The Truth About the Dark Side

Over the past decade I've suffered a lot. Don't take that as a complaint, as I think it has made me stronger. However, the pain I experienced pushed me into the dark. For a long time I thought, "Fine, I don't care about myself or anyone or anything. If I'm going to suffer, what does anything matter?". I may not have turned into a murderer, but my despair was enough to keep me in the shadows. You don't have to commit a crime to fall to the dark side. All you need is a little apathy, which is exactly what I had.

The reason I'm posting this, is because there are some who would like to dance on the dividing line between night and day. I'm here to say that it isn't worth it. Exploring the dark side can only harm you and everyone around you. My own delving into it destroyed me as a Jedi and a human, and it hurt my family as well.

Fortunately, it is possible to recover/return/repent. All it took was a decision, a promise to myself that I would stop being careless, that I would start loving again and appreciating the gift of life. For many, I'm sure, this sounds impossible. It isn't. All you need is a little faith, not even that much. Just a small amount of belief that within you is a light shining, even if all it is is the flame of a candle. This flame can never be extinguished, despite what you or others may think.

Feed the light. Let it burn brightly on yourself and on others. The very first kindling you put on the fire will cause it to grow, and that growth will make you want to add more. It's a loop. It feeds on itself. Positivity attracts more positivity.

May the Force be with you...

Streen wrote: For a long time I thought, "Fine, I don't care about myself or anyone or anything. If I'm going to suffer, what does anything matter?".

What part of that would you consider dark? I see nothing that resonates with the dark aspect, as it currently stands.

Streen wrote: You don't have to commit a crime to fall to the dark side. All you need is a little apathy, which is exactly what I had.

I think you misinterpret what it means to be dark. It has nothing to do with apathy.

Streen wrote: The reason I'm posting this, is because there are some who would like to dance on the dividing line between night and day. I'm here to say that it isn't worth it. Exploring the dark side can only harm you and everyone around you. My own delving into it destroyed me as a Jedi and a human, and it hurt my family as well.

Then you misused it.

Streen wrote: Fortunately, it is possible to recover/return/repent. All it took was a decision, a promise to myself that I would stop being careless, that I would start loving again and appreciating the gift of life.

It's good that you stopped being careless, but, again, that has nothing to do with the dark side. Do you not think the dark loves or appreciates life?

Streen wrote: Positivity attracts more positivity.

Probably the most cogent thing you've said.


You mention apathy and carelessness, of which neither term is in alignment with the dark. Thanks for trying, though.

I'm glad you found your light again. Going through dark times (different from being dark) pushes one to re-examine their life and everything that went wrong. It's during that time that planning the next step is most important. How did you use your dark time? How productive were you? If you didn't do anything productive, then you, indeed, misused that time, of which you weren't being dark, but self-loathing and apathetic.

So, you were a decent human being until something bad happened and you let your emotions control your actions. You then came to the realization that being a decent human being was better than not being one. Is that correct?

Once again, I'm glad you pulled through, regardless of the method. Your journey, I'm sure, has taught you many things.

There's nothing wrong with disagreeing with someone, let's please stop pushing forth our opinions as universal fact while dismissing the opinions of others, regardless what you may believe...

Of course there is no such thing as a "Truth" about the Dark Side, and I could go on my usual rant about the nature of truth and so on, but that's hardly what this topic is about.
One could also argue that what you understand the Dark Side to be may not be what anybody else does and in all likelihood isn't. All the same none of us evidently know anything about the truths of the matter because there are no truths on this matter and pretty much everything we say we either repeat off someone else or make up on our own. Again, not very topical.
Now, if during all of your depression you still had faith that there is some metaphorical candle flame inside you, were you then really over on the other side or just at a low point like everybody else who is "walking the light"? What do you say to people who embrace what they understand to be the Dark Side yet are neither depressed nor rejecting the flame metaphor? If your version is the Truth about the Dark Side, they must be mistaken about it or even lying to the rest of us.
And what about people who get so low that they lose faith and hope and the candle flame idea? Are they lost beyond redemption unless they get back to believing as you do? Haven't we heard enough of this nonsense from other pulpits yet?

With all that, still the strongest objection I have is to your second paragraph. You are not talking to those "on the fence", you are just preaching to what you must be perceiving as sheep to never go near it because of all the dangers that lurk about there. "For their own good", if you will, they ought not venture to the edges, ought not face challenges, ought not challenge themselves.
I am by no means an advocat of "the Dark Side", I hardly know what it means outside of the fiction and from all I could gather, just as with the light, nobody else knows either. But the explicit opposition to exploration is what is troubling to me. The church-like traumatic nihilist experience stories coupled with implicit scare tactics are, too.
This is the internet. Things don't work like that here. Religions of this kind, religions of old, they don't flourish here, they die. So don't make Jediism be like them and perish alongside them, too.

I'm glad you are feeling better about your life. I hope you are able to see it through. You have friends here if you need support.

Feed the light. Let it burn brightly on yourself and on others. The very first kindling you put on the fire will cause it to grow, and that growth will make you want to add more. It's a loop. It feeds on itself. Positivity attracts more positivity.

This is a beautiful statement!

All it took was a decision

A truth many are in denial of.

Rickie wrote:

All it took was a decision

A truth many are in denial of.

Something I learned a long time ago, and I wish was easier to teach to others, It's one of those lessons that you have to experience to learn, to my knowledge can't yet be taught, which is the hardest thing to watch patiently for someone to go through.

THIS PLACE IS ALIVE! I love the decision's being made here on a daily basis! You are not alone friend Let the light so shineth !

Yin and yang dude, interconnected elements of the same great entity.

Its not wise to push people away from negativity and encourage that they focus soley on positivity, such things inflate the ego and inhibit growth.

Its the circle of life, you have to have some negative to result in positive things, and in all positive things, there is some negative consequence.

Its important to appreiciate and respect both aspects, without treating either as unholy or divine. To do so insults the fabric of our existance.

I'm glad to hear you are in a better place though.

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