https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clairvius_NarcissePer his account, after his apparent death and subsequent burial on May 2, 1962, his coffin was exhumed and he was given a paste possibly made from Datura,[1] which at certain doses has a hallucinogenic effect and can cause memory loss. The bokor who recovered him then, as stated, reportedly forced him, alongside others, to work on a sugar plantation until the master's death two years later. When the bokor died, and regular doses of the hallucinogen ceased, he eventually regained sanity and returned to his family after another 16 years.[3] Narcisse was immediately recognized by the villagers and his family. When he told them the story of how he was dug up from his grave and enslaved, the villagers were surprised, but they accepted his story because they believed his experience resulted from the power of voodoo magic. He was seen as the man who was once a zombie.[4]
It has been further argued that Narcisse had broken one of the traditional behavioral codes by abandoning his children[1] and was made into a "zombie" as a punishment. When questioned, Narcisse told investigators that the sorcerer involved had "taken his soul".[5] The instigator of the poisoning was alleged to be Clairvius's brother, with whom Clairvius had quarreled over land and inheritance. He only returned home once he heard of his brother's death.[1][3]
This case puzzled many doctors because Narcisse's death was documented and verified by the testimonies of two American doctors. The case of Narcisse was argued to be the first verifiable example of the transformation of an individual into a zombie.[2] Narcisse's story intrigued Haitian psychiatrist Lamarque Douyon. Though dismissing supernatural explanations, Douyon believed there was some degree of truth to tales of zombies and he had been studying such accounts for decades. Suspecting zombies were somehow drugged and then revived, Douyon reached out to colleagues in America. Wade Davis traveled to Haiti, where he obtained samples of powders purportedly used to create zombies.[1]
Hypothesis and research
Based on the presumption that tetrodotoxin and related toxins are not always fatal, but at near-lethal doses can leave a person in a state of near-death for several days with the person remaining conscious, tetrodotoxin has been alleged to turn human beings into zombies, and has been suggested as an ingredient in Haitian Vodou preparations.
This idea appeared in print as early as the 1938 non-fiction book Tell My Horse by Zora Neale Hurston, which reported multiple accounts of purported tetrodotoxin poisoning in Haiti, by a bokor (voodoo sorcerer).[6]
The concept was subsequently popularized in the 1980s by ethnobotanist Wade Davis.[7]
However, subsequent research has discredited the tetrodotoxin-zombie hypothesis by using analytical chemistry-based tests of multiple preparations, and review of earlier reports (see below).[8][9][10]
After various anthropological investigations of "zombie" stories in various cultures—including Narcisse and a handful of others—reports appeared that Narcisse received a dose of a chemical mixture containing tetrodotoxin (a pufferfish toxin) and bufotoxin (a toad toxin) to induce a coma that mimicked the appearance of death. He was then allowed to return to his home where he collapsed, "died", and was buried.
The Canadian ethnobotanist Wade Davis, who did research related to the implication that tetrodotoxin was present,[11][12] hypothesized how this might have been done. The bokor (sorcerer) would have given Narcisse a powder containing the tetrodotoxin through abraded skin. Narcisse would then have fallen into a comatose state, closely resembling death, which resulted in his live burial.[2] His body would then have been recovered and he would have been given doses of Datura stramonium to create a compliant zombie-like state, and set to work on a plantation. After two years, the plantation owner died and Narcisse would have simply walked away to freedom.
