Blogpost # 1: The Legend of the Undead: Science Vs. Mythology

Scary stories are our childhood's worst nightmare. Most of us used to cover our ears every time one of our family member started the topic. We even imagine that some kind of monster exists under our bed and worst, the horror still haunts us throughout our adventures in dreamland. It's kind of creepy to go back again from these experiences we had in our childhood days. As we grow up, we've been introduced more to the so called "horror industry," and even met a lot of monsters that are beyond our imagination; gooey monsters, giant octupi, boogey man, evil doll, evil clown and reanimated flesh-eating corpse popularly known as --, the Zombies.

Zombie eating human flesh

The idea of going back to life after you die is a very fascinating topic, but a dead eating a man's flesh is another story. "Zombies", as we call it, may look terrifying but they have this kind of charm that we can't even resist. As a part of the "sensation-seeking generation," I've found zombies a very interesting subject to look forward to because the idea of it was simply genius. But before exploring more about this phoenomena, it is very important to understand them. In order to do this, we need first to learn about their roots, their origin, and how they started.

In an article entitled "Zombies: The Real Story of the Undead" from the site livescience.com, it stated that zombies originated from the rural villages of Haiti around 1800. It even stated that the word "Zombie" was first used in 1810 by Robert Southney in his book "History of Brazil." Author of the article, Benjamin Radford writes, "the zombification was done as punishment, but often the zombies were said to have been used as slave labor on farms and sugarcane plantations."

An example of Haitian Vodou priest or the bokor.

In addition to the Haitian legend, zombies were created through the bokors, houngans or most commonly called as the sorcerers. They control and make the "zombified" human being to work for them that can last for years, before they return to their original state. To turn their victim as one of these things, they use specialized powdered formula made from dried leaves and ground animals. And right after the victim dies, the bokor starts their ritual until the zombification process is done.

As we go back to what the author had quoted, "zombification was done as punishment," it was then supported by an article, Zombie Facts Real and Imagine by LiveScience staff. Florida Musuem of Natural History says, "In Haiti, a zombi is someone who has annoyed his or her family and community to the degree that they can no longer stand to live with this person. They respond by hiring a Bokor, a vodoun priest who practices black magic and sorcery, to turn them into a zombi."

For me, being in prison and death penalty as punishment nowadays is already terrifying. What's more worse into turning yourself as mindless slave zombie? Whether a person committed large crimes, they still doesn't deserved to be controlled. Nobody does. From the moment we were born, we already have the right to live peacefully even after our death. The idea of this Haitian myth may be fascinating, but the concept of it is still under the line.

Clairvius Narcisse - claimed that he was

been zombified for almost 18 years.

The questions about the existence of zombies started to become mainstream especially when Science decided to step in. In another article entitled "How Zombies Work" by Tracy V. Wilson, around year 1980, a man named Clairvius Narcisse claimed that he was been "zombified" after he was been reported dead on May 2, 1962 in Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Deschapelles. He can even recall the doctor covering his face with a sheet and since the hospital has all the documented proof of his death and illness, scientists started what they called, the "Zombie Project" led by an ethnobotanist and anthropologist, Dr. Wade Davis.

Dr. Wade Davis - an ethnobiologist
and antrophologist

During Dr. Davis research and travels around the four regions in Haiti, he found out that the ingredients used on the powder contain deadly neurotoxin called the "Tetrodoxin." As I've researched about the said neurotoxin, I've found out that it is commonly found on pufferfish and it can cause paralysis once it enters the human system. That explains why Narcisse can still see the doctor covering his face with a sheet, because he was paralyzed during his presumed death.

But like all researches and theories, some scientist found flaws in Davis research. Here is a related excerpt from the article regarding on the issue:



Scientists have:

*Questioned Davis's ethics, since he observed the desecration of graves when gathering ingredients for the powder

*Questioned whether the initial experiments with the powder were scientific or controlled and whether other substances had been added to the powder being tested

*Alleged that samples of powder contained little to no tetrodotoxin. Davis counters that putting the powder into solution for testing may have destroyed the active ingredients

*Revealed that Davis repeated his topical applications of the powder using rats and saw absolutely no effect

*Studied several alleged zombies and discovered clear cases of mental illness and mistaken identity

To explain more about what he had found, Dr. Davis wrote a fictional novel based on his researches that was eventually adopted into a motion picture in 1988 under MCA and Universal Pictures entitled "The Serpent and The Rainbow". It was then followed by a second book, Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie, that was generally based on his adventures and travels across Haiti.

But the question still remains; how come zombies like to eat flesh?

Tracy V. Wilson says, "These zombies are mindless slaves. They are not self-aware and are not particularly dangerous unless fed salt, which restores their senses.

That explains most of our questions. According to what we've known, or what the Hollywood's trying to convey that once you turned into a zombie, you will be craving for meat whether if it is animal's or human's. In order to stop you from turning into this morbid monstrosity, you must be shot on the head. I guess, the idea of the Western culture and the native Haitian about re-animated corpses is somehow similar, it's just that, the Haitian myth was nothing gore and less dangerous.

Zombie Fan Art

Let's face the reality; whether the science invented a lot of technologies that can prove zombies doesn't exist, or even Haitian found a lot of evidences that zombies really does exist, they will left us hanging with more and complex questions. We will still look for an answer, we may even look beyond the possibility just to show which of the both parties were right or wrong. But the answer is within us. They left us a choice. How about you? Do you believe or not? If not, how come? And if yes, are you prepared?