Potentium The Potentium was the name of a sect of beings who had a particular way of viewing the Force as a whole ( without its traditional division into light and dark sides ) ; they used the term also to refer to the Force " itself " , instead of the vernacular term common to most of the galaxy — " The Force . " Beliefs . Counter to millennia of Jedi teachings , the followers of Potentium claimed that there was no inherent evil in viewing the Force . They claimed that what others called the light side of the Force was actually just the Force itself , which was inherently good . This was backed up by the fact that Ashla , the ancient name of the Force , came later to describe the light side . What others therefore called the dark side was a perversion of the Force , twisted by those who used it . Believers of Potentium said that the potential for light and dark sides resided in the user , not the Force itself , and that the Jedi were merely afraid to explore the full potential of the Force . They also thought that the Jedi Masters refused to believe in the Potentium view because it would mean the Jedi were not needed to fight evil , for evil would not exist . And since there was no dark side , there were no dark side actions or Force techniques ; in effect any action , good or evil , could be performed without risk as long as the intent was not evil . Some Jedi theorized that the Potentium may have originated as a Sith scheme to subvert Jedi teachings . About a century before the Battle of Naboo , the followers of Potentium were expelled from the Jedi Order , parallel to the Jedi Order ' s treatment of Gray Jedi as " misguided . " Yoda and the rest of the Jedi High Council did not consider them Dark Jedi , but they said it was the duty of the Jedi to use the Force to protect others , not study its absolute limits . The Council said that testing the Force to its limits would lead to the dark side . It should be noted that some followers of the Potentium still attempted to avoid the dark side . They , however , saw the dark side as something within themselves to be avoided , not something in the Force . They reasoned that if the Force was the energy that flows through all life , the dark side simply came from the corruption of humanity . They felt that if they could be perfectly moral , they could be immune to the dark side and therefore use any technique they wanted . This view was somewhat similar to the Unifying Force theory of the Force . Followers . The Potentium was theorized in 132 BBY . At the time the Potentium were expelled from the Jedi , Leor Hal was their leader . Prior to their expulsion , Hal had recruited many students from prospective Jedi among the aristocratic families of Coruscant and Alderaan . Sekot , the intelligent essence of the planet Zonama Sekot , accepted Potentium after its awakening , when it was colonized by some of the outcast followers under their first Magister , Hal . The colonists felt Zonama Sekot was proof of the Potentium philosophy , and Sekot eventually came to consider itself the protector of the Force ( though as some derisively pointed out , this protectorship was self - appointed ) . Sekot later confessed to young Anakin Skywalker , however , that indeed it was " not " the Potentium . Vergere , an Old Republic Jedi who was captured by the Yuuzhan Vong while on a mission to Zonama Sekot , was believed to have taken the idea of the Potentium as one of the hallmarks of her teachings , while still contradicting the Potentium ' s main edict of evil being " nonexistent " . At some point before 44 BBY , Jedi Masters Qui - Gon Jinn and Mace Windu had a run - in with a group of Potentium apprentices . Although many believed that Luke Skywalker ' s New Jedi Order practiced this belief after the Yuuzhan Vong War through Jacen Solo ' s insistence , it was actually closer to the philosophy of Gray Jedi as stated by Grand Master Skywalker himself after the Battle of Yuuzhan ' tar . Near the end of the Swarm War , the New Jedi Order resumed the more orthodox light side and dark side approach . Behind the scenes . The " Power of the Jedi Sourcebook " states that the Potentium is a corrupt , misguided philosophy , and was the first source considered canon ical within the continuity of " Star Wars " Legends that stated this outright .