Vision

[Sacred Tsahaylu]

This is something that hit me on my walk back from work at 10pm tonight. A little background: I work at a hotel about a mile away from my house in the very rural countryside. I finished at 10pm and walked home. The walk home goes through a forest that is completely dark, even with quite a bright moon.

So, I was walking in the pitch black. I am usually more tense in the dark but since Avatar that has gone. I was relaxed and pondering what it would be like if there was biolume around me and then I wondered what it would be like if I was chased by viperwolves or a thanator. It got me thinking....

In Scotland, where I live, you can walk in the complete dark, without perceiving your surroundings, and not worry about being attacked by anything wild. Contrast that to Pandora where the night is illuminated by bioluminescence, and you would be able to see almost as well as during the day, and you are likely to be attacked by some sort of creature.

The line of thinking here is that vision is not everything! Is this a point of Avatar?
You may argue that the Na'vi phrase Oel ngati kameie is rendered meaningless by my reasoning, but you have to take into consideration the fact that Oel ngati kameie is not restricted to vision, as is explained in the movie by Norm:

It's not just 'I see you in front of me', it's 'I see into you'. C'mon, you gotta get this

So is "Oel ngati kameie" a phrase that will help us to shed our more materialistic natures for something else? I think it could be

[Stanley_9875]

Wow that was really interesting! Great insight!

[Pa'li Makto]

I think the line means that you can see the spirit of someone, beyond their physical form.
Not sure about your allusion to vision, I suppose as you said, that's the opposite of Oel Ngati Kameie, but hmmm..I'll need to think about this some more

[Stanley_9875]

Originally Posted by Pa'li Makto

I think the line means that you can see the spirit of someone, beyond their physical form.
Not sure about your allusion to vision, I suppose as you said, that's the opposite of Oel Ngati Kameie, but hmmm..I'll need to think about this some more

Oel Ngati Kameie is like a greeting to the Na'vi, and also like Norm said, its like saying, "I See into you" I see into your soul type thing

[Pa'li Makto]

No it's not the metaphor of Oel Ngati Kameie that has me thinking, it's how our lack of vision connects with lack of spiritual vision that I need to think about lol.

Sacred Tsahaylu raised an interesting point..

[Stanley_9875]

Originally Posted by Pa'li Makto

No it's not the metaphor of Oel Ngati Kameie that has me thinking, it's how our lack of vision connects with lack of spiritual vision that I need to think about lol.

Sacred Tsahaylu raised an interesting point..

Oooooh my bad I get what your saying

[Txum_kali'weya]

the word "Kame" means See spiritually.

The word "Tse'a" means see physically.

[Human No More]

Interesting.

I think that humans need to learn to See...

[Fkeu'itan]

Yes, very interesting.

From what I can gather, the phrase Oel ngati kameie itself is kind of similar to the Nepalese "Namaste" in that is used not only as a greeting, but also as a kind of 'my soul sees yours' kind of thing... but as for your experience, that is something I need to think about.

[Toshowlove]

A good point is raised!

I think that James Cameron totally harnessed the use of "see" in many aspects of the movie, in particular the bioluminesence. To me, and maybe because i'm artsy fartsy, it's a metaphor that just alludes to the beauty of the Na'vi.

They have the ability to see, and us 'sky people' cannot. And because everything works in harmony through Eywa this notion of "seeing" in any definition is played upon.

Its what makes this movie so beautiful to me!