On 14 February 1999, at the headquarters of the Colombian ethnic medicine foundation (FCE) outside Bogota, nineteen middle and upper class Colombians, most of them professionals,  had a meeting. They wanted to find out from one of the last sages of the Amazon forests, from the region of Araracuara, about the knowledge of the world, of oneself, and of the cure for diseases by the use of THE WORD. The sage´s Spanish name was Oscar Roman. He is about  80. He has said to his disciples that although at the moment his health is perfect, he will soon disappear. It was crucial to receive his teachings while he is still with us. He arrived with a son and two “nephews”. Among the Huitotos, “uncle” and “nephew” are terms of respect, and refer to members of the community.

The session started at 3p.m.. A very small amount of ambil (extracted from tobacco) was passed round. It has no hallucinatory powers and is considered to be sacred by the Enokaye - it represents the female, while coca represents the male. Ambil is “salty”, which it is in fact as well as metaphor. Coca is “sweet”, but does not taste sweet when held in “mambeo”. “Mambeo” is a word adopted by anthropologists, and it means “to hold in the mouth” (whether a thing or a word).It also carries the wider meaning of “listen”, for which the Enokaye word is “duga”.

The first sensation was a very intense desire to listen. Oscar Roman does not speak   Spanish very well, but , although he had his mouth full of the sacred coca powder, his words held weight, and an immense capacity for evocation. They would be unrivalled in comparison with the words of his son, who spoke fluent Spanish. The desire to listen was accompanied by a sense of great urgency not to miss any allusion, gesture or reference. At the same time, one´s body had a strong sensation of voluptuousness, sobriety or spiritual transcendence; but the physical sensation is extremely subtle, especially with the coca: If you are there, you ask yourself whether something is really happening physically, or whether there is some special attitude that generates all these changes. The metaphors and analogies explained by Oscar made each of us there find specific and deep personal references. If they were analyzed simply in terms of language, those references were local and limited to the vision of the cosmos of a member of an indigenous group and the way that it perceived the chaotic world of the rest of the world.

Each word that Oscar uttered carried several meanings. Each sentence made new proposals and new definitions. All related to a personal and cosmic reality. A single word served to ask a question and answer it, in the complex structure of family conflict and in making the right decision as to what action to take.

Oscar was the personification of the LOGOS. The words became more majestic with the intervals of silence. We realised that in fact we never listen, but simply wait  until we can express our own preconceived ideas about reality. We are always the victims of some kind of mental torture, in which there is no communication.

The distortions of the sacred coca leaf into drug-trafficking is simply the white man´s  way illusion that he can refine something sacred and thus come to master communication, understand the logos, and put a price on it.

The Huitotos knew that, and often say - with some fear - “ the time will come when the sacred will be trampled underfoot and discredited”. Cocaine, and its caricature of communication is the symbol of an immense source of wealth for the mafias and the people who try to suppress the mafias. The fear in this mental debate is the fear of itself. The basis of repression  is fear of fear itself, and of the advantages that institutions and politicians have of the fact that there is no communication between individuals and groups, at the center of action. The protection of this lack of communication is the main source of wealth, since only someone who is confused can be “informed” by the media, and then is manipulated.

Society, as Octavio Paz said, only tolerates its accomplices. Alcohol is allowed because it never questions anything, it deforms communication and never changes the status quo.   The mad and  the deluded are the dissidents who threaten the establishment. The individual who is taught by himself and his environment is also the least attractive to the superficial society which preaches that fashion is the most desirable life`s aim.

Just as love is rarely found in marriage - and to quote Octavio Paz again, in his Labyrinth of Solitude - since this rite is the only way in which society recreates itself; peace is not to be found  in talks. “Talks” means that people listen to each other, from the depths of the great silence from which we come. And that silence means respect for oneself and for the other.

Perhaps the Enokaye culture  holds the mystery of the gift of tongues referred to in the Bible, the opposite of the Tower of Babel. Perhaps those who go to one of their ceremonies will communicate with each other and with themselves. It will not matter that their native tongue is  German, English or Huitoto, or if they all speak at the same time, or they are all silent. But ambil or coca are not the real healers - not even the fascinating plant which the Enokaye call the “tree of wisdom”. It is the Word which searches the soul, time and fears. Plants are simply physical references, and that is why the Enokaye are not concerned that they should be “patented” somewhere else in the world,. “They can take anything they like, but they cannot take away the soul which heals”.

The soul which heals is born with the formation of the healer who understands the myth, seeing its darker and lighter side, and with the shaman, who works on the forces of nature. But not even the word itself has the power to heal, it is  the absence of the word, that nevertheless it is not its lack,it is the absolute power of silence, the all-embracing power to move around in time and space, the very denial of speech.