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religion - Do heaven and hell exist in Star Wars?


In The Empire Strikes Back as Han Solo leaves to look for Luke Skywalker a rebel worker says




Your tauntaun will freeze before you reach the first marker.



Han replies



Then I'll see you in hell!



Is there a concept of heaven and hell in the Star Wars mythology? If not, to what is he referring?



Answer



A quick search in the Wookieepedia with the word "religion" produces at least seven results that are labelled as religion. In other words, seven articles in the Wookiepedia that specify a particular religion. The first seven are:




Also, in the article on Corellian Religion, it starts with the sentence:



Like many worlds, Corellia had its own religious traditions, associated almost solely with those from the planet.



So the first part of the answer would be, "Which religion are you referring to?"


Since you are referring to the comment from Han, and he's a Corellian, we'll look at that one. There are, according to the Wookieepedia, three comments made, including in the Extended Universe, that relate to Corellian beliefs and hell:



  • The well known "I'll see you in hell," from Han Solo (In Episode V.)

  • One from bounty hunter Garris Shrike who damned Solo to "all the hells there ever were."


  • In Wild Space, Bail Organa frequently mentions "all nine Corellian Hells."


One aspect of Corellian hell is Chaos. This is a special region of the Nether World of the Force where the souls of darklings (you know -- Dark Jedi, Sith - bad people like that) go when they die. It's worth noting that, in the Star Wars universe, there's support for this, since Force Ghosts talk about this (the Netherworld of the Force, that is) and Qui-Gon has been there and back.


So Corellians believe in different hells. Heaven is a different topic.


The Jedi believe that the souls those who aren't Force sensitive and die will lose their individual identities as they merge with the Force. (Similar to the Buddhist concept of Nirvana.)


There's no reference to an actual heaven that I could find, other than Force sensitives being able to exist as Force ghosts and eventually merging with the Force in the Force Netherworld. No mention is made of just how Force-sensitive one must be to be able to become a Force ghost or to not just merge with the Force on death.


So there's no direct indication of a heaven in Corellian religion that we know of, but since some of their beliefs tend to coincide with the Jedi, they may believe more in souls merging with the Force than a heaven where we keep our self-awareness.


(So I guess if the midichlorians don't like you enough to multiply and give you a high midichlorian count, you're just S.O.L. when you deep six it.)


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