Could Zombies be more than folklore?

American soldiers in the early 20^th century told stories of voodoo potions and living-dead zombies upon returning from war in Haiti.  Their stories were published and turned into early horror films.  Perhaps the beginning of Zombie folklore is not folkloric at all.

Author and Ethnobotanist Wade Davis may have uncovered the secret of the Haitian Zombie.  After befriending several Haitian Sorcerers, Davis discovered the ancient recipe.

A deadly concoction of poisonous plants administered in the exactly correct dosage is able to produce a paralysis that is capable of mimicking death.  The zombie potion is believed to have [several times] even fooled medically trained doctors.

The poison tetrodotoxin is a product
 derived from a pufferfish.

One main ingredient in the Zombie potion is tetrodotoxin.  This comes mainly from the puffer fish.  If you thought cyanide was deadly, then you have another thing coming.  Tetrodotoxinis estimated to be 100 times more deadly!

Despite its toxicity, tetrodotoxin, when precisely administered, can create a living death.  This in and of itself is strikingly similar to the tale of Romeo and Juliette.  Juliette takes a potion to fake her death so that she can ultimately run away with Romeo.  She is taken to the threshold of death, but is able to recover.  Unfortunately in her case, just in enough time to see Romeo end himself.

The administering of tetrodotoxin is not all that Haitian Sorcerers use to create their zombies.  What is unique is the subsequent administration of datura stramonium.  This is a mind-controlling drug that erases memory and leaves a patient in a delirious state.

In the Haitian culture there have been several documented cases of ‘dead’ people returning to their home towns years later fully alive and claiming zombification. 

Documented evidence of drugs powerful enough to replicate this type of death like state have been reported as early as 1937.


Lori Hardin