Avatar and Ayahuasca

in nederlan one pilisch girl she using aya.try find

The Globe and Mail saw the same thing about ayahuasca: [link]

Points to ponder on about this film:

-Notice who the military commander was taking his orders from?
-Notice how the military commander described Pandora (If there is a hell, you might wanna go there for some R&R after a tour on Pandora.), when all the natives were fighting back with is bows and arrows.
-Notice who saves Pandora.

Yes, like you I appreciated the tacit endorsement of shamanic culture - but there are many other layers of 'Avatar' to chew on!

The overt political message within the film, political reaction to its philosophy, and the implications of it's success and media distribution models also bear consideration.

If interested, here's my review of the 'experience' of 'Avatar': [link]

went to it last night eating cookies as if my home planet was being destroyed by aliens...
AWESOME! Wish I had tripped ballz out to the sky!
The 3-D is awesome...
my criticism of hollywood lies more on the audience, and the lack of tripping at the big screen or just eating a good dose of ganja. Really people are way waaaay too critical-it's like music those who don't really make it or know how to do it are the biggest, loudest, most obnoxious critics of art-especially in pop culture. So my adivce to them is do more cannabis-even if you are already doing it. If you find yourself being judgmental try to do just a bit more-relax and enjoy- also try manageable doses of psychedelics with respect to movie veiwing. LSD had long long been in Hollywood before it went mainstream-so it only makes sense that LSD is the drug of choice for movie veiwing. Not to mention Avatar is 3 hours long perfect for LSD. Seriously - although I kinda wished I hadn't tripped at Bruno that would've been suited for a half-shut eye ganja high;

James... how wonderful it would be if people got money flowing to such causes. However, before people do that, their minds must change first. Storytelling, myth and legend are the way we humans change our beliefs and behaviors over time. It's not a quick process, more of a generational thing, but it happens. Children who are growing up now and see Avatar may reach adulthood with very different ideas about the world... millions and millions of them. In a sense, this falls into the "give a man a fish and he's fed for a day, teach him to fish and he's fed forever" category of things. Send money to help the rainforest, and you've done a good deed. Change people's beliefs and behaviors and you've inspired a thousand good deeds.

I remain unconvinced that Avatar has anything more sophisticated to offer than impressive eye candy.

It is spiritual sentimentality that does a fine job of perpetuating the re-enactment of tired repetitions of the same old archetypal tales. Living ones life in the footsteps of those who went before leads to dull spaces and empty ritual.

and pray-tell, who would of ponied up the 300 million to do so? Cameron is the director, not the man with the money to produce the film.

jamesk, I understand where you're coming from, but there's big issues at hand.

Giving 300 million dollars to the Ecuadoran tribes is treating the symptoms of one extremely localized case of economic imperialism without going after the global root cause. It's multi-BILLION dollar industries that are plowing over the rainforest to get oil and start cattle farms. These industries are only multi-billion because of the insatiable global demand for oil and beef. This demand has not been swayed by the seemingly obvious ethics of the situation, not only because the situation is not publicized, but because even when informed, the masses are not compelled to care. This is not an economic issue, or even a political issue. It's a spiritual issue.

People have walked out of Avatar calling it "liberal propaganda", honestly not understanding why the miners/military were the enemy. This is the bigger problem. A large portion of the American population honestly believes that the Christian Rapture will come within their lifetimes, and use this belief as justification for ignoring environmental issues.

Storytelling is a spiritual pursuit, and big stories can become social activism in slow motion. A big part of this effect is on children. I have witnessed it personally. As a child, I gradually became disillusioned with Christianity, but I was a completely obsessed Star Wars nerd. Although I did not consider myself a spiritual person at the time, I was completely buying into the idea of the Force, an energy that unites all beings. This basic assumption stewed in my mind for years and years, and became part of the bedrock of my personality. The power of this effect cannot be underestimated. It can happen to adults, too.

A movie like Avatar, with its message, becoming the most popular film OF ALL TIME might end up doing more good than cutting the tribes a check.

Avatar, to me, seems to be a metaphor for petroleum interests in Ecuador. Except in real life the corporate entities destroyed the rainforest, poisoned the ecosystem, and left the local tribes sick and bankrupt. Cameron should have spent the 300 mil on helping the real people in need, not inventing a fake rainforest to save.

I picked up the "survival guide" to Pandora, with tons of lore on the movie, and there's pretty blatant Ayahuasca references in one section.

There's this scorpion-like thing you see walking along a tree trunk early on, and in the book it says

"Only a few of the known species produce a psychoactive venom. Of these, only one, the Kali'weya, is used in the Uniltaron, or 'Dream Hunt' ceremony.

As part of the ritual, a prospective warrior must capture his or her own arachnoid, which is kept in a stone jar built specifically for the task. During the ceremony, the creature is made to sting the warrior in order to induce dreamlike hallucinations that are believed by the Na'vi to foretell the warrior's destiny and reveal his or her spirit animal."

then there's a little fact box that is kind of contradictory, but further obviates the Ayahuasca connection

"Venom is psychoactive and may induce hallucinations when used in conjunction with an alkaloid contained in an indigenous worm. Used in Na'vi rituals"

also an MKULTRA reference

"RDA scientists are involved in clinical trials on the mind-altering effects of arachnoid venom and Pandoran glow worms, focusing on susceptibility to hypnosis and its possible military use in chain-of-command issues, i.e., heightened obedience among its mercenary and security forces."

I agree with the article, but I think we can go much further. Blueberry (Renegade) is probably the bleeding edge of portraying psychedelics on film. As an animator, it's a personal ambition of mine to get close to a visual interpretation of psychedelics. Salvia is a pet challenge of mine that I'm tackling in my next short.

I want to gag anytime someone has a character tripping in a movie, and all they do is make some swirly colors and they see a fucking unicorn or something.