Today’s
Enlightening Entertainment
will be presented
in Spanish and English,
with subtitles in Arabic,
Aulacese (Vietnamese),
Chinese, English,
French, German,
Indonesian, Italian,
Japanese, Korean,
Malay, Mongolian,
Persian, Portuguese,
Russian, Spanish
and Thai.
Twenty years ago,
I was not allowed
to come here.
It’s too far up the mountain,
too sacred.
And they are talking
about nearly three, well,
2,500-2,700 meters
above sea level,
because the Kogi live in
a high and almost
inaccessible mountain,
the highest coastal
mountain in the world;
steep folds, difficult valleys.
And a town like this
is rather hard to get to.
There are certainly
no roads leading to it.
As human impacts
on the climate have
worsened in recent decades,
the Kogi indigenous
people of Colombia
stepped out of their
centuries of reclusive
and self-contained living
in the coastal mountains
and began to share
a message of warning:
that the destructive ways
of humankind must stop
before it is too late.
Toward this goal, they
allowed the 1992 filming
of the BBC documentary,
“From the Heart
of the World:
The Elder Brothers’
Warning”
in a rare collaboration
with a foreigner,
British filmmaker
Mr. Alan Ereira.
I made a film 20 years ago
with the Kogi
That was called
“From the Heart
of the World:
The Elder Brothers
Warning.”
The reason that they did it,
the Kogi being an
extremely reclusive people,
is that they have decided
that their isolation
was unsuccessful
as a form of defense
since we’re in the process
of destroying the world.
And so they needed to
tell us what we’re doing
and try to persuade us
to stop.
That was 20 years ago.
This was my introduction
to the astonishing world
of the Kogi, the one
surviving high civilization
from America,
from the world of the Aztec,
the Maya, the Inca.
Because here you have
a highly sophisticated,
highly intellectual society,
civilization which
have been watching
our civilization
with horror, dismay,
and the feeling
of responsibility
for 400 years,
and it was that feeling
of responsibility
that made them
end their isolation
and make that film.
Twenty years later,
I’m summoned again,
and the message is,
“We spoke, we waited,
you did not listen.
Now we have to do
something more drastic.”
I have been in contact
with the Kogi of course
in the intervening period,
but I’ve never been
up their mountain until
they called me back.
I’ve only been to the base
of the mountain,
and their leaders,
Mamos as they’re called,
have come down
to talk to me.
And then they summoned me.
And this project
is something
quite extraordinary.
What they’re doing
is making a movie.
The movie
is called “Aluna.”
“Aluna,” well
why doesn’t Jacinto
explain the meaning
of the word “aluna.”
Well, the word “aluna”
means many things.
For example,
when you do things,
first, we think.
I mean, the “aluna” word
in our language is: to think
what one wants to do.
Through the word
“aluna,” I mean our word;
with that word we work
when we build a house,
when we build something.
When you work in some
very difficult situation.
So, Aluna is connected
intimately with thought
and with consciousness
and in fact, Aluna
precedes the world.
The world is created
in thought,
and without thought,
there would be no world.
This is the basis of the Kogi
understanding of life.
The material world
is nothing
but the present moment
embedded in
a much greater complex
of thought, which extends
back into memory
and in the future into
possibility and potential.
And we are just here
in the blink of an eye.
A cordial greeting
for everyone.
On behalf of the people...
On behalf of the people
of the four peoples:
the Kankuamo,
the Arhuaco, the Wiwa
and the Kogi.
We are in the northern
part of the Sierra Nevada
of Santa Marta
in Colombia.
Surely you have heard of
the principle or law “Sé,”
that is from before
the materials existed
that we see now.
“Sé,” even before
realizing the world.
That’s why
we always mention
the word “aluna,” because
it begins from there.
So before materializing
the world, we think.
This is town
at about 3,000 meters.
And here I am
in the pitch-in
that was set up to feed us
at this gathering.
And these are the wives
of the Mamos,
the male Mamos
that I was talking to,
and they were
preparing our food.
We were living, as they do,
mostly on starchy crops,
root crops.
It’s a very good,
healthy diet.
I always feel much healthier
after I’ve spent some time
up in the Sierra
eating their food, than I do
after I’ve spent some time
down at the bottom
eating ours.
And now, here
we see some of the kids.
And you can tell a girl
from a boy by the way,
by the necklaces.
We, looking at them,
unless you are familiar
with the culture, have some
difficulty distinguishing
male from female.
