Each of us, at least once in our lives, has heard chilling stories about zombies - creepy creatures in a human shell, automatons without a soul and mind, doomed to live in half-sleep and only able to carry out other people's commands.
From time to time, a wave of rumors rises in the press about many opportunities to turn an ordinary ordinary citizen into a walking monster, not a ghost, but not a living creature, placed (sometimes forever) in the border zone between life and death. We are used to evaluating stories about the "living dead" as fantastic tales. But is it really so?
It is believed that zombies were used in the agricultural production of the island of Haiti, where, as it was believed, the best specialists in zombietecture - the art of making the "living dead", settled. Voodoo sorcerers who specialized in the use of black magic - bokors - for many years were considered the primary source of the mysterious technology of reviving corpses. Well, the subtleties of the zombietectur techniques of the Haitian magicians for the Europeans remained, despite all the efforts, a secret sealed with seven seals. And only quite recently the veil of mystery began to dissipate little by little.
Most Haitians are convinced that the Bekors really know how to create "walking, dead". And they do it out of revenge or for the sake of earnings. After all, a zombie is an ideal slave, content with only a minimum of food and water, capable of working day and night without rest, obediently fulfilling any order of the owner. It all starts with the fact that the sorcerer steals the victim's soul.
According to the views of the inhabitants of Haiti, for this, the bokor, as soon as it gets dark, saddles a horse and goes to the house of the future "living dead". He slowly makes his way to the door and, pressing his lips to the crack, "sucks the soul" of the person he needs. The soul is placed in a special vessel, and the victim falls ill and soon dies. Then the bokor kidnaps the body from the grave, "reanimates" it, for a split second bringing the captive soul to the victim's nose, and then, with obsessions, leads the newly minted zombie past his house and lets him swallow the infusion of poisonous plants.
In reality, everything looks different, although, in fact, the real technique of sorcerers is no less impressive. The chosen victim is "treated" with a special powder, after which she suddenly "departs" to another world. Then the deceased is really taken from the grave, restoring his ability to move, but forever depriving him of the opportunity to think and strive for anything.
Attempts to establish the composition of the ominous zombie powder have been made repeatedly and usually ended in failure. But since there were enough officially registered cases of examining people who were treated with a drug unknown to science, the doctors were forced to state: voodoo sorcerers really know how to block those parts of the brain that are responsible for speech, movement, heartbeat, breathing, blood circulation, heat exchange, not while affecting the consciousness of the victim. Thus, an impressive picture of death was created, capable of deceiving any doctor. But after some time (approximately 12 hours later) the victim of the bokor "came to life". True; memories of her past life were not preserved at all, or they were partially lost.
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In the late 1980s, an American researcher bought a recipe for zombie powder from a Haitian sorcerer. But the cunning Yankee did not have time to finally clarify one of the herbal components of the potion: the secret police of the head of Duvalier Island (they say that he himself was doing black magic with might and main, being one of the most senior voodoo sorcerers) made sure that the information did not fall into the wrong hands. The bribery sorcerer was sentenced to a cruel and terrible death, and the researcher had to personally find out what it means to be buried alive …
Bokor's potion, as it turned out, includes the Borgia toad and the polychaete stinging sea worm. Moreover, to increase the toxicity, these "ingredients" sat in one jar; the worm began to bite the "inmate", and she, in turn, produced a large amount of a poisonous substance. The next day, both creatures were killed, dried and ground into powder. Then they added many different herbs, powder of the skull bones of the recently deceased mambo (female priestess), fresh human remains (especially the skin and bones of a child), black powder, talc and … puffer fish.
Perhaps, this amazing fish should be discussed separately.
Fugu (dog fish) is very poisonous. Moreover, absolutely all tissues that contain one of the most dangerous natural poisonous substances of neuroparalytic action - totrodotoxin, a lethal dose for a person, are poisonous, which is only 0.00001 g per kg of body weight. By its action, this substance is 10 times more powerful than the infamous curare and 400 times more powerful than strychnine: a large bird almost instantly dies from one fugu egg!
