I talk about zombies in pop culture and also about the possibility of a zombie outbreak in real life in relation to existing disease. I also talk about real life zombies and undead creatures from folklore in different parts of the world.

1. March 5,
2020
The Paranormal Alphabet – Z – Zombies and Creatures of
the Undead
theweeklyrambler.com/the-paranormal-alphabet-z-zombies-and-creatures-of-the-undead/
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2. Finally we have reached the final edition of the Paranormal Alphabet series culminating
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3. with the letter Z and I have decided to do one similar-ish to the Vampire edition but
where I talk about zombies instead this time and go over legends of the undead and
zombie-related creatures from different parts of the world so we can get a variety of
different creatures to round this off. Vampires are often considered to be creatures of
the undead but since we have already done an extensive post on that so I obviously
won’t be going over them again, but focus specifically on other undead creatures or
those similar including things like ghouls.
So, with that being said let’s get into talking about what most people would consider a
typical zombie to be. The zombies often portrayed in pop culture from numerous
apocalyptic movies, books, comics, tv shows and games. It is a genre that has been very
popularly used, especially in recent times due to the vast popularity of the Walking Dead
comic series, TV show based on it and the related games and more that have sprung off
from the series that even now is still continuing (although I think it should probably be
time to bring it to an end soon, maybe even should have already been ended), but that’s
just my opinion from someone who has seen all but the latest two seasons.
Anyway, from this the typical zombie has flesh that is rotting, they are slow moving and
clumsy as well as being aggressive towards the living and wanting to feed on their flesh
which spreads a disease which can turn others into a zombie. The Walking Dead’s
rendition is that everyone can turn into a zombie upon dying even if they aren’t bitten,
but if they do get bitten then they will transform into a zombie no matter what. Often in
these tv shows, movies and games there is no cure and society and authority quickly
collapse and people are out for themselves or choose to band together into crews and
groups.
Image by Kevin Phillips from Pixabay
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4. Zombies from pop culture are often attracted by noise and tend to have bad eye-sight. In
many of these shows and games due to zombies being so slow it often comes down to
being overwhelmed and surrounded by massive swarms of them rather than just a few
being a problem. In the Walking Dead the zombies are a very big problem at first and
cause many major catastrophes leading to people getting killed, but as the show goes on
the characters develop better and better ways of countering them and keeping them in
check and at bay and although they remain a threat, groups of humans and other
survivors end up becoming bigger threats.
Some games have chosen to make the world of zombie survival more exciting by
introducing different types of zombies that have different abilities, much more of a thing
in the realm of fantasy but can also be seen as a way of the zombie virus mutating to
outwit humans who have become better at controlling them and surviving. Some shows
or series have kept away from the cliché of zombies being slow and clumsy, for example
in World War Z the zombies are frighteningly fast and literally clamber over each other
that can enable them to inadvertently make it over or through obstacles.
Many zombie viruses are completely made up for books, movies and shows but some
are actually based on diseases that exist in-real-life, think about that while sleeping at
night. Rabies for example has been seen as one of the closest diseases that humans can
get that can make them “act like zombies” as it can cause erratic and aggressive behavior
and can be spread through biting, but luckily it is hard to spread and quite rare in
humans and humans who do get it aren’t necessarily compelled to bite people… there
also isn’t a cure if the disease reaches an advanced stage… symptoms typically don’t
become obvious until it is too late which is why people who get bitten by a wild animal in
the US for example will get checked out by a doctor just in case and precautions and
preventative treatment may be taken even if they may not have the disease. Some
people worry that rabies could potentially mutate one-day and become airborne or just
more easily spread, which could see it become much more like something reminiscent of
a zombie-virus outbreak, although people would not be “undead”, but they would likely
still act aggressive like one, but would eventually die.
The zombie disease in the popular game The Last of Us is a fungal disease that takes
over the body and actually deforms them by sprouting out of its host which then can be
used to spread the disease. Scarily these types of diseases do actually exist in many
insect species, one such is Ophiocordyceps unilateralis which is a fungi that infects ants
and actually hijacks them, making them leave their nests and head to more favorable
conditions for the fungi to thrive, this fungi will literally sprout out of the poor ant in
question which releases spores to infect others. You never know we could be one
mutation away…
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5. Ophiocordyceps unilateralis. Photo from Public Library of Science journal. Credit David P.
Hughes, Maj-Britt Pontoppidan. License.
So now that you realize that something similar to zombies could actually happen in real
life, although it is still quite unlikely, let’s go on to legends of creatures from different
parts of the world, this is more supernatural rather than something that biologically
exists. Just legends or at least we hope it is just legends.
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6. Undead & Related Creatures/Legends and Belief from Around the World
There are two main categories of the undead, one is called incorporeal where the entity
in question has no physical body so they are things such as ghosts and spirits and then
there are the corporeal undead which are things with physical bodies like zombies as we
have been talking about as well as vampires as some examples. We will talk about a mix
of different entities and beings from the incorporeal and corporeal.
Zombie folklore exists in Haiti related with the Haitian Vodou religion of which originated
from West Africa, it is often commonly called Voodoo as a colloquial term for it and the
other related folk religions. In the Haitian Vodou they worship a god called Bondye, the
Supreme Creator through various spirits known as Ioa. In this religion there are the
bokor (male) and caplata (females) who are people who practice both the good and bad
side of voodoo including black magic and are said to be able to turn the dead into
zombies through the usage of necromancy and turn them into personal slaves which
have no will of their own. Houngan’s and Mambo’s, priests and priestesses of the religion
are against people who practice as bokor’s and caplata’s.