I can tell you the Kogi
have the same problem
looking at us.
And the first time
I went up there to film
with a mixed-film crew,
they couldn’t work out
which of us were male
and which were female.
The Mamos…
We just saw that house
with its rays
coming out of the top.
Now those rays are
the rays of the sun and
the rays of the influence
of the Mamo, reaching
over the community and
protecting the community
and guiding the community.
And the reason I was…
Now, that that you see
in that man’s hand…
he is a Mamo.
Next to him, by his knee,
you can see
a divining bowl, and in it
is the hollow bead that
he uses for his divination.
He drops that
into the water.
In his hand, was a thing
called a jatukua.
Now the children that are
kept in the dark for years
are being raised
to be Mamos,
and Mamos are –
well the word Mamo
is the same word
for the sun – they are
the enlightened ones.
They are the spiritual
guides of the society.
And the divining bowl
called the jatukua
is used to interrogate
the consciousness
inside nature.
That is a Mamo’s job
and that’s why
he is raised in the dark.
But also I believe
they are constantly
engaged in the daily life
of the Kogi population.
What it means is that
they leave some children
in a large cave…
to prepare them,
so that they study to face
different kinds of problems
that come to one,
to the people.
The Mamos are
to help and support
the entire world.
The president of Colombia,
the new president who is
just now been installed,
has gone to the Mamos
for consultation
and to seek their advice
in just the way
you’re talking about.
Of course, symbolic acts.
So that
he can gave advice.
In order for him to start
to control all the harm
that is being done
against nature.
That’s why Jacinto is here,
and Jacinto really
ought to explain
why the Kogi Mamos
are worried,
and what is it that
they are worried about.
They are worried.
Most of all
for the sacred places.
Which are
the sacred places?
Those that are,
for example,
the snowy mountains.
With stones with images.
The lagoons.
The rivers’ sources.
And also, where there are
coal mines, petroleum,
which are parts
of the body of nature.
Never at any moment
did we want to exploit
or damage or destroy
the sacred places
such as
the source place of water.
Never have they told us…
to destroy or exploit
the coal. Never.
Because those are…
we were damaging
Mother Nature,
or destroying.
And I think the point here is,
Jacinto talked about
the law of Sé, the law
that precedes everything
and whose rules
control all life.
And the law of Sé
is actually controlled
and manipulated and
managed at sacred sites,
and these sites are places
of management of the life
of the world.
And if you destroy
sacred sites, the life of
the world itself becomes
violently disrupted,
as I understand it.
Now, in the middle
of this meeting
in the front, Sagas,
these are female Mamos.
They might look
quite young to you and
nowhere near as young
as they appear to be.
I have always found
it very difficult
in a Kogi family to tell
who is the daughter,
who is the mother,
who is the grandmother,
because quite honestly,
they look pretty much
the same age!
Kogi women somehow
keep their freshness
and complexions
extraordinarily well.
But the point
what was going on here
is that these women
are making a speech.
There is a man in front,
who you will see later,
Mamo Pedro Juan,
making a speech
of explanation
of what is going wrong
with the world.
And those three women
are speaking the same
speech simultaneously.
Those women are in fact
the voice of the mountain,
the voice of the Earth.
They are the Mother.
And they validate and
authenticate every word
that the male Mamo
is saying.
And it is the authority
of their voices
that is being listened to,
because the Earth itself
is speaking through them
and he as a man
speaks to men,
he speaks direct to me
and tells me
what I have to hear.
And that, I have never
seen anything remotely
like this before.
It was extraordinary.
Now the one thing
that you’ve mentioned
which seemed
really startling
and interesting to me
was this business
of confession,
of being absolutely open,
to have no secrets,
to tell whoever
is your partner in life,
everything that happens
in the course of the day.
Is that a fundamental thing
to do that will change
who you are
and how you are,
and change the world?
The day, not just one day,
rather of the whole life.
Of course, and also not
just all the human society,
but also some of
those big companies,
to see, hey, that they are
destroying themselves…
we want to
destroy the world.
And so
how we can change that?
So the message is
introspection brought on
by having to speak about
who you are
and what you are doing.
That’s wonderful,
fascinating, marvelous thing
to have said. Thank you.
Introspective viewers,
please join us
again tomorrow as
we continue our program
with Kogi Mamo
Mr. Jacinto Zarabata’s
interview with
Supreme Master
Television,
in which he further
explains the Kogis’ timely
environmental message
for humankind.
