A Shaman of the Whills revealed to Qui-Gon Jinn the secrets of achieving eternal consciousness.
The method for maintaining an eternal consciousness was discovered by Qui-Gon Jinn, a Jedi Master, before his physical death. He gained this knowledge from a Shaman of the Whills. The Shaman of the Whills instructed Jinn that complete selflessness was required to retain one's consciousness after death. Subsequently, Jinn shared this wisdom with Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Like Jinn, Yoda also expanded his understanding of eternal consciousness through teachings from five Force Priestesses.
The concept of the Shaman of the Whills is rooted in the initial drafts of Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. George Lucas described the story as being recorded within the Journal of the Whills, a repository of galactic knowledge. The Shaman of the Whills was first explicitly mentioned in the script for Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith, specifically in a scene that was ultimately removed. This deleted scene depicted the spirit of Qui-Gon Jinn communicating with Yoda. In this unfinished scene, Jinn stated that a Shaman of the Whills had achieved eternal consciousness. A separate, cut line from a later scene also featured Yoda mentioning that the path to eternal consciousness was a secret held by the "Ancient Order of the Whills."
The final episodes of the sixth season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars—"Voices," "Destiny," and "Sacrifice"—provided further details on how Jinn acquired the secret of eternal consciousness and how he passed this knowledge to Yoda. In these episodes, Yoda learns the secret from five Force Priestesses, who had also trained Jinn, but there is no mention of a Shaman of the Whills. However, the official Databank and the now-defunct Encyclopedia on StarWars.com continue to state that Jinn learned from a Shaman of the Whills.