Avatar and Ayahuasca: A film as allegory and most accurate depiction of the experience.

I have to admit to being a little surprised that poking around Evolver, I haven't seen a post about this already. Having seen James Cameron's Avatar a few days ago, I'd be hard pressed to find a more apt allegory for the ayahuasca experience, at least as I have known it.

If you have yet to see the movie, be warned that I will be revealing some plot and visual details to make the comparison.

I found myself crying at numerous junctures in the movie. These were not the obvious places of someone dying or something being destroyed (although I did cry at Home Tree coming down). I mostly teared up at the moments that reminded me so clearly of my own ayahuasca experiences. As the end credits rolled and the lights came up, I sat in my seat transfixed. I wondered if Cameron had taken part in ayahuasca ceremonies. I wondered how he could make this film if he had not had such an experience. And then I wondered what my continuing role might be in assisting our own Earth Mother (Pachamama) in spreading this message.

There is a throughline to the ayahuasca experiences I have had, and I should say that to this point I have only had the privilege of doing ceremony twice. Each time, when the experience fully took hold of me, I felt as if I was a leaf on the end of the massive tree of life. I felt as though jacked in, through the base of my spine. I felt the life blood of the universe enter the base of my spine, course through my veins, and take a complete inventory of my being. I saw all manner of beings, of this dimension and others, looking back at me. I heard them.

It would be difficult to describe my experience, in words or in pictures, nearly as well as the appearance of the Tree of Voices, in fact all of the connections involving the Queue, in Avatar. The Queue is the unique part of Na’vi anatomy that allows them to form a bond with other living things. When the Queue is connected to the Tree of Voices, the Na’vi hear the voices of all ancestors. That was exactly my feeling on ayahuasca. I saw and heard people living and dead.

Like the other bonds realized by the Na’vi, I saw myself and my position in the matrix of the universe, and I very tangibly felt the connections among all living things. There is a neuro-net among all living things, and the mother tree (Pachamama) is keeping the balance of life. This is as true here on Earth as it is in the fictional Pandora. Like the sky people of the film, we no longer think we have the ability to tap into this neuro-net. With ayahuasca (and perhaps with other modalities), we most certainly do.

And that is what I wanted to scream as I left the cinema and exited into the mall. I wanted to yell out that we are all connected, to the animals, the trees, the planet itself. But then I looked around. All those people lining up for corn-syrup-laced bubbly water. All the frazzled holiday-traffic-snarled faces. I wanted to let them know that Avatar is not a fantasy. It is happening all around them. Being a Na’vi is available to them. If they are willing to submit to an ancient ritual, they can reconnect with their Mother, the planet, they too can become a member of the Light Warrior Brigade. This Brigade is in service to Pachamama as she realigns the planet. Initiates know that they serve the greater good best by fully embodying their own joy.

But how to begin to communicate this to a mall crowd? Stand in front of a movie poster shouting? Look for the ones with a glimmer of light in their eyes, ready to be turned on? And then offer them what…a trip to Peru? a shaman’s business card?

So here I am, writing about it in a place where I trust at least some will understand. This movie has the potential to speed up the shift into a higher consciousness. Any possible ulterior motives shrink in comparison to the potential of causing a great re-think of our priorities as a species.

Rather than question his motives, I think it is the time to celebrate Mr. Cameron for taking the bold steps to make this movie. It is not a perfect film. It still celebrates duality, and glorifies some violence as noble. The battle over our own Earth Mother (Pachamama) concerns not the fate of the planet, but rather the fate of our human species. The planet will survive and come back into balance. Only by working in harmony with Pachamama and following her lead will we humans survive in the long term. And it will be done without violence (save for the natural violence of hurricanes, earthquakes, disease, etc.).

Now that the movie is out, it is our tool to use.

I ask us all, how do we best piggy back on the success of this film? How do we ensure that audience members have a way to apply their new-found concern, awareness, and consciousness, in a manner that gets them, and keeps them, as one of us Light Warriors?