Zombification

[Keanumoreira]

Ok, so today I saw Dawn of the dead, a pretty f***** up movie if you ask me. Anyway, a thought came to me as I vitualized Max Brooks famous Novel: The zombie survival guide. What he writes, chillingly, does make a lot of sense. Now I've got it worried that it may be only a matter of time before we too become reanimated.

[DarkNinja13]

There is a condition similar to becoming a zombie called Necrosis:

 

From Wikipedia:

Necrosis (from the Greek νεκρός, "dead", νέκρωσις, "death, the stage of dying, the act of killing") is the premature death of cells and living tissue. Necrosis is caused by factors external to the cell or tissue, such as infection, toxins, or trauma. This is in contrast to apoptosis, which is a naturally occurring cause of cellular death. While apoptosis often provides beneficial effects to the organism, necrosis is almost always detrimental and can be fatal.

 

Cells that die due to necrosis do not usually send the same chemical signals to the immune system that cells undergoing apoptosis do. This prevents nearby phagocytes from locating and engulfing the dead cells, leading to a build-up of dead tissue and cell debris at or near the site of the cell death. For this reason, it is often necessary to remove necrotic tissue surgically, a process known as debridement.

 

Typcally, the most common way for one to wind up suffering from this condition is from the bite of the Brown Recluse Spider - which causes the area around the bite to necrotize and spread.

 

Now Voodoo has it's own take on zombie-making

From Wiipda:

According to the tenets of Vodou, a dead person can be revived by a bokor, or sorcerer. 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 lwa Damballah Wedo, of Niger-Congo origin; it is akin to the Kikongo word nzambi, which means "god". There also exists within the West African Vodun tradition the zombi astral, which is a part of the human soul that is captured by a bokor and used to enhance the bokor's power. The zombi astral is typically kept inside a bottle which the bokor can sell to clients for luck, healing or business success. It is believed that after a time God will take the soul back and so the zombi is a temporary spiritual entity.It is also said in voudou legend, that feeding a zombie salt will make it return to the grave.

 

In 1937, while researching folklore in Haiti, Zora Neale Hurston encountered the case of a woman who appeared in a village, and a family claimed she was Felicia Felix-Mentor, a relative who had died and been buried in 1907 at the age of 29. Hurston pursued rumors that the affected persons were given powerful psychoactive drug, 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 Voodoo 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 Harvard 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 traveled to Haiti in 1982 and, as a result of his investigations, claimed that a living person can be turned into a zombie by two special powders being entered into the blood stream (usually via a wound). The first, coup de poudre (French: 'powder strike'), includes tetrodotoxin (TTX), a powerful and frequently fatal neurotoxin found in the flesh of the pufferfish (order Tetraodontidae). The second powder consists of dissociative drugs such as datura. Together, these powders were said to induce a death-like state in which the victim's will would be entirely subjected to that of the bokor. Davis also popularized the story of Clairvius Narcisse, who was claimed to have succumbed to this practice.

 

The process described by Davis was an initial state of death-like suspended animation, followed by re-awakening -- typically after being buried -- into a psychotic state. The psychosis induced by the drug and psychological trauma was hypothesised by Davis to re-inforce culturally-learned beliefs and causing the individual to reconstruct their identity as that of a zombie, since they 'knew' they were dead, and had no other role to play in the Haitian society. Societal reinforcement of the belief was hypothesized by Davis to confirm for the zombie individual the zombie state, and such individuals were known to hang around in graveyards, exhibiting attitudes of low affect. A film was made of the book by Wes Craven, Director of the Nightmare on Elm Street horror series of movies, which follows remarkably closely to the storyline of the book.

 

In the second method, it would seem that the combination of drugs and cultural stigma/beliefs convinces these people they have become like the zombies of legend. So this manner is as much an enforced psychosis as it is anything else.

 

I feel somewhere between these two, or perhaps even a combination of the two could cause one to believe that s/he has "zombified". But the kind of zombie stuff seen in movies such as "Resident Evil" or "28 Days Later" in my opinion, just don't stand up no matter how the director tries to spin it. Good story (in the case of 28 Days, not Resident Evil), but that's all it is to me.

[Keanumoreira]

Creepy stuff; makes you wonder about medical science... :unsure:

[Ethre]

To me the first method sounds much the same as gangrene. Different process, but same end result - dead cells on living being.

 

In the second method, it would seem that the combination of drugs and cultural stigma/beliefs convinces these people they have become like the zombies of legend. So this manner is as much an enforced psychosis as it is anything else.

 

Lack of sleep can do a pretty good job of creating a similar state. :happy:

[Keanumoreira]

To me the first method sounds much the same as gangrene. Different process, but same end result - dead cells on living being.

 

In the second method, it would seem that the combination of drugs and cultural stigma/beliefs convinces these people they have become like the zombies of legend. So this manner is as much an enforced psychosis as it is anything else.

 

Lack of sleep can do a pretty good job of creating a similar state. :happy:

 

Didn't think of that.

