Decisions vs Repercussions - Can we cure the coronavirus without making the planet even sicker?

Decisions vs Repercussions - Can we cure the coronavirus without making the planet even sicker?

Try to remember how you learned to play chess, if you did as I did, you started by creating particular strategies in order to take the opponent's king, as well as protect your pieces during the whole game. Sometimes the apprentice will make one or other brilliant move, but the vast majority of them will reflect his/her inexperience in bad and inconsequential moves.

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Right now, we are facing an unprecedented crisis that requires unprecedented decision making, just like the chess apprentice above, the whole world tries to protect itself from the contamination of the coronavirus until a cure and/or a vaccine is found, one of the best ways to do this is using masks or other plastic PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). With regard to masks, according to the World Economic Forum, there has been an increase in production and sales to date, which reaches an astonishing 20,000%.

It is curious that, in the face of an unprecedented and serious problem, we seem to neglect the repercussions of the decision. The solution found at the moment seems to be the best course of action, but later on it shows itself as weak, with only one step of repercussive reach, with badly or completely unanticipated consequences and in the end, it gives us little or no margin for side effects corrections.

Why does this happen?

The human brain processes 11 million bits of sensory information every second, but only 40 to 120 of them rise to the conscious mind to be evaluated and rationalised. Our brain operates with a limited amount of energy, like any other entity in nature, adopting the fastest and most efficient course of action, to program in our minds the anticipation of events, in order to be prepared for them.

As children, when we left the house our mothers used to say, "Don't forget your sweater", even knowing that live in a tropical country I heard that a lot. This sort of warnings may have come from the repercussions of several generations of mothers prior to mine, who possibly lost their children inadvertently of hypothermia.

This has its advantages, imagine entering a jungle and being forced to evaluate each photon of light received, trying to discern if there is danger behind each of the 20,500 leaves on the surrounding trees like poisonous little frogs or insects, not to mention snakes, large felines and other predators. It would take days before we took our first step, making of us an easy prey for them.

When we enter such a forest, our minds choose to assess risks that can actually harm us, information that can be obtained from survivors' reports or personal learning of previous visits to that forest, reducing the tens of thousands of assessments of pertinent hazards to only the 20 most dangerous of them - such as bees, snakes and cougars (you could even be hit by a meteorite in a forest, but the chances of that happening are so low that it is not part of the 'mental risk prevention plan designed for  that particular forest').

This may have helped us a lot in prehistoric times, but with the large amount of info that we need to take decisions in modern world, this primitive decision-making process has proved to be insufficient.

On a scale from 01 to infinity, we can measure how much a decision taken can have an impact on the future, where level 01 is totally inconsequential, generating all sorts of unwanted events, exponentially increasing to level 10, a decision with a certain degree of weighting, without major future side effects and a deterministic (hypothetical) nationalization in which all contingencies were anticipated, leaving only well designed and successful effects, precisely calculated.

It took 4.5 billion to man stand out from other living beings thanks to newly acquired linguistic, rational and planning skills, and have protagonist role on the planet, nevertheless, we still behave like the chess apprentice above, we still make naive and awkward mistakes, which if not well observed, can lead to serious repercussions on the balance of life on Earth.

Sometimes one person with an above-average perception anticipates one or more degrees of repercussions in some decision-making, which can move us away from the scenario of total inconsequence towards the ideological integral determinism status, (hypothetical situation in which all contingencies are anticipated, creating perfect decision making scenario). Unfortunately, not always, they are in the official circuit of decision makers, or when they are, they don't have enough strength to make their ideas prevail, revealing to us another defect of the human being that is very prejudicial in decision-making, the psychological difficulties of dealing with feelings like ego, fear, job insecurity and arrogance.

How should we make our next decisions?

Of course, we already have some tools that help us make decisions in the face of complex and unusual situations. In the case of public administration, for instance, we chose the expedient of adopting political parties as a way to creating anticipations of situations of right, left and center profile - this made it easier for right-wing politicians to identify risks to the social hierarchy, family and homeland, while Left-wing politicians react more effectively to risks and violations of the rights of the disadvantaged in society.

It might have worked in the past, but as in the aphorism of the elephant in the room, making decisions regarding part of the whole as true is retrograde and too much simplistic. We need a broader, democratic and less self-serving model than the current one.

If we combine several sciences learned so far aimed to a chosen purpose, say ... public administration, perhaps we can create a system of evaluation and decision-making that is more consistent with today's world:

- Social networks and APPs can be used in order to include a wide range of experts, to formulate possible solutions, covering multiple points of view, from various different sectors and sciences, with opinions from lots of qualified people, creating an 'environment of broad participation - wiki', significantly increasing statistically the number and the quality of possible final solutions;

- Artificial Intelligence (AI systems) combined with a historical database of previous decision-making, added to the multiple solutions obtained in the above proposition, could test alternatives in milliseconds and give us results of events at various levels of consequences, anticipating not just two or three, but multiple steps ahead;

- Psychologists could evaluate and monitor the final decision makers, creating a more comprehensive panel that is less contaminated with personal biases, so that they make decisions that effectively improve the community.

If we act quickly, and use a little more of our civilizatory capabilities in order to solve unexpected problems, we may still have time to come up with a plausible solution to the imbalance caused by plastic waste in the planet, cure the humanity from coronavirus and still, at the same time, generate an unexpected and unusual extra benefit to the planet Earth.


References 

Blech, C. & J. Funke (2010). You cannot have your cake and eat it, too: How induced goal conflicts  affect complex problem solving, Open Psychology Journal 3, 42–53. Duncker, K. (1945). On problem solving. Psychological Monographs, 58. Funke, J.  & P. A. Frensch (2007). Complex problem solving: The European perspective –  10 years after, in D. H. Jonassen (ed.), Learning to Solve Complex Scientific Problems, Lawrence Erlbaum, New York, 25–47. Funke, J. (2010). Complex problem solving: A case for complex cognition? Cognitive Processing, Vol. 11, 133–142. Klieme, E. (2004). Assessment of cross-curricular problem-solving competencies, in J. H. Moskowitz, M. Stephens (eds.), Comparing Learning Outcomes. International Assessment and Education Policy, Routledge Falmer, London, 81–107. Koncepční rámec řešeni problémů PISA 2012. ČŠI: Praha   Kupisiewicz, Cz. (1964). O efektívnosti problémového vyučovania. Bratislava: SPN. Lerner, I. J. (1986). Didaktické základy metod výuky. Praha: SPN. Linhart, J. (1976). Činnost a poznávání. Academia.  Praha. Linhart, J. (1982). Základy psychologie učení. Praha: SPN. Maťuškin, A. M. (1973). Problémové situácie v myslení a vo vyučování. Bratislava: SPN.  Mayer, R.  E. &  M. C.  Wittrock  (1996).  Problem  Solving Transfer,  in R.  Calfee,  R. Berliner  (eds.),  Handbook of  Educational Psychology, Macmillan, New York, 47–62. Mayer, R.  E. &  M. C.  Wittrock  (1996).  Problem  Solving Transfer,  in R.  Calfee,  R. Berliner  (eds.),  Handbook of  Educational Psychology, Macmillan, New York, 47–62. Mayer, R. E. (1990). Problem solving, in  W. M. Eysenck (ed.), The Blackwell Dictionary of Cognitive Psychology,  Basil Blackwell, Oxford, 284–288. Mayer, R. E. (1998). Cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational aspects of problem solving, Instructional Science, Vol. 26, 49–63. Nakonečný, M. (1998). Základy psychologie. Praha: Academia. Okoň, W. (1966) K základům problémového učení. Praha: SPN.

