Film, Lecture, and Discussion: The Film "Avatar" and Borderland Consciousness: An Emergent Myth of Our Time
For all of its shortcomings,"Avatar" portrays an emergent 21st century myth reflecting a shift in the nature of consciousness itself on behalf of a dissociated ego construct that was cleaved from Nature in the Garden of Eden, to one based on communion with Nature, i.e. all of life; one that confronts civilization's excessive materialism, runaway power and self-consuming greed; a regressive male hero figure inconsistent with the new mythos endeavoring to give birth; a seeming racism that is attached to the dying hero myth of our time and yet,concievably essential for the survival of species Homo sapiens; a love story imposed improperly upon a reawakening transcendent spiritual reconnection of masculine and feminine; suicidal power complex that does indeed succeed in its goal, however unconscious and compusive; and a telescoping into the future of the fruits of global warming as we know it, and a new spirituality that while holding promise of permitting the continuation of our species in transmuted form, mistakes "worship" for "reverence," and "power" for "reciprocity" and "communion".
Living in the Borderland addresses the evolution of Western consciousness and describes the emergence of the 'Borderland,' a spectrum of reality that is beyond the rational yet is palpable to an increasing number of individuals.