[Ranokoa]

It's good you read Max Brooks The Zombie Survival Guide, however, you need to read World War Z, his other book. Yes, zombies are real. Yes, they will be our end. Yes, doom is impending. Yes, you need to separate yourself from everyone in real life RIGHT NOW, buy as many weapons as you legally [maybe] can, stockpile canned food, spam, porn, bullets, 2 of every animal, abduct the best suited woman that you think can help repopulate, fortify your house, learn the art of necromancy, smoke some bud and forget why you were doing all of this, crash, remember, realize it's too late and you waisted too much time and the zombies are coming, OR

 

You can do what sensible people who live in the REAL WORLD do, which is what I do.... Or would do...

 

Get super strong, wear as much body armor as possible that isn't too cumbersome, eat some pizza, buy a kevlar helmet and voluntarily become a zombie and be the UBER ZOMBIE!!!!!

 

Or you could just watch my dreams as most of the zombie nightmares I have very often always are brilliant in how to survive.

 

Be well, sleep well, fight well, wear tight fitting clothes and keep your hair short.

~Ranokoa

[Keanumoreira]

It's good you read Max Brooks The Zombie Survival Guide, however, you need to read World War Z, his other book. Yes, zombies are real. Yes, they will be our end. Yes, doom is impending. Yes, you need to separate yourself from everyone in real life RIGHT NOW, buy as many weapons as you legally [maybe] can, stockpile canned food, spam, porn, bullets, 2 of every animal, abduct the best suited woman that you think can help repopulate, fortify your house, learn the art of necromancy, smoke some bud and forget why you were doing all of this, crash, remember, realize it's too late and you waisted too much time and the zombies are coming, OR

 

You can do what sensible people who live in the REAL WORLD do, which is what I do.... Or would do...

 

Get super strong, wear as much body armor as possible that isn't too cumbersome, eat some pizza, buy a kevlar helmet and voluntarily become a zombie and be the UBER ZOMBIE!!!!!

 

Or you could just watch my dreams as most of the zombie nightmares I have very often always are brilliant in how to survive.

 

Be well, sleep well, fight well, wear tight fitting clothes and keep your hair short.

~Ranokoa

 

:unsure:

[MonsterHunterMaster]

It's good you read Max Brooks The Zombie Survival Guide, however, you need to read World War Z, his other book. Yes, zombies are real. Yes, they will be our end. Yes, doom is impending. Yes, you need to separate yourself from everyone in real life RIGHT NOW, buy as many weapons as you legally [maybe] can, stockpile canned food, spam, porn, bullets, 2 of every animal, abduct the best suited woman that you think can help repopulate, fortify your house, learn the art of necromancy, smoke some bud and forget why you were doing all of this, crash, remember, realize it's too late and you waisted too much time and the zombies are coming, OR

 

You can do what sensible people who live in the REAL WORLD do, which is what I do.... Or would do...

 

Get super strong, wear as much body armor as possible that isn't too cumbersome, eat some pizza, buy a kevlar helmet and voluntarily become a zombie and be the UBER ZOMBIE!!!!!

 

Or you could just watch my dreams as most of the zombie nightmares I have very often always are brilliant in how to survive.

 

Be well, sleep well, fight well, wear tight fitting clothes and keep your hair short.

~Ranokoa

 

lol that is what you would do?

I would grab my intervenion, go onto a save roof and quickscope the hell outta the zombies (and some evil people if they'd survive)

:devil:

[Keanumoreira]

It's good you read Max Brooks The Zombie Survival Guide, however, you need to read World War Z, his other book. Yes, zombies are real. Yes, they will be our end. Yes, doom is impending. Yes, you need to separate yourself from everyone in real life RIGHT NOW, buy as many weapons as you legally [maybe] can, stockpile canned food, spam, porn, bullets, 2 of every animal, abduct the best suited woman that you think can help repopulate, fortify your house, learn the art of necromancy, smoke some bud and forget why you were doing all of this, crash, remember, realize it's too late and you waisted too much time and the zombies are coming, OR

 

You can do what sensible people who live in the REAL WORLD do, which is what I do.... Or would do...

 

Get super strong, wear as much body armor as possible that isn't too cumbersome, eat some pizza, buy a kevlar helmet and voluntarily become a zombie and be the UBER ZOMBIE!!!!!

 

Or you could just watch my dreams as most of the zombie nightmares I have very often always are brilliant in how to survive.

 

Be well, sleep well, fight well, wear tight fitting clothes and keep your hair short.

~Ranokoa

 

lol that is what you would do?

I would grab my intervenion, go onto a save roof and quickscope the hell outta the zombies (and some evil people if they'd survive)

:devil:

 

I'd just use frag gernades... :whistling:

[Vindekarr]

You may find this amusing, I sure as hell did, just mind yourself, this site can be the wild west. http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/954191/Why+the+Zombie+Apocalypse+D+nt+Work/