Who are the zombies are not alive, and not dead creatures, which often meet in Haiti? Whether zombie - dead body without reason and without a soul? Whether it is in the power of the sorcerers who subdued, capturing the soul?

Haitians believe in zombies, believe and fear. Do they exist? For proof of this see many examples, and practice voodoo evidence that the walking dead are servants of the devil mages. And even if you create like zombies, found that it actually walking dead? Is it possible to give a logical explanation of their strange condition?

"The worst - eye. And this is not my imagination. This really were the eyes of a dead man, but not blind, and burning, rasfokusirovka, unseeing. So face was terrible. So empty, as if for him nothing. Not just with the lack of expression, and the inability to Express. By this time I had already seen in Haiti so many things beyond the ordinary human experience, that for a moment completely disconnected and thought, or rather felt, "Great God, maybe all this stuff is true..."

So William Seabrook describes his meeting with the creation, among the most ominous of all things supernatural. Seabrook came face to face with a zombie - a dead man walking. And at that moment he was ready to believe all that heard about zombies since its first visit to Haiti.

The fate of zombies worse than the lot of vampires or werewolves. Vampires are still returned to the one I love. They can learn and retain. The werewolf can be hurt, and they take human form. But zombie machine without reason, doomed to live in a dream. Zombies can move, eat, hear, even to talk, but doesn't remember his past, does not know about their present. No glimmer of recognition he can look into the eyes of those she loved, or to pass your own home.

Neither Ghost nor a living creature - zombie placed, maybe forever, in this "border zone between life and death." And if vampires - living dead, the zombie-the walking dead, a body without a soul and mind. By witchcraft they gave the appearance of life. They are the product of magicians, who use them as their own slaves or rent the car, most often to work in the fields.

Haiti is the birthplace of the phenomenon and is replete with stories of people who died were buried, and after a while, suddenly appeared, becoming zombies. One of the most famous stories, first described by American novelist Zora Hurston in 1938, still tell Haiti. Charming young girl named Mary died in 1909. Five years after his death, in the capital of Haiti, Port-AU-Prince, in the window of a house and saw her former school friends. The home owner refused to give any explanation, and Mary's father took up the case. When the house is found, neither the owner nor the girls were no longer there. Meanwhile, in Port-AU-Prince, rumors, and to calm public opinion, the grave of the girl dug up. In the coffin lay a skeleton, too long for a child. He was smartly dressed in the clothes in which they buried her.

They said that Mary had dug a sorcerer and turned into zombies, and when he died, the widow gave it to the girl Catholic priest. After saw her school mates, said that parents have managed to remove it from Haiti to France, dressed nun. And that it later visited her brother.

However, this is not very typical of stories about zombies, because the saddest thing in them that zombies no one can help. Family and friends often do not know about the incident, and if they are, then too scared to try to do something. Zora Hurston cites the following story, told by the mother of the deceased boy. After the burial, in the middle of the night, his friends were awakened frightened woman and her daughter. It turned out that night suddenly sister heard on the street singing and noise. Then she recognized the voice of his brother. Her crying woke the whole house, and looked out at a window, homemade saw ominous procession, wandering along the street, and boy, was buried yesterday. When he barely moving his feet, drew level with a window, everyone heard the plaintive cry. "But this is awful, " writes the Zora Hurston, - vosemyu these creatures that even mother and sister did not dare to go out and try to save him". The procession was out of sight. The sister of the boy was crazy.

But why Haiti is so afraid of zombies? And what will happen to those who will try to release their dead loved ones? Really zombies exist? To answer all these questions, you need to go back to Haiti and, mainly, to the beliefs and religious practices voodoo.

Voodoo is a unique combination of beliefs Africans, Catholics, and even some of the American Indian, and the occult. But the deepest roots in Africa, and the emergence of voodoo coincides with the arrival in Haiti big party of African slaves. This terrible period in the life of mankind began when Haiti was ruled by the Spanish in the sixteenth century, and prospered in the XVII when the island of Haiti was transferred to France. He became one of the richest French colonies, and to maintain this status, necessary slaves. The European slave traders have already provided plantations of the New world as slaves from the West coast of Africa, and were ready to meet the growing needs of the French. In those rare cases, when the French authorities encountered legal difficulties in connection with the slave trade, they cited the fact that this is the best way to draw African pagans to Christianity. Many slaves were parishioners of the Catholic Church. They changed the Christian doctrine, adapting them to their own temperament and needs, and mixed Christian ceremony with their religious rituals. This combination has been preserved. Even today, despite the disapproval of the Church, many Haitians profess both the Catholic and voodoo.