Interestingly, the first description of the symptoms of tetrodotoxin poisoning was given on September 8, 1774 in his diary by the famous English navigator James Cook. Today, the clinical picture of the effect of this poison on the human body is well known to specialists. At first, it causes a loss of sensitivity, and then the mobility of the tongue, the tips of the fingers and toes, as well as a rapidly progressive decrease in vascular tone (hypotension).
Following this, a person has difficulty swallowing, it becomes difficult for him to breathe. Violation of the latter function is either peripheral in nature (paralysis of the respiratory muscles), or is associated with the depressing effect of the toxin on the respiratory center. A sharp drop in blood pressure occurs as a result of paralysis of smooth muscles. Soon, paralysis covers the entire skeletal muscles. Death occurs from respiratory arrest. With intoxication with a dog fish, more than 60% of people die during the first day.
So, all the components of the zombie powder - for three days under ritual chants, accompanying all this with special signs calling for spirits - were ground and thoroughly mixed until a homogeneous yellowish powder was formed. But in order for the final product of the Haitian "pharmacists" to become fully usable, it was lowered for one day into a coffin with the deceased, whose head was specially removed. At the same time, the sorcerer was preparing an antidote - to protect the participants in the zombie process from poisoning.
There was no need to mix the zombie powder into the victim's food or drink.
After swallowing even a small amount of poison, she would instantly and finally pass into the category of corpses, without, so to speak, the possibility of "amnesty". The sorcerer's potion was applied directly to the skin, the “lethality” of its components was enough to turn a perfectly healthy person into a dead person in 10-15 minutes, more precisely - into an imaginary dead person: the victim of the bokor ceased to show signs of life (pressure dropped, brain activity was zero, eyes glazed, breathing was lost, the skin acquired a lilac-bluish tint), in fact, remaining alive. The picture of death turned out to be convincing, misleading even well-known medical specialists.
It should be said that the pathological effect of tetrodotoxin on the human and animal organism is based on its ability to block the conduction of a nerve impulse in excitable tissues. In addition, zombie powder turns out to be able to activate one of the most ancient mechanisms of our body - the so-called "portal heart", that is, the vascular system of the liver, which is, so to speak, an additional pump that pumps blood from the main organs into the general venous bed. This is, by the way, 30-40% of the total blood flow in the norm and 50-70% at increased loads. The portal system of the liver is the only vascular network in the body capable of working under very low pressure (about 10 cm of water).
In addition, oxygen is not required for its functioning, so that the smooth muscles of the liver can work in its absence for many hours, or even several days. There is no need to describe the mechanism of subordination of the entire cardiovascular system to the rhythm of the "portal heart"; suffice it to say that at the same time blood pressure drops sharply, the brain falls into a kind of coma. The heart is rarely activated, as is the respiratory center. So, tetrodotoxin is responsible for inhibiting all organic processes in the body.
Doctors note that the victims of voodoo sorcerers even have zero brain activity! It is interesting that the components of the poison are also … a means of reanimation, after a couple of tens of hours, restoring all processes to their previous level. Very quiet, rare heartbeats and almost imperceptible respiratory movements, observed at very large intervals, in the victim of zombie powder, it is very easy to overlook, which is why doctors usually state death.
Since the climate in Haiti, as you understand, is by no means cool, they try to bury the bodies of the deceased on the day of death. Actually, this is exactly what the sorcerer needs. After the inconsolable relatives go home, leaving the deceased in his last refuge, the henchmen of the bokor tear up the grave and get the candidate for the "living dead". According to the ritual, the sorcerer, meanwhile, summons the loa (spirit) of death, the so-called Baron of Saturday: it is believed that with his help he: drives the soul of his victim into a bottle.
