2006-09-04 21:19:45 · 24 answers · asked by Ajay 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Mythology & Folklore
Back in the day when modern medicine was primitive...(surgery without anesthesia, paying no mind to dirt and bacteria during surgery...those days)...people didn't know much about comas or other conditions that look like death. So they were surprised when people who were supposedly dead came back at the wake or worse...tried to scratch their way out of the ground they were buried in. That's basically the origin of the undead.
The vodoun (voodoo) practices referred to in other answers don't really involve bringing the dead back to life but taking a live person, giving him a potent narcotic that slows down his pulse so it can't be easily detected then "reviving" them. There are also some other drugs that can make someone shuffle around and act like a zombie but the people aren't really dead. This much is science.
Don't let the insults bother you, it's a good question.
2006-09-04 22:53:52 · answer #1 · answered by spindoccc 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Zombies are not real. What people call zombies are actually person that have been poisoned by a Bokor (they don't practice Vodou). The poison make it seem as if the person is truly dead. They are buried and then dug up the later that night or the next night by the Bokor. Since the Bokor dug this person up, the Bokor would tell the victim they were brought back to life by the Bokor. Since the Bokor "brought then back to life" the victim was now the Bokors zombie slave.
Read the book " The Serpent and the Rainbow" by Wade Davis. He explains this idea of the zombie. He traveled to Haiti to document this phenomenon.
2006-09-05 15:11:52 · answer #2 · answered by Nelly 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As others have said, there are certain substances (including a "zombie powder" made with, among other things, blowfish poison) that will put people into a comatose state that is nearly impossible to differentiate from death. Sometimes the person recovers fully; other times they suffer significant brain damage which can impair speaking, balance, judgement, etc, yeilding the traditional "shambling zombie." Of course, there's also the cases where the poison just outright kills the person.
2006-09-05 08:59:13 · answer #3 · answered by ArcadianStormcrow 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you get into Voodoo and junk like that, yeah, they really believe in that stuff. I have seen films of people walking around all stiff and staring into space, but who knows? The mind can play tricks on the body, maybe they think they are zombies. Haiti is big on Voodoo, so I am sure that there are stories about zombies that are passed down through the families, etc.
2006-09-05 04:23:14 · answer #4 · answered by shardf 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Yes, but I'm not interested in searching them out....many times people confused "zombies" and the actual "zombie state"....that refers to in 18th and 19th c., people that over dosed a little on meds --- remember the times here --- and the lack of medical knowledge .... an epileptic siezure could be easily confused here .... 2 different things, but yes in magik, zombies exist.
2006-09-05 04:24:40 · answer #5 · answered by masterwitchphd 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
In the early 1900's there was an agency for vampires and zombies. No joke. They discovered than vampirism and zombies were actually products of viruses and insanity....who knew...so to answer your question...as we had no other word to describe their condition at the time...yes they and vampires were real.
2006-09-05 04:23:34 · answer #6 · answered by westbound65 1 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Now, I have not personally witnessed this firsthand...I have a friend who lives half the year in Africa, and he has claimed to have seen zombies there. I believe it's not necessarily a "dead" person, but instead a braindead person--it's a type of poison, I think, where someone's will can be taken away entirely but can still understand simple commands. A horrible, ravaging form of brain damage, essentially.
2006-09-05 04:23:01 · answer #7 · answered by angk 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Nope.
When you die, the things that allowed you to move, like available energy stores and whatnot, are quickly used up.
You look the same, but it is just a husk. There is no more way a zombie could move than water could flow uphill.
2006-09-05 04:31:10 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Actually might be... One of my friends did an Informative speech based on a book called "How to survive a zombie atack", or something like that... So, everything is possible!!!
2006-09-05 08:58:06 · answer #9 · answered by Dasha 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Zombies are someone on drugs who hasn't been to sleep in along time and just roam around restless
2006-09-05 04:25:05 · answer #10 · answered by thought 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