SÃO PAULO THE WORLD'S CAPITAL OF UGLY SIDEWALKS

SÃO PAULO - THE WORLD'S CAPITAL OF UGLY SIDEWALKS

Imagine a village without any kind of centralized leadership, without a mayor! Now imagine that this episode is taking place at the early days of the arrival of electric lamps, everyone is enthusiastic about this revolutionary item and decide to put light fixtures facing the street, so that everyone would see the streets at night.

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We would have a problem here and there, because there are always those who want to benefit from the light without putting their hands in their pockets, or those who, for fun, like to throw stones to break the lamps, (so called urban vandals), but that are just isolated cases, and the society works quite well.

In this scenario, it is justified then to pay an IPTU (São Paulo Urban Land Tax) to the city hall, a centralized administration, to provide us with this basic and specific service, described by David Hume in 1734 to explain that, once collected, the city must be fully responsible for urban furniture for collective use - However, here in São Paulo, no mayor or voter since the 1950s has heard about him...

We are not even considering the possibility of replacing the existing sidewalks and fixtures, just mere maintenance would be enough, is it really that expensive?

Wouldn't it be better to have a sidewalk like that? the answer is YES - but here in São Paulo, public administrators are still in doubt

In 1927 São Paulo Tramway, Light and Power Company Ltda, simply called LIGHT by São Paulo citizens, signed a contract with the city and state government to renovation of the public lighting network in the city and beautiful new English styled light poles were implemented.

LIGHT's beautiful light fixtures are deteriorating at a rapid pace, and the question that everyone who walks through these streets asks is "is it true that the city does not have the money to maintain this basic point of the whole theory of tax collection?", the answer is "Yes, but much is lost in corruption and ineptitude".

These LIGHT lampposts, together with the beautiful pavements with tiles that form the border contour of the state of São Paulo, soon became icons of the city. However, an unusual law dictates that residents must be responsible for their sidewalks, causing very bad repercussions.

The residents individually decide how each sidewalk should be, transforming the city into an ugly patchwork. As if that were not enough, maintenance is not done; the holes and elevations caused by the roots of trees and plants creates a chaotic mosaics of cracks and rubble.

The order and beauty of streetlights, sidewalks and other urban elements have a role that goes beyond its main functional purpose; we should feel the pride of our urban symbols. But in the case of São Paulo, they represent the lack of care and absence of public administration. When a lightpole or a sidewalk is damaged, the citizen feels sorry for his own city, and this is really bad.

São Paulo LIGHT's street poles, unfortunately the beautiful light fixtures are deteriorating at a rapid pace

It is the so-called 'broken windows theory', a North American model of public security policy in the fight against crime, with the fundamental view of disorder as a factor in raising crime rates. In this sense, it proclaims such a theory that, if they are not repressed, small crimes or misdemeanors inevitably lead to more serious criminal conduct, in view of the state's neglect to punish those responsible for less serious crimes. It becomes necessary, then, the effective state action in the fight against crime, be it micro criminality or macro criminality.

When you see a well-preserved sidewalk, you feel supported and protected by your city, it inspires citizenship and respect. Someone of common sense and civility would never throw paper, cigarrette butt or a gum in such a nice sidewalk - at least the statistical probability of that happening would be very small. If we marry a policy of fines and small punishments, the situation would improve greatly.

On January 24, 2019, Mayor Bruno Covas enacted the Decree No. 58,611, which aims to standardize São Paulo's sidewalks, this initiative is on the right track, but continuing to hold the resident totally or partially responsible for its maintenance is still one of the worst mistakes that the city has been committing - transferring responsibility just because doesn’t have no money does not justify the violation of the main theory of collecting municipal tax x urban maintenance and improvements, postulated in 1735.

Demogest Democratic Management App tests its 3G version this month in Uruguay

Demogest car parked in front of Parliament Building in the city of Montevideo - Above - an Amazon delivery dirigeable - the revolutionary new Apps helping to building a better way o living  

What would it be like if we had moved forward with democracy as fast as with technology? - the best way to explore these possibilities and try to design the concept of the Democratic Management App for Nations is to make an 'Article of the Future Days' - that way, free from bias, it is easier to pass the ideas on - here's a story that might as well have been written on a September 1st, 2042 magazine article.

After recent denounces involving Leviathan, the oldest Democratic Management App, in suspected corruption activities on August 1, 2041, the Uruguayan government decide to adopt Demogest as digital platform for democratic management to the nation, thus Uruguay will be the first country to adopt its new third generation version. Uruguay has a vanguardist tradition, was the first nation in Latin America to establish a welfare state, maintained through relatively high taxes on industry, and the first to legalise the cultivation, sale and consumption of marijuana in 2013 for recreational use, as a measure to counter drug cartels and also, was the first country to adopt a digital platform for democratic management in 2029 consolidating a democratic tradition that earned it the sobriquet "the Switzerland of South America".

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A long time has passed since the American government also decided to adopt a democratic management tool, after being strongly pressured by voters who said they supported the Democratic candidate because he was convinced to adopt Leviathan in his government.

At that time, led by James McCartty, Republicans released a letter stating they were ‘gravely concerned’.

Top congressional Republicans warned in a dramatic letter they released on Monday that a foreign power would be using a Democratic Gestor App to manage all activities of their Congress, and demanded a prompt briefing by the F.B.I. to evaluate and inform about the confiability of the software.

While the letter writers, led by Speaker McCartty, did not specify the threat, officials familiar with a classified addendum attached to it said the Republicans’ concerns touched on intelligence related to a possible Uruguaian-backed attempt to smear the presidential campaign of former George Clooney Jr.

In a detailed report of more than 670 pages, the FBI identified that the application was not only free of political bias, but also increased the coefficient of administrative efficiency to levels never seen before, countries that started to adopt Leviathan started to have an administration much more efficient and virtually reduced corruption to zero, much of it due to the sophisticated transparency tools audited by Transparency International, a German non-governmental organization based in Berlin.

Perhaps this was one of the last major party disagreements in the United States, the tool allowed a public administration so efficient and technical that the party and ideological positioning started to have less and less importance in decision making.

