I was watching 28 days later with a friend. (It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I wish I hadn't bothered. It doesn't go well with Pizza that's a truth I'll share with you.)
Anyway of course the subject of Zombies came up, and although I know all about the silly movie rubbish, I thought that if that was as close to the truth about Zombies as it usually is about anything else we discuss here I'd ask if anyone knew anything about where the idea for Zombies came from?
Where they ever real or are they just a Hollywood invention?

They're based on real beings, but of course they're not portrayed quite realistically in the movies. Nothing new there then huh?

It's something to do with a kind of poison and someone wanting to control the body of someone else. Zygo has all the lowdown. I'm sure he'll fill in the enormous blank spaces in my research. I'll nudge him gently in this direction and we'll see what happens.

Why Meditation and Psychic phenomena? Just curious.

Lady C.

Something that's always bugged me, why Zombie?
Is that a word that means something in whatever language is native to the country they come from?
Or did Hollywood make that up too?
If they did, what are Zombies really called, if they even have a name?

Polyfiller anyone...........

The Word Zombie is real enough but the traits given are as usual extremely Hollywood.
A more realistic movie to watch is The serpent and the rainbow with Bill Pullman.
It was written by Wade Davies a real life Ethnobotanist, from his own experiences, so despite the odd cover picture and being directed by Wes Craven it does give a realistic insight into Voodoo and the Zombie Powder.

The principle ingredient of the Zombie powder is Tetrodotoxin which comes close to botulism toxin as one of the most toxic poisons at around 1 nanogram per kilogram being deadly.

The effect of Tetrodotoxin in the correct amount is to paralyse the body slowing all but the nervous system to an almost standstill so that if you are poisoned with it you appear to be dead, but are actually pretty well aware of whats going on around you.
The Voodoo priest/ess would administer the powder (mixed with various other things) to the victim through a blow pipe so that it is inhaled or absorbed through the skin, then as the toxin takes effect sits back to wait for "death".
The apparently dead victim is then buried very quickly because of heat and disease problems in Haiti but is actually still very much aware. Psychotropic drugs in the powder take effect and heighten the terror of the victim while others work on the brain slowing and wrecking various nerve signals producing a taupor, a sedated, chemically lobotomised effect that renders the victim very open to suggestion.
The priest then digs up the victim and sends them on their way with instructions to do whatever the priest wants.
The priest will make a soul jar for the victim enhancing the impression that the preist is extremely powerful and has taken the soul from the body and raised the body from the dead. There are esoteric uses for this jar but this is about provable uses.

Tetrodotoxin is found in many organisms both plant and animal (the most famous being the pufferfish. fugue) but is actually made by a type of bacteria and used mostly symbiotically for defence purposes.

The effects of tetrodotoxin are reversible and someone poisoned with a small enough dose can if treated properly go on to live a perfectly normal life.
The problem with the zombie powder is that many of the compounds are not properly understood are extremely destructive, so victims rarely recover fully.
The power of the Zombie drug comes from both its effect and a very deep set belief in the abilities of the Voodoo priests.

here are a few interesting links
http://science.howstuffworks.com/zombie1.htm

http://chemweb.calpoly.edu/cbailey/377/PapersW01/Jerry/
I love his description of how to avoid poisoning

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Tetrodotoxin
this is a general page with bits of science and history too

One last one
Wade Davies

Zygo

The Zombie Survival Guide would be a good book for you if you want to know about Zombies. Zombies accually are made by the virus Solanum. This virus reanimates humans and doesn't work in animals. Theres a lot more but... I just can't word it without going "Awsome" of "EWWW!!!!"Blah! a zombie that has 213 pounds of human flesh in the stomache and it explodes and they still eat..... just yuck....

Kiari

Oooh thankyou very much for sharing the stomach explosion with us Kiari.
It's lovely to know I can always rely on you to bring such wonderful snippets of info to our attention.

Love you for it sweetie.

Lady C.

Tetrodotoxin hmm? Sounds fun to play with *evil grin*

No but seriously, I had no idea anything like that actually existed.

Any other weird toxins you're keeping up your sleeve zygo. I would love to hear about them too.

Don't even say no either I know you have some more hiding somewhere.

~Farshief

me naaaaaah nothin up my sleeves mate

I have some other things I will look out for you but for now here is a link to a page I wrote some years ago about European Funghi.

Poisonous stuff

Have fun.

Zygo

I love being disgusting sometimes.but its what captivates me and makes me read. Theres not many "OMG That's just plain EWWW" facts in the many but few books that i don't read. anyway, back to zombies. They say there is only one way to kill a zombie but i counted about five.
1: Shot them in the head
2: Catch them on fire(it does take a long time because skin takes along time to burn for some reason.)
3: Blow them up
4:push them into deep water to where the can never get out.(The brain of a zombie runs on oxygen. once the oxygen is gone the brain dies and the virus part dies about 48 hours later.)
5: Wait for them to die out. (this can take up to ... a long, LONG time)

Oh and the only way this virus can infect us is if an animal has it and they bite us before the virus dies or you get it in a lab. For some reasons when an animal gets infected they die in one day.

This has been Kiaris "Sharing the intrest" time. Thank you for reading!

Kiari

oh and zygo... having nothing up your sleeves is kinda hard to believe.

Thanks for sharing the interest Kiari.
I knew about setting them on fire, and shooting them in the head. I hadn't thought about blowing them up, but I can see why that would work too. I hadn't heard of the last two though so thanks for them aswell.

Zygo the toxin sounds really awful, but the power of the preists sounds even worse. I wonder if part of the reason it kills so many of them (apart from the fact that it is poisonous of course) is that they believe so completely that it will?
If it is then doesn't that mean that a person's true beliefs can be a powerful thing used for good or evil, and that in the wrong hands everyone can be manipulated into doing or being evil?
That's a scary thought.

Faith