It was nice
to have your company
on today’s program.
And now,
please stay tuned
to Supreme Master
Television for
Words of Wisdom,
after Noteworthy News.
May you enjoy
the awareness of
nature’s blessings for you.
Today’s
Enlightening Entertainment
will be presented
in Spanish and English,
with subtitles in Arabic,
Aulacese (Vietnamese),
Chinese, English,
French, German,
Indonesian, Italian,
Japanese, Korean,
Malay, Mongolian,
Persian, Portuguese,
Russian, Spanish
and Thai.
As human impacts
on the climate have
worsened in recent decades,
the Kogi indigenous
people of Colombia
stepped out of their
centuries of reclusive
and self-contained living
in the coastal mountains
and began to share
a message of warning:
that the destructive ways
of humankind must stop
before it is too late.
Toward this goal, they
allowed the 1992 filming
of the BBC documentary,
“From the Heart
of the World:
The Elder Brothers’
Warning.”
Most recently,
the leaders or shamans
of the Kogi society,
known as Mamos, sent
an official representative
to the United Kingdom
to collaborate once more
with British filmmaker
Alan Ereira, this time
in an effort to actively
spread their message.
In a live internet webcast
with spiritual
media group EsoGuru,
Mamos representative
Mr. Jacinto Zarabata
shared about
the Kogi Mamos’
spiritual way of life
and how they have been
seeing the rest of the world.
How much
do the Mamos know
about what is happening
in the rest of the world,
really?
They find out
when they consult…
because they have
so much sensitivity.
For example
in… deep inside.
In the thinking,
in his “aluna” (thought).
Suddenly,
not just the Mamos,
and others
that have like a dream.
Also, they consult.
So they know about things
like the eruption
of an oil well
in the Gulf of Mexico
from their dreams
and through thoughts.
Of course,
they immediately…
Some of them say well,
something is going on
in some other place.
And then
they act immediately,
in the place where
they have to carry out
their spiritual work.
Well, it’s obvious
that the Kogi Mamos
do not need television,
manage quite well without.
So this suggests
that the Mamos possess
powers or abilities
that we would regard as,
magical as not, not part
of the material world.
They don’t work
individually.
They just do their work
as a collective, as a whole.
They have decided to
communicate this warning,
more than warning,
a form of understanding
to change our understanding
of the world,
through the medium of film.
And in order to do this,
they’ve decided not just
to make a film, but to
invent a new kind of film.
So I will be working with
a crew which is partly
Western professional,
and partly
indigenous trained, and
they’re extremely good,
I have to say.
They are doing
something amazing.
“Aluna” will be
a very remarkable film.
During an interview
with Supreme Master
Television
in the United Kingdom,
Mr. Zarabata
further explained about
the Kogi people’s timely
environmental message.
My name is
Jacinto Zarabata.
I come from the Sierra
Nevada de Santa Marta,
from the Kogi people.
In the Sierra
there are four tribes,
which are the Kankuamo,
the Arhuaco, the Wiwa
and the Kogi.
At this time, I'm here
for several reasons,
because these days,
humanity or people want
to know the message
of indigenous peoples.
So, that's why we have
sent many messages.
The Sierra Nevada
de Santa Marta is
on a Colombian mountain
that is in between
three departments,
which are the
Department of Guajira,
Cesar and Magdalena
that is in Colombia.
How important is it
therefore
for the human race,
to stop the polluting
of the environment?
The Mother
gave us the territory
to manage, to use.
Today we are using
the management
that is not required.
For example,
if we remove a stone
or cut a tree, what effect,
what consequences
or what risk
could be caused for us?
For example
in mining operations
of coal, petroleum,
of many things.
Well, this is something
that generates development
for the human society,
but for us
it is not very important
to do that, but that it is
something that maintains
the body or nature.
For example, they operate
this exploitation of mines
of some minerals.
But it seems that today,
doing all that, you see
a lot of avalanches,
a lot of tremors,
for example,
earthquakes, which
have caused damage in
some parts of the country.
Today,
there are institutions that
have to do with mines,
to see what happens.
Perhaps we as men
think a lot, but so what?
It is nature
that teaches us, and so,
it is up to us
to learn from it, we have
a lot of things to learn.
I do not know if it's okay
if I make myself understood.
It's okay.
According to your culture,
how should we behave
toward nature?
