Are zombies contagious?

Question

Are zombies under the spell of some voodoo priest? Or infected with rage? Maybe the've just watched too much TV?

Answer 1

There are different types of zombies. Zombies from the movies usually have to bite you, or get into your skin somehow to actually transmit the zombie, erm, gene(?) The traditional zombie of lore was a living human, just under the spell of a shaman, or witch doctor, or hypnotist, take your pick.

Answer 2

In the book The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks, it is theorized that voodoo zombies aren't actually dead, but are living humans under the influence of an extremely potent neurotoxin that practicly destroys all sense of self, and is therefore easy to control. The voodoo zombie does have distinct characteristics that make it different from a real zombie: 1. Voodoo zombies are afraid of fire (They may not remember what it is, but they will instictively be afraid of it) 2. Voodoo zombies notice things (i.e. The presence of other people, the environment, etc.) 3. Voodoo zombies understand. (i.e. If you tell them to halt, they might actually do it) 4. Voodoo zombies feel pain (i.e. You shoot a real zombie in the leg, and it still walks towards you. Shoot a voodoo zombie in the leg, it will drop and howl in pain) 5. Real zombies will not stop until they are dead, or you are eaten.

According to the tenets of Vodou, a dead person can be revived by a bokor or black magician. Zombies remain under the control of the bokor since they have no will of their own. "Zombi" is also another name of the vodou snake god Damballah Wedo, of Niger-Congo origin; it is akin to the Kongo word nzambi, which means "god."

In 1937, while researching folklore in Haiti, Zora Neale Hurston encountered the case of Felicia Felix-Mentor, who had died and been buried in 1907 at the age of 29. Villagers believed they saw Felicia wandering the streets in a daze thirty years after her death, as well as claiming the same with several other people. Hurston pursued rumours that the affected persons were given powerful drugs, but she was unable to locate individuals willing to offer much information. She wrote:

"What is more, if science ever gets to the bottom of Vodou in Haiti and Africa, it will be found that some important medical secrets, still unknown to medical science, give it its power, rather than gestures of ceremony."
Several decades later, Wade Davis, a Canadian ethnobotanist, presented a pharmacological case for zombies in two books - The Serpent and the Rainbow (1985) and Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie (1988). Davis travelled to Haiti in 1982 and, as a result of his investigations, claimed that a living person can be turned into a zombie by the ingestion of two special powders. The first, coup de poudre (French: 'powder strike'), induced a 'death-like' state because of tetrodotoxin (TTX), its key ingredient. Tetrodotoxin is the same lethal toxin found in the Japanese delicacy fugu, or pufferfish.

Answer 3

Some movies like you to believe that Zombies is like Rabies only you come down with it faster.

In the real world it is a terrible poison. Long time ago a voodoo worshiper discovered how to concoct this terrible poison(s) that causes brain damage and puts a person in a deep, death like coma. When the person comes out of the coma the person is compliant and obeys commands. The parts of the brain that are damaged also effect motor skills, thus the shuffling, and difficulty with speech. Thanks to modern medicine, people that have been poisoned this way were not pronounced dead and left to be prayed upon by the criminal that poisoned them. They have been helped, law officers have been brought in and the criminals have been caught with their poison.

Answer 4

Yeah, you gotta watch out for the zombie flesh especially. Coz if it touches you, you're sure to catch "Zombie Fever." It's serious condition that unfortunately cannot be treated by anything but a double dose of Law & Order, the ones with B.D. Wong.

What are you talking about??

Answer 5

I thought you could only catch "Zombie" if they bite you like in Night of the Living Dead.

Answer 6

No, they are created. They may bite and kill you, but unless you have the proper herbs and incantations said over your body you won't turn into one.
Voodoo is primarily used to create them, but it's only in movies that their bite is contagious.
-M

Answer 7

Okay, I think they are supposed to be under some type of voodoo spell are something I am not sure? {*.*}

Answer 8

you know in all the damn zombie movie i watched the zombie are always contiguous if they bite you your infected...not to mention gut showing

Answer 9

no no. Zombie is more of a virus. a zombie has to try and eat you and then you become a zombie.

Answer 10

I say a virus.....or a parasite. Just don't let them touch ya (bite, rape, strach, rape, poke, puke, sexual molest). Also if u should come in contact with one.

Do the following:
Run in circles screaming your head off.
Try to mimic it...in hopes it will avoid you(never worked so far)
Crap yourself (When above fails)
Get eatten(out)
Try to have sex with it.....(ewwww)
Point & Scream "INFECTED!!!!"