Introduction
Definition of zombies in pop culture vs. historical accounts.
Why humans fear the "undead": Psychological and cultural roots.
Overview of real phenomena mistaken for zombie outbreaks.
1. Haitian Zombification: Vodou, Toxins, and the Narcisse Case
2. Origins of the Haitian zombie myth in West African and Vodou traditions.
The Clairvius Narcisse case: Did tetrodotoxin create real-life zombies?
Wade Davis’s research and its criticisms.
Modern parallels: Pharmaceutical zombification (e.g., scopolamine in Colombia).
2. Medieval Europe: Plagues, Revenants, and Dancing Mania
3. The "Dancing Plague" of 1518: Mass hysteria or poisoning?
Revenant legends: How decomposing bodies fueled vampire/zombie myths.
Ergotism ("St. Anthony’s Fire"): Fungal hallucinations blamed on the undead.
3. Medical Misdiagnoses: Diseases Mistaken for Zombification
4. Rabies: Aggression, foaming mouths, and transmission myths.
Nodding disease (Africa) and encephalitis lethargica ("sleeping sickness").
Porphyria and pellagra: "Vampire" and zombie-like symptoms.
4. Folklore and Fear: How Societies Create the Undead
5. Zombies as metaphors for slavery (Haiti) and oppression.
The "zombie apocalypse" trope in modern pandemics (e.g., COVID-19 conspiracies).
Psychological explanations: Cotard’s Syndrome ("walking corpse" delusion).
5. Modern "Zombie" Cases: Drugs, Toxins, and Mass Hysteria
6. Bath salts and "cannibal attacks" (e.g., Miami 2012).
Haitian "zombie powder" analyzed by modern science.
The role of social media in spreading zombie panic.
Conclusion
Why zombie myths persist: A blend of trauma, ignorance, and storytelling.
The line between fact and fiction in historical outbreaks.
Final thoughts: Zombies as a mirror to human fears.
