James Cameron, writer and director of the amazing film Avatar, has obviously plugged into our shared consciousness (Jung called it the "collective unconscious"). The film resonates with viewers because our cellular memory recalls the ancient world where we all could talk to the animals, the trees and grass and all of nature, a world in which we were clairvoyant, clairaudient, clairsentient, and all communication was telepathic.
It's not just a case of Cameron being highly imaginative; we actually share these ancient innate capacities and crave their reality, just like we crave the sea because we once came from it (and Cameron certainly connected to that yearning in Abyss and in a big way in Titanic). We long for this mystical land of Pandora, as Avatar's $232.2 million worldwide weekend debut indicates (it is well on its way to recouping the $300 million the film cost to make).
Cameron knows how to give audiences what they want: stunning visuals, high tech motion capture animation and revolutionary 3-D effects (it puts Las Vegas spectacles to shame), action scenes galore, environmental messages for those who lean green, and, of course, a love story. And viewers all will absorb the deeper messages of the film: that "shock and awe" don't work, that domination is not the way to go, that cooperation with all living things is mandated; they will hear its basic spiritual message of cross-cultural, eco-friendly unity. Everyone in the Na'vi clan is connected energetically, and they create healing power through their rituals. And it's no accident that the most powerful person in their world is a female shaman. We are returning to that dynamic today.
Kudos to Cameron. And for those who haven't yet seen the film, open your heart as wide as your eyes to absorb the true strength of this movie magic experience.