Zombies are bodies which are given a soul but an empty one,they
    don't have a past nor a present they are mere robots that take orders
    and who may even speak from time to time. The island of Haiti has
    many tales of such creatures dated to the present day. Zombies originate
    in Voodoo. Voodoo is a unique religion made up of African, Catholic and
    Indian American believes.Voodoo was conceived on Haiti by slaves who
    were brought there from Africa at first in the 16th century by Spain and
    later by France.Haiti was one of the richest colonies of France and it
    depended on slaves so year by year more slaves were brought,this caused
    more and more people to turn to Voodoo since this was the only thing
    that was theirs under the oppression. As soon as Voodoo started
    spreading it was banned by the French authorities but that only made it
    stronger. Most of the slaves were brought from the western part of
    Africa,where people believed in possession by Gods and they kept their
    faith under the French rule. Voodoo like every religion has its Gods but
    it also has its dark side which consists of Black Magic,sorecery
    monsters,murder and raising the dead. Voodoo ceremonies take place in
    tonneles.Tonnele may be simple mud huts which have a hard floor on which
    the possessed man can dance.The dance the drums and the atmosphere are
    supposed to bring God and worshiper into one,the possession by God is
    the central experience in Voodoo. The dancer takes the form and the
    behavior of the God he is possessed by. The worshipers believe that a
    God can take over their body only when their soul is displaced.They
    believe that the soul is divided into two: Gros-Bon-Ange and
    Ti-Bon-Ange. The Gros-Bon-Ange(big good angel) is what makes someone
    what he is while the Ti-Bon-Ange(small good angel) is a persons
    conscience. When possession occurs the Gros-Bon-Ange is displaced and
    the man takes the form of God,at the end of the possession it is
    supposed to be restored instantly. Special care is taken of the soul of
    a person when he dies,after spending some time at the bottom of a river
    a Hungan(Voodoo priest)calls the soul back into a jar which replaces the
    resting place of the body. The idea of the soul is a main one in Voodoo
    and here Zombies come into the picture. While possession by Gods is a
    wanted thing in Voodoo it is dreaded to be possessed by evil forces. A
    possession by evil force usually is orchestrated by a Bokor(sorecer) who
    is a feared character in the Voodoo religion.He communicates with the
    dead, leads criminal acts and worships the devil. Many of the Bokors
    magic include the dead,during one of the curses they take earth and dead
    mens bones and put it in the path of the victim another curse is the
    dressing and hiding of a corpse wearing the victims clothe. Research has
    shown that people that believe in this religion did actually go crazy
    after these curses were put on them. The most dreaded power of the Bokor
    though is the creation of a Zombie. The Bokor may create a Zombie for
    revenge or for personal use as a slave. The Bokor that wants to create a
    zombie will saddle a horse,ride it backwards to the victims house and
    then placing his lips to a slit on the victims house door he will suck
    his soul out and place it in a jar.The man will soon grow ill and
    die,then the Bokor must come to his grave at midnight on his burial day
    open the coffin and call the dead mans name.The victim will answer
    because the Bokor holds his soul,at this time the Bokor will place the
    jar under the corpses nose for a swift moment.This should reanimate the
    corpse. After the ceremony the Zombie is taken first by his house and
    that is supposed to assure that he will forget his loved ones. People
    take many precautions when burying a corpse so it won't be turned into a
    Zombie.Some corpses are killed again,meaning shot in the head or
    injected with poison while others are buried with a dagger in their hand
    so they can defend themselves.In extreme cases corpses lips were sewn
    together to prevent it from answering when the Bokor calls its name.

    The most known case of Zombies is the case of Felicia Felix-Mentor who
    had died in 1909.27 years later she was found wandering naked near her
    brothers farm,both her brother and her husband identified her.Her eyes
    were blank and her face was expressionless and she didn't recognize
    anyone although she did function normally.She was checked and no physical
    faults were found the only thing that was wrong that she didn't remember
    anything nor could she percieve anything.

    The case of Zombies is  very scary because there are many known cases
    which were proved to be correct but skeptics do rise.The explanation
    given to this phenomena is that the people who are supposed to be
    Zombies are actually retarded people who were hidden by their families
    but eventually managed to escape.This point is backed by the way these
    Zombies talk or actually grunt and this could explain their loss of
    knowledge about the past. Another explanation that is more common is
    that people who are supposed to be Zombies are poisoned by some potion
    brought by the slaves from Africa.The poison minimizes vital signs of a
    person and destroys the areas of the brain that are in charge of memory
    and speech.When vital signs go to minimum a person is thought to be dead
    and he is buried.The Bokor comes and revives him by slapping him and
    calling his name or the effect of low vital signs disappears with
    time.Ironically in this case the Bokor is the rescuer because if he
    doesn't open the grave the victim will die of suffocation.


    Voodoos dark side has seemed to be very effective and many cases in
    which the curses did kill people are found.Because Voodoo is known to be
    effective many people believe that Voodoo curses do actually work,the
    psychological factor is a very important one because most people who
    died of such curses died because of strokes,heart attacks and car
    accidents which can be all caused by tension coming from the knowledge
    that they are under a curse,although there are cases which can not be
    explained this way.The case of Zombies though is exceptional because it
    was proved that these kind of creatures exist.Zombies actually have
    nothing to do with afterlife but they are proof that people who were
    dead have been recalled to partial life. The question is,did drugs or
    magic bring them to this situation and in any case which is better?