45 years after The Empire Strikes Back

, Star Wars has finally explained how Force visions really work. When Luke Skywalker headed to Dagobah, he had no idea what to expect. He didn’t even recognize Grandmaster Yoda when he first met him, because he was looking for a mighty warrior. Instead, he found a sage mystic who was willing to teach him the mysteries of the Force.

These mysteries culminated in an exercise in which Yoda encouraged Luke to seek visions from the Force. Oddly enough, Yoda never expected Luke to act on these visions; I think he instead wanted to use them to spur Luke on in becoming a Jedi by recognizing the dangers of attachment. But how do those Force visions really work? That’s been largely a mystery ever since, but the truth has just been revealed in Justina Ireland’s new novel Wayseeker, which stars Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh.

Vernestra Rwoh Is No Stranger To Force Visions

It’s One Of Her Most Notable Force Powers

A major character in Lucasfilm’s High Republic books, Vernestra Rwoh was played by Rebecca Henderson in The Acolyte. One of the most notable Jedi Masters of her time, Vernestra – or “Vern” as she’s sometimes called – possesses a unique connection to the Force. This means she tends to slip into Force visions while in hyperspace, experiencing glimpses of the past, the present, and the future. Wayseeker even hints she may have foreseen Order 66 by decades.

Troubled by her visions, Vern has spent some time studying the meditations of past Jedi on the subject of visions. Here’s her conclusion:

“One of the things no one ever tells you is how contrary visions can be. Every single aspect of the scene had been cobbled together by my brain. I knew that. I had read up on Force visions, and the majority of scholars believed that they were nothing more than the brain reading fluctuations and variations in the Force, ripples created by upheaval somewhere in the timeline of the galaxy. Given the frequency of my visions, I’d even spent years with various Jedi scholars trying to understand how best to use what I saw in an organized manner, but every effort failed. My visions seemed to work on a logic that defied explanation, as so many things relating to the Force often did.

I had concluded that it was not for me to understand just how my visions worked, but rather to accept that they existed and use them to the best of my ability. It was the easiest way to keep from going mad.”

Vern’s explanation of Force visions fits well with what we know; that they are generated by an individual’s own mind responding to some upheaval in past, present, or future. This explains the visions of Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas, whose own visions of the Clone Wars led him to commission the clone army in the hopes they would save the Jedi. It fits with Luke’s own visions in The Empire Strikes Back, where he saw what was about to happen to his loved ones.

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Vern Would’ve Approved Of Luke’s ESB Decisions

She’d Have Considered Yoda Wrong

Vern’s experience of visions is striking, though, in that she’d have disagreed completely with Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back. He seems to have wanted Luke to experience a vision so he could choose to step back and allow events to progress, whereas Vern believed it was her responsibility to act on what she saw in a vision. The two Jedi Masters had very different philosophies; Vern believed in getting involved, in trusting the will of the Force to act, while Yoda insisted on the necessity of caution.

The difference goes further than that, though, because these contrasting philosophies say something about the will of the Force itself. Yoda believed in submitting to the Force’s will, and thus not trying to change the future; Vern believed the Force had projected something to her for a reason, and thus wished her to act. Luke’s example in The Empire Strikes Back likely proved Vern right, because Luke learned the truth about his father – and the redemption of the Chosen One became possible as a result of his actions.