And the Oscars Goes to...

What's Your Manifestation?

I am fascinated by definitions and word origins, so I "wikied", looked up, the definition of avatar.

[According to Wikipedia...

In Hinduism, Avatar or Avatāra (Sanskrit for "descent" [viz., from heaven to earth]) refers to a deliberate descent of a deity from heaven to earth, and is mostly translated into English as "incarnation", but more accurately as "appearance" or "manifestation".

AVATAR is a MUD (Multi-User Dungeon or Domain or Dimension) that has been in use since August 1995. It is an online multi-player text-based computer game that combines elements of role-playing games, hack and slash style computer games and social instant messaging chat rooms.]

While looking avatar up on wikipedia, there was a link to an article by AARON BRITT published: August 8, 2008 in the New York Times on the origin and use of word avatar, here is an excerpt from the article...

Derived from the Sanskrit avatra, meaning “descent,” avatar first appeared in English in 1784 to mean an incarnation or human appearance of a deity, particularly Vishnu. Hindu mythology avers that 10 incarnations of the peace-loving divinity will appear on Earth, each an avatar, or “descent,” of the god himself. (That Vishnu has four arms is not in dispute. As to the qualities of his bosom, however, the Vedas are mute.) From that celestial origin, the term’s meaning expanded beyond the strictly religious, coming to mean something akin to “an embodiment, or object of worship,” as in David Masson’s 1859 derogation of John Donne (a poet whose claim to the metaphysical was of a wholly different stripe) in his book “The Life of John Milton.” “Glad that the avatar of Donne, as an intermediate power between Spenser and Milton, was so brief and partial,” he wrote. Though Masson has assuredly done Donne wrong, it is video games to which today’s brief attention spans are partial.

The proliferation of avatar’s second meaning can be traced to Second Life, a multiplayer online virtual world, where players fashion their own online personae called avatars. The popularity of the game has shot the term into the mainstream. Philip Rosedale, the creator of Second Life, defines avatar in the gaming sense as “the representation of your chosen embodied appearance to other people in a virtual world.”

I have a Second Life account my avatar is Foxe Swordthain. An avatar gives one the opportunity to manifest themselves in a different way, to have a new experience.

In the movie Avatar, the main character is a soldier who was wounded and lost the use of legs; he is sent by the military to serve on another planet. In order to observe the "natives" of the planet the scientists created operable avatars that combine human DNa with the alien DNa. The avatars are controlled by a combination of biology and virtual reality. The drivers of the avatars are in a kind of cocoon from where they operate the avatars; they feel and sense what happens to the avatar. For the main character, who had lost the use of legs, this meant he could walk and run when he was using his avatar.

When the previews for Avatar came out, I did not want to see this film. I thought it was going to be another over special effected, costly blockbuster. The opportunity presented itself for me to see the film, so I did. It is a beautiful film, gorgeous animations. The film is a war story and love story, with a spiritual message.

Escape your own reality for a couple of hours, watch Avatar.

If you want your own avatar check out Second Life and while you're there, look me up....... Foxe Swordthain.