By Donna Watkins
With all of our technology it would appear that we are more connected than ever before but recent tragedies like Newtown and Boston show us that so many of us still seem to feel disconnected and alone.
Many psychologists agree that the origin of neurosis comes from feeling separate from others and of not feeling worthy of love. We feel that we are not connected to others or to anything that exists around us. Many of us believe that we are unlovable; that if anyone saw our true self they would run away screaming in terror. We are taught at an early age to hide and to doubt our own self-worth. We are taught that it is not who we are that defines our worth but what we “have” on the outside that people can see.
But at the same time, there are many of us feeling something stirring deep down within us telling us that things should be different-that this is not how life is supposed to be.
When the movie “Avatar” came out, mental health professionals noted a new disorder among people who had seen the movie, which they named “the Pandora Phenomenon” or the “Avatar Blues.”
For those of you who haven’t seen Avatar, here is a short synopsis: Pandora is a beautiful planet rich in the mineral unobtanium, which is being mined by an Earth corporation.
The native people (the Nav’i) have been fighting against the corporation and the military is sent in to secure the planet. All living things on the planet can connect to each other and to their deity, Eiwa, by “bonding”; a merging and intertwining of physical nerve strands. Eiwa is fully alive in everything on the world of Pandora.