Effective Democracy and the End of Great Leaders

 The “greatest benefit of these apps was the advent of Effective Democracy”, said the President of Uruguay in his last speech referring to the third democratic phase, “the first time the word 'Democracy' was used, was to name the so-called 'Athenian Democracy', which had the defect of being born imperfect. Solon, Clisthenes, Efialtes and Pericles began to light up with a spark of reason in the midst of chaos, we lived in a cruel and backward era in which women and slaves still did not vote, a group of eponymous archons composed of magistrates simply realized that the system statutory no longer worked and they began to give the illusion of power to the people, masking the main objective of containing Persian invasions and uniting City-States under Athenian power.

Leviathan and Demogest, competitors in the Democratic Management App market 

The second time that the word 'Democracy' was used, was during its resurgence in the Glorious Revolution of England, in the year 1688 and with the French Revolution of 1789, it lasted approximately 330 years, only ending in the earliest 2030. It was called 'Hypocritical Democracy', which was characterized by legitimizing the will of a few to the detriment of the real satisfaction of society, with the exception of countries that adopted Direct Democracy, such as Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark, countries that suffered a little less with corruption and mismanagement, and knew how  and did not provoke the wrath of the people in the 2000s ~ 2020 when driven by the disruption of old institutions at the expense of new technologies like Uber and Air B&B, they started to demand a more decent public administration.

Voters were tired, as they lived at the height of the bubble of corruption allied to ineptitude, ideological political parties taking biased and self-serving decisions, reached the point of spending more on election campaigns than on public welfare.

The Uruguayan government was the first to have the courage to change, "said Magel" with more than 120 referendums and plebiscites in the first year and public accounts effectively audited by the people using the Leviathan 1G App.

In less than 5 years, we adopted 2G technology, which allowed the existence of more than 300 Logical Party Groups, replacing almost all existing Political Parties, extinguishing the so-called 'professional politicians' and incompetent members of the legislative in the congress, with serious and scientific proposals, bringing real benefit to the community, gradually ending obsolete ideological political parties, full of fanciful ideologies and ignorantly supported positions".

The new Demogest App will be tested to its new 3G version simultaneously with the Uruguayan government implantation, among other benefits, Demurest will support the Kardashev module, which will allow people to make decisions regarding the use of energy depending on the productivity of corporations of the Imebo index, the most important of the Montevideo Stock Exchange, obviously following the criteria of civilisational qualification, only citizens who qualify in the aptitude exam with marks above 65 points will be able to vote - always good to remember that the voting qualification course is free and open to all citizens.

Itagenemimetics the science and the art of learning from indigenous and ancestral peoples

Luiz Pagano presenting Cauim at Bar Convent in São Paulo - June / 2019 

Recently I've been dedicating my activities to the functions of artist and scientist, mainly with regard to CAUIM, fermented alcoholic beverage of mandioca (kind of Brazilian cassava), consumed by more than 270 Brazilian indigenous ethnicities, which I'm willing to bring to the general public in the form of a drink industrial, (with beautiful bottle and everything else..) produced using a sophisticated processes, with great similarities to one used to produce sake. This initiative has the great purpose of making us proud to be Brazilians of Tupi origin - I dream about the day when all of us, Brazilians or not, will be able to eat the sophisticated dishes of Alex Atala or Tiago Castanho, harmonized with Cauim dos Yekuanas or Waurás, packaged in 'Tupi Pop Culture'.

This work made me research the life and ways of our ancestral peoples in a unique way, I saw different possibilities of a prosperous culture, good nature, happy and completely friendly with nature and the planet.

I may not be able to convey the greatness of what I feel about the subject, but surely that doesn't stop me from trying. 


here it goes...

We are so educated in European culture that we think this is the only "cultural language" in the world, but things are starting to change and the culture of the forest is beginning to prove essential for our survival on the planet.

We are so used to European culture and education, that we think this is the only way to look towards reality and to assess and understand our world, but things are starting to change and forest culture begins to unfold essential to our survival in this planet.

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Recently David Kopenawa of the Yanomami ethnic group, which has been called the 'Dalai Lama of the Forest', accompanied by Fiona Watson, Director of Research of the NGO Survival International, and world expert on uncontacted tribes were talking to the American media and giving some lectures in and around San Francisco, talking about the tireless work to protect the land of his tribe in the Amazon rainforest, and how this experience can be applied to the rest of world.

The Amazon rainforest has long been recognized as a repository of ecological services not only for local tribes and communities, but also for the rest of the world. It is also the biggest rainforest that we have left in terms of size and diversity.

But as forests burns and global warming worsens, the impact of Amazon deforestation continues to gradually damage the fragile ecological processes that have been refined over millions of years of evolution.

The solution to the question of how to find the balance necessary for the survival of the forest and at the same time makiing the world a prosperous place to live, can not be found in science itself, but in science combined with philosophical issues of local people, such as the Yanomami.

The Yanomami world is divided into two groups of individuals, to the YANOMAMI THËPË (human beings, people) and the NAPË (us, white men, the the 'fierce' enemies)

The Yanomami have been taken as a 'fierce' people in sensationalist and outdated work Yanomamö: The Fierce People, by American anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon, describing them as "sly, aggressive and intimidating”. This book is considered the bible of the newly formed anthropologist, keeping bringing to the world highly prejudiced ideas.

The good thing is that this has been changing over time, and we began to hear more and more the wisdom of the forest people - the Yanomami point of view the world is divided into two groups of individuals, to the YANOMAMI THËPË (human beings, people) and the NAPË (us, white men, the  'feroucious' enemies).

The forest does not burn and do not pollute the its rivers by itself, the NAPË is the one who does it.

The pollution of rivers is the result an active attitude of NAPË, if we fail to throw pollutants in Tiete and Pinheiros rivers in the Sao Paulo urban area, for example, we would have clean rivers in a matter of weeks. In fact, we the NAPË are proactive in polluting and devastating, directly or indirectly, consciously or unconsciously.

If you ask a Yanomami Indian, what he thinks of the white man - the NAPË, we'll probably end up ashamed whith his response.

Swimming in the vastness of the Amazon and Tocantins rivers put me in spiritual contact with the YANOMAMI THËPË culture. The white man considers themselves unique, and different from other beings around them - The NAPË lives under the concept of ‘The eternal silence of these infinite spaces - Blaise Pascal’ we are alone, in a monologue. The Yanomamies are different; they are able to love and to dialogue with everything and everyone around them.

According to the Yanomami, the NAPË, don't care about everybody else, they don't love the land and the forest, they have an egoistic, reckless and short-term vision about such things. The concepts of Yanomami appear to be much higher and very often is difficult for us to conceive, so lets classify it in groups:

The concept of 'living being'

The 'living beings' according to the Yanomamies are the 'people' at large, refered to as YANOMAMI THËPË.

The NAPË (white man) seems to care only about himself and in a secondary level, with their immediate family. This feeling tends to decrease with regard to their remote neighbors and other family relativies, and they feel almost no love for the other people in the world.  But thereis still hope, the positive side of the NAPÉ is that they have pets, it seems to be a small flame of love to other 'living beings' that does not belong to the Homo sapiens classification.

The Yanomami are able to love and dialogue with everything and everyone around them.