The bokor uses an object that previously belonged to the "deceased" as a cork. Approaching the body recovered from the grave, he calls the pseudo-dead by name. It is believed that the victim of witchcraft is unable to resist this call and responds. At this moment, the bokor slightly opens the bottle, then a small spark of the soul enters the body, giving the ability to move. We can say that this is the end of the process of making a living biorobot. Well, he puts the grave in order so that no one would guess about the loss of its "inhabitant".
It seemed that the zombie phenomenon had found its scientific explanation. But it is still too early to remove the “living dead” from the list of the greatest mysteries of mankind. Indeed, despite the wild fantastic nature of the story about a special vessel for capturing the soul of a zombie, no one could explain how the bokor gains the ability to manipulate the psyche and actions of its victim after the alleged resurrection of the latter. No, a poisonous drug, coupled with prolonged oxygen starvation, can really disable the most important centers of the brain, but after all, sorcerers get, in the end, not idiots, but ideally obedient slaves!
Survivors after such poisoning said that they were fully conscious, retained the ability to hear and understand what was happening. There are cases when lovers of dishes from the same fugue sometimes "came to life" on the way to the cemetery or in the morgue … By the way, one of the most famous zombies - a resident of Port-au-Prince Claudius Narcissus - suddenly came to his senses after 18 years (!) existence as a "living dead"; it happened at the moment when the sorcerer accidentally broke the bottle, which allegedly contained the soul of Narcissus …
To this day, puffer fish is considered a rare delicacy in Japan. But for its preparation, the chef needs to undergo lengthy training (including first aid to his own clients in case of poisoning) and obtain a special license. After all, its task is not to completely remove tetrodotoxin from tissues (this is hardly possible in principle), but to reduce its content to a certain level.
Then, having eaten a portion of fugu, a person experiences a unique feeling of inner comfort, feels warmth throughout the body, some excitement, a strange tingling sensation in the tongue and lips, accompanied by slight numbness. Many wealthy Japanese eat fugu regularly, each time experiencing a slight euphoria - they even consider it a kind of hobby. Nevertheless, according to statistics, at least 200 people die from an improperly prepared delicacy in the Land of the Rising Sun every year. No wonder among the Japanese there is a widespread saying: "If you want to eat a fugu - write your will!"
To prevent the sorcerer from turning the deceased into a zombie, Haitians to this day resort to certain tricks. For example, wealthy families prefer to concrete the graves of their relatives, and many try to bury loved ones in their own garden or on the side of busy roads. Since only a fresh corpse that has not begun to decompose is suitable for "making" a zombie, either a watch for several days or … an anti-theft system is often established near the graves. But there are also more barbaric practices of protecting loved ones from the unenviable fate of the "living dead".
For example, in many villages, a corpse is cut off before burial or pierced with an iron bar. The deceased are also suffocated or injected with powerful poison. Sometimes the bodies in the grave are placed face down, and the mouth is filled with earth and the lips are sewn up so that the deceased cannot respond when the bokor calls him by name. A more humane way is as follows: a knife is put in the hands of the deceased so that he himself can defend himself from the sorcerer who has come for him.
Nowadays, scientists have established that the bokors of Haiti are not the inventors of the method of "making" zombies. One of the representatives of this exotic profession admitted that the Bokors adopted the art of zombietecture from … one of the tribes of the Amazon! Adherents of the black side of voodoo to this day travel to their historical mentors for passing, "internship", or "refresher courses".
An expedition of five anthropologists and two resuscitators was sent to the origins of, so to speak, one of the most impressive voodoo practices. The European Anthropocentric Club allocated funds for special research. The experts did not disappoint: after returning home, they acquainted the scientific world with truly sensational materials.
At first, the tribe, which had long owned the secret of making the "living dead", categorically refused to contact the Europeans. But the members of the tribe are just people who, throughout history, have been let down countless times by banal greed and the desire to possess the things they like. So the keepers of the ancient secret could not resist … a set of beads. Two young graduate students, Joey and Barmila, have guessed these trinkets. As a result, the girls got hold of the most interesting information for science about the technology of "making" zombies.