Well the message
that one could give...
it isn’t from me personally,
but rather, the message is
from the beginning,
from the origin.
So that each one of us
was given some laws
and some norms
that must be fulfilled.
And then in this case,
we the indigenous peoples
of the Sierra
still keep our standards,
which were left to us
by our ancestral laws.
What specific advice that
the Mamos give to us?
There have been
earthquakes
in some countries
that have destroyed
some peoples.
Half of the population.
And, there have been
hurricanes that
have almost destroyed…
Eh, with landslides.
And also, there have been
a lot of diseases.
Not just the Mamos eh,
can send us the message.
Also nature herself
and in connection
with the Mamo.
It is already seen, the,
the message,
that we can start to listen
and to ask ourselves:
So how can we
make the change?
What we can learn about
the connections
between our daily actions
that is affecting
the balance of the Earth?
Our ancestors, our roots,
they left us how
to have the connection,
to co-exist with nature,
for example, with water,
with the wind, with fire,
with all species.
But it seems
we've lost the knowledge
or the laws or rules
that were had.
And then, there is
what seems to be that
we are destroying nature,
but not knowing the rules
or the laws that govern us.
We must learn from nature,
and that is why
all of a sudden,
there has been weakness
and imbalance in nature
that we ourselves
we are seeing.
Can you tell us a little bit,
how you connected more
with nature or how you
got closer to nature?
By having more connection,
for example,
respecting sites
that are sacred for us.
For example,
which are the sacred sites?
Those are the lakes,
the snow peaks, the stones
that have figures.
The older mothers,
for example, ponds,
the hills, and also
the sites that cannot be
exploited and also with
minerals, for example.
I do not think that
we would not be happy to
remove, let’s say, a lung,
some piece of our body.
We would be incomplete.
We would be incomplete,
and so the same:
Nature is
no longer complete,
it is incomplete,
and is no longer nature,
but that is
really manipulated.
Jacinto, being vegetarian –
or for example,
to practice a life
where we don’t have to be
involved with the massive
killing of animals –
will this get us closer
to nature?
Yes, because
it is something wicked
that we are doing,
for instance, to animals;
in this case,
we would not like,
let´s say, that someone
kills your brother,
you don’t like him
to be killed.
So it is the same.
All species
that exist in nature,
like animals, birds,
so many things,
they have to be respected,
like we want
to be respected.
This lack of respect
and unnecessary killing
for us to feed on
is one of
the biggest contributors
to the imbalance
of our Earth, what advice
would you give us?
Well, in this case,
it is because
we are not following
the norms and laws that
Mother Earth has had,
so, tempests appear,
hurricanes, earthquakes.
So the major disasters
that have happened
recently, for example,
floods in Pakistan,
fires in Russia,
landslides in China,
even the ice in Greenland
which is breaking up
very fast,
this is the way of nature,
as you have told us,
of sending us a warning
that we must change?
Or what is your opinion?
Exactly, it’s the same.
She herself
is sending us a message.
What change can we have?
And that is what we,
each one of us,
must ask ourselves.
But we become deaf,
we're stubborn
and that is why
we do not want to live,
and every day
it’s going to start charging
all of us our lives.
We found out
that the Kogi Mamo, or
your shaman, doesn’t eat
any meat or food
that is related to animals,
while he is training
to be a shaman.
If it is so, could you
explain to us the reason
for this pure diet,
with no animal elements?
Well, that's ... that's true.
Why? Because
when he is training,
when he prepares
to work with the animals,
to work with the sea,
to work with all the species
that exist in nature,
the Mamos prepare
without eating salt,
without consuming meat,
without consuming
many products.
And this is to be more
connected with nature.
To be more connected
with nature
and with animals.
Thank you.
Would you like to send
a message to the world?
One of the things at once,
I would like that...
that this is not
from a single person,
but rather that, together,
for example,
the people of the Sierra,
which are closer together,
they know of their cultures,
their traditions…
that you understand,
that these enter
your heart too.
This is something
that is reality,
what we're saying.
We are grateful
to Mr. Zarabata
and the Kogi Mamos
for their urgent concern
for humankind
at this dire time.
May we heed such caring
counsel through actions
to save our planet and
live harmoniously among
humans, animals,
and the environment
Thank you,
peaceful viewers,
for joining us today.
And now,
please stay tuned
to Supreme Master
Television for
Words of Wisdom,
after Noteworthy News.
May Heaven bless
Mother Earth and all
her precious inhabitants.