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Avatar – return to Earth causing depression

By Elizabeth Heathcote on Tuesday 12 January 2010

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Avatar - Celebrity News - Marie Claire

Fans of Avatar, the sci-fi epic set in the Utopian world of Pandora, are reporting that the return to earth and real life is making some feel depressed and even suicidal.

James Cameron's 3D epic uses incredible visual realism to create Pandora, a world where the native Na'vi live at in perfect harmony with nature.

The fan site 'Avatar Forum' has receive more than 1,000 posts under the thread 'Ways to cope with depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible', reports CNN.

Philippe Baghdassarian, the forum administrator, says he wasn't left feeling depressed by the film but he is not surprised that it has affected others.

'The movie was so beautiful and it showed something we don't have here on Earth. I think people saw we could be living in a completely different world and that caused them to be depressed,' he said.

Avatar tells the story of Pandora, a fantasy world of weird plants and animals brought to life on the screen by cutting edge technology. Humans want to exploit the planet but the native blue aliens, the Na'vi, live in harmony with their world.

One forum user wrote 'When I woke up this morning after watching 'Avatar' for the first time yesterday, the world seemed grey. It just seems so meaningless. I still don't really see any reason to keep doing things at all. I live in a dying world,' reports the Mail .

Dr. Stephan Quentzel, a psychiatrist, told CNN: 'It has taken the best of our technology to create this virtual world and real life will never be as utopian as it seems onscreen. It makes real life seem more imperfect.'

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Tuesday 12 January 2010

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We live in a beautiful, magical world! It may not be perfect, but who are we to demand perfection? It never ceases to amaze me how ungrateful some people can be. I advise anybody who is foolish and blind enough to feel depressed by Avatar to go and watch an episode of Life by David Attenborough - that will soon dispel this fantasy of a "dull", "grey" or "dying" world. If we lived on Pandora, maginificent as it looks, no doubt these same people would find a way to complain there too. They should be ashamed of themselves.
Comment by Sara on January 12 12:42

What a load of codswallop! Excellent film but you've gotta be under the influence of a substance or mentally sick to find reality depressing!
Comment by Sue on January 12 13:45

As the fantasy writer Terry Pratchett put it, in the words of his character Death in The Hogfather: "Human beings make life so interesting - do you know that in a universe so full of wonders, they have managed to invent BOREDOM? Quite astonishing!"
Comment by Howard on January 12 13:57

I found this movie incredibly inspiring as it contained so much truth and idealism. Too many children today don't have fairy stories told to them as children so lack the ability to imagine a more beautiful and spiritual world. It is imagination that enables us to actually CREATE a more beautiful world, or at least to protect as much of it as possible from the ravages of materialism, technology etc.

I was also fascinated by the fact that it was the female N'avi who eventually overcame the army general. My understanding is that she was able to do this as a result of strength gained by being in touch with the divine through the Sacred Tree.

The Sacred Tree can be either an external place (or tree) or it can be an inner place or experinece accessed through meditation or prayer. For people who are depressed - perhaps 'Avatar' is their first experinece of the divine - there is a great world of spirituality already here on earth to be discovered! You only have to start looking, believing, and having an open mind.

And yes, there are also many beautiful and magical places on this earth left to visit that remain untouched by 'progress'.

That's why peopole go on pilgrimages!
Comment by Sal on January 21 08:58

Doesn't surprise me that ppl are depressed, yes this world is a crazy place, but it is very sad what humans are doing to each other and to nature. The worst thing is ppl are powerless to change things, so we just have to carry on consuming.
Comment by Anna on January 28 12:18

I think that people who were depressed after watching Avatar were depressed anyway and this was the last straw. If you complain about the world being grey then what are you going to do about it? Stop wearing so many black and grey clothes for a start and add some colour to your life. Keep some house plants and buy or pick some flowers and put them in a vase.
Comment by Teresa Lewis on March 18 18:24

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