A few days ago, four children were found in the Colombian jungle who miraculously survived the crash of a light aircraft and were searched for 40 days.
On the plane that crashed on May 1, 2023, in addition to children, their mother and uncle were flying. They were from the Huitoto Indian tribe. All adults, including the pilot, were killed. The mother lived for four days after the plane crash, and dying asked the children to leave this place.
The search for three girls and a boy aged 13, 9, 4 years and 11 months began on May 6, when the remains of the aircraft were found. The military and local residents from among the indigenous population joined the search, including the father of two youngest children, Manuel Ranok.
It was not until May 17 that the first signs were found that the children were still alive. Search parties found a baby bottle, half-eaten fruit and dirty diapers. However, incessant heavy rains and dense thickets complicated the search, exhausted the stamina and weakened the spirit of the search parties.
And then the Indians decided that the land of their ancestors, Selva Madre (Mother of the Jungle), should help them. On the night of the 39th day of the search, Manuel Ranok drank an ayahuasca drink , which Amazonian shamans prepare from a variety of tropical plants and which introduces a person into a strange state in which they see colorful hallucinations.
Ayahuasca or yage has been used for centuries to communicate with ancestral spirits, as well as for healing and empowerment. It is believed that ayahuasca has a very strong effect on the human subconscious, raising the deepest layers of the subconscious, fears and experiences.
Henry Guerrero , 56 , another Native American volunteer, told The Associated Press that his aunt cooked yage for their search party. They believed that the drink would cause visions that could lead them to children.
“I told them: We won’t succeed. We won’t find them with the naked eye. The last resource is to drink yage. Such a journey really takes place at very special moments. It’s something very spiritual.”
The men drank yage and saw different visions for several hours. But when the effect of the drink wore off, they said it didn’t help and didn’t give them any clues. People were disappointed and some of the searchers were already ready to drop everything and leave the jungle.
But the next morning, when it was already 40 days of searching, the elder of their group, Jose Rubio , convinced them to give the yage a “second chance”. He took the rest of the decoction and drank it, and then for a while he saw hallucinations.
Then he vomited, which was considered normal when taking yage, and then he stated that “it worked” and “We will find the children today!” Encouraged by his words, groups of military and civilians began to search the jungle again.
But then evening came and they did not find anyone, sadly returning to the base camp. However, one of the groups moved a little further than the others, found the tracks of the dog, followed them and … eventually came to a clearing, where they found all four children alive.
It turned out that rescue teams had previously regularly passed by this clearing just 20-50 meters away, but for some reason did not notice it and missed it. There were also reports that the children themselves hid from strangers because they were afraid of them.
The children were exhausted, but they knew how to behave in the jungle and the older girl named Leslie took care of the younger ones. Initially, they found water and some food in the crashed plane, and then ate tropical fruits.
“The jungle saved them,” President Gustavo Petro said. “They are the children of the jungle, and now they are also the children of Colombia.”
Manuel Ranoc agrees with this, but believes that the culture and rituals of the indigenous people also saved the children. He pays tribute to the Yaga and the visions of the elder of their group.
“This is the spiritual world and yaga is the most respected. This is the maximum concentration that is achieved in our spiritual world as an indigenous people. This (drinking yage) was so that the goblin, this damned devil, would free my children,” Ranoc said.
