Open and reach out with the Force, extend your awareness and sense the person or animal. Now take note of the feelings you receive or suddenly feel. If the feelings do not make any sense in that they do not seem to be yours at the moment, those emotions belong to the other person. To get rid of the emotions, use the grounding technique to send out any unwanted emotions.

Some Force users are naturally and specially aware to other living being emotions and can end up feeling too many. They feel everyone’s emotions at once or just feel one emotion too strongly. This is known as empathy overload. The best way to keep this from happening is to avoid large, emotional crowds, or should you have to be around them, not to think about it. If you find yourself getting overloaded, stay calm and try to get out and alone. Meditate and ground the emotions away. Try to get some rest afterwards.

Telepathy
Along with empathy, a Jedi should learn the basics of telepathy. Telepathy is the thoughts translated by your mind, into meanings that represent words. For example, when you see an apple there are two ways of thinking about it. One is the fact that it is round, shiny, red, and tastes good. The other is the word “apple”. This word has a concept that means food and may be near us. When this thought is sent through the Force the receiver should pick up the suggestion of a red apple. For most Jedi, telepathy will not mean that you can read anyone’s mind like an open book. Telepathy is useful to a Jedi in negotiating or for silently planning out an attack during a fight.

To understand telepathy, one must understand how the mind works to a degree. The mind can be thought of as an onion because of its layers. The first layer is called by some as the surface layer. The surface layer consists of the thoughts that are the most on one’s mind. Thoughts like “I’m really hungry,” or “wow...he’s cute!” are considered surface thoughts. These are easy to pick up because they are generally simple, without any meaningful sub thoughts to filter.

The other layers do not have a name as far as I know because they are highly confusing and unique to everyone. The deeper you go into the mind, the more complex the thoughts get. Each thought will have more sub thoughts to go along with it and more emotions surrounding that thought. Also the deeper you go, the more heavily shielded the thoughts will be. This is a natural defense that the human mind has set up. When you have reached the back of the brain you have now found our most basic and primitive thoughts. These basic thoughts are instinctual and are closely related to strong primal feelings. You will find them in babies having mostly primary thoughts because babies have not developed enough to form complex thoughts.

Sending and Receiving
Telepathy is done by sending and receiving thoughts. This is not easily done. It will take time and a lot of practice. They consist of a shape or an idea being sent to one or more people. The people must receive them and understand what is being sent. This can be done on or offline with skill being the limiting factor. For an example, I will use the game of colors.

To send you need to pick a color, let’s say you picked red. Envision the color red and possibly, anything you associate with the color red. Look at the people you are sending the color to. If online, look at their screen name. Image this person to be only a small distance away from you. Picture this representation of red and feeling that comes from the color, being sent to the receiver. Gather the Force around you and reach out with your Force sense to the other person. Attach this thought of red with your gathered Force and send this thought of red to that person. You will want to aim the thought to their head. Keep sending the thought until the person has told you they got it. For more advanced players you can try to sense the brain activity and sense the thought being received.

To receive you will need to relax, clear, and open your mind up. Open yourself up to the Force. Some people may be able to pick up the thought or feeling being sent. Be attentive to any color that may suddenly pop into your head. If you receive nothing you may want to run through the colors in your head and look for the one that feels right. Always go with your gut feeling, for that is the unconscious part of you listening to the Force.

Linking
Linking is when two minds use the Force to connect to each other. This is very important to Jedi because it is the bond that they share between one another. Through this bond two or more Jedi can telepathically and empathically communicate. As two Jedi grow together in friendship, the link grows. This link is useful during anything that needs coordination.

Scanning
The best way to describe scanning is like assertively doing empathy, telepathy, and sensing, all at once. Scanning a person means you are looking at their character and their personality. This does not mean you will know every little detail about them, but you will get a much better idea of what they are like. Never base your actions towards a person based on what you pick up from a scan. If you are having trouble scanning, it might be because one of those three skills is not strong enough. If this is the case, go back and practice them. It could also be that the person you are scanning has set up mental shields, keeping you out.

