The Amazon jungle is one of the least explored places on Earth. Many adventurers still go missing in this jungle, and here they still find lost tribes that have never had contact with civilization.
And those who manage to return from here are often told about unusual animals and even more unusual savages.
One such traveler was Lauren McIntyre (1917-2003), an accomplished photojournalist and writer who has featured in magazines such as National Geographic, Time, Life, Smithsonian, and GEO.
Some called McIntyre the prototype of Indiana Jones, because he was an equally indefatigable explorer, and he was also incredibly lucky on various adventures.
In 1969, McIntyre went to the Amazon and found there a tribe that few people still know about, although now various photographers often get to them and then publish colorful pictures of the Indians in the media.
But McIntyre did not just meet these Indians, he lived among them for 2 months and found that they were able to communicate using telepathy. And this is not a bike, but a real event, an article about which, for example, National Geographic published in 2016.
The tribe in which McIntyre lived is called Majoruna or Matse and they are so elusive that you can wander around for several months and not meet a single person. This is not only because of their secrecy, but also because of their small number, basically they all live in one settlement on the banks of the Amazon River in the Javari Valley on the border of Brazil and Peru.
Other tribes are named from "Cat People" because of the long, sharp sticks that they wear on their faces as adornments by inserting them into their noses.
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When McIntyre went to this valley, he quickly realized that he could return with nothing, days went by, and he wandered through the virgin jungle and did not see any signs of human existence there.
He even began to joke that he would perish here as his idol Percy Fossett, who disappeared in the Amazon in search of the Lost City of Z, when he stumbled upon a clearing on which four bodies of Indians lay covered with ants. Nearby lay their axes and uncut trees, and the bodies of the Indians were studded with arrows.
This gloomy find forced McIntyre to be more careful, he realized that somewhere there were wandering people who could easily kill several people just for cutting trees on their territory. And he was overwhelmed by real terror when he finally saw these secretive forest hunters emerging from the thicket.
They wore long, sharp needles on their faces, and necklaces of bone around their necks. However, they did not look at him aggressively, but with great surprise, apparently this was the first white person whom they met in their life. And they did not attack him, although they had bows in their hands.
When McIntyre regained consciousness, he began to carefully remove from his backpack the gifts previously stored for the Indians. These were pieces of bright fabrics, mirrors and other knickknacks and it really impressed the Indians, they began to look at everything, and then they went into the jungle and beckoned the American to follow them.
They took him to their settlement and surrounded him there, pulling off his shoes and his watch. They considered all these things for a long time, but then destroyed them. Then the same thing happened to most of the contents of his backpack, including the camera, but they did not touch McIntyre himself.
Nevertheless, for the next 2 months, the photographer constantly understood that around him were not the peaceful Indians from the picture, but a rather aggressive tribe, whose decorations were made of human bones, and the bowls were made of human skulls. They constantly carried bows with sharp arrows with them, and they applied red paint to their faces, which aggravated their fear.
Very soon MacIntyre noticed that the members of the tribe communicate with each other very little, while from time to time these people gather at once as one, pack their meager belongings and move to a new place. And they act so synchronously, as if they had discussed everything in advance.
This mystery interested McIntyre and when he finally solved it, he was shocked, as he met here something that he had not seen anywhere else.
One day McIntyre approached an elderly man covered with many warts and he began to say something to him. MacIntyre did not know a word of the tribal language, but suddenly understood everything that he said to him. And he also realized that when he spoke, he did not open his mouth at all, all the words arose right in the brain of the American!
It was a kind of telepathy, and MacIntyre called this phenomenon "penetrating rays." Then the same man, to whom McIntyre named Barnacle, said that the tribe always existed as a single bee hive and that all members of the tribe are mentally connected to each other. At the same time, the most powerful in such mental communication were usually the elders of the tribe.
Then McIntyre found out that Majoruna was not recognized at all and did not understand the word "I", for them it makes very little sense. He also realized that when the Mayoruna suddenly started packing up and moving to a new location as one, it meant that they were all receiving a mental signal from the elders. Lumberjacks from other tribes often encroached on the lands of Majoruna, and therefore they hid from them and, if possible, tried to kill the invaders.
Another unusual discovery was their definition of time, for them it can be both moving and static. It comes when a person goes somewhere or does something, and then retreats. They do not grieve that they have got a short life and do not understand why they need to remember the past.
Later McIntyre was admitted to the mystical rite, which is performed for telepathy. He was given a decoction of special herbs to drink, and after that he began to hear "white noise" in his head, in which one could guess the thoughts of different members of the tribe.
But even with such incredible experience, McIntyre understood that he could not live with Majorune permanently, he was always kept under supervision and he was still considered a prisoner. He managed to escape by accident by jumping into the river during the rainy season and swimming away while holding onto a log. And soon he was noticed by a helicopter pilot flying over these forests.
After returning home, McIntyre remained silent about what happened to him for decades. He understood that few people would believe him and this incredible story would have died with him in 2003, when he died, if not for the American director of Romanian origin Petr Popescu. In 1987, Popescu accidentally met MacIntyre on his next trip to the Amazon, the men became close friends and once MacIntyre told him his story about Majorun's telepaths.
When the astonished Popescu asked him why he was silent for so long, McIntyre replied that in the first place they would not believe him, and secondly, they could stop working with him, as this would affect his reputation as a respected photojournalist and writer.
This, by the way, is a good example of how people in our society are perceived, faced with anomalous phenomena, and why they, in most cases, either keep silent about it, or talk, remaining anonymous eyewitnesses.
Popescu still managed to convince McIntyre to tell the world about telepaths and in 1991 his sensational book "The Encounter: Amazon Beaming" was published. She was criticized a lot, but McIntyre didn't care, he was very old and died ten years later.
In the 21st century, the Mayoruna Indians no longer look like primitive savages, they have access to clothing, plastic things and other goods. There are very few of them left and although they are trying to preserve the way of life of their ancestors and the government has declared their area a nature reserve, young people are increasingly interested in cities, not the jungle. Therefore, the tribe is essentially dying out and now it is not at all heard about their telepathy, as if they have lost this gift.