In an act of divine intervention, or rather a psychedelic one, four missing children in the Amazon forest were rescued by the combined efforts of the Colombian army and indigenous volunteers.
Early psychedelic researchers were quite fascinated with psychedelics and their potential ability to induce paranormal states of consciousness. According to David Luke, a psychologist at Greenwich University, psychedelic users would often report developing ESP, telepathic and precognition abilities.
Well, the latest news story could be but one example of such cases where ayahuasca, a potent psychedelic brew containing DMT, known to induce mystical experiences consisting of interactions with other dimensional spirits and entities, may have helped a Colombian rescue crew locate four missing children in the Colombian rainforest.
On May 1st, in a disastrous turn of events, a plane with six passengers nosedived in Colombia’s Amazon jungle after attempting to flee a violent criminal group that had seized control over their Indigenous community. Unfortunately, the two pilots and the mother of four children were discovered dead. However, the children, Lesly, Soleiny, Tien and Cristin aged between 11 months and 13 years old, had gone missing in the deadly jungle where poisonous snakes and other dangerous predators lurk around.
Determined to rescue the missing children, Colombia’s Army sent 150 soldiers to search for the kids and work with the local volunteers.
Luckily, the children were able to survive the Jungle’s deadly conditions and were found 40 days later.
But, according to elder José Rubio, one of the rescuers, ayahuasca played a role in finding the children.
After 39 days of unsuccessful search, the rescue team had decided to take ayahuasca, also known as yagé in the region. The psychedelic brew has long been used by indigenous people in the Amazon basin in shamanic and spiritual rituals.
Henry Guerrero, one of the volunteers from the children’s home village, told The Associated Press his aunt prepared the yagé for the search team.
“I told them, ‘There’s nothing to do here. We will not find them with the naked eye. The last resource is to take yagé,’” Guerrero said. “The trip really takes place in very special moments. It is something very spiritual.”
The children’s father, Manuel Ranoque, also drank the concoction but didn’t develop any visions that could help in finding his family. Despite this, he believes that ayahuasca helped finding his children.
On the 40th day, elder José Rubio decided to finish the ayahuasca brew. After a few hours of intense psychedelic visions, he told the men: “We’ll find the children today.”
Not long after, one of the Colombian soldiers heard via radio that the children were spotted by a rescue dog in a small clearing a few miles from the crash zone— just 66 feet from where the entire rescue group had previously passed.
Of course, the fact that children were indigenous to the region and had great survival skills passed on by their grandmother played a significant role in their ability to stay alive. The kids were able to survive by eating fruits, seeds and cassava flour and by drinking water they collected in a soda bottle. However, their father also insisted that the ayahuasca and Rubio’s visions contributed to their rescue.
“This is a spiritual world,” Ranoque touted, and the yagé “is of the utmost respect. It is the maximum concentration that is made in our spiritual world as an indigenous people.”
They drank the psychedelic concoction “so that the goblin, that cursed devil, would release my children”, he said.
The children are now recovering in a military hospital in Bogota.