In Haiti brought slaves from all over West Africa, but most belonged to the tribes, speaking in the language Yoruba. These tribes believed in spirit possession. Separated from their homeland and families, brought in appalling conditions in a new country, slaves nevertheless have remained committed to its traditions. They still revered magic and witchcraft, and remembered about the gods and the spirits of ancestors who worshipped in the forests of Africa, which formed the basis for the formation of voodooism in Haiti. The new religion brought together deprived roots, suffering people. Therefore, the French authorities it quickly banned. Thus, they have increased the popularity of voodoo, and its sinister element of mystery.

Slavery was an excellent business. To 1750 in Haiti has brought 30,000 slaves annually. One generation gave way to another, sadness and nostalgia for the past grew and prepared the ground for rebellion. Finally in 1757 the island of Haiti tried to become independent. The fanatical uprising runaway slaves led Makandal, but the French seized him and killed. Subsequent riots accelerated the independence of Haiti in 1804. With the departure of the French colonists, media Catholic faith, religion voodoo spread.

The voodoo religion has two sides. One - belief and worship their own gods - as in the classical religious denominations. But there is another, mystically painted - voodoo black magic, witchcraft, faith in monsters, murderers, and raising the dead. The most important part of some of the ceremonies is the blood and sacrifice of pigs, chickens and roosters.

The voodoo ceremony held in the so-called "tonnelles" (pavilions). It can be as miserable hut with dirty floors and modern building, but in all cases with a ritual dance. It is in the dance of the participants experience a major experience voodoo - obsession perfume. Dancing, singing and drumming create an environment in which practicing voodoo and the spirit can become one, and there comes a time when dancing trance, which results in a loss of consciousness.

Dancing can master any of many gods and spirits, most of which still bear African names. At this moment a man possessed absolutely sure that he indeed became" them, and adopts its appearance, gestures and behavior. So obsessed with the ancient spirit of the Pope Legby guarding the gate to the other worlds and which deity of intersections, whose symbol is a crutch, eyes markedly withering away and limp. Others, having learned of the spirit, running to help with sticks and crutches. The God of the sea is to row invisible oars. Obsessed Flirty female deity will behave shaped and defiantly. One of the traditional goddesses Dahomey (Benin) - Agasse, great connection women and Panthers, retains its power and Haiti, causing possessed her to bend fingers like claws. Evil spirits can cause dancing convulsions. Obsession continues for several hours, and during this time the person can safely walk on hot fire coals, immerse hands in boiling water, as well as in some African tribes, in trance, people can cut off their fingers.

Researcher Patrick Lei Fermor, visiting Haiti, offered the following explanation of how you may obsession, or alleged "embodiment" of God. In his book "the Tree of a traveler", published in 1950, he writes: "Every citizen of Haiti in early childhood accustomed to the moment of the incarnation, and he knows that this miracle will happen in the "tel", where the air is filled with mysteries, and the drumming is almost physically affects his brain, and under the influence of drums, dance, the divine presence, he plunges in a state of hysteria and, consequently, of hypnosis".

With the help of electroencephalograms it was found that the human brain is unusually sensitive to the rhythmic influences. Thus, pitch and rhythm of the ritual ceremony, the priest of voodoo - human - can increase the degree of suggestibility. To help you enter into a state of obsession, Hungary know how to use the magical powders and herbs, but they say that in the feverish atmosphere of the ceremony voodoo this may be enough for even such ordinary things as pepper.

Voodoo worshippers believe that gods can't get into the body, when the soul is still there, and this is the moment of initiating an obsession. It is believed that the soul consists of two parts: Great Good angel and the Little Good angel. The first is what we might call identity. It is human nature and soul and makes a person who they are.

