The undead don’t usually participate in clinical trials, although three suspected zombies once agreed to have their brain activity measured by researchers in Haiti. Like an episode of Scooby Doothe investigation began in an attempt to uncover the identity of the ghostly trio, each recognized by the locals as long-deceased people returning from the dead.
According to Haitian voodoo beliefs, the spirits of the dead can sometimes be captured by sorcerers called book cross, who can then use these souls to reanimate fresh corpses into zombies. Often spotted wandering the backwaters of rural Haiti, these undead sleepwalkers are regularly reported to local authorities, with up to a thousand zombie sightings each year.
In the wild study published in 1997, researchers investigated three such cases using electroencephalography and DNA testing techniques to try to find a rational explanation for the apparent walking corpses.
The first of these involved a woman who died at the age of 30, only to be spotted three years later by family members who recognized her due to a distinctive facial mark. A local court then allowed the woman’s grave to be opened, revealing it to be full of stones.
Describing the zombie, the study authors explain that “she held her head in a bowed position and walked extremely slowly and stiffly, barely moving her arms.” She was also unable to communicate, “but occasionally mumbled some unintelligible but stereotyped words.”
Despite the woman’s apparent zombification, the researchers revealed that her “electroencephalogram and central nervous system examination were unremarkable.” Based on their assessment of her condition, the authors suggest a presumptive diagnosis of catatonic schizophrenia, but cannot explain how she came back from the dead.
Offering a speculative solution, they explain that the woman may not have died at all, but instead was poisoned by a “neuromuscular toxin” – possibly administered by a criminal bush – to induce catalepsy and mislead relatives into thinking she was dead. Then the errant sorcerer could have removed the buried body shortly before the woman regained consciousness, while the lack of oxygen in the grave may have resulted in brain damage, which explains her zombie-like state.
Moving on, the study authors describe a 26-year-old man who was seen at a local cockfight 19 months after he was buried. The man’s uncle was subsequently found guilty of using witchcraft to zombify the man, who was then kept chained to a log in his parents’ house.
Once again, clinical examinations showed no supernatural findings and the man was diagnosed with “organic brain syndrome and epilepsy.” More importantly, the DNA test reveals that he is not the person who died shortly before, greatly weakening his claim of zombification.
In a similar case, a 31-year-old woman was recognized as a dead resident of the village for 13 years. Once again, however, a medical examination revealed that she was still human, while genetic analyzes showed that she was not the deceased individual after all.
Considering the latter two examples together, the study authors concluded that “misidentification of a wandering, mentally ill stranger by bereaved relatives is the most likely explanation.”
Of course they would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for these meddling researchers.
Leave a Reply