It is very common to see Brazilian natives breastfeeding her baby on one breast and a monkey or other animal in the other, a scene that causes incomprehension and disgust to the white man who witnesses it first time. To them these animals are also 'people' and are entitled to breast milk, which - by the way, does not belongs to the woman, but to nature itself.

The white man consider himself unique and different from other beings around him - The NAPË living under the concept of ‘The eternal silence of these infinite spaces - Blaise Pascal’ we are alone, in a monologue. The Yanomami are different; they are able to love and to dialogue with everything and everyone around them.

For them, everything is deemed to be 'living being' or 'people' - the animals, the plants and even the rocks are deemed as ‘people’,  even some artifacts are also considered as 'people'. Make sure to never annoy all those 'people', plants, animals and even some artifacts should never be disturbed.

It is very common to see lady Brazilian natives breastfeeding her baby on one breast and a monkey or other animal in the other, a scene that causes incomprehension and disgust to the white man who witnesses it first time. To them these animals are also 'people' and are entitled to breast milk, which - by the way, does not belongs to the woman, but to nature itself.

For the Yanomami, nobody likes to be offended and each time this happens, the offended ‘people’ strikes back.

Thus, there are always consequences:

- What happens if we kill an animal to eat? - Killing a living being is a very serious offense, even having the title of YARO (game animals) it is a bad deed, and they are aware that they will have future consequences.

"When someone kills these beings, he must wait for the reaction that can manifested itself in many ways, as a little indigestion, or sometimes in the form of the attack of animals, a jaguar may stike a firend, partners of the dead animal could seek revenge.

The concept of 'ownership'

We don't have land; the land that have us. The property of physical assets is intangible since our matter is perishable. All material possessions can lead to suffering (as in Buddhism).

- the knowledge from the people ofAmazon rainforest is very important for from them comes knowledge that we must have to overcome the civilization crisis and environmental degradation.

The concept of 'Evolution'

The NAPË are less developed than the YANOMAMI THËPË (the Yanomami themselves), however there are more evolved beings, such as the YAI, forest being that doesn't require a name.

It is when the reader gets outraged - how could they believe that we are less developed than they?
There are several ways to make us see how little evolved we are in comparison, take the issue of waste for instance.

In nature, the garbage of any living being is incorporated as a utility to another living being (e.g. Mammalian feces are transformed into fertilizer for plants; oxygen purged by the tree becomes the air we breathe, etc.). We NAPË, produce a huge amount of waste that does more harm than good to other living beings.

The relationship between YAI with THËPË YANOMAMI/NAPË is the same of the white men with amoebas.

Men, at large, have four dimensions of perception, ability to reason about events around them, read books, build bridges and to observe the amoeba in a microscope. Amoebas on the other hand live in a much more limited world, has diminished capacity of perception that allow only eat living forms around them, are unable to read or, much less to build bridges.

The YAI observe us in the same way that we observe the amoebas, we haven't the faintest notion of it. They are infinitely superior and transit through different dimensions, inconceivable by us.

The concept of 'URIHI' - Yanomami word for forest ecosystem

The word Yanomami UHIRI designates the forest and all that dwells in it, with endless connections and interrelations, IPA URIHI, "my land" can refer to the region of birth or current place of residence of the enunciator. URIHI can be also refered to the world's name: UHIRI A PREE, "the great land-forest".

We 'the NAPË' are the only species on the planet that produce waste without balance with the ecosystem.

The Amazon rainforest is the largest continued forest region on the planet, cut though nine countries, corresponding to 60% of the Brazilian territory, has nearly 6 million km2. The Amazon River has 4225 miles, 65miles longer than Nile according to the measurements of 2007; it has 20% of the world's fresh water.

Currently 18% of the forest has been devastated, this devastation appears in the form of extensive cattle low intelligence ranching, illegal property, irregular mining.

It may does't seem much but 1% of devastated area, is larger than the state of Rio de Janeiro (approx. 43.000km2).

Brazil can be very bad when it comes to dealing with rivers of its capitals, mainly due to corruption and electioneering reasons, but isolated initiatives in Amazon region draw attention of public opinion for its ingenuity.

The concept of Itagenemimetics or itagenemimicry 

Did you know that Europeans learned the habit of smoking herbs from the American Indians? Perhaps the cigarette industry was the first to use the concept of Itagenemimetics* (the art/science of learning from indigenous peoples and ancestral traditions). It is important to say that the cigarette we know today, which causes deaths and illnesses, has undergone a series of changes for the worse since its initial adoption or better said, it was undoubtedly an adoption of degrading habit from our ancestors. But the vast majority of habits that we acquired from them, however, such as sleeping in a hammock, bathing every day and drinking guarana, have proven to be very healthy.

Biomimetics* along with itagenemimetics** has been the best and most effective learning tools that our civilization can make use of - as for the term Itagenemimética, I believe it was me who invented that word in one of my lectures, but it makes perfect sense (lol).

Civilized man has been increasingly distancing himself from his brothers who live in the tribes, the degrading habits of civilized people seem to be much worse than that of the indigenous people, dispersing plastic on the planet and emitting CO2 are some of them.

The indigenous people I know say that civilized people are very dumb, we do things that no other animal does, we defecate in the water we drink. It is evident that with our current level of cultural development, living in tribes and abandoning the material goods and conquests we had could be seen as an involution, however we pay more and more attention to what they have to say to us.

*Biomimetics or biomimicry is the imitation of the models, systems, and elements of nature for the purpose of solving complex human problems (Greek: βίος, life, and μίμησις, imitation, from μιμεῖσθαι, to imitate, from μῖμος, actor).

**Itagenemimetics or itagenemimicry is the imitation of the models, systems, and elements adopted by ancestral communities or indigenous native people for the purpose of solving complex human problems (Greek: ιθαγενείς, itageneis - indigenous people, and μίμησις, imitation, from μιμεῖσθαι, to imitate, from μῖμος, actor).

We cannot put a huge dome over the Amazon

Environmental protection can only happen if it doesn't oppose the huge economic forces, so we have to make the standing forest more valable than the deforested one.

All we have to do is use the YANOMAMI THËPË intelligence to guide us in this field. Sooner or later, very old trees falls naturally as part of the renewal process of the forest. Well monitored, these trees can have its downfalls managed through legal agronomists and the timber can be used more intelligently.

A trunk of a centuries-old Samaumeira (kapok tree) worth just over R$ 10.00 on the black market, while a beautiful handcrafted object with just over 20’ in length from the same tree can reach worth R$ 300.00.

This is a good example of how to turn a NAPË attitude towards YANOMAMI THËPË

Science combined with Yanomami philosophy - A good way to save the planet.
A low-impact vehicle cuts a samaumeira, in a smart renovation process in the Amazon rainforest.

The great culprit for the current problems was the PIN, Programa de Integração Nacional (National Integration Program), a geopolitical nature program created by the Brazilian military government through Nº1106 Decree-Law of July 16, 1970, signed by Brazilian President Medici.