I always tell the person to sit back and be themselves. I do not tell them to relax because then I know what they are feeling beforehand. As for myself, I relax and get rid of any emotions and thoughts. I do this because I do not want to confuse myself with what are my feelings and thoughts and what are the feeling and thoughts of the other person. I will either look at their name on the screen or close my eyes, depending on my mood. I reach out and touch the person I am scanning. I look for first impressions because they are usually the strongest. If for some reason I do not get anything I will ask if you have a shield. Also, note that it is not uncommon to have the same emotions as the other person. Here is an example of what to look for when scanning:

“Hmm...you are a tolerable guy...somewhat friendly, at least on the outside, though a bit wary of people. You are liked by others, but not truly popular, you put a distance around others, but sort of feel the need to bond, you're usual fairly calm, maybe a bit energetic or excitable, though once upset or anger you tend to go pretty far, though not too much like doing damage angry.”

Scanning can be used for healing when talking to someone on the phone or on the internet. You scan a person’s mind and body for damage or pain. You can then tell them what is wrong. You could call this indirect healing. Indirect healing is when you're not standing in front of a person, but heal at a distance. You can heal headaches, cold and a lot of other illnesses.

[JediKaren]

Foreseeing
“Through the Force, things you will see. Other places, the future, the past, old friends long gone.”

It is well known that with the Force you can see into in the future, often called precognitions. This is a dangerous and unreliable ability that only a few people have. It is often seen as a curse, for people see the appalling roads of the future. An example of this would be 9-11. Many people felt, dreamed, and saw in their mind the planes crashing, the buildings on fire, or the people dying. There is no one way to see into the future, but there are people that tend to see the future in three different ways.

Forms
Dreams, visions, and feelings are all part of precognition. But one must be careful about these things. None of these forms should be trust. Dreaming is the least certain of the three. How do you know it was not just a dream? Visions tend to come to people rarely and never last long. They are generally very striking and cause a strong emotional reaction. Feelings come in a suggestion that comes quickly. Usually these feelings are things like knowing what a person will do it right before they do it. It was not dreamed, nor in a vision. It was just a strong feeling. These feelings are the most trustworthy. Jedi should learn to trust this sudden knowledge when in a fight.

The reason why a Jedi should be wary of foreseeing the future is because sometimes it is not the future you see, but what you wish to happen. You can think you foresaw something, but in reality it's what you want to happen. A Jedi should also be careful about sharing your experiences. Be careful who you tell about your dreams and visions. It is advised that you do not tell people about death. It can really scare people. If you are wrong you will never live it down.

There is another way to classify the different types of foreseeing the future. The two categories are long and short term. Long term is anything foreseen that will happen, or does happen in more than a day. This type of precognition usually is serious and dire. Dreaming and visions are the two most common forms long term takes. Short term is anything that is foreseen, in any method, in less than twenty four hours. Usually feelings of the future come under short term.

Effects
The future has countless paths and is always in motion. It can change with the slightest action. Some talented Jedi have the ability to see/feel/dream or just know the future by nature. No Jedi can see everything. The truth is that the best of the Force users only can see a few paths out of millions. Those who can see the future must make the decision whether to tell people about the future or not. You may have the power to change the future in a huge way just by a few words, and of course what you say may do nothing at all. So you need to think about what you are doing and what it can do if you tell or not tell.

Let’s say you were in math class with the teacher talking about something boring and confusing and you are not really listening, but daydreaming about something. Suddenly you have this vision of your best friend is going to attempt to cross a road and get hit by a speeding truck. True, the chances of this happening in real life are low indeed, but this is just an example.

Your first reaction would probably be to run out of the class room, down the stairs, to the science class room, screaming and begging, and generally going nuts at your friend. You friend, along with the rest of school, is looking at you weirdly, wondering what on earth is your problem. When your friend calms you down, repeating a million times that everything will be ok, the whole school will be making fun of you for weeks.
Ok, so let’s go back to the math class. You have decided to tell your friend, but just not yet. You wait until lunch to tell him. You are faced with how to tell him. Should you tell him in a quick and serious tone? Should you tell him in a calm, slow tone? Or maybe you should say it in a non serious, no big deal voice in the hopes of not scaring the living daylight of out of him.

