OK get ready, shot me down, call me a lamer, tell me I dumb. But had a thought about the whole Jedi dissapear in the OT series but not yet in the PT(not counting ROTS)
Here my idea, thoughts welcome?

I always saw the "ghost" of Anakin, Yoda and Ben as just that, a ghost. But no one else, as for ATOC has dissappeared. Also if your dead, you midi-chlorians would seem to die also.
So what if they are not really dead at all. Maybe, those with great force power, have found away for the midi-chlorians to completely take over ones body. Making it one with the force. Before Obi-wan is killed we see him close his eyes. Maybe he is releaseing that power to the midi-chlorians cells with in him. Giving the totally contorl over his body. Yoda, knowing he's about to die of old age, she he lets the midi-chlorians take over. Anakin, also knew in Jedi that he was about to "die" and now being back to go, the midi-chlorians took him. So they do not really die, they just become one with the force, they become "more powerful" as Obi-wan says.

Any Jedi strong with the force could let the midi-chlorians take them over, and at anytime become one with the force. Not just a death. If they know how.
From TPM
"Midi-chlorians are microscopic life-forms that reside within the cells of all living things and communicate with the force."
So Midi Chlorians are closer to the force than the Jedi? Right? So they could over take the body, bring it and the person close to the force.
Also from TPM
"Life-forms living together for mutual advantage. Without the midi-chlorians, life could not exist, and we would have no knowledge of the Force. Our midi-chlorians continually speak to us, Annie, telling us the will of the Force."
They live together, what would happen if they lived on there own, if they took over the body?

Maybe you should listen to the RotJ commentary when Hayden is on screen Midi-clorians have nothing to do with the ghost thing. They are only the way to acces the force. Like any means to an end they do not explain the why, only the how.

Being prepared to die has absolutely nothing to do with the disppearing trick. If that was the case, then more Jedi than just Obi-Wan and Yoda would have disappeared, and we know officially that Yoda and Obi-Wan are the only two that ever disappear (well, not including Anakin).

I'm almost positive that this Jedi trick has something to do with the Force trying to help the Chosen One bring balance. This is one of the biggest things I can't wait to find out in Episode III. We already have all the pieces (according to Lucas), but I'm anxiously awaiting the puzzle to be put together onscreen.

Need to watch the commentary's haven't yet

so we have seen the why, and just don't know it yet?

Yeah, George said something like "All the pieces are there already, you just got to put it together."

EDIT: Heh, well I was sorta close. :p

Starlog Magazine: Isn't that Qui-Gon Jinn's voice we hear during Anakin's attack on Tusken Raiders?

GL: That's a fan thing, isn't it? It's actually more than that. It's a plot point. All I can really say is that you'll find out more in the next film. If you thought really hard, you would probably be able to figure it out, but it really is a setup for the next film. It's connected with the whole ability to be brought into and become part of the Force, but still be able to retain your ability - which, up to this point, Anakin couldn't do. We talked to Liam Neeson about recording new dialogue, and we went back and forth about it. This dialogue is something we already had from "The Phantom Menace". Next time will be a little more complicated.

Maybe there's another quote that I'm forgetting, because I coulda swore he said that everything's there already. Maybe I'm just losing my memory in my old age.

No, the midiclorians are "how" the Jedi are connected to the Force. They do not explain their relationship with it, the "why".

Yeah, I don't recall being in on the making of that theory, but I certainly subscribe to it. The Force WANTS to be in balance. That's why when the Sith started rising again it impregnated a woman ("conceived by the midichlorians") with the Chosen One to do so. Since the chosen one is only human after all, he falters from time to time. When he taps the dark side to kill Tuskens, the Force tries to warn him not to in the form of Qui-Gon, since he would recognize Qui-Gon. When he falls to the dark side, it's up to his son to redeem him. When he's about to get blown to shreds in the Death Star, Obi-Wan and the Force (or the Force and Obi-Wan, more likely) help guide the torpedos home. Etc etc.

One strange thing... I was watching Empire today and Obi-Wan says to Luke "If you choose to confront Vader you will do it alone. I cannot interfere."

...why? If it's the Force's will for the Chosen One to bring balance, if he kills Luke or turns Luke, then the whole shebang is blown. I gotta assume the Force would want to intervene if Luke was getting kicked around.

Ideas?

The key problem with any/all of these theories is that Lucas seems to be on record with the notion that only Obi-Wan, Yoda and Anakin have ever managed to pull this trick off. And none of them happens to die in ROTS, which is Lucas's last chance to explain this to us.

So either Qui-Gon comes back and explains it, or one of these guys "discovers" it somehow during the course of ROTS. Either way, seems like we're in for a lot of clumsy exposition as something that should have been shown to us is instead told to us.

Much like Vader's own disappearance...never shown, but we're expected to just accept that it happened.

My suspicion is that this is not going to be adequately explained.

Well the way Qui Gon tells it in TPM, it seems like the Force can speak to Jedi directly through their midichlorians. He goes on about how they guide your actions and how Anakin will hear them talking when he learns to quiet his mind. So maybe because Luke can't actually do that properly, the Force needs to adapt and use Obi-Wan to do it?

I guess the idea that the Force is not letting Obi-Wan, Yoda and Anakin "cross over" makes the most sense. Cause let's face it, Luke would have been stuffed if there'd been no ghost of Obi-Wan to help him out. He'd have missed the shot on the first Death Star, he'd never know about Yoda, he wouldn't know the full truth about Vader/Anakin.

Qui-Gon was a quack. Forget him and his crazy midi-chlorian theory.

I like Fatboy's theory. Just wondering how the end of RotJ fits in there when Anakin appears? Actually, speaking of which, I'm stunned that Lucas didn't make Anakin disappear when he dies. It seems clear in the movie that he didn't disappear and yet I think it's on starwars.com that he did so Lucas must have since changed his mind on that. Or changed it and then changed back. I don't know...

But yeah, I do like Fatboy's theory. In a way it fits in with my perception of AotC. See, when I saw it first, I didn't think that Qui-Gon (quack) had come back or anything - I thought Yoda was hearing Anakin's inner conscience which was manifesting itself as the memory of Qui-Gon (Anakin's first Jedi hero role-model). After all, whatever it says in the novel, in the film Yoda doesn't seem remotely stunned about Qui-Gon. He talks about Anakin, because what he felt was Anakin's pain and his feelings. So, going with Fatboay's theory and sticking it to my own AotC perception, Anakin was effectively pulling Qui-Gon in as his conscience. It wasn't enough to stop his actions. When Luke uses the same trick, it works a little better because he is more controlled (in his psyche rather than the Force) than his father.

Dogg.

Yeah, I was just thinking... the Force can't interfere and help Luke in this case because that would mean helping Luke destroy Vader. And the Force doesn't want that (yet) because he hasn't fulfilled his destiny yet.

Seems reasonable, I guess.