BROADCASTS.com

Are zombies real or just something Hollywood is into nowadays? If you\u2019ve ever seen the movie The Serpent and the Rainbow, you know the question is legitimate. That movie was based on a book by Wade Davis, who earned his PhD in part on the basis of his research into \u201czombification\u201d in Haiti. Davis and others theorize that zombies are real, and that they are the result of specific drugs given to individuals against their will that produce zombie-like states and behavior. The modern drug Flakka is a current, frightening example. Other researchers disagree, noting that zombie lore is very old and encompasses notions that sound a lot like demonization and possession.

Readings:

Ackermann, Hans-W & Gauthier, Jeanine, \u201cThe Ways and Nature of the Zombi,\u201d The Journal of American Folklore 104:414 (1991): 466-494

Murtaugh, \u201cConstructing the Haitian Zombie: An Anthropological Study Beyond Madness\u201d

William Booth, \u201cVoodoo Science,\u201d Science new series, 240:4850 (April 15, 1988): 274-277

Neurophilosophy (Science Blogs), \u201cThe ethnobiology of voodoo zombification,\u201d Sept 13, 2007

Wade Davis, \u201cZombification,\u201d Science new series, 240: 4860 (June 1988): 1715-1716

Natalina, \u201cIndonesian Zombie Photo: Real, Fake, or Misunderstood?\u201d Extraordinary Intelligence blog, Sept 20, 2010

YouTube: Zombie Drug BRAZIL \u2018Cloud Nine\u2018 (2017)