So you decide for the calm, serious tone to tell him of his fate. A Jedi should think about how this person might react. The person could laugh, ignore, listen with rapt attention, question, leave, get angry, or suggest to you to see a doctor. He could react in one of those ways or several of them. A Jedi needs to think about the more likely paths that the future could take and decide if this is going to be a good idea. Should a Jedi get the idea that the person they are telling might take this the wrong way, the Jedi needs to prepare themselves for it.

Another possibility is he gets angry, leaves you to sit somewhere else, and eventually forgets all about it. A day later he crosses that road and dies. For another example let's pick an outcome that is a bit better. He listens to you with total belief and avoids crossing the road to live a happy and long life.

There are literally a thousand ways your friend could cross or not cross that road. You simply can not predict all of them, but you can guess a few like as showed you. There is no safe, right answer. I am not saying you should not tell him, but you need to consider this carefully. To tell or not to tell is only a question you can answer. Neither I, nor anyone can decide for you.

Conduct
All Jedi should be well aware of morals and ethnics when using the Force. Morals are the teachings of right and wrong. Ethnics are the rules of conduct. For the Jedi, these very important concepts to understand when it comes to using Force. As you can see the Living Force is very important to a Jedi’s life. There are many aspects of the living Force and what a Jedi can do with it. There is one very important facet of the Force, yet to be mentioned in detail and that is the dark side.

As Jedi is it our duty to protect the innocent and helpless around us. We can do this with the help of the Force. It is also our duty to use know when, why, and how to use the Force correctly. When a Jedi uses the Force for the wrong reasons they are letting the dark side command their actions. Some of the wrong reasons are using the Force to harm someone, to kill, to take control or them, or corner and bully.

A Jedi is suppose to bring peace and order into the world, not fear and distrust. When a Force user uses their abilities to harm or threaten another being, the Force users causes the person to fear them. People grow weary of anyone with any unusual skill that could cause harm. Should Jedi start using their abilities in a way that the public disagrees with, it can start a bad reputation. Having a bad reputation makes the Jedi’s job much more difficult when trying to protect or help people.

It is a common mistake for people to think and view the dark side as a living, breathing, thinking creature. The dark side is simply the negative emotions within someone. The anger, the fear, the guilt, the depression, the pain and how each one of these emotions is used is all part of the dark side. The Force tends to magnify the dark emotions and actions, giving the person more physical and mental strength. The dark side, like anger often makes the Force user much clumsier and without fine control.

It is said that one should know one’s enemies and the opposite of the Jedi are the Sith. We, by the star war movies have been taught to hate and fight the sith, but that is really not the Jedi way. A Jedi never goes looking for a fight, even to fight the dark side. So it is highly advised that Jedi do not go to the sith sites and start stirring up feelings. A more notable threat would be the Force users that naturally and sometimes unconscious drain energy from other Force Users. Some of them do this to gain more energy; some do it to purposely weaken someone. Either way, a Jedi should be aware of it and should get away from the room that is happening in.

There are a few things a Jedi can do to keep from going to the dark side and harming others. First off learn about the Force and what you can do with it. Learn how to use it and how it works. Learn your emotions. Always know what you are feelings and why you feel this way. This way, you will be mentally stable and in shape to help others. By being calm, you can control your abilities.

Always be aware not everyone wants your help or wants you to read their thoughts and emotions. Do not make the mistake thinking no one will notice. A simple glazed look or eyes closed will bring attention to a Jedi. Some people may not be trained, but they will notice the Force if used on them. So when in doubt to use your powers, go back to the golden rule: treats others the way you wish to be treated. If a Jedi wishes for respect, a Jedi should treat everyone with respect and in many cases, respect will be given back. May the Force be with you.