Worried about losing the vast Amazon territory by the difficulty to monitor its borders, the military government has proposed to relocate the victims of non-productivity of the dried Brazilian northeast areas and turn them into labor at prosperous Amazon region, thus occupying the Amazonian demographic emptiness, "integrate in order to not handover" and "land without men to the men without land" were the slogans of that time.

The PIN had the wonderful merit of mobilizing a nationalist sentiment, regardless of political views and promote colonization of the Amazon.

The Trans-Amazon Highway was the tool chosen by the Medici as a gateway to the forest. With 2,624 miles long, connecting the city of Cabedelo – PB (Paraiba) to Labrea – AM (Amazonas), the road cuts seven Brazilian estates: Paraíba, Ceará, Piauí, Maranhão, Tocantins, Pará and the Estate of Amazonas.

In the near future the agroforestry system can count on the help of collectors drones to promote low-impact agriculture. In the agricultural system of today we deforest the woods and then plant, in order to clear the ground and thus facilitate the entry of our antiquated agricultural machinery - with the advent of collectors drones we no longer need to carry out such unintelligent process.

By the side of highway some routes emerged, and from these other small streets, connecting farms, communities and homes – the so-called 'fish bones', are the causes for the irregular occupation and the consequent deforestation.

The man of the northeast region of Brazil, along with others from other regions, who first arrived there, found great facility to have a cattle farm, since in order to obtain ownership of the land they just had to turn 50% of their land into pasture.

An artificial intelligence system evaluates the fruits and vegetables with a far more sophisticated sensors than our eyes, robotic arms collect the fruit and place it in a circular basket, aboard a collector drone.

Today there are 60 million head of cattle in the Amazon, a ratio of three oxen for every inhabitant of the region.

How to change the NAPË philosophy into YANOMAMI THËPË?

We, the NAPË, look at the forest and see just weeds not a farm, if we want to plant something there, we have to deforest it first, and them plant later, but a local group of Japanese immigrants, inspired by local natives create the so-called agroforestry systems.

Hajime Yamada arrived in Tomé-Açu on September 22, 1929, he learned from the indigenous the technology of agroforestry system, “we always look at the forest as weeds, not as a farm” (photo: documentary Eternal Amazon)

This group of Japanese immigrants arrived to the municipality of Tomé-Açu-PA, (Pará), at the end of the 1920s with the proposal of planting of black pepper, In the 70s with falling prices and epidemics in ‘pimentais’ (pepper farms) made them rethink their business.

Based on ancient Indigenous knowledge, they began to cultivate pimenta do reino (black pepper)  in the same space of cocoa and with cupuaçu, papaya, açai, coconut, passion fruit, Brazilian-nut, natural rubber and paricá. The plague of ‘pimentais’ was countered by locals predators, brought by other plants in balance with nature.

Since then, the system has been improved by trial and error in choosing the best species combinations. Today, Tomé-Açu is a reference in this type of planting and the cooperative accumulated several awards related to entrepreneurship and sustainability.

In addition, the CAMTA promotes and guides the adoption of agroforestry systems for family farmers in neighboring municipalities and conducts the commercialization of this production, a project that serves about a thousand families in the region.

Latex extraction robots operate autonomously, supplied with sunlight. The 'estradas de seringa' (the slashes in the bark of the rubber tree) are accurate, as have sophisticated sensors that make precise calculations to take better advantage of extraction.

The basic idea of this agroforestry system is to achieve the integrated planting of different plant species, of different sizes together in the same area, forming several 'floors' - the process just gets its name from agriculture floors.

The agroforestry system, long-known by indigenous peoples, offers a number of advantages such as:

- As it generates large amount of organic matter in soil from various crops, there is less need for fertilizers and pesticides;

- This variety of nutrients generates healthier food;

- The abundant vegetation cover also retains the moisture of the ground, protects the crops from the sun and provides a more pleasant environment to work in the field;

- The planting of several crops at the same time allows continued production and generates income during the whole year.

An important part of the YANOMAMI THËPË philosophy is that 'garbage does not exist', we cannot throw anything away (out of where? The world?). That being said, all devices are 100% recycled to produce new equipment, substances that cannot be used on other equipment are reintegrated into nature by composting. All facilities have huge skylights as 80% of the equipment is solar powered.

After so long catechizing our Indians according to European cultural heritage, now it's time to being catechized by the people of forest, perhaps this way, we can save our souls and our lives.

Faith of Prosperity and a better Brazil

There is this legend, that I’ve heard many times when I as a little kid, about a very advanced culture hidden in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest, pretty much like the Black Panther city of Wakanda, which was conceived and built by a very beautiful and intelligent Japanese woman surrounded by wisdom and magic. This legend haunted me for a long time, I even drew it in my first grade school notebook, I remember that when I was doing the drawing, my father was watching a Soccer game of the World Cup, (possibly in the year of 1974), and every year that there are Brazilian games in the cup, this woman come back to my mind together with the whole story.

leia esse artigo em Português

To the left, the drawing I made of Teruko Sato when I was a child - to the right, the drawing I made on the day of Brazil's victory over Mexico - a day of great happiness for Brazilian people

 I don’t know exactly how this all started, as I lived in a house with more than four grandmother’s brothers and sisters, all of them from my paternal side, I never found out exactly who told that story, whether it was true or not. It is a fact that from this point onwards I may have been so interested in Japanese culture and believed that if we used Japanese elements, we might have had a better Brazil ( it is important to mention that here in Brazil we have the second largest colony o Japanese people outside of Japan).

Now, as it is the time of Brazilian games in the World Cup, I decided to put an end to the mystery and I started to investigate this wise Japanese lady in the Amazon Rainforests - I must say that it started as a frustrating investigation, nobody knew about her, not even Google.

I have tried other aproaches in my research, maybe this incident has something to do with the Soccer World Cup. The only thing I found was the incredible story about the death of Chico Xavier (Xavier was a very respected religious leader – read more about this day  ), with Euripides Higino, his adopted son. "Chico Xavier always said he would disincarnate (‘to die’ as regard to Spiritist point of view) on the day that Brazil would partying and that I would not have time to think about his death. " That was exactly what happened, Chico "disembodied" on the very day that Brazil was on the party of the conquest of the fifth WC Championship, on June 30, 2002.

Ok, but what does this have to do with the Japanese Lady from the Amazon Rainforest?

Actually, I do not know, but I like the idea of seeing Brazil as a uniform mass of minds in a single, happy spirit.

If we look at this crowd of happy Brazilians from a kardecist spiritist point of view, this seems to be a good energy, of a great volume - and it was with this thought, that I’ve decided to take a ‘energizing pass’ at a spiritist center, at exactly this time of year, this would make me receive a huge vibratory charge of good energy) - that's where the big coincidence comes in!

Since I had no spiritist center near where I was working and the match of Brazil was about to start, I decided to stop at the Johrei Center in Vila Mariana (a neighborhood in São Paulo) while I was waiting for the pass, or rather to receive Johrei, I heard some ministers talking about one lady named Teruko Sato, the first woman to bring the culture of the Meishu-Sama’s enlightenment to Brazil.