It turned out that the mysterious bokor powder itself is far from all that is needed to turn a corpse into a soulless and emotionless monster. A decisive role in the revival of the magician's victim is … the electric eel inhabiting the Amazon. In practice, the final stage of "making" a zombie is the following procedure. Two electric eels are applied with tail stings, from which an electric current flows, to the chest of a corpse.
In this case, one eel should be in the upper right quarter of the chest, the second in the lower left, closer to the side. Interestingly, the polarity is irrelevant. At the command of the bokor "Virlicuu!" (something like a "discharge" for doctors) two assistants synchronously click eels on the heads with reed twigs. After being electrocuted, the zombie is finally "ready to eat." It is noteworthy that for the Amazonian tribe, the export of eels to Haiti is one of the most important sources of income.
Resuscitators, upon learning about this procedure, immediately stated: it is very similar to standard electrical defibrillation. To conduct detailed research, the successful graduate students stayed for some time in the tribe. They managed to find out that for "making" zombies, it is very important to observe the "dosage" of discharge energy and poisonous powder. The girls also talked about the existence of a special table that stores a clear ratio: energy / amount of poison.
It turned out that even an error of 1% leads to a disastrous result: the bokor victim loses the ability to restore his motor abilities. Unfortunately, the researchers did not manage to find the mentioned key table. Interestingly, after visiting the Amazon, all members of the expedition suddenly decided to leave science. A couple of people got a job in a city morgue, someone later went into agriculture, and graduate students … switched to studying Amazonian eels and even brought several dozen to Europe for breeding.
In general, the phenomenon of the "living dead" does not want to part with its status as a mystery. Meanwhile, “grateful” humanity, inspired by the example of Haitian sorcerers and seriously imagining the problem of managing homo sapiens, seems to have discovered other ways of influencing living organisms. It is not for nothing that the modern understanding of "zombies" is a person with a deformed psyche, unable to give objective and independent assessments of facts and events, acting according to the program embedded in him. No, you can, of course, from early childhood consciously and professionally disaccustom people to think independently, hammer slogans and quotes into the minds that form the patterns of behavior necessary for the system in any situation.
In this case, the media have proven themselves to be much more effective than the pharmacological delights of voodoo sorcerers. But there are other principles of zombie, with the use of technical means. We are talking about the treatment of a person with a high-frequency electromagnetic field. An interesting fact: the daughter of F. Dzerzhinsky, Margarita Taeltse, and associate professor D. Luni, were at the origins of the development of methods of "psi-influence" in Russia. Due to the technical backwardness of the country, the main emphasis was then on the use of psychotropic drugs based on drugs. But even then it was noticed that the effect of deformation of the psyche is significantly accelerated if the ward is in a high-frequency field.
For your information, clause 13.8 from the reference book for the censor "The List of Information Prohibited for Publication" of 1990 states that all data related to human exposure to electromagnetic fields are prohibited. Including data “on technical means (generators, emitters) for influencing human behavioral functions (creation of biorobots)”. And this despite the fact that the official authorities assert that no "psi-weapon" exists in nature and no one is engaged in its development!
Among the possible "zombie tools" also appears the well-known "25th frame". The human eye can perceive an image on film moving at twenty-four frames per second. The elusive 25th frame affects the human psyche, forcing him to act in a certain way. So to speak, "voluntarily-compulsory."
For the same purposes can be used recently invented in Japan "silent cassettes", on which a certain "recommendation" is recorded at frequencies almost imperceptible to the human ear. Yes, as long as she broadcast the demand to quit smoking and instilled an aversion to tobacco. But who knows how things can turn out in the future. Especially if you remember that until now none of the serious inventions of mankind have been used only for good.
Experts say: you can also "zombify" a person with the help of hypnotic suggestion, ultrasound, modulated microwave field. All in all, we seem to be on the verge of a real zombie era. Maybe it's time to stop?
“Interesting newspaper. Psi-factor №2 2014