Full disclosure: “Star Wars” was released in 1977 – when I was 8ish years old. This post started as a “reply” to something else – and grew – so I apologize for the lack of real structure – kind of a work in progress …
I am still a “George Lucas” fan – no, I didn’t think episodes I, II, and III were as good as the original trilogy but I didn’t hate them either.
George Lucas obviously didn’t have all of the “backstory” for the “Jedi” training fully formed when he was making “Star Wars” back in the late 1970’s
in fact the “mystery” of the Jedi Knights was (probably) part of the visceral appeal of the original trilogy (Episodes IV, V, and VI – for those playing along)
As always when you start trying to explain the “how” and “why” behind successful “science fantasy” you run into the fact that these are all just made up stories and NOT an organized religion handed down by a supreme intelligence
if you want to start looking at “source material” for the “Jedi” – the first stop is obvious – i.e. they are “Jedi KNIGHTS” – which should obviously bring to mind the King Arthur legend et al
in the real world a “knight in training” started as a “Page” (age 7 to 13), then became a “Squire” (age 14 to 18-21), and then would become a “Knight”
of course the whole point of being a “Knight” was (probably) to be of service and get granted some land somewhere so they could get married and have little ones
since Mr Lucas was making it all up – he also made his Jedi “keepers of the faith” combing the idea of “protectors of the Republic” with “priestly celibacy” — then the whole “no attachments”/possessions thing comes straight from Buddhism
btw: all this is not criticism of George Lucas – in fact his genius (again in Episodes IV, V, VI) was in blending them together and telling an entertaining story without beating the audience over the head with minutiae
ANYWAY “back in the 20th century” describing something as the “Disney version” used to mean that it was “nuclear family friendly” — feel free to psychoanalyze Walt Disney if you want, i.e. he wasn’t handing down “truth from the mountain” either — yes, he had a concept of an “idealized” childhood that wasn’t real – but that was the point
just like “Jedi Knights” were George Lucas’ idealized “Knights Templar” – the real point is that they are IDEALIZED for a target audience of “10 year olds” – and when you start trying to explain too much the whole thing falls apart
e.g. the “Jedi training” as it has been expanded/over explained would much more likely create sociopaths than “wise warrior priests” — which for the record is my same reaction to Plato’s “Republic” – i.e. that the system described would much more likely create sociopaths that only care about themselves rather than “philosopher kings” capable of ruling with wisdom