At that time I even shivered with such a coincidence, but the coolest was yet to come. Meishu-Sama believed in the construction of earth paradises, beautiful and inspiring gardens that increase the well being and spiritual energy of humanity - with that, the place chosen for her to start her work... wow! It was in a city called Manacapuru in the middle of the Amazon rainforest.

At that time I interrupted the ministers and students who were talking to each other and then told them about the legend I had heard, about the secret civilization in the Amazon rainforest and the coincidence, "there is no such thing as coincidence," said the young man, “as like in spiritism, we believe that all this event had already been architected in more evolved plans, as happened with the passage of Chico Xavier”.

As the explanation went on, he smiled and disappointed me a bit when he said that ther was not a Wakanda-type nation of Messianic church in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, "however, Mokiti Okada (岡田茂吉), the church's founder, who bears the honorific title of Meishu-Sama - 明主様, (Lord of Light), idealized rather a more evolved society, which builds teh so called ‘Holy Grounds’ around the world - beautiful places with nice architecture, clean technology and a great degree of development and harmony with the environment, as if they were islands of happiness and elegance amidst the chaos of the planet. The Mokiti Okada Foundation develops research in agriculture, environmental recovery, healthy and affordable individual agriculture, healing and education and also encompasses the Ikebana Sanguetsu school which teaches the pragmatic principles of Mokiti Okada's philosophy through the ancient art of floral arrangement.

For me, Teruko Sato (佐藤輝子 who adopted the married name of Yoniyama 米山) is a living legend, the little information I had as a child made me create a fantastic story, with miscegenations of Brazilian and Japanese ethnicities, with extraordinary and sustainable technology , which may well have been true, but Teruko Sato's real life, which is also very little known by the IMM's own devotees, has attributes that surpass fantasy.

Sato's story was revealed in an issue of the Japanese newspaper Izunome No. 72, written in Japanese, and I'll post the original text in Japanese and my translation - please feel free to correct me in any translation errors.

南米開拓布教事始め


開移民として新たな人生の船出

前編

私は、瀬戸内海に面した岡山県南部にある小さな町で昭和十一年二月四日に生を享けました。
昭和ニ十年半ば頃、世間で呼ばれていました。その「おひかりさん」と呼ばれていました。その出張所がちょうど私の実家のすぐ向かいにあり、信者さん家族が住んでおりました。その家には、私より一つ年上の友達がおり、よく遊んだり勉強したりと仲良しでした。病弱だった私の母は、真っ先にそこで浄霊を受け始めました。
そして「おひかりさんの先生が知らん話をしてくれる」とその友達が冒うので、私も話を聞きに行くようになりました。
毎月1回ほど岡山から出向される瑞雲教会長の山根幸一先生は、霊界のこと、先祖様のことなど、学校では習わないことをたくさんと教えてくださり、やがて、母に次いで昭和二十七年に私も入信に至りました。

運命の決別

明主様から米国開拓布教を命ぜられた樋口喜代子先生、安食晴彦先生がハワイや米国本土で輝かしい成果をあげられていた昭和二十九年頃は、私の教会でもいつもその話で持ちきりで、月次祭でも山根先生は海外布教ー歩を印された樋口先生の業績を讃えられて

いました。私も知らず知らずのうちに、〃樋口先生のように外国に出て布教したい〃という淡い思いを抱いていました。ちょうどその頃、父からブラジル開拓移民が募集されていること、そして一家で移住する予定であることを聞かされたのです。そのことを山根先生に話すと、先生はすぐ明主様にお尋ねくださいました。すると、明主様即座に「御神体と、「おひかり」を持たせて行かせなさい」とおっしゃったのです。先生はすぐ明主様のその御言葉を租に伝えてくださり、私のブラジル行きが確定したのでした。
しかし、移民手続きの過程で、母が眼の病の治療のため、出発が勢カ月遅れるという事態が発生しました。しかし、父の友人の家族が、f現地で一人でも多くの衛き手が欲しいとのことで、私はその家族の一員として自分の家族よりー船早くブラジルルへ渡ることになったのです。
それが、家族との長い別れになろうとは、神様しか御存知なかったのです。

御光と希望を胸に

昭和二十九年九月二十五日、弱冠十八歳の私は神戸港より大阪商船「アメリカ丸」に乗って、地球の反対側のブラジルへと旅立ちました。明主様のお役に立ちたいという熱い思
いでいっぱいで、父母と別れて淋しいとか、こわいとか、ー人でどうとかいう悲観的な考えは一切浮かんできませんでした 。しかし、船の上から見えるのは毎日海だけ、激しい船酔いのため数日間梅干しとお粥のみで過ごしたこともありました。途中米国ロサンゼルスに寄港して燃料食糧その他を補紿し、南米へ向けて出航。パナマ運河を抜け、一路大西洋へと向かいます。
いよいよ赤道下ブラジル北東部パラ州ベレン港に到着しました。そこで私達ブラジルの船に乗り換え、さらにアマゾン川を上っていきました。

そして、日本を出て実に二カ月ぶりに、アマゾン川河口から千四百キロのところにある目的地、アマゾナス州マナカプル|郡べラ・ビスタ植民地に到着したのです。
配耕される土地へは、そこからさらに半日程歩いて行かなければなりませんでした。着いた所は人がようやく歩けるほどの原生林に覆われたところでした。道の両側には、先に入った十数家族の入植者達の住まいである、伐採した原生林を無造作に組み上げた丸木小屋が数百メ|トルおきにー軒ずつあり、さらにその奥に私達に配耕される土地がありました。家も水も電気も生活必需品は何一つなく、岡山県庁の広報とはまったく逆の現実でした。
さっそく男の人達はジャングルの木々を伐探して小屋造りに追われました。女の人達は食事を作るのに必要なものを集めたり、水をる汲みに行ったり、土を捏ねて釜戸を造ったりという生活から始まりました。熟蒂特有の風土から、小虫や蚊がたくさんいて、昼夜を問わるず、ところかまわず刺されます。
数カ月分の食糧は船を降りたところにある小さな村の売店に預けてあり、一週間分ずつを歩いて取りに行きました。大きな袋を持って一往復するのにー日がかりです。女も子供もみな汗だくになりながら働きました。手には水豆ができて破れ、その上に手ぬぐいを捲いて痛さをこらえながら働きました。夜になると原生林の丸木を並べた上に寝ました。いろんな動物の鳴き声が聞こえ主す。夜通し焚火は絶やせません。
いつどんな動物が出てくるか分からず、緊張の毎日が続きました。

