Secrets of the Dead

The upcoming schedule for the American television station PBS features a program
on the British explorer Percy Fawcett, who disappeared in 1925 with his son
Jack and Jack’s friend Raleigh Rimmell when the trio entered the Amazon
jungle in search of an ancient lost city he called “Z.” The program, Lost in
the Amazon, traces the explorer’s last days. “ For decades, explorer Colonel
Percy Fawcett captivated the world. His exploits in the Amazon featuring
lost cities and fantastic creatures inspired books and Hollywood movies. In
1925, at the age of 58 Fawcett headed into the jungle with his son and a
friend to find a mysterious lost city called Z. It was one of the biggest
news stories of the day, and millions followed reports of their exploits.”

Then all three vanished without a trace. Despite countless rescue missions,
Fawcett was never found. Only mystery remains. Was he killed by Indians as
most believe? And is there a factual basis for his Lost City? Now modern day
explorer Niall McCann travels to South America armed with new clues: Fawcett
’s signet ring, secret map coordinates, and an understanding of the mystical
purpose behind Fawcett’s final journey.

Blavatsky plays a part in this story. “Percy’s brother introduced him to the
Theosophy movement—created by Madame Blavatsky, a famous 19th century
psychic and spiritualist. Her global religious movement influenced leading
figures of the day including Gandhi, Thomas Edison and Arthur Conan Doyle.
Blavatsky taught that enlightened Master Priests delivered psychic messages
to help mankind; they lived in various hidden cities around the world
including Tibet and South America.” (!)

This became the draw for him, and “Fawcett fell under the movement’s spell,
and would never forget the Masters in the hidden cities.” A similar
narrative of Percy Fawcett and his interest in Theosophy is given in The
Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann,
published last year. A transcript of the program can be viewed here.

The producer of Lost in the Amazon feels “The image that everyone believed
about the Amazon: a pristine jungle inhabited by primitive hunter-gatherers
is coming to an end. As Fawcett himself believed, huge populations and
advanced civilizations once lived in the Amazon: they are only now just
emerging and waiting to be fully revealed.”