http://www.starwars.com/news/so-what-th ... -chlorians
The laws of the Force seem to have pushed all that pertains to its access and use to a VIP club.When Episode I came out a few people were upset by the role midi-chlorians played in the Force — particularly when a drop of Anakin’s blood revealed an unusually high number of them in his system. As Lucas explained in a talk with author Terry Brooks, who was about to start writing the novelization of the film, “In Anakin’s case, there are, instead of one or two or three midi-chlorians in each cell, there’s like a thousand. It’s unbelievable how many midi-chlorians are in there.”
So…what are they? Lucas expounded: “I’m assuming that the midi-chlorians are a race that everybody knows about [in the world of Star Wars]. The way you interact and interface with this larger energy field [the Force] is through the midi-chlorians, which are sensitive to the energy. They are at the core of your life, which is the cell, the living cell. They are in a symbiotic relationship with the cell. And then, because they’re all interconnected as one, they can communicate with the larger Force field. That’s how you deal with the Force.”
At least a few people felt that this negated the democratic aspect of the Force, despite the fact that in Return of the Jedi the story and dialogue had already made it clear that the Force was, at least in some ways, hereditary. The film had lines such as, “The Force is strong in my family,” which Luke tells Leia.
Indeed until that line in the film — or perhaps until we found out that Vader was Luke’s father in Empire — many viewers of the very first film, in 1977, might have entertained the possibility that he or she, too, could become a Jedi. After all Ben Kenobi hadn’t said that Luke needed any special abilities or blood testing when he asked him to start his training in Episode IV. Luke just needed to learn how to tap into the mystical energy field called the Force. Lucas, even after Empire, said as much in his story conference talk with scriptwriter Lawrence Kasdan and director Richard Marquand before they started shooting Jedi:
In this Lucas was consistent with what he’d said in the summer of 1977 — the first time he’d had to explain in more detail many of his concepts:Kasdan: The Force was available to anyone who could hook into it?
Lucas: Yes, everybody can do it.
Kasdan: Not just the Jedi?
Lucas: It’s just the Jedi who take the time to do it.
Marquand: They use it as a technique.
Lucas: Like Yoga. If you want to take the time to do it, you can do it; but the ones that really want to do it are the ones who are into that kind of thing. Also like karate.
“The Force is really a way of seeing; it’s a way of being with life. It really has nothing to do with weapons. The Force gives you the power to have extra-sensory perception and to be able to see things and hear things, read minds and levitate things. It is said that certain creatures are born with a higher awareness of the Force than humans. Their brains are different. The Force is a perception of the reality that exists around us. You have to come to learn it. It’s not something you just get. It takes many, many years…Anyone who studied and worked hard could learn it. But you would have to do it on your own.”
[Please note: While we were preparing the text for The Making of Star Wars, Lucas added a note to this passage about midi-chlorians, bringing his original words in line with his later thoughts and the events of the prequel trilogy.]
It’s interesting to see, however, that in 1977 Lucas was already talking about creatures with a more natural capacity to interact with the Force; perhaps he was already thinking of a creature such as Yoda. Perhaps, in a way, that idea morphed into Anakin (a “creature” born without a father — a result of the “will of the Force”).
Or has it?
We know that some people can be gifted, that is, have a high number of midi-chlorians, but it also implies that maybe all people in the galaxy can have some.
It's often been asked if one could artificially increase their count, or even inject them, clone them, etc.
A question that doesn't seem to be asked though, moving away from a more technology orientated consideration, is whether it's possible to stimulate midi-chlorian growth through years of practice, under the patronage of a Force Master.
As it turns out for many elements within our bodies, the physiology being elastic and responsive to some degree, just as much as you'd increase muscular mass by practicing weight lifting, cardio and what you want in a fitness club, couldn't one create a need for more midis by simply increasing his or her turning to the Force and its use?