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7. By Jean-no from Wikimedia. License.
Zombies in Haiti related to the voodoo religion and also in other parts of Africa once
administered by the French became much more popular during the struggling and
fearful times of the slave trade as a sort of coping mechanism and personification of the
dark period in history of slavery and colonial rule.
There is also an incorporeal zombie that also exists in the tradition, a zombie astral.
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8. Bokor’s and Caplata’s can capture them to enhance their own spiritual powers, these can
also be sealed in specially decorated bottles by them and sold to people seeking things
such as luck and healing. Such zombie astrals also exist in various forms on the African
continent specifically in the Central and Western regions of the continent.
A belief in a zombie-type creature or creatures of the corporeal kind also existed a part
of some of South Africa’s folklore as well as in Central and Western Africa, which involved
fear of witches and even children able to use magic to turn the living and dead into
zombies that performed their bidding. Such zombies from these legends have been
called names such as Xidachane and Maduxwane.
From Chinese legend and folklore there is the Jiangshi which is a reanimated corpse
sometimes called a Chinese Hopping Vampire or Hopping Zombie, the legend has also
been incorporated into various other countries folklore in East Asia. The Jiangshi can
come about for numerous reasons such as necromancy, spirit possession, the body
absorbing enough life force or qi to return, a corpse not being buried or a corpse being
struck by lightning or if a pregnant cat or black cat leaps across a coffin with a corpse in
it… many different ways, tales and renditions.
The Jiangshi will move around by hopping with its arms outstretched as to why it can be
referred to as a hopping vampire or zombie, it moves in this way as the being is so stiff it
is incredibly difficult or even impossible for it to bend its limbs, the arms are stretched
out to keep mobility. Traditionally they feed on people’s qi or life force for sustenance
although some more modern versions that originated from western vampire pop culture
have them sucking blood instead. The Jiangshi often has greenish-white skin, long white
hair and behave in an animalistic fashion. Either the Jiangshi will look similar to how the
person once looked who became a Jiangshi or if after a long period of time the
reanimated corpse can have ghastly-looking rotting flesh.
Another kind of incorporeal undead is the Banshee from Irish folklore and I am also
mentioning this one as it has a strong relation with death. It is an entity that is said to
wail or screech or keen (keening is a traditional vocal lament for the dead originating
from Ireland and Scotland) to herald the death of a family member. The Banshee is often
described as an old woman or is a singing virgin of the family who died young, very often
the Banshee is very short and wears dark cloaks.
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9. Banshee. Public Domain.
The Draugr, also called Aptrganga or Aptrgangr which means “again-walker” is a
corporeal undead from Norse mythology. These undead live in their graves or burial
mounds and will guard treasure that they have been buried with. The Draugr, a fierce
protector, has super-human strength and is able to increase its size at-will. They give off
a putrid smell of decay. They may also wreak havoc on living beings nearby and may
torment people who they deemed to have wronged them during their life.
The Draugr is a powerful undead being that will often utilize their large forms to crush
people to death or devour them whole. They may simply just devour flesh in a normal
more zombie-like fashion or they may simply drive their victims mad leading to them
dying. It is also said to be able to drive animals mad and indirectly kill them as well.
That isn’t all though, if the Draugr wasn’t already over-powered enough it also is said to
have various other magical abilities such as shapeshifting into animals, controlling the
weather and even the ability to see into the future. One thing is for sure is that none of
us would be able to match this monstrosity. People who may become a Draugr after
death are described as greedy or nasty in life or someone who is evil. One way to tell if
someone may become one after death was if their corpses are in an upright or sitting
position rather than lying horizontal.
The Draugr can be classified as a revenant, which is basically any formerly dead corpse
that becomes reanimated from the grave after death and goes on to guard its grave or
terrorize the living. It is a part of much Western folklore in various fashions.
Finally, to round this off we will go on to Ghouls. I have talked about some Ghouls before
on the blog. Basically, they are a type of undead corporeal being that originates from
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10. Middle Eastern folklore. There are many types and they can be referred to as demons
and some especially notorious ghouls can even get a specific name, distinguishing it.
Generally, they are said to dwell in cemeteries or uninhabited places and can often look
misshapen, disgusting and very frightening.
Image by Artie_Navarre from Pixabay
Ghouls can be vicious and mischievous and may sometimes display a degree of cunning
to lure in someone. They have been described as both eating the flesh of the dead and
devouring the flesh of live humans. Some may choose to scare their kids into submission
by claiming the ghoul will get them if they don’t behave, like a boogeyman. Their
mischievous ways sometimes have them stealing things like coins and dates. As well as
that they may have the ability to shapeshift into animals, perhaps as another form of
trickery and deceit.
So, there you have it, zombies… zombie-like creatures from legend, folklore and religion
as well as some possible candidate diseases for a possible actual zombie outbreak.
Something to think about next time you’re chowing down on a mushroom.
And with that we have concluded the Paranormal Alphabet series and I believe this is the
first proper series I have finished on this blog. Next up I will be starting a new series
where I will be going through all 50 US states one by one and talking about something
from the paranormal, a cryptid or something else strange and bizarre from or that has
happened in the state in question. So, stay tuned!
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