Without Great Little angel and the body lose touch. During obsession displaced Great, and the person ceases to be himself, and becomes the divine, who took his body. Usually obsession runs itself, and the Great angel of woodwaste returns to its place. But sometimes it can happen only with the help of humana. After the death care must be taken to find released from the body the soul of a new dwelling. The soul that first time on the bottom of the river, during a special ceremony is called by Hungnam and placed in the consecrated the box, replacing the physical body. So she becomes the spirit of an ancestor, he gives advice and protect your family.

The idea of the soul is the basis of many superstitions voodoo, including faith into zombies. At the time of displacement soul could fall into the hands of the devil. Of course, to have a body without a soul, which had replaced the divine, it is very convenient, but they, with diabolical machinations, may seize the sorcerer.

Voodoo sorcerers, or bakori, is being pretty creepy, they communicate with the dead and for themselves, or in the interests of their clients, practice most evil sorcery. Sometimes human and Bokor - one and the same person: the priest of voodoo, like any other, should be familiar with witchcraft, in order successfully to deal with it. Today human may impose a curse using white magic, and tomorrow to use the spell of black. They can cause as good spirits and evil, for example, Sandora that turns people into snakes or bats-vampires. Voodoo worshippers nevertheless of the opinion that the present human will never engage in witchcraft, and of course, there are Bakary that never were priests voodoo. Bakary head of a secret society, worship the devil, and going to the cemeteries, where ceremonies evil cult of the dead.

These witches of cemetery land of dead men's bones and produce special powders, in order "to send the dead on the enemy. Powder, scattered near the door of the victim or on its route, can lead to paralysis, and even death if at this time houngan not take countermeasures. Another method of struggle is to dress up the dead body and clothing of the victim and hide in a secret place, where he will rot, and the unfortunate victim - to go crazy in her quest. As the researchers note, if the potential victim knows what is going on and believes in the power of magic, then you can easily obtain the desired result.

Haitians tell harrowing stories of how sorcerers use the corpses. William Seabrook in his book "Mysterious island", written in 1936, brings the story of a young woman Camilla, Tassel and her husband Matthew. The first anniversary of their wedding, Tassel, shortly after midnight, called to his wife to celebrate this event. He insisted that Camilla put on her wedding dress, and she was frightened and listened. They entered into a solemn removed a candle-lit room. There were four more guests in evening dress. But nobody congratulated Camilla. Tussel apologized for them, promising that after the feast, the men with her dance. His voice seemed Camille strained and unnatural, and suddenly she saw motionless fingers of one of the guests uncomfortable compress the glass from which the wine flows. Taking the candle, Camilla looked at the faces of the guests and found that we are in one room with four corpses.

The woman fled in panic, but then never recovered from this nightmare. The next day her friends went back there and found everything as she described, was not only silent guests, no Tosses. Then saying that Tassel left the island.

Legend or a fact? Sinister plans husband-sorcerer or enacted imagination wife? Haitians, who told Subruku this story, believed that fact. They knew many more such stories. Children in Haiti are growing among the stories about black magic, ghosts and witches. Mothers do not allow children to play with his shadow, and they say that if they won't behave, they will take Bokor, or Taunton-Makat - wandering witch doctor voodoo. The latest threat became reality when to power in Haiti came dictator Francois Duvalier, as his mercenaries called Taunton-makutani.

This atmosphere of fear and superstition generated faith into zombies. Believing in the cult of the dead, not very difficult to believe in the possibility of black magic to force the body to move and to fulfill someone else's will. Many would say that this is the intention had Tosses relative to its guests. From all the pitfalls careless people can get by witchcraft, the worst zombie, because even the most discerning difficult to deal with it. In the late 1950's Alfred Metro, author of "Voodoo in Haiti", explored issues related to zombies. He writes: "In Port-AU-Prince are very few, even among educated people such that part did not believe those ominous stories".

One such sinister stories, recorded the Metro is about a young girl who rejected offers powerful humana. He withdrew, muttering threats. Pretty soon the girl became ill and died. It so happened that the tomb was too short, and to place there the girl, she had to bend the neck. At this time the candle beside the coffin, fell down and scorched her leg. Some time later, the people demanded to look at the girl, apparently alive. It learned to burn and twisted his neck. They said that jealous human turned her into a zombie and used as a maid, but because of increased interest to this story was forced to rescue her.