失意のどん底からの脱出

そんな生活の中、みんなが寝静まった夜、私は一人蚊帳の中から星空を見上げ、 "どうしてこんな所に来てしまったのだろう......。

明主様のお役に立とうとやって来たブラジルがこんな原生林の山奥。家も電気も水もない原始的な生活。明主様はもう私を見離されたのかしら。なぜこんなつらい思いを、苦労をさせられるのかしら。
このお月様、お父さん、お母さんは見ているかしら。どうして私ー人で来てしまったのかしら。明主様はこんなところと御存知なかったのかしら……“なと思い巡らしては毎日のように泣いていまた。
しかし、”こんなことばかりしていてはいけない。せめて入植者達に御浄霊を広めねは"と思い直し、風邪を引いた人、皮膚に湿疹のできた人に浄霊の話をしてみることにしました。ところが誰も受けつけてくれませしまいには「手をかざして病気が治るわけがない。
あの娘は親から離れてー人で来もて、もう頭がどうかしているのだ」などと噂されるようになりました。そして、その周囲の視線の冷たさに耐えきれなくなった私は、"もう宗教のことも浄霊の話も口にすまい"と決め、ひたすら働き始めました。
また私はー緒にブラジルに来た家族と別れ、独り立ちすることを決意しました。人の手が足りない家は、私を容易に住み込みで雇ってくれます。あちこち他人の家で草取りをしたり、寄せ焼きをしたり、さつま芋を土手に植えたり、毎曰毎曰働きました。そして、私は考えました。"こんな不便な山奥にもし私の母が来たら病に倒れるかも知れない。鍬ー鍬本握ったことのない町育ちの幼い弟、妹達はこんな過酷な労働には耐えられない。
こんな所に来たら一家は破滅だ。私は意を決して日本の父母に「もうブラジルには来たい方がいい、こんな苦労は私ー人でたくさん、来てはいけない」と手紙に書きました。
何ヵ月か経って母からの手紙が届きました。手紙が無事に日本に届き、無事返事が来ることさえ。ここでの生活では奇跡に近い出来事でした。急いで封を開けてみると、そこには私の身を案じる父母の気持ちと共に、思いもかけない事実が認めてありました。

明主様の御昇天の知らせでした。私は立っていられない程のショックで涙も出ませんでした。しかし、"必ず明主様は霊界から見守ってくださっている。私を見ていてくださる。
泣いたら明主様が悲しまれる"と、思い直しましたが、それでも心の整理がつくまでに二、三日を要しました。

Manacapurú - 62miles from Manaus in the state of Amazonas
The left is Mrs. Yoneyama (Teruko Sato with married name) and the right
Michiko Yamande, leader of the Zuiun district - May 1953

瑞雲教会奉仕の頃の米山さん（左）と故・山根道子教会長夫人(昭和28年5月)

運命の転機

ある日、真っ黒になって働いていた私に、「人が欲しい、来てくれないか」と、内藤さんという方が尋ねて来たのです。私は恩い切ってその方とー-緒に、私を雇ってくださるという方がいる、アマゾナス州バレンチンスに近いイタコアチャラ郡のモンテ・レアルに行くことにしました。
内藤さんに連れられて、再び船の旅です。私は、御神体と御尊影、そして「おひかり」十体に数枚の着替えを持ち、ベラ・ビスタを後にしました。着いたところは、御園さんという方が経営する食料雑貨店でした。
私はこの店で、昼間働きながら、夜はランブの明かりを頼りにポルトガル語を勉強しました。初めは、原地住民との挨拶から日常のこと料理のこと、見るもの、聞くものすべて、日本と違った生活習慣でした。
しかし、それまでの植民地生活からすると、天と地の違いがありました。脚園さん鐔夫妻は、私を娘のように扱ってくださいました。仕事も覚え、言葉も片言でしたが何とか話が通じるようになりました。
心機一転、私は与えられた新しい環境の中で何とか布教しうと思い、つたない言葉で浄霊の話をしてみることにしました。
何日も何回も話すうち、私があまりに一生懸命言うので頭をかしげながらも話を聞いてくれる人が出始めました。もちろん、浄霊の意味などをしっかりと説明するまでには至りませんでしたが、徐々に浄霊のぉ取次ぎが次々とできるようになです。

日本からの使節団

ある日、母から再び便りが届きました。手紙には、「明主様御昇天後、小田信彦先生という方がブラジル布教のためクリチーバに行とれたので、その先生と一緒に布教したらどうか」との、山根先生からの言付けが書いてありました。

First mission in South America, the beginning of a new life as an immigrant
Translation of the first part.

I was born in a small town south of Okayama on February 4th , 1936 (Showa / 昭和 - 11 is the year 1936). In mid-1945, at a time when the Messianic Church and its members had the nickname "Ohikari-san". In front of my house there was a family of Messianic Church follower, as my mother was sick, they use to come to give her Johrei, in 1952, we became members. Every month, the minister in charge of the Church use to give us lectures about the Spiritual World and the ancestors, the kind of stuff that we don’t learn in school, and then, I’ve reached the age of majority.

Towards departure

It was the year of 1945, the minister of this religious unit told us the reports of the missionaries Yamane the reports of the minister Kiyoko Higuti and Haruhiko Ajiki in Hawaii and the United States. Listening to these stories, little by little, I began to cultivate the desire to dedicate myself to the diffusion of these teachings abroad, following the example of Minister Higuti. At that time, I learned that my family planned to immigrate to Brazil.

Aware of this possibility, Minister Yamane made a request to the Meishu-Sama, who immediately said, "Give her the image of God and Ohikari to take with her." In response to this response from Meishu-Sama, my certainty of going to Brazil was strengthened even more. However, during the immigration application process, my mother was afflicted with a vision problem that delayed our departure.

As a well-known family wanted to migrate to Brazil and needed to increase the number of people for the job in hand, I opted to board before my relatives. Only God knew at the time that the separation from my family would be longer than I had imagined...

Light and hope in my heart

On September 25th , 1954 (Showa / 昭和-29), at age 18, I embarked on the ship America Maru that left the port of Kobe, I left Japan to Brazil, taking with me the strong desire to serve Meishu-Sama .

I’ve never felt pessimistic, fear or sadness to depart alone. During the trip, the time I spent on the high seas was not easy, for long days I had to eat umeboshi (梅干 し - Chinese preserved plum) and Kayu (お 粥 also called congee, it is a cooked rice soup with meat) daily because of the seasickness caused by the sea voyage. After a break in Los Angeles to get some supply, fuel and groceries, we crossed the Panama Canal, arriving to the north of Brazil, in the port of Belém. We were transferred to a Brazilian ship and we went up the Amazon River. Since leaving Japan, two months had passed. We arrived at the colony of Bela Vista, located in the state of Amazonas, district of Manacapuru, after a trip of 1,400 km. Until we got to the farm, it was necessary to walk about half a day. The place was in the middle of the forest, on either side of the clumsy road lived some families of settlers who sought to establish themselves there. There was no housing, water, electricity or facilities needed for everyday life, the reality there was quite different from the one I had in Okayama.

