Back in 1999, I thought that the Unifying Force meant the Force in it's entirety, while the Living Force was part of the whole.
But the introduction of the Cosmic Force confused the issue for me.
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1The answer depends on what kinds of mushrooms George Lucas had on any given day. Personally, I gave up on ever grasping any logic behind all the flavours of Force philosophy - that way lies madness, or worse, Jar-Jar. – DVK-on-Ahch-To Sep 22 '15 at 16:52
From the way I understand it (sources from Wikia articles on both), the main aspect of Unifying Force wasn't its duct tape aspect (as with the Cosmic Force) of the Universe, but that it unifies both the Light and Dark sides into a single Force.
Ironically, it seems that this is mostly a terminological cross-purposing/confusion:
- When Yoda speaks to Luke of "binds the Galaxy together" in Empire Strikes Back, he speaks more of a Cosmic Force view, NOT the "Unifying Force"
Sources: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Unifying_Force, http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Cosmic_Force/Canon
Primary sources: Darth Plagueis, Jedi Academy Training Manual, Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "Voices"
answered Sep 22 '15 at 16:57
