tenzin believed and all, (and wished real hard, he even clicked his heels together three times), but that didn't get him anywhere. jinora's belief (i wouldn't really call it a belief, but i can't think of a better word) came from her inborn spirituality. the difference is the mechanism: which came first, inborn, or taught? either way, while i still resist calling her a medium of sorts, i think we can both agree she was more spiritual than some other people.
I suppose we'll have to disagree there. I am of the firm belief that the Avatar world isn't as based around being spiritual as a lot of people think it is. For instance, I don't think a population being spiritual has anything to do with bending percentages, and here, I don't think belief in the power of the spirits has anything to do with Jinora's abilities, as that is what spirituality is in the Avatar world plain and simple. Beliefs in the Avatar world, from my perspective, no matter where they come from, don't get people squat. Its natural inborn abilities that do the trick, independent of spiritual beliefs.
As for the title "medium", I can't think of many other appropriate words to describe someone who has a unique bond with the spirits like Jinora or Iroh do. "Shaman" implies some sort of training, and "spirit whisperer" just doesn't have the right ring, so I'm sticking with medium.
you do know that the term "medium" means somebody who talks to the dead and Jinora did not talk to the dead she just has strong spiritual abilities i wish i could elaborate more but i just can't find the right words to explain and as far as go beliefs get people nowhere if they did then cheif Arnook would've been a waterbender rather than a spiritual non-bender as for Tenzin he was supposed to be one of the most spiritual people in the world (with the exception of his father) and yet he still couldn't cross into the spirit world showing beliefs get you nowhere. Even in my fanon avatar: the adventure of Thoyrn where there is an entire city in the spirit world (spirit realm city) millions of humans, crossbreeds (half human and half spirit) and even spirits who believe get nowhere showing that even though you live in the spirit world that dosen't give you automatic spiritual abilities (possibly considering i based spirit realm city on chicago, tokyo, L.A and paris four very, very modern cities to show that they chose modern over spiritual) mot to mention that for most of Jinora's life she didn't even know she had these abilities
I was more referring to mediums in the sense that she could better communicate with beings from "the other side", as it is in some fiction. Since the Avatar world has no accepted afterlife, the term medium encapsulates Jinora's ability to communicate with spirits fairly well I feel. Shaman could potentially work as well, I suppose, as they tend to speak to spirits of the land as well as the dead, though again the term seems to imply training, which Jinora lacks.
Considering spirituality seems to be linked to pretty much nothing in the Avatar world, I believe otherwise. It is a supernatural link to another plane of existence, to be sure, but I doubt belief like spirituality is the cause. Like I said before, it seems that in the Avatar world, believing really hard in the power of the spirits doesn't get you squat in terms of additional abilities. It is study and natural talent that I think produces such things.
spirituallity seems to replace religion in the avatar world if you ask me because we have never heard of religions in avatar not to mention that not a single person in our world gets any special powers for being religous and the high spirituallity had something to do withy having no non-bending air nomads before the genocide spirituality may go differently for each nation
I dont think there was any special edge she had for staying in the spirit world longer. It was really only Kya/Katara's healing techniques that kept her alive so long. Also, Zhao was in there for decades without dying, but his entire body was brought into the Spirit World so I'm not sure it counts