Immediately, the men began to tear down trees to build settlements, and the women dedicated themselves to preparing food. Due to the tropical climate insects and mosquitoes use bit us day and night. We face many challenges in this age of adaptation. Groceries arrived regularly in a shop, located in a village that could only be accessed by boat, it take one day to carry everything in huge bags, women and children worked and were always sweaty, bubbles formed in my hands and then burst, we put towels to mitigate the pain, we slept at night in the middle of the logs, we heard several noises of animals, it was imperative that the fire never go out during the night, we did not know when and by what animal we could be attacked, we lived in days of inexhaustible fear and tension.

習志野浄霊センター - 米山晃子

Narashino Johrey Center - Akiko Yoneyama - Teruko Sato

Moving away from deep depression

In the midst of this harsh reality, at night, while everyone was asleep, I used to look at the stars through mosquito nets and cry, wondering, "What have I come to do in this place?" ... I wanted to serve Meishu Sama and came to the middle of the forest, to live a primitive life, without light or water. Did Meishu Sama abandon me? Why do I have to go through so much suffering? Are my parents looking at these same stars? Why did I come alone? Does Meishu Sama know about me here?

On the other hand, I was thinking about my mission. "Perhaps I can minister Johrei to the settlers ..." I began to minister Johrei to those who had the flu or with eczemas. However, they did not believe that I could heal illnesses, simply by putting my hands up towards them.

The daughter of the family I was with start to spread rumors that I had mental problems, or something like that. Faced with such contempt, I decided not to talk about on Johrei or religion anymore; I began to work even more and chose to move away from the family with whom I came to Brazil. I lived with families who were in need of labor, skimmed the backyards of the houses, planted and made roasted sweet potatoes to serve them.

Facing that, I thought, "If my mother comes, she will surely be sick with so much discomfort, the delicate hands of the brothers and sisters who grew up with the books, could not stand the hoes, if they come here, my family will be ruined.

So, I wrote to my parents asking them to "give up coming to Brazil because I go through so many difficulties here." A few months later, after my letter arrived safe and sound in Japan, I received a letter back with my mother's reply, it sounded like a miracle, taking into consideration the reality in hand.

I rapidly ripped the envelope, I was taken with emotion, it was so good to know that my parents had not forgotten me there; but the letter also brought me the sad news of Meishu Sama's ascent to the Spiritual World. Then I felt that he was looking at me, I cried a lot in mourning, it took too long for the sadness to pass.

The Turn of Destiny

One day, in the middle of my work at the farm, Mr. Naito told me that he needed people to work with him. So, again by boat, I left for Monte Real in the district of Itacoatiara, near Parintins AM, taking with me the image of God and some Ohikari, he said that someone wanted to hire me.

I went on another boat trip, carrying imperial clothes for Mr. Naito, and I chugged at a deserve, managed by Misuno-san.

I worked during the day and during the night I tried to study Portuguese, under the precarious light of a lantern. Initially, I had many difficulties with customs, language and food compared to life in Japan. However, that place was for me the paradise on earth, comparing to the life I had in the previous colony, in Bela Vista, everything had changed for the better.

Mr. Shigaru's sweet wife treated me like a daughter. I learned the service and, in the midst of a new environment, again I endeavored to spread the Johrei, and to my delight, my stories began to be heard.

This time I had changed my mind, now I could talk about Johrei, I tried hard to explain, although people often scratched their heads without understanding very well, but even so, little by little, more purified, people would better understand the proposal of all that.

Mission from Japan

Some time later, more news arrived, I received a correspondence from my mother telling that after the rise of Meishu Sama, Mr. Yamane, a minister named Nobuhiko Shoda asked me to go to Curitiba ( a urban metropolis in the south region of Brazil) with him.. .

Translated by Luiz Pagano

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 Inspiration and joys of faith by Chico Xavier

 As you may know, dear reader, I consider myself an Omni Religious, I believe, study and respect all religions and I value the good in all of them, I should start by saying that I had already been to Uberaba and personally met Eurípedes, adopted son of Chico Xavier.

Chico Xavier or Francisco Cândido Xavier, born Francisco de Paula Cândido on April 2, 1910 was a holy figure from Brazil, of the highest religious and cultural importance, a philanthropist and spirit medium who changed the doctrine of faith in Brazil and in the world.

It was December 8, 2011, I had coffee and some pão de queijos (brazilian style cheese bread) with him, who kindly showed me all the rooms, told me stories about Chico, showed me the tree that he (Chico Xavier) had planted himself in the backyard, as well as the whole complex, very simple but perfectly functional, that he had built to help as many people as possible, with him and another group of ten people, I went to help cook and serve the more than a thousand needy people in a huge dinning room.

The fact is that, after that day, my life has changed a lot, especially when it comes to my goals and how to reach them with joy.

I truly believe that the best way to create an evolved society in every way is by proactively mobilizing ourselves in this, we should start by being inspired by the examples of people like Mokiti Okada, Teruko Sato and Chico Xavier - to promote the moral improvement of people at the same time. around us and at the same time, in addition to providing conditions of dignity, we promote the physical and structural development of the group, considering each member as universes in themselves, as well as important, reliable and talented links, part of a society that gives pleasure to work for the common good and for each individual, separately.

Luiz Pagano and other volunteers helping in the kitchen of the Spiritist Center Prece, by Chico Xavier in Uberaba - the happiness of helping those in need is unparalleled.

Chico used to say to his closest friends "I want to die in a day of great happiness of Brazilian people" which actually happened!

The first book psychographed by Chico Cahvier was Parnassus Beyond the Tomb (Paraíso de Alem Túmulo - SOUTO MAIOR, 1995:31) from 1931, the book brought together 203 poems dictated by 38 deceased poets. Anticipating a very difficult journey, he wrote in the preface "I know I will be the object of commiseration or laughter, but some will find solace in my book" - and many people did so!!  Chico left his terrestial life leaving 412 psychographed books in 54 years of mediumship and 92 years of life, the cause of death was cardiac arrest, without pain and suffering around 7:30 pm on June 30, 2002, at the very end of the International Soccer World Cup, ten hours after Scolari's team brought the fifth victory to Brazil - on that day, because he may have anticipated the future or because the future had graced him with his wish, the whole of Brazil was celebrating in great joy at the moment of Chico Xavier's death.

 With that in mind, I took advantage of the energy of today's victory, when people are celebrating with the glory in a great and plural spiritual vibration, the size of our country, and I decided to redo the drawing by Teruko Sato (illustration below)... my Teruko Sato.

In my art, she is the Japanese woman who adopted the indigenous culture in her paintings and clothes. In my personal universe, this evolved culture, Nipo-Tupiniquim even has a name, it's called yvyturokai (pronounced something like "wovo churo kui" - the first two 'Ys' have a sound similar to the ~ of the word 'SAO' - and means PARADISE in Guarani –, a place where people are well educated and well educated).

In my drawing, Teruko Sato (佐藤輝子) from my personal universe, dances gently on the cut trunk, as I drew in my childhood, in harmony with the forces of the forest, has a pink Amazon river dolphin to his left and a Tucuxi (grey Amazon river dolphin) on her right - she looks pretty much like an Avatar: the last air bender anime character.