Force vision / Legends Force visions were rare — but powerful — aspects of the Force , and considered the cornerstone of the Unifying Force . They were among the greatest of Force powers . Overview . Generally , when peering deep into the Force , a Force user had the potential to see events that could happen in the future . Force visions were extremely rare , and uncontrollable . Often , one would meditate to gain a vision , but only a few would actually succeed . Anakin Skywalker and his descendants , particularly his son , Luke , and his grandsons , Jacen Solo and Ben Skywalker , were often prone to Force Visions . They were known to occur sometimes in a Jedi padawan ' s Trial of the Spirit , preparatory to Knighthood . Master Yoda felt that visions were of great importance to the Force , and often acted on them as best he could . However , the Jedi warned that the future was always in motion , and that its events were only " possible " . As such , interpreting a vision by oneself was generally considered dangerous . Jedi Master Qui - Gon Jinn , for example , beheld in vision his Padawan Obi - Wan Kenobi , but as " an elder man , alone , living on a desolate planet , his only companions his dark memories . " Even so , Qui - Gon had to remind himself , as Yoda taught , that " " the future is not fixed , but fluid " . . . " " Visions did not have to come true . " Amongst Jedi , the Jedi Seer s of the Order were responsible for the majority of visions , and interpreted them for Jedi Consular s . Following the destruction and subsequent reconstruction of the Order , the Jedi Council of Seers took up this role . Some Jedi and Sith endowed with this Force power were capable of detecting when friends and apprentices were in danger , examining details of past events , and predicting the probable outcome of future actions or events . Vision - prone Sith , such as Darth Traya , could peer into the future many thousands of years and predict events with great accuracy . In this way , Traya was able to foretell the death of the last of the Mandalorians at the hands of a Jedi . But unlike the Jedi , the Sith believed — based on experience , or perhaps more often , on their own arrogant self - conception — that visions would always come to pass , that they must unfailingly endeavor to make them realities . Some Sith would even combine their own ideas of what might come to be into their visions . Darth Sidious was perhaps the most vision - prone Dark Lord of the Sith in history , and used his visionary gifts to ensure his own election as Supreme Chancellor , and his ascension as Galactic Emperor . Regarding his visions Emperor Palpatine consulted with the Prophets of the Dark Side , a Sith splinter group that was dedicated to studying the future through the dark side of the Force . Force visions were not necessarily limited to the Jedi and Sith , however . Others in the galaxy also experienced visions that might be attributed , it could be argued , to the Force , or " Ashla , " or whatever a given culture might call " the essential force behind all life in the universe " . O - Vieve , the Benevolent Guide of Kegan , for example , saw visions ( which Qui - Gon Jinn could not discount ) that foretold the coming of a great darkness that surrounded and emanated from the Jedi Knights — an evil that would spread to " engulf " the Jedi Order — but also glimpses or " flashes " of an ominous , destructive future event : " an explosive device sent to destroy an entire planet without a shiver " and " masked soldiers " who would bring " fear and suffering . " O - Vieve foresaw an invasion of evil that would " cloak [ entire planets ] like a black cloud . " But as Yoda taught , ever reminding those in his stewardship of this one constant in what was both a phenomenon and gift , Force vision would continue to have its limitations due to the factors of " multiple possibilities " or " outcomes " in any forecast of the future . For example , in 25 BBY , sixteen - year - old Anakin Skywalker experienced three different incarnations of the same Force vision , the general interpretation of which the Jedi Padawan thought he understood , though not its specifics ; but as his Master Obi - Wan Kenobi and Yoda " both " warned , there were elements in the dream that came to mean something entirely different from what Skywalker initially interpreted them as meaning . The vision ' s last manifestation had come to him just after having surfaced from an afternoon swim in the indoor lake at the Jedi Temple , near the Room of a Thousand Fountains . In the vision , he saw himself commanding a massive fleet ; he witnessed a slave revolt of hundreds shouting his name ; he beheld his mother , Shmi , in Mos Espa embracing him and heard the sound of her binding cuffs drop to the ground at the touch of his hand upon them . As the vision ended , Anakin knew he ' d somehow lost his mother forever , and everyone he ' d ever loved . Finally , he heard the echo of strange words : " The One Below remains below " . While Skywalker immediately confided the dream to his Master , neither Jedi was clear about its meaning . But when they consulted Grand Master Yoda , the ancient Jedi sage gave the meaning of " the One Below " as being a Koban title , referring to the centuries - long imprisonment by Advozsec warlords of Yaddle , the revered Jedi Master who was of the same species as Yoda . That she was about to leave on a very troubling mission to the planet Mawan was no coincidence : Yoda felt that Anakin ' s dream was a " warning " and the answer to the Council ' s debate about which Jedi team to send with her to address the grave situation that existed there . The visionary Padawan was disappointed at his dream ' s interpretation , for he had hoped that the time had come at last when he might " step out of his dreams " and return to Tatooine to free the slaves , but most importantly , his own mother . As it turned out , however , by mission ' s end , Anakin understood that his original interpretation of the vision emanated from what he " wanted " the vision to signify , based on his own wishes , hopes , desires . The binding cuffs that clamored to the floor , in fact , turned out to be " his own " cuffs , falling to the ground at his liberation by Master Yaddle from the captivity of Void in the Force Granta Omega . Skywalker ' s conviction that his vision revealed that he stood to lose everyone he ' d ever loved also took on a new meaning : for he ' d come to deeply admire and value Master Yaddle , who ultimately chose to perish for all the inhabitants of the planet ' s capital city of Naatan , including her fellow Jedi , when she sacrificed herself by creating a Force implosion to absorb into her own being the deadly toxin s of an Omega - created dihexalon bomb . Personal desire , as Anakin discovered , could cloud , then , a Force vision ' s true meaning , just as Yoda had forewarned . Ego , when combined with power , was also , it seems , a factor that " clouded " visions : Palpatine , in his visions , never saw himself die . Darth Caedus also saw many possible outcomes in his future , yet none of them involved his death . Notwithstanding , Darth Tenebrous was able to " calculate " the future and foresee his own death , professing that this limitation could be " overcome " if one ' s skill in it was prodigious enough . " Precognition , " " Force sight , " and " farsight " were forms of Force vision .