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HAITIAN ZOMBIE This is a true story. Zombies, the walking dead. Colourful Science fiction, or so we thought. On May 2nd 1962 a Haitian man by the name of Clairvius Narcisse was admitted to an Haitian hospital and pronounced dead. He was buried later that day. Not unusual, people die all the time; however, very few return years later with a tale of zombie enslavement. Eighteen years after Clairvius Narcisse was purnounced dead and was buried, he strolled into a local grocery store in his hometown of L'Estère. His sister who was shopping there at the time was astounded when she turned the corner of an isle and came face- to- face with her- long dead brother. This encounter is shocking; however, the facts surrounding the story of Clairvius will amaze the world. A voodoo priest had poisoned Clairvius with a zombie powder- a mixture containing a tetrodotoxin which is found in the flesh of the local puffer fish. This toxin paralyzes and dramatically slows the functioning of internal organs resulting in apparent death. After Clairvius was buried, the voodoo priest retrieved him and administered Datura stramonium which revived him. This compound reanimates the person, but leaves them in a compliant zombie- like state. Regular doses must be administered to keep the victim in their mental prison. Clairvius was forced to work alongside other zombie slaves on the voodoo priest’s sugar plantation. However, after the priest’s death, when the doses of Datura stramonium were no longer being administered, Clairvius snapped out of his zombie coma and wondered off. Many of the other slaves suffered severe brain damage due to a lack of oxygen while being buried alive. When Clairvius was asked what it felt like, he said the sorcerer had “taken my soul”. By: Michael Robertson