This sorcerer was led by the desire for revenge is a common reason for turning into zombies not please the man. Sometimes, if there are suitable corpses, they are turned into zombies, to use just as cheap labor. In more rare cases, they are victims of a contract with the forces of evil that are in charge of human souls for the services provided. And if Christians say about the sale of the devil's own soul, followers voodoo sell the souls of others. In exchange for power, wealth, or other benefits, you must give the soul the most dear and close people. Every year terrible procedure is repeated until there is nobody of the family who could propose, and then have to give your own soul. And the body, and the body all the rest becomes a zombie.

Such a contract is concluded through Bocharov, and only they can create a zombie. As soon as it gets dark, the sorcerer Sedlec horse and rushes to the house of the victim. There, pressing his lips to the crack in the door, Bokor "sucks" the soul and puts it in a corked bottle. Soon after that, the victim becomes ill and dies. After the burial, at midnight, Bokor with his assistants come to the grave, digs into her and he says the name of the victim. In response, the dead man tries to raise his head, because Bokor owns his soul. Once that happens, Bokor, - for a split second - takes out a bottle of soul and puts them under the nose of the corpse. Now reanimated dead. Bokor pulls him from the grave, associates and for full recovery of hits on the head. Then he carefully buries the grave, to no one guessed what had happened.

First Bokor and assistants spend victim by her own home. They say that after that she would never be able to recognize him and try to return. Then it is taken to the house of Bokor or Palace voodoo and give special brew. Some believe that this is an extract from poisonous plants such as belladonna or Datura (grass Jimson). In colonial times the slaves were contaminating their owners. Others say that he made with drops dripping from the nose of a dead man.

There are other ways to catch the human soul. It is possible under the pillow dying to put the vessel with magic items and herbs, which "pulls" the soul. The soul of an insect or small animal, you can substitute a human. In none of the cases the victim does not realize what is happening. You can even pick up the soul already dead. But whatever method is used, on the edge of the grave, the role of the soul remains the same, and after taking a magic drug case, can be considered to be made. The victim becomes a zombie terrible, obedient to a dead man walking, ready to fulfilling the desires of the sorcerer.

To the witch doctor I was unable to get the corpse and to make him a zombie, is a grandiose work. A family that can afford it, betoniere the grave. Other buried in a private garden or on the side of the road with heavy traffic. As for bokora fit only fresh corpse, relatives can at the tomb on duty as long as the body begins to decompose. Sometimes the corpse of the killed again, piercing the head or by entering the poison, sometimes stifling. Sometimes bury the knife in his hand, that he was defending himself. Often in the grave, the body lay face down, and in the mouth of the deceased fill the earth or sewn lips, so that when the witch doctor will say his name, he was unable to respond.

If people become zombies then be saved from eternal trance can only tasted salt (often, it is a symbol of white magic). After that zombies are instantly aware of the situation, understand that the dead, and vozvraschaytesI am forever in the grave.

In his book "Invisible" British anthropologist Francis Huxley brings the story about zombies, he told Catholic priest. This zombies wandered through their own village and eventually was taken to the police station. But the police were too scared to to do anything, and just left him on the street. After a few hours someone, the courage, gave zombies to drink salt water, and he murmured his name. Then he learned his aunt, who lived nearby. According to her, he died and was buried four years ago.

He called the priest, and the zombies had revealed to him the name of the sorcerer, who made him and several zombies to work for it. Frightened, the police sent the sorcerer a letter in which he offered to take her zombie ago. But two days later zombie really died - maybe because of the disclosures made him killed himself a sorcerer. The sorcerer was arrested, but neither his wife, nor other zombies could not be found.

In all the stories about zombies there is an element of uncertainty. As if omitted some important facts. But Catholic and Protestant priests tell stories that hard to believe. How they with their own eyes saw the dead, led the funeral service, closed the coffin lid and threw the ground on the grave, and after a few days or weeks met "former client" with frozen gaze, and lack of facial expressions. Insane, but not dead.

