Antioch Agent

An ‘avatar’ with it’s modern usage in instant messaging profiles and lately in a new block buster James Cameron flick  has some history.

Some of the noteworthy Google’s results when you key in define: avatar

• embodiment: a new personification of a familiar idea; “the embodiment of hope”; “the incarnation of evil”; “the very avatar of cunning”
• the manifestation of a Hindu deity (especially Vishnu) in human or superhuman or animal form; “the Buddha is considered an avatar of the god Vishnu”
  wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
• In Hinduism, Avatar or Avatara (अवतार, IAST ), often translated into English as incarnation, literally means descent (avatarati) and usually implies a deliberate descent from higher spiritual realms to lower realms of existence for special purposes. …
  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar

Notice the words… deity, manifestation, incarnation. The movement these days is certainly towards eastern mysticism and we see the borrowing of terminologies into the every day. Read up the wikipedia link and you’ll see that this, once again (like my previous posting on yoga) is not neutral.

I may be wrong, but I personally don’t think Cameron was oblivious to this.