Zora Hurston writes that sometimes the missionaries these creatures leads changed voodoo Bokor or widow of a sorcerer, to get rid of them. Herston to Haiti, she was able to see, touch and take pictures of zombies. She photographed zombie Felicia Felix-Mentor, who died of a sudden illness in 1907. In 1936 m found it. She walked naked down the road, close to a farm of her brother. And brother and my husband found out in it a woman that personally buried 29 years ago. Felicia was in such terrible condition that she was sent to hospital, where few weeks later and saw Zora. "It was horrible, - she wrote then. - White face with dead eyes... Ever - completely white, as if burnt by the acid. What could she say? And what to get in return? One had only to look at her. But endure for a long time this show was impossible".

So, zombie, or something similar, already exist. But whether or not they are the walking dead? How can a dead body to give visibility life? Montague summers, a connoisseur of witchcraft and black magic, wrote: "no doubt, you can use black magic to create the appearance of "life" of a dead body - it will move and speak, but, according to the wizards, to impose the spell for a long time, without its periodic renewal - a feat that only the most dishonest sorcerers, deeply immersed in the hellish abyss".

In the case of Felicia Felix-Mentor hardly even the most hellish spell can withstand 29 years. A more plausible explanation is that the so-called zombie never died. Some believe that the zombies - just double deceased person. But if so, why is this double always looks and moves like zombies? For zombie typical absent expression, looking down view, pale face and shuffling gait. They don't understand when they are accessed, and their own nasal speech almost always meaningless. Most often it is just a guttural sounds, resembling hrukina.

They almost always have signs of mental disability, and perhaps many of met zombie really just dumb-headed, with family carefully hides, pretending that their long dead, until suddenly they will not meet someone, perhaps many years later. Alfred Subway under the guise of zombies showed "poor lunatic". It was a crazy girl, escaped from the house where the parents usually kept her under lock and key.

Researchers Haiti note that the zombies are treated no worse than with mentally retarded; the latter, in order to achieve subordination, usually beat. When William Seabrook slightly recovered from the shock of the sight of "last minute, refocusing and unseeing eye, he too came to the conclusion that the zombies that he saw were "only unhappy crazy human beings, idiots, who were forced to work in the field," not pologivsky corpses.

But how to be with witnesses who swear they've seen some zombies dead? Lying, can they? And not all the zombies idiots initially. Some friends remember healthy, smart people. It is quite difficult questions.

The answer to these questions can be obtained from an unexpected source - article 246 of the old criminal code Haiti. "Also the assassination attempt, is written there, " is the use of substances with which the subject is immersed in a more or less long lethargy, regardless of the intended use of the substance and implications. If a person is buried in a state of lethargy, the assassination becomes premeditated murder".

From this it follows that the zombies can really be a person close buried and mourned, and Bokor, as in the legends, extracted from the grave. But he was buried alive, immersed in a similar death trance, from which may never come.

Known in Haiti doctor in his interview to William Subruku said that at least some of the zombies, with whom he had to deal, were victims of this kind of errors, intentional or accidental. Zora Hurston discussed with doctors case-Felice Felix-Mentor. She writes: "We have long been built theories explaining the origins of zombies. This is certainly not the case for the resurrection of the dead, and most likely they were immersed in the state, very close to death with the help of some drugs, the method of their manufacture, may have been exported from Africa and passed from generation to generation... They obviously destroy the part of the brain that controls will and speech. Victims can act and move, but are unable to formulate their thoughts. Two doctors, highly interested in these funds and failed to find a method of manufacturing. It's a mystery, and dedicated rather die than tell me."

Almost certainly the idea of zombies came from Africa, where it still tells the legendary story about how wizards raise the dead. However, these zombies - the specificity of Haiti. Of course, skeptics may say that the so-called zombie just lunatics or people who are immersed in a trance, but not some doubtful cases can be explained only on the level of magic. Today voodoo often used to attract tourists, and a colourful presentation, demonstration of white magic, equally pleasing to both natives and foreigners. Francis Huxley spoke of the judge, who saw human learned from the grave corpse and his reanimated. In the grave the judge found the tube through which surface did the air. Actually the "corpse" was an assistant humana and could breathe freely in anticipation of our own resurrection.

Haitians, of course, know about these hoaxes. But, unfortunately, most of them still believe in zombies, and a fear to fill their ranks they just got in the blood. It may well be that zombies does not derive from the grave, and with the help of special tools are immersed in a state of near death. But who shall say which is worse? In any case zombie is